Download ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style

The Grammardog Guide to
Anthem
by Ayn Rand
All exercises use sentences from the novel.
Includes over 250 multiple choice questions.
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From ANTHEM by Ayn Rand, copyright 1938, 1946 by Ayn Rand, Introduction copyright
© 1995 by Leonard Peikoff and the Estate of Ayn Rand. Used by permission of Dutton
Signet, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
All exercises use sentences from the novel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Exercise 1 --
Parts of Speech
25 multiple choice questions
....5
Exercise 2 --
Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization,
and Punctuation
12 multiple choice questions
....7
Exercise 3 --
Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization,
and Punctuation
12 multiple choice questions
....8
Exercise 4 --
Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences
25 multiple choice questions
....9
Exercise 5 --
Complements
25 multiple choice questions on direct object,
indirect object, predicate nominative,
predicate adjective, and object of preposition
. . . 11
Exercise 6 --
Phrases
25 multiple choice questions on infinitive,
gerund, prepositional, appositive, and
participial phrases
. . . 13
Exercise 7 --
Verbals
25 multiple choice questions on infinitives,
gerunds, and participles
. . . 15
Exercise 8 --
Clauses
25 multiple choice questions
. . . 17
3
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Exercise 9 --
Style: Figurative Language
25 multiple choice questions on metaphor,
simile, and personification
. . . 19
Exercise10 --
Style: Poetic Devices
25 multiple choice questions on assonance,
consonance, alliteration, repetition, and
rhyme
. . . 21
Exercise 11 --
Style: Sensory Imagery
25 multiple choice questions
. . . 23
Exercise 12 --
Style: Allusions and Symbols
20 multiple choice questions
. . . 25
Exercise 13 --
Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 1
6 multiple choice questions
. . . 27
Exercise 14 --
Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 2
6 multiple choice questions
. . . 29
Exercise 15 --
Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 3
6 multiple choice questions
. . . 31
Exercise 16 --
Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 4
6 multiple choice questions
. . . 33
Answer Key --
Answers to Exercises 1-16
. . . 35
Glossary
--
Literary Analysis
. . . 37
Glossary
--
Grammar
. . . 48
4
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 1
PARTS OF SPEECH
Identify the parts of speech in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
v = verb
prep = preposition
n = noun
pron = pronoun
adj = adjective
conj = conjunction
adv = adverb
____1.
The flame of the candle stands still in the air.
____2.
But we cannot change our bones nor our body.
____3.
We were born with a curse.
____4.
When we were five years old, we were sent to the Home of the Students,
where there are ten wards, for our ten years of learning.
____5.
So we fought against this curse.
____6.
And we were lashed more often than all the other children.
____7.
The sleeping halls are white and clean and bare of all things save one
hundred beds.
____8.
They do not speak often, for they are weary.
____9.
We left them to lie in the shade of the Theater tent and we went with
International 4-8818 to finish our work.
____10.
They were frightened, but they stood by and watched us go.
____11.
Hundreds upon hundreds of years ago men knew secrets which we have lost.
____12.
International 4-8818 looked upon us and stepped back.
____13.
“Equality 7-2521,” they said, “your face is white.”
____14.
And now we know that metal draws the power of the sky, and that metal
can be made to give it forth.
____15.
We used for it the copper wires which we found here under the ground.
____16.
But then came the day when the sky turned white, as if the sun had burst
and spread its flame in the air, and the fields lay still without breath, and the
dust of the road was white in the glow.
5
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 1
PARTS OF SPEECH
____17.
And the Golden One stepped back, and stood looking upon their hands
in wonder.
____18.
Men never see their own faces and never ask their brothers about it, for
it is evil to have concern for their own faces or bodies.
____19.
This room has no windows and it is empty save for an iron post.
____20.
Then we knew suddenly that we were lying on a soft earth and that we had
stopped.
____21.
We are walking to the fangs awaiting us somewhere among the great,
silent trees.
____22.
I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them.
____23.
Then here, on this mountaintop, with the world below me and nothing
above me but the sun, I shall live my own truth.
____24.
There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men.
____25.
Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable,
the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth.
6
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 2
PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION
Read the following passages and decide which type of error, if any, appears in each underlined section.
PASSAGE 1
PASSAGE 2
“Our dearest one, we whispered.
1
Never have men said this to Women.
2
The head of the Golden One bowed slowly, and
We looked into thier eyes and we could not lie.
