Thinking critically about sentences

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

    iR5KDK4OrnJgSrwZq8Twm+BuLjyaMXyWEYyxrcMpIiTV3FnWyKoX/Rd4NVzPQxtGgihS2efqJIwVSyAkpxmgRV7nInMqwlD+WY9Kxg7N5I0HshVKJdTSlozoDTRQzz4DaKF3Iebwu8pVKYiC/G9uiPkJYrHJG6Y2DR58JcKlq9coBu+f2TugqXFX+isEiCApGqDFeILPBGGPXPbNEplrg7H8q7WHSK4nv+RYdbxvsHghImY8x8nzo35T9PY7VzndJ1K3lLPvaAVJSEztEopR91F5E7B2cLdoU/hTkB0DbcKTNM7SpJaQvAkgQ5yNjtKflH7WcaC9TlKAKEXKaUGThze+zmJLiNBZMgZQl/ElrX2MuF+tsyfA+Q==
    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

    H+Xj4w26uBmlcUniDTGcNOeSTEY3hfPO4oNMMVeKHCLNnngdOFU3gqTkJwyzi8x32olhBJbKiNvrV6HYVAkEIewNVPdV1mrINVW5aKR+5c42xfUdMBLKT2pv/fahCqWxLYXg30U1hYVugH8okMxXVrfYddpi185qw1kgcN8E1cGUbc9qjzbZkCZLxDQ7Dlw4GgzEObdxIHUS+KQl4xl2865kQykmRA+kDKpwiE3+nwiUR0LymdcMGH+rjuRo1aGr4bZRSfcpm2ek/C4gy6nKnmlB5PAEZKOVdxmu39ErE6IW/NTD6PZjfcSfqEkAIpmaUsPm8V8H7xfN2fXRMJuC+g==
    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”