Grammar Lesson: Literary Passages

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

Here is the opening passage from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, a novel by Jules Verne. Each sentence's number appears in parentheses before the sentence. Answer the questions on the lines provided for you.

(1) The year 1866 was marked by a bizarre development, an unexplained and downright inexplicable phenomenon that surely no one has forgotten. (2) Without getting into those rumors that upset civilians in the seaports and deranged the public mind even far inland, it must be said that professional seamen were especially alarmed. (3) Traders, ship owners, captains of vessels, skippers, and master mariners from Europe and America, naval officers from every country, and at their heels the various national governments on these two continents, were all extremely disturbed by the business.

1. Name the two verb phrases in the first sentence. _____ and _____
2. What part of speech is especially in sentence two? _____
3. Why are there commas in between the first few words of sentence three? _____
4. Name three adjectives in the first sentence. _____, _____, and _____
5. What word in the second sentence is acting as both an adjective and a pronoun? _____
6. Is the prepositional phrase, on these two continents, in the third sentence, an adjective or an adverb phrase? _____
7. The noun clause in the second sentence is _____.

Alice In Wonderland

Here are ten questions about grammar and mechanics in this one-sentence passage from Lewis Carroll's book, Alice in Wonderland. Answer the questions on the lines provided. The four sections of the text are numbered in parentheses after each section.

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and (1) of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister (2) was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ''and what is the use (3) of a book,'' thought Alice, ''without pictures or conversations?'' (4)

1. Name a proper noun in the first section of text. _____
2. What is the conjunction in the first section of text? _____
3. Is the prepositional phrase, by her sister, in the first section, an adjective or an adverb phrase? (Circle one)
4. What is the infinitive in the second section of text? _____
5. What is the verb phrase in the second section of text? _____
6. Once and twice, found in the second section of text, are both what part of speech? _____
7. Name the three conjunctions in the third section of text. _____, _____, and _____
8. Use, in the third section, is what part of speech? _____
9. Why is there a comma after book in the fourth section?



10. Why is the question mark inside the quotation marks in the last part of the fourth section of text? _____