1
“Yes, we whispered, and they smiled, and
2
then we said: Our dearest one, do not obey us.”
3
They steped back, and their eyes were wide
4
and still.
they stood stil before us, their arms at their sides,
3
the palmes of their hands turned to us, as if their
4
body were delivered in submision to our eyes. And
5
we could not speak
6
“Speak these words again,” they Whispered.
5
“Which words? we asked. But they did not
6
answer, and we knew it.
____1. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____1. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____2. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____2. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____3. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____3. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____4. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____4. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____5. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____5. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____6. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____6. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
7
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 3
PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION
Read the following passages and decide which type of error, if any, appears in each underlined section.
PASSAGE 1
PASSAGE 2
When the Council of The Home questioned us,
1
we looked upon the faces of the Council, but
2
there was no curosity in those faces, and no anger,
3
and no mercy So when the oldest of them asked us:
4
“Where have you been?” we thought of our glass
box and of our light, and we forgot al else. And we
5
answered:
So we were taken to the Stone Room under the
Palace of Corective Detention. This room has no
1
window’s and it is empty save for an iron post.
2
Two man stood by the post, naked but for leather
3
aprons and leather hoods over their faces. those
4
who had brought us departed, leeving us to the two
5
Judges who stood in a corner of the room
6
“we will not tell you.”
6
____1. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____1. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____2. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____2. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____3. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____3. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____4. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____4. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____5. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____5. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____6. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
____6. a. Spelling
b. Capitalization
c. Punctuation
d. No error
8
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 4
SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
Label each of the following sentences S for simple, C for compound, CX for complex,
or CC for compound/complex.
____1.
We have committed a greater crime, and for this crime there is no name.
____2.
The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this
is the great transgression and the root of all evil.
____3.
We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it.
____4.
We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike.
____5.
Men must learn till they reach their fifteenth year.
____6.
The sleeping halls were white and clean and bare of all things save one
hundred beds.
____7.
The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us.
____8.
We learned that the earth is flat and that the sun revolves around it, which
causes the day and the night.
____9.
We could ask questions of these, for they do not forbid questions.
____10.
It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that
we can know them if we try, and that we must know them.
____11.
When the bell rings, we all arise from our beds.
____12.
Thus we lived each day of four years, until two springs ago when our crime
happened.
____13.
And when we cleaned the yard of the Home of the Scholars, we gathered the
glass vials, the pieces of metal, the dried bones which they had discarded.
____14.
We were gathering the papers and the rags which the wind had blown from the
Theatre, when we saw an iron bar among the weeds.
____15.
Thus we learned their name, and we stood watching them go, till their white
tunic was lost in the blue mist.
9
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 4
SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
____16.
The other women were far off in the field, when we stopped at the hedge by
the side of the road.
____17.
“If you see us among scores of women, will you look upon us?”
____18.
Then the three of the sisters in the field appeared, coming toward the road,
so the Golden One walked away from us.
____19.
One night, we were cutting open the body of a dead frog when we saw its
leg jerking.
____20.
It was dead, yet it moved.
____21.
Many days passed before we could speak to the Golden One again.
____22.
In a month, the World Council of Scholars is to meet in our City.
____23.
We must guard our tunnel as we had never guarded it before.
____24.
“Take our brother Equality 7-2521 to the Palace of Corrective Detention.”
____25.
We opened our eyes, lying on our stomach on the brick floor of a cell.
10
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 5
COMPLEMENTS
Identify the complements in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
d.o. = direct object
o.p. = object of preposition
i.o. = indirect object
p.a. = predicate adjective
p.n. = predicate nominative
____1.
We have broken the laws.
____2.
We are alone here under the earth.
____3.
We stole the candle from the larder of the Home of the Street Sweepers.
____4.
All men are good and wise.
____5.
And we learned much from our Teachers.
____6.
This is an evil thing to say, for it is a transgression, the great Transgression of
Preference, to love any among men better than the others, since we must love
all men and all men are our friends.
____7.
No men known to us could have built this place.
____8.
Strange are the ways of evil.
____9.
Yet as we stand at night in the great hall, removing our garments for sleep,
we look upon our brothers and we wonder.
____10.
The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they look one another in
the eyes.
____11.
We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature.
____12.
We can give our brothers a new light, cleaner and brighter than any they
have ever known.
____13.
The Judges were small, thin men, grey and bent.
____14.
Many Judges came to our cell, first the humblest and then the most honored
Judges of the City.
