FLE 133 CONTEXTUAL GRAMMAR 

EXERCISES ON PARALLELISM

The Original Paragraph 1
#1:  Our beagle loves to hunt.  Someone opens the back door for her.  She barrels down porch steps into the yard.  She runs back and forth across the lawn in ecstasy.  Her nose cruises the wet grass for smells.  These are smells of cats, rabbit smells, and other presences too subtle for human detection.  She sniffs.  She spins her tail in quick circles.  It spins clockwise first.  Then it spins counterclockwise.  These two activities always occur together.  They are sniffing and spinning.  They seem to propel her along.


The Revised Paragraph 1
Our beagle love hunting. When someone opens the back door for her, she barrels down porch and steps into the yard. She runs back and forth across the lawn in ecstasy. Her nose cruises the wet grass for smells like cat, dog smells and other presences which are too subtle for human detection. While she is sniffing, she spins her tail in quick circles. After spinning clockwise, it spins counterclockwise. Sniffing and spinning always occur together. These seem to propel her along. 

The Original Paragraph 2
#The Government Printing Office in Washington D.C., is a source of much useful information.  Few people know about it.  It is the official publishing house for the federal government.  The GPO publishes pamphlets and books on a vast number of subjects.  These subjects range from the dangers of X-rays from home TV sets to the identification of mushrooms.  About 27,000 publications are offered through the Superintendent of Documents.  Many of them are inexpensive.  There is no charge at all for some.


The Revised Paragraph 2
The Government Printing Office in Washington D.C., few people know about, is a source of much useful information. The GPO, publishing pamphlets and books on a vast number of subjects which range from the dangers of X-rays from home TV sets to the identification of mushrooms, is the official publishing house for the federal government. About 27,000 publications, which are inexpensive, are offered through the Superintendent of Documents. There is no charge at all for some.


The Original Paragraph 3
#2: A man reaped America’s first fortune.  He was John Jacob Astor.  He was a German immigrant.  He made his initial money trading Indian furs.  He was lowborn, uneducated.  Astor never learned to speak English properly.  He carried on his business to the end in an accent.  The accent was redolent of the Hamburg gutters.


The Revised Paragraph 3
The man, who reaped America's first fortune, was John Jacob Astor.He was a German immigrant and made his initial money trading Indian furs. Astor was lowborn, uneducated and never learned to speak English properly. He carried on his business to the end in an accent which was redolent of the Hamburg gutters.