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

    4j6+0i5JB2rQYPaee0EhyrPJg2RKSYoV1IZ5yz+eux79mUbe4ETKaPo/D2XQRLLxqZmi340IYYLYiabiz6txF+6UAlkM9AGQDCSKJVrsXCV8UijxzoITGqTPUW717Kd178cJEhHkcbbliuO0ZxbwX3Hga3ktwuVlWU9K/x5p0ENOClTlW2eB94Ui43/T4tlHis0glMwOh5+28CH1LZNhDMaO0knLtr4YAcXDLE+o79m20D/NKKF8tGZ6HqDhN4TTfQ9q4wvFN5m5KL5W9xNC8EBIDi2HOQlewo8tLXFOq+QNY6GJJzVVZazBCETXE2HCEAvc2Nyx51t5T44FchZnnVd5In11/nFMY2LZOpXjqGI2oQ0V
    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

    /+f+FC6b7PEUZoPu6k3TjPmUptxohLevVV8TUYvx+u0tJ28rdDVjr2fUPKHwJpU47N2zOSsF+cO4LGcLcCx9bfhKbtrq22Hmmpg1ANeFz0bLpA//UwcAPoD+RyH+2QVzbqOl6yavn8qeO+a5GYjWmAoxsiCwTv9cWhOd/EnF/K+QNmbl8mCCKLQBzFN/CC8M5efBd3wwXXsTOS4urszAKJKwGYEw81gd2XmdpCX4C9LmhmCVZDrI8PsK3FZU7CZhCkl1DVyDU1BWe24eBYIYeVL6ZtjCouoGtdA69DCYVcsNxc6qteEI1BJUC7mxUx1CKFJisXukaSYVQjuC8lrA+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”