____15.
It was easy to escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention.
____16.
The locks are old on the doors and there are no guards about.
11
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
____17.
We lit the candle and we saw that our place had not been found and nothing
had been touched.
____18.
Tomorrow, in the full light of day, we shall take our box, and leave our
tunnel open, and walk through the streets to the Home of the Scholars.
____19.
We shall tell them the truth.
____20.
Tomorrow we shall be one of you again.
____21.
We saw a great painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious
men who had invented the candle.
____22.
“Our name is Equality 7-2521,” we answered, “and we are a Street Sweeper of
this City.
____23.
Give no thought to us, for we are nothing, but listen to our words, for we bring
you a gift such as has never been brought to men.
____24.
“We give you the power of the sky!” we cried.
____25.
“The candle is a great boon to mankind, as approved by all men.
12
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 6
PHRASES
Identify the phrases in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
par = participial
ger = gerund
inf = infinitive
appos = appositive
prep = prepositional
____1.
There are few offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers, at any age
and for any cause whatsoever.
____2.
The Council of the Home told us so, and of all the children of that year, we were
locked in the cellar most often.
____3.
We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those years in the Home of the Students.
____4.
This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick.
____5.
We did not listen well to the history of all the Councils elected since the
Great Rebirth.
____6.
And then we saw iron rings as steps leading down a shaft into a darkness
without bottom.
____7.
We knelt, and we crawled forward, our hand groping along the iron line to see
where it would lead.
____8.
Each night, we run to the ravine, and we remove the stones which we have piled
upon the iron grill to hide it from men.
____9.
And there it was that we saw Liberty 5-3000 walking along the furrows.
____10.
And each day thereafter we knew the illness of waiting for our hour on the
northern road.
____11.
Then they glanced at us over their shoulder, and we felt as if a hand had
touched our body, slipping softly from our lips to our feet.
____12.
And we take no heed of the law which says that men may not think of women,
save at the Time of Mating.
____13.
And we thought that we would not let the Golden One be sent to the Palace.
____14.
Yet as we walked back to the Home of the Street Sweepers, we felt that we
wanted to sing, without reason.
13
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 6
PHRASES
____15.
So we were reprimanded tonight, in the dining hall, for without knowing it we
had begun to sing aloud some tune we had never heard.
____16.
And now, sitting here in our tunnel, we wonder about these words.
____17.
There are Fraternity 2-5503, a quiet boy with wise, kind eyes, who cry suddenly,
without reason, in the midst of day or night, and their body shakes with sobs they
cannot explain.
____18.
We do not wish to look upon the Uncharted Forest.
____19.
There was a thin thread of blood running from the corner of their mouth, but
the lips were smiling.
____20.
We looked into their eyes and we could not lie.
____21.
The Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked:
“Who are you, our brother?”
____22.
There is some error, one frightful error, in the thinking of men.
____23.
We are sitting at a table and we are writing this upon paper made thousands
of years ago.
____24.
We thought it was strange that men had been permitted to build a house for
only twelve.
____25.
And here, in this uncharted wilderness, I and they, my chosen friends, my
fellow-builders, shall write the first chapter in the new history of man.
14
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 7
VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES
Identify the underlined verbals and verbal phrases in the sentences below as being
gerund (ger), infinitive (inf), or participle (par). Also indicate the usage by labeling each:
subj = subject
adj = adjective
d.o. = direct object
adv = adverb
o.p. = object of preposition
Verbal
Usage
____
____1.
It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down
upon a paper no others are to see.
____
____2.
And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to
see only two legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us
the shadow of our one head.
____
____3.
It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be
superior to them.
____
____4.
We did not listen well to the history of all the Councils elected since
the Great Rebirth.
____
____5.
We wished to know about all the things which make the earth
around us.
____
____6.
To find these things, the Scholars must study the earth and learn
from the rivers, from the sands, from the winds and the rocks.
____
____7.
We wished to be a scholar.
____
____8.
We came back to have our dinner, which lasts one hour.
____
____9.
Where the City ends there is a great road winding off to the north,
and we Street Sweepers must keep this road clean to the first
mile-post.
____
____10.
Twice have we been sent to the Palace of Mating, but it is an ugly
and shameful matter, of which we do not like to think.
____
____11.
And we thought then, standing in the square, that the likeness of a
Saint was the face we saw before us in the flames, the face of the
Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word.
