Arthur Waldhorn - English Made Simple

If you never hesitate between because of and due to, or fewer and less, or index and indices; if you never puzzle over commas, semicolons, and dashes; if you never pause before spelling proceed and precede, conference and conferring, singing and singeing; if you never doubt which words may and which may not be abbreviated in the heading of a business letter; if you never survey with a melancholy eye an awkward, ambiguous, or ungrammatical sentence of your own constructionthen you will find it unnecessary to read past this paragraph.

For English Made Simple has been planned for people habitually unsure of their grammar, punctuation, spelling; discontent with the range and flexibility of their vocabulary; uneasy about the clarity and force of their writing. They may, of course, advantageously use this book under the guidance of an experienced teacher. But it has been prepared especially for adult readers working without supervision. Each section forms a self-sufficient unit, including all the information (and sometimes repeating information more extensively supplied in other sections) they require to understand it fully. Moreover, the keyed exercises and answers help them check their progress continually.

The book has another purpose as well: to serve as a work of ready reference. To facilitate such reference, it contains an unusually full table of contents supplementing the index.

The authors have tried to credit sources from which they have borrowed distinctive material. If they have occasionally omitted an acknowledgment or altered a quotation, they apologize now and will try to rectify their error soon. Mrs. Dorothy Lataner, who has typed the manuscript expertly and criticized it helpfully, deserves separate and particular thanks.

A RTHUR W ALDHORN

A RTHUR Z EIGER

Note: Since this book was first published, many events have taken place. The revised edition contains updating where necessary, but the core of the original material is the same.

Kinds of NounsCommon and Proper, Concrete and Abstract, Collective; Inflection; Number; Gender; Personification; Case

Kinds of PronounsPersonal, Demonstrative, Indefinite, Relative, Interrogative, Numerical, Reflexive and Intensive, Reciprocal; Agreement of Pronouns, Case of Pronouns

Kinds of VerbsTransitive and Intransitive, Linking (Copulative), Auxiliary, Strong and Weak; Principal Parts of VerbsRegular, Irregular; Conjugation; Person; Number; Tense; Mood;

VoiceActive, Passive; Progressive and Emphatic Forms

Kinds of AdjectivesDescriptive, Common, Proper, Limiting, Pronominal, Articles; Position of Adjectives, Forming the Degrees of Comparison

Kinds of AdverbsSimple, Conjunctive, Forms of Adverbs; Comparison of Adverbs

Kinds of ConjunctionsCoordinating, Subordinating

Object of the Preposition; Position of the Preposition, Meanings of the Preposition

Noun Clauses; Adverbial Clauses; Adjective Clauses; Infinitives; Participles; Shall and Will

Consistency of Number and Person, Tense, Mood, Voice and Subject, Tone

Function of the Paragraph, Length of the Paragraph, Developing the Paragraph, Outlining

Topic Sentence, Coherence

Position, Focus

Length and Structure, Concreteness

The Period, The Question Mark, The Exclamation Point

The Comma, The Semicolon, The Colon, The Dash, The Parentheses, The Brackets, The Quotation Marks, The Ellipsis

The Hyphen, The Apostrophe, The Period for Abbreviations, Italics, Capital Letters

Learning the Rules, Mnemonics, The Dictionary

Using the Family of Tongues Building Vocabulary with Roots, Building Vocabulary with Prefixes and Suffixes

Summary of Methods of Building a Vocabulary

Standard English; Substandard English; Formal and Informal English; The Dictionary and Labeled Words

Economy; Consistency; Logic; Levels of Language; Length; Coordination and Subordination

Periodic and Loose Sentences; Parallelism; Emphasis

Variety, Language, Euphony

Note: Take this test before proceeding to the first section. Check your answers with those provided at the end of the book. Make note of your major weaknesses, and give particular attention to the sections which try to remedy these weaknesses.

Part I: Choose the correct form for each of the following:

EXAMPLE : Jack and Jill (is, are) over the hill. are

1. Ken is one of those singers who (is, are) always off key.

2. There (go, goes) Julia and her favorite parakeet.

3. Each of the contestants (has, have) a chance to win a trip to the North Pole.

4. The healthiest specimen among the monkeys (was, were) chosen to imitate the television actor.

5. I gave ten dollars to the clerk (who, whom) I think works on Saturdays only.

6. Between you and (I, me) and the bartender, I find Sazaracs potent cocktails.

7. Leave all arrangements to (her, she) and (me, I).

8. I expected the gentleman caller to be (he, him).

9. If one tries to whistle while laughing, (he, they) must be highly optimistic.

10. Each of these bananas has a split in (its, their) side.

11. Jeans perfume smells (sweet, sweetly).

12. Roy (sure, surely) is the best catcher in the big leagues.

13. The posse (seeked, sought) in vain to find the murderer.

14. Years ago, I (saw, have seen) Scaramouche in silent films.

15. If he had entered the building, I (saw, had seen, would have seen) him.

Part II: Rewrite the following sentences to assure clarity and correctness.

1. If we all strive towards peace, one may hope that the world will be a better place to live in.

2. Wash your hair with Squeaky Lotion and then you should use Eeky Hair Tonic.

3. I expect Bill to arrive early and bringing his cousin Ann.

4. Put the sodas in the refrigerator that is warm.

5. His ankle broken, his owner had the racing colt destroyed.

Correct any misspelled word. If the word is correct, let it remain as is.

Insert punctuation wherever needed. If no punctuation is needed, let the sentence remain as is.

1. Jane answer the telephone.

2. The athlete who performs well pleases the crowd.

3. If I draw a thousand dollars from the bank I shall be only nine hundred dollars overdrawn.