Activity 1:
Please review the sentences in the following paragraph for fragments, and quotation marks errors. Then correct all of them. There may also be other errors, so please review the sentences more carefully once you complete fragment and quotation errors.
A minister walking down a country lane sees a young farmer struggling to load hay back onto a cart. “You look hot, my son.”, said the minister. “Rest a moment and let me give you a hand.”
“No thanks.”, said the young man, “My father wouldn’t like it.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” the minister said, “Everyone is entitled to a break. Come and have a drink of water.” Again, the young man said that his father would be upset.
Losing his patience, the minister said, “Your father must be a real slave driver. I’d like to give him a piece of my mind. Tell me where I can find him!”
“Well”, replied the young farmer, “Look down, he’s under a load of hay.”
Activity 2:
A wise old gentleman retired and bought a home near a Middle School; although, he mostly spent his summers in his cottage. Then the school year begins, and his peace and quiet came to a sudden halt.
On the first day of school three boys came down the alley beating merrily on every trash can they saw. They continued to do this for the next few days, and the noise started driving the wise old man crazy. Time for action.
The next afternoon he stops the drummers as they banged their way down the street. He says, “You kids are a lot of fun! I love hearing your drumming because it is so cheerful, and it reminds me of what I use to do at your age, will you do me a favour?”
The boys looked at him suspiciously, “What?”, they ask. “I’ll give you a dollar if you promise to come around every single day and keep beating on those trash cans”, said the man.
The boys were thrilled because every day that they pounded on trash cans, they collected a dollar.
After about a week, the wise old man stops the boys again and this time he looked a bit sad. “I still love your drumming”, he said to the boys, “However, I’m afraid spending a dollar a day is hard on me, I’m on a fixed income. From now on, I’m only going to be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the cans.”
The boys weren’t too happy, but they decided to accept 50 cents a day, and they continued beating on all the trash cans. After another week the clever old man stopped the boys again. “I’ve got more bad news,” he said. “My Social Security check hasn’t come yet, so I’m not going to be able to give you more than 25 cents a day. Is that alright?”
“Are you kidding?”, said one of the boys. “We’re not going to waste our time beating on these trash cans for only a lousy quarter! We quit!”
The wise old man smiled; enjoying his peace and quiet.
