Answers for sentence structure and importance

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War of the worlds

• Yes, that’s the best sentence to continue the quoted passage. The first phrase “In the novel” links to the previous reference to the War of the Worlds. The new, and more important information, follows in two co-ordinated main clauses.
• No, that’s not the best choice. Read this:
• H G Wells was a writer who a century ago pioneered science fiction. His most famous work was The War of the Worlds. In the novel, Martians land in Britain and survive by injecting human and animal blood into themselves.
• In this continuation sentence, the first phrase “In the novel” links to the previous reference to the War of the Worlds. Then the new, and more important, information follows in two co-ordinated main clauses.

The hanging girl

• Yes, that’s the best choice. The reference to the balcony connects the new sentence to the previous one. Then the new information is later, where it has more importance.
• No, that’s not the best choice. Read this:
  • The girl was hanging by her hands from the railings of a balcony. The balcony was on the twelfth floor of the high-rise block next to his.
• Here the reference to the balcony connects the new sentence to the previous one. The new information comes later in the sentence, where it has more importance.

Wisconsin

• Yes, that’s the best choice to continue this passage. The user has the idea of extreme cold in his/her mind, so the natural link is to “Lakes freeze over”. Then the new and more important information, introducing the fishermen, is at the end of the sentence where it has most impact.
• No, that’s not the best choice. The user has the idea of extreme cold in his/her mind, so the natural link is to the fact that “Lakes freeze over”. In the first option, “When lakes freeze over” is followed by the new and more important information, introducing the fishermen. That new idea is at the end of the sentence where it has most impact.

The Mill on the Floss

• subject delay
  • No – this sentence does not contain an example of subject delay – the pattern in which the subject follows the verb, as in:
    • Round the corner came a black car.
      In the middle stood an old oak tree.
  • Yes, this sentence has a delayed subject:
    • Far away on each hand stretch the rich pastures and the patches of dark earth, made ready for the seed of broad-leaved green crops, or touched already with the tint of the tender-bladed autumn-sown corn.
    • The normal order would have been:
    • The rich pastures and the patches of dark earth, made ready for the seed of broad-leaved green crops, or touched already with the tint of the tender-bladed autumn-sown corn stretch far away on each hand.
    • But notice how clumsy this ‘normal’ order would have been. Notice too that when the subject is inverted some other element is front-shifted – in this case Far away on each hand.
• There
  • No, this sentence does not contain there replacing the usual subject.
  • Yes, this sentence does contain there which replaces the usual subject and allows it to be later in the sentence:
  • A. There is a remnant still of the last year’s golden clusters of bee-hive ricks rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows.
  • The normal order without there would have been:
  • B. A remnant of the last year’s golden clusters of bee-hive ricks is still rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows.
  • Notice that the sentence with there also illustrates another way of manipulating the normal sentence structure, in this case by moving part of a phrase to a later position. The phrase a remnant of the last year’s golden clusters of bee-hive ricks has been split into two so that the second part – of the last year’s golden clusters of bee-hive ricks – follows still (which is not part of the phrase). In other words, the route from the ‘normal’ sentence B to our sentence A lies via the more awkward sentence C:
  • C. There is a remnant of the last year’s golden clusters of bee-hive ricks rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows still.
• Passive
  • No, there is no passive verb in this sentence. Remember, passive verbs have an ending such as -ed or -en, and their normal object is used as their subject. The last clause is an example; its active equivalent would be something like:
  • We use their normal object as their subject.
  • Yes, this sentence contains the passive verb are borne:
  • On this mighty tide the black ships – laden with the fresh-scented fir-planks, with rounded sacks of oil-bearing seed, or with the dark glitter of coal – are borne along to the town of St Ogg’s, which shows its aged, fluted red roofs and the broad gables of its wharves between the low wooded hill and the river brink, tinging the water with a soft purple hue under the transient glance of this February sun.
  • If this verb had not been passive, the sentence would have been organised rather differently. For one thing, the might tide would then have been the subject (instead of a mere modifier):
  • This might tide bears the black ships – laden with the fresh-scented fir-planks, with rounded sacks of oil-bearing seed, or with the dark glitter of coal – along to the town of St Ogg’s, …
• Front-shifting
  • No, this sentence does not show any front-shifting.
  • Yes, an element is front-shifted in this sentence:
  • On this mighty tide the black ships – laden with the fresh-scented fir-planks, with rounded sacks of oil-bearing seed, or with the dark glitter of coal – are borne along to the town of St Ogg’s, which shows its aged, fluted red roofs and the broad gables of its wharves between the low wooded hill and the river brink, tinging the water with a soft purple hue under the transient glance of this February sun.
  • Yes, an element is front-shifted in this sentence:
  • Far away on each hand stretch the rich pastures and the patches of dark earth, made ready for the seed of broad-leaved green crops, or touched already with the tint of the tender-bladed autumn-sown corn.
  • Yes, an element is front-shifted in this sentence:
  • There is a remnant still of the last year’s golden clusters of bee-hive ricks rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows; and everywhere the hedge-rows are studded with trees: the distant ships seem to be lifting their masts and stretching their red-brown sails close among the branches of the spreading ash.