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

    gf53bYn6W3MM0YXS1v0M3T3u3HWlHRzMY2WX50dvsctbrKLX/xcSSctzZ5r+EHpShl4BIAhXQY3fF1yVmu26skISs64PjZzAzNZOtdHlBXSAYT2G4UVyARiLuGOZl9cFaJkpCML3F2qxgA3g9BaudQe/QvneXIx7xNtePTos5is0eh6boeyac5kpnDtbuSqUWLUFvvUd+nr27Tm18JUi+wLlSMvqjwpf1HZ5b2CezFK8HjGPK9ZEw8062hFprFvaOQsmw6IKLojBWWVb9hfKa6VSn8JqERaZZ3HdqNRVEQbuaA4wPCvjro1F4GGs/hIy
    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...
  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

    oMYLBrTceIxHWN4VhJERvGfnuPfULX3SvTuuh0e6cj8IVrpjAqNflVrKv49VByRyPxLP595KWClmjqpzkiMnqZLptKrKFjFomBUDCRytIbsXXRyElVFHGYxkTKOgiCyQW6i2Fobd0vXHEiUpoIwB3ViSlI5pawzfK6q0nxAAq70zcpBMtLRb6ReGrr1fjcIF2Q42lHLiAHdmxiruX2Wvecd772Fsz8Uht93WNpx9J65jASUbYv6MDITxjyytkVN3J3B9JvqGM1dMIEbnFBuu4SdevNJuZvkizn7rXg==
    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,...