Exercise 37.7 Thinking critically about sentences

The following sentences come from the openings of well-known works. Identify the independent and dependent clauses in each sentence. Then choose one sentence, and write a sentence of your own imitating its structure, clause for clause and phrase for phrase. Example:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.

—SUZANNE COLLINS, The Hunger Games

Before the detectives arrived, our friend Nastassia found a passageway behind the wall.

  1. We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change.

    —JOHN F. KENNEDY, Inaugural Address

    Question

    We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change.—JOHN F. KENNEDY, Inaugural Address
    We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change.—JOHN F. KENNEDY, Inaugural Address
  2. Once in a long while, four times so far for me, my mother brings out the metal tube that holds her medical diploma.

    —MAXINE HONG KINGSTON, “Photographs of My Parents”

    Question

    Once in a long while, four times so far for me, my mother brings out the metal tube that holds her medical diploma.—MAXINE HONG KINGSTON, “Photographs of My Parents”
    Once in a long while, four times so far for me, my mother brings out the metal tube that holds her medical diploma.—MAXINE HONG KINGSTON, “Photographs of My Parents”