Identify the verbs and verbals in the following passages. Discuss how these verbs affect the tone of the passages.
His vets warned us all along that the odds were against him, but we didn’t really believe them. They had hope, too. How could a horse who appeared so full of life break his leg and be so suddenly close to death? His head was fine. His back was fine. His lungs and heart and chest were fine. In fact, after a while, his broken leg was fairly fine. It was another leg that was so worrisome, since the weight of his body constantly bearing down on the delicate structures inside his foot eventually damaged and destroyed them.
—Jane Smiley, “Barbaro, The Heart in the Winner’s Circle”
She maintains her composure until we get in the car, then crumples in humiliation. Once we’re on the highway, forty miles to home, freezing rain coats our windows, but I can’t see well enough to find a safe place to pull off. I drive with trepidation over the slippery road, through the foggy darkness, while Emily cries so hard it sounds as though she will break apart. “Mommy, I’m such a failure!” she weeps. At first my attempts to comfort her only increase her misery, so I shut up. I’m left to listen and worry about the road and think my resentful thoughts. I remember all the years in elementary school when she was “benched” in the classroom—left to do bulletin boards for the teacher—because she’d already mastered what was being taught. I think about the studies that suggest that girls who compete in athletics are far less likely to drink or take drugs or become pregnant.
—Kris Vervaecke, “A Spectator’s Notebook”