Section 6: Practice Exercises

The practice exercises on this page are designed to help you understand the concepts in this section more fully. These include a set of interactive exercises and a set of more complex exercises. For those looking for more samples to review, you can go to the ANALYZING EXAMPLES page.

The table below contains the interactive exercises for Section 6, covering the key concepts. Each exercise will open a new tab.

Clause Types

  1. Clause Types
  2. Clause Types
  3. Clause Types
  4. Clause Types
  5. Clause Types
  6. Clause Types
  7. Clause Types
  8. Clause Types
  9. Clause Types
  10. Clause Types
  11. Clause Types
  12. Clause Types
  13. Clause Types
  14. Clause Types
  15. Clause Types
  16. Clause Types
  17. Clause Types

Basic Clause Forms

  1. Basic Clause Forms
  2. Basic Clause Forms
  3. Basic Clause Forms
  4. Basic Clause Forms
  5. Basic Clause Forms
  6. Basic Clause Forms
  7. Basic Clause Forms
  8. Basic Clause Forms
  9. Basic Clause Forms
  10. Basic Clause Forms
  11. Basic Clause Forms
  12. Basic Clause Forms
  13. Basic Clause Forms
  14. Basic Clause Forms
  15. Basic Clause Forms
  16. Basic Clause Forms
  17. Basic Clause Forms

Clause Form and Function

  1. Clause Form/Function
  2. Clause Form/Function
  3. Clause Form/Function
  4. Clause Form/Function
  5. Clause Form/Function
  6. Clause Form/Function
  7. Clause Form/Function
  8. Clause Form/Function
  9. Clause Form/Function
  10. Clause Form/Function
  11. Clause Form/Function
  12. Clause Form/Function
  13. Clause Form/Function
  14. Clause Form/Function
  15. Clause Form/Function
  16. Clause Form/Function
  17. Clause Form/Function

Please review the INTERACTIVE ANSWERS page for explanations of select interactive exercises.

Below are two practice exercises that are more complex:

Exercise 1

Analyze the following paragraph adapted from Against Method by Paul Feyerabend:

The example is intended to show that the Copernican view is not in accordance with the ‘facts.’ Seen from the point of view of these ‘facts,’ the idea of the motion of the earth is outlandish, absurd, and obviously false, to mention only some of the expressions which were frequently used at the time, and which are still heard whenever professional squares confront a new and counter-factual theory. This makes us suspect that the Copernican view is an external measuring rod of precisely the kind described above.

  • Identify all independent, subordinate, relative, interrogative, and nominal-that clauses in the paragraph
  • State how each dependent clause is functioning in the context of its sentence

Exercise 2

Analyze the following passage adapted from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan:

An important theme of this book is that the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. As we eat every day, we transform nature into culture by transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds. Agriculture has transformed the world, through changes to both landscapes and flora and fauna.  Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species with which we have coevolved to the point that our fates our deeply entwined. Many of these species have evolved expressly to gratify our desires, in the intricate dance of domestication that has allowed us and them to prosper together as we never could have prospered apart. But our relationship with the wild species that we eat—from the mushrooms we pick in the forest to the yeasts that leaven our bread—are no less compelling, and far more mysterious. Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with other animals, and all that sets us apart. It defines us.

  • Identify all independent, subordinate, relative, interrogative, and nominal-that clauses in the paragraph
  • State how each dependent clause is functioning in the context of its sentence

Consult the COMPLEX ANSWERS page to review your understanding of the concepts in this section.