____
____12.
We have fought against saying it, but now it is said.
15
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 7
VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES
Verbal
Usage
____
____13.
Tonight, after more days and trials than we can count, we finished
building a strange thing, from the remains of the Unmentionable
Times, a box of glass, devised to give forth the power of the sky of
greater strength than we had ever achieved before.
____
____14.
We could not see our body nor feel it, and in that moment nothing
existed save our two hands over a wire glowing in a black abyss.
____
____15.
Our discovery is too great for us to waste our time in sweeping the
streets.
____
____16.
“You are damned, and we wish to share your damnation.”
____
____17.
There is some error, one frightful error, in the thinking of men.
____
____18.
Then we went out to gather wood for the great hearth of our home.
____
____19.
We look ahead, we beg our heart for guidance in answering this call no
voice has spoken, yet we have heard.
____
____20.
I wished to know the meaning of things.
____
____21.
It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to
the world.
____
____22.
“My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names.
____
____23.
There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish
him from all other men.
____
____24.
There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other
men.
____
____25.
And the day will come when I shall break all the chains of the earth,
and raze the cities of the enslaved, and my home will become the capital
of a world where each man will be free to exist for his own sake.
16
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 8
CLAUSES
Indicate how the underlined clauses are used in the sentences below. Label the clause:
subj = subject
d.o. = direct object
adj = adjective
adv = adverb
p.n. = predicate nominative
o.p. = object of preposition
____1.
What punishment awaits us if it be discovered.
____2.
And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or
think alone.
____3.
Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all
men wear on their left wrists with their names upon it.
____4.
It was not that the learning was too hard for us.
____5.
We think that there are mysteries in the sky and under the water and in the
plants which grow.
____6.
And we were punished when the Council of Vocations came to give us our life
Mandates which tell those who reach their fifteenth year what their work is
to be for the rest of their days.
____7.
Then we saw that the eyes of International 4-8818 were full to the lids with
tears they dared not drop.
____8.
We have solved secrets of which the Scholars have no knowledge.
____9.
The women who have been assigned to work the soil live in the Home of the
Peasants beyond the City.
____10.
We look upon the light which we have made.
____11.
“What is not done collectively cannot be good,” said International 1-5537.
____12.
We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell across our face.
____13.
“We found the marks of your feet across the plain where no men walk.”
____14.
I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse.
____15.
I understood why the best in me had been my sins and my transgressions; and
why I had never felt guilt in my sins.
17
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 8
CLAUSES
____16.
It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which
the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom
of the sages.
____17.
And when I understood this word, the book fell from my hands, and I wept,
I who had never known tears.
____18.
I have learned that my power of the sky was known to men long ago; they
called it Electricity.
____19.
I shall call to me all the men and the women whose spirit has not been killed
within them and who suffer under the yoke of their brothers.
____20.
And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time.
____21.
But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long
ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and
cowardice, to their fate.
____22.
I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word “I”,
could give it up and not know what they lost.
____23.
For that which they died to save can never perish.
____24.
And the day will come when I shall break all the chains of the earth, and raze
the cities of the enslaved, and my home will become the capital of a world where
each man will be free to exist for his own sake.
____25.
And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is
to be my beacon and my banner.
18
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 9
STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Identify the figurative language in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
p = personification
s = simile
m = metaphor
____1.
And we looked straight into the eyes of the Council, but their eyes were
as cold blue glass buttons.
____2.
The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to
burst through.
____3.
They are a tall, strong youth and their eyes are like fireflies, for there is
laughter in their eyes.
____4.
Only the iron tracks glowed through it, straight and white, calling us
to follow.
____5.
But we could not follow, for we were losing the puddle of light behind us.
____6.
The fire flickers in the oven and blue shadows dance upon the walls, and
there is no sound of men to disturb us.
____7.
And it seems to us that our spirit is clear as a lake troubled by no eyes save
those of the sun.
____8.
Women work in the fields, and their white tunics in the wind are like the
wings of sea-gulls beating over the black soil.
____9.
Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron.
____10.
And the drops of water falling from their hands, as they raised the water
to their lips, were like sparks of fire in the sun.
____11.
Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without shape.
____12.
Men never enter the Uncharted Forest, for there is no power to explore it
and no path to lead among its ancient trees which stand as guards of
fearful secrets.
____13.
The trees have swallowed the ruins, and the bones under the ruins, and
all the things which perished.
____14.
They had hair of gold and eyes of blue as morning.
