Self-Assessment Exercises on phrases

[2016 note: unfortunately the original links from individual answers no longer work, but you can check your answers against the overall collection of model answers.]

Identifying phrases

Here is a passage that contains various kinds of phrases; you will be given a series of questions. Answer each one by selecting an option in the list you are offered.

Once upon a time there was an extremely rich merchant who was quite excessively fond of cats. He very rarely went to his shops in the city without one of his cats, and his favourite cat’s name was written on the front doors of all his shops.

Question 1: What is the first phrase in the story?

Question 2: What is the phrase that starts with an?

Question 3: What class of phrase is “an extremely rich merchant who was quite excessively fond of cats“?

Question 4: What class of phrase is in the city?

Here is the story again.

Once upon a time there was an extremely rich merchant who was quite excessively fond of cats. He very rarely went to his shops in the city without one of his cats, and his favourite cat’s name was written on the front doors of all his shops.

Question 5: Is the function of the phrase in the city adverbial or adjectival?

Question 6: What does “without one of his cats“ modify?

Here is the story again.

Once upon a time there was an extremely rich merchant who was quite excessively fond of cats. He very rarely went to his shops in the city without one of his cats, and his favourite cat’s name was written on the front doors of all his shops.

Question 7: What is the function of the prepositional phrase “without one of his cats“?

Question 8: What is name modified by?

Phrases in pupils’ writing

Read this short piece, written by a Key Stage 3 pupil. Think particularly about the writer’s use of phrases.

On Safari

First a heard of wilderbeast came then a heard of zebras came then came some lions, the lions saw them and ran away but they surronded the wilderbeast. Most of them got away but a few didn’t. We got a bit closer to the lions but then one of them came behinde me and pulled me out of the van, he had my arm in his mouth and kepted on cewing in till one of the tour guides got his stick and started hitting it on the head until he fled and ran away. We got back in the van in was realy hurting, it had nearly eaten my arm off they ruced me to hospital.

Question 1: Which of these statements about this passage do you most closely agree with?

Option 1: The only problem with this passage is the weakness in spelling and punctuation.

Option 2: There is a reasonable range of phrase patterns in this passage, especially noun phrases, but the writing is let down by spelling and punctuation.

Option 3: The writing is monotonous because the writer uses a very limited range of phrase patterns, especially noun phrases.

 

The next piece was also written by a Key Stage 3 pupil. Read it carefully thinking about the use of phrases.

A wonderful event

The things you could see if you came to this wonderful event apart from the mystery guest which is going to cut the red ribon to open it are statues of all different faces like Christopher Columbus and King Henry VIII, and his wives, the old cars wind-up levers and the new ones boosters on the back, like the old fire engine and football boots and laced ball.

Question 2: Which of these statements about this passage do you most closely agree with?

Option 1: The structure of this passage is ambitious but its implementation lacks accuracy.

Option 2: The problem is with the structure, which is far from ambitious, as it consists of one single sentence.

Option 3: This writing is effective because the writer’s enthusiasm is clearly conveyed.

Question 3: Which of these points should the teacher work on with this pupil?

Option 1: The preposition with is missing from two of the noun phrases, which should be like this: the old car with wind-up levers and the new ones with boosters on the back.

Option 2: The whole passage is rather clumsy and needs to be rewritten with more care.

Option 3: The sentence is too long and would benefit from being split into two.

Option 4: Statues is the wrong word here. If they are only faces, the correct word is busts or sculptures.

Option 5: The end of the piece shows poor co-ordination. Repeated use of the conjunction and suggests that the writer has got lost.

The two short pieces of writing from KS3 pupils, On Safari and A Wonderful Event, show the importance of an understanding of phrase patterning.

  • Without it, the teacher can’t give specific help beyond perhaps labelling both of these attempts ‘clumsy’.
  • With it, the teacher can diagnose the different needs of these two pupils, and may be able to steer them towards a more sensitive and varied choice of patterns.
 

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