PREVIOUS GRAMMAR QUESTION

My sons teacher talked to my husband and I about the difficulty he was having with reading, writing and he couldn’t complete the math homework. He said some testing is required.

1. Possessive noun: an apostrophe is missing from son’s.

2.  Pronoun: “my husband and I” are the object of the verb “talked”, so the pronoun needs to be in the objective case—“me”.

3. Ambiguity: who does the first usage of the pronoun “he” refer to? The nearest appropriate antecedent is the noun “husband”, but that doesn’t make sense. The noun “son”  needs to be specified.

4. Parallel construction: reading, writing and ?? these are gerunds, and  next noun needs to be a gerund, too: “completing math homework” would work.

5. Ambiguity: The second usage of “he” is also ambiguous. It should refer to the teacher.

6. Direct or indirect speech: The final sentence can be either direct speech in which case quotation marks are needed (The teacher said, “Some ….”) or indirect speech (The teacher said that some ….”).

Possible Answer: My son’s teacher talked to my husband and me about the difficulty our son was having with reading, writing and completing the math homework, The  teacher said that some testing is required.

**GRAMMAR QUESTION, Jan. 31st, 2013**

Much stores and shopping centres prepare for chinese new year and Valentines day, there is a special display, traditionally Chinese food, and decoration, although chocolate and flowers for Valentines day,  greetings cards, and cloths with hearts and roses are common.

PUZZLE, Jan. 31st, 2013

Previous Puzzle

Congratulations to Zeinab for being the first to solve the puzzle.

The following list of words has been altered from the original word list:

Change the first letter of each word above with the first letter of another word in the list.
What are the words in the new list? See below. Is there a theme to this new list? Food.  And which one word which does not fit the theme? Test.

heat (meat)      jeans (beans)    ram (ham)           silk (milk)             mice (rice)           malt (salt)           
pest (test)         belly (jelly)      tears (pears)      drapes (grapes)       bill (dill)              gutter (butter) 

New Puzzle       

Use real names to find the common words that is the name of their son or daughter:

Example: Mr and Mrs Voyant - Clare (as in Clairvoyant)

1. Mr and Mrs Tress =
2. Mr and Mrs Nasium =
3. Mr and Mrs Tate =
4. Mr and Mrs Anthemum =
5. Mr and Mrs Mander =
6. Mr and Mrs Mite =
7. Mr and Mrs Time =

IDIOMS

There are three idioms that use the word for GOLD:

Watch this video and then write a sentence of your own that uses one of these three idioms.

**ALL CHANGE! Jan. 31st, 2013**

Change the words in the sentence below as indicated. You can only change the exact word in the sequence given; after someone else has posted the next change, then you can post another change. For instance, student 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Student 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes that noun. Each student only makes one change at a time and keeps to the order indicated.If you complete all 7 changes, then start making more changes again from 1 to 7. Each student should build on the changes that the previous students make.

Tom usually gives red roses to his wife on Valentine’s Day.

Changes: #1 Subject noun      #2  Direct object noun         #3 Indirect object noun          
#4 Adjective               #5 Adverb          #6 Verb name                  #7 Verb tense

Please number the change you make.

AFFIXES, Jan. 31st, 2013

The word stem -graph--(meaning write)--occurs in many words. Add an affix (either a prefix or a suffix) to this stem to make another word. Each student should add a different word to the list.

**COMPLETE THE SENTENCE, Jan. 31st, 2013**

Use the type of clause, phrase, or grammar indicated to complete the following sentence; you can add the phrase or clause before or after the clause below:

... Valentine’s Day is on a Thursday this year…

Sentence 1. Add a phrase

Sentence 2. Add a dependent clause

Sentence 3. Add an independent clause

**NUMBER CHANGE, Jan. 31st, 2013**

If a sentence is singular, change it to the plural; if it is plural, change it to the singular.

For Chinese New Year there will be a celebration at the shopping mall as well as an outdoor one at City Hall. Each celebration will feature a lion dance. Meanwhile, the grocery story is selling specialty food in preparation for the celebration, and it is decorating the store with large, red, lantern.

Each student must provide a slightly different answer.