19
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 9
STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
____15.
There was nothing left around us, nothing save night and a thin thread
of flame in it, as a crack in the wall of a prison.
____16.
For this wire is as a part of our body, as a vein torn from us, glowing
with our blood.
____17.
Then we saw the Scholars who sat around a long table; they were
as shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky.
____18.
And slowly, slowly as a flush of blood, a red flame trembled in the wire.
____19.
And the road seemed not to be flat before us, but as if it were leaping up
to meet us, and we waited for the earth to rise and strike us in the face.
____20.
The forest seemed to welcome us.
____21.
“Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble.”
____22.
It is my mind which thinks, and the judgment of my mind is the only
searchlight that can find the truth.
____23.
I am not a bandage for their wounds.
____24.
The word “We” is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to
stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which
is black are lost equally in the grey of it.
____25.
I am done with the monster of “We,” the word of serfdom, of plunder,
of misery, falsehood and shame.
20
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 10
STYLE: POETIC DEVICES
Identify the poetic devices in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
a. assonance
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. repetition
e. rhyme
____1.
The walls are cracked and water runs upon them in thin threads without
sound, black and glistening as blood.
____2.
And if sometimes, in the secret darkness of our heart, we regret that which
befell us on our fifteenth birthday, we know that it was through our own guilt.
____3.
We had broken a law, for we had not paid heed to the words of our Teachers.
____4.
The shadow on the sundial marks off a half-hour while we dress and eat our
breakfast in the dining hall, where there are five long tables with twenty
clay plates and twenty clay cups on each table.
____5.
They sit in the sun in summer and they sit by the fire in winter.
____6.
It is empty save for trees and weeds.
____7.
It was old and rusted by many rains.
____8.
Thus did it come to pass that each night, when the stars are high and the
Street Sweepers sit in the City Theatre, we, Equality 7-2521, steal and run
through the darkness to our place.
____9.
We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are
doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it.
____10.
Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and
wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.
____11.
And we stood still that we might not spill this pain more precious than
pleasure.
____12.
They stood still as a stone, and they looked straight upon us, straight into
our eyes.
____13.
“They always work in the same places,” we answered, “and no one will take
this road away from us.”
____14.
But here, in our tunnel, we feel it no longer.
21
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 10
STYLE: POETIC DEVICES
____15.
And beyond the City there lies the plain, and beyond the plain, black upon
the black sky, there lies the Uncharted Forest.
____16.
But ever do our eyes return to that black patch upon the sky.
____17.
They had torn out the tongue of the Transgressor, so that they could speak
no longer.
____18.
And of all the faces on that square, of all the faces which shrieked and
screamed and spat curses upon them, theirs was the calmest and the
happiest face.
____19.
But we know its nature, we have watched it and worked with it.
____20.
Then we knew what we must do.
____21.
We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal dust upon the floor, for we
saw drops of red twinkling on the stones around us.
____22.
It is true that our tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had
been blood.
____23.
“How dared you, gutter cleaner,” spoke Fraternity 9-3452, “to hold
yourself as one alone and with the thoughts of the one and not of the many?”
____24.
This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to
use, and mine to kneel before!
____25.
And he stood on the threshold of the freedom for which the blood of the
centuries behind him had been spilled.
22
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 11
STYLE: SENSORY IMAGERY
Identify the sensory imagery in the following sentences. Label the underlined words:
a. sight
b. sound
c. touch
d. taste
e. smell
____1.
There is green mould in the grooves of the letters and yellow streaks on the
marble, which come from more years than men could count.
____2.
In the Home of the Students we arose when the big bell rang in the tower and
we went to our beds when it rang again.
____3.
We wished it so much that our hands trembled under the blankets in the night,
and bit our arm to stop that other which we could not endure.
____4.
Their hair was white and their faces were cracked as the clay of a dry
river bed.
____5.
In five hours, the shadows are blue on the pavements, and sky is blue with a
deep brightness which is not bright.
____6.
Then we sing hymns, the Hymn of Brotherhood, and the Hymn of Equality,
and the Hymn of the Collective Spirit.
____7.
On the ground there were long thin tracks of iron, but it was not iron;
it felt smooth and cold as glass.
____8.
The air is pure under the ground. There is no odor of men.
____9.
We only knew suddenly that their hands were empty, but we were still
holding our lips to their hands, and that they knew it, but did not move.
____10.
The leaves rustle over our head, black against the last gold of the sky.
