EXERCISE 39.7

Insert a comma in any of the following sentences that require one.

  1. “The public be damned!” William Henry Vanderbilt was reported to have said. “I’m working for my stockholders.”

    (no comma needed)
  2. My mother was fond of telling me “You’d make coffee nervous!”

    My mother was fond of telling me, “You’d make coffee nervous!”
  3. I refuse to believe the old saying that “nice guys finish last.”

    (no comma needed)
  4. “Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous” Confucius argued.

    “Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous,” Confucius argued.
  5. “Do you have any idea who I am?” the well-dressed man asked belligerently.

    (no comma needed)