____11.
The moss is soft and warm.
____12.
They leapt to their feet, they ran from the table, and they stood pressed
against the wall, huddled together, seeking the warmth of one another’s
bodies to give them courage.
____13.
We swung our fist through the windowpane, and we leapt out in a ringing
rain of glass.
____14.
We made a fire, we cooked the bird, and we ate it, and no meal had ever
tasted better to us.
23
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 11
STYLE: SENSORY IMAGERY
____15.
It lay so still that we saw no water but only a cut in the earth, in which
the trees grew down, upturned, and the sky lay at the bottom.
____16.
We knelt by the stream and we bent down to drink.
____17.
We seized their body and we pressed our lips to theirs.
____18.
The Golden One breathed once, and their breath was a moan, and then
their arms closed around us.
____19.
Then we walked on into the forest, their hand in ours.
____20.
Stones rolled from under our feet, and we heard them striking the rocks
below, farther and farther down, and the mountains rang with each stroke,
and long after the strokes had died.
____21.
The sunrays danced upon colors, colors, more colors than we thought
possible, we who had seen no houses save the white ones, the brown ones
and the grey.
____22.
And there were globes of glass everywhere, in each room, the globes with the
metal cobwebs inside, such as we had seen in our tunnel.
____23.
But others were of heavier cloth, and they felt soft and new in our fingers.
____24.
They were not soft and rolled, they had hard shells of cloth and leather; and
the letters on their pages were so small and so even that we wondered at the
men who had such handwriting.
____25.
When the sun sank beyond the mountains, the Golden One fell asleep on the
floor, amidst jewels, and bottles of crystal, and flowers of silk.
24
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 12
ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS
Identify the type of allusion or symbol used in the following sentences. Label the underlined
Words or phrases:
a. archetypal
b. mythological
c. religious
d. government
e. science/technology
____1.
Then we sing hymns, the Hymn of Brotherhood, and the Hymn of Equality,
and the Hymn of the Collective Spirit.
____2.
We looked too long at the stars at night, and at the trees and the earth.
____3.
We melt strange metals, and we mix acids, and we cut open the bodies of
the animals which we find in the City Cesspool.
____4.
They took the bag of seeds, and they threw the seeds into the furrows of earth
as they walked away.
____5.
What – even if we have to burn for it like the Saint of the pyre – what is the
Unspeakable Word?
____6.
We put a piece of copper and a piece of zinc into a jar of brine, we touched
a wire to them, and there, under our fingers, was a miracle which had never
occurred before, a new miracle and a new power.
____7.
It makes the needle move and turn on the compass which we stole from the
Home of the Scholars; but we had been taught, when still a child, that the
loadstone points to the north and that this is a law which nothing can change;
yet our new power defies all laws.
____8.
We found wires that led to strange little globes of glass on the walls; they
contained threads of metal thinner than a spider’s web.
____9.
But then came the day when the sky turned white, as if the sun had burst and
spread its flame in the air, and the fields lay still without breath, and the dust
of the road was white in the glow.
____10.
Many Judges came to our cell, first the humblest and then the most honored
Judges of the City.
____11.
“Should it be what they claim of it, said Harmony 9-2642, “then it would bring
ruin to the Department of Candles.
____12.
“This could wreck the Plans of the World Council, said Unanimity 2-9913,”
and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise.”
25
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 12
ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS
____13.
We can kill more birds than we need for our food; we find water, and fruit
in the forest.
____14.
The fires smolder as a crown of jewels around us, and smoke stands still in the
air, in columns made blue by the moonlight.
____15.
I stand here on the summit of the mountain.
____16.
He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to
be gods.
____17.
“And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of light must suffer. His name
was Prometheus.”
____18.
“And I have read of a goddess,” I said, “who was the mother of the earth
and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea.”
____19.
I have learned that my power of the sky was known to men long ago; they
called it Electricity.
____20.
Thus did men – men with nothing to offer save their great number – lose the
steel towers, the flying ships, the power wires, all the things they had not
created and could never keep.
26
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 13
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 1
Read the following passage the first time through for meaning.
The women who have been assigned to work the soil live in the Home of the Peasants beyond the City. Where
the City ends there is a great road winding off to the north, and we Street Sweepers must keep this road clean
to the first mile-post. There is a hedge along the road, and beyond the hedge lie the fields. The fields are black
and ploughed, and they lie like a great fan before us, with their furrows gathered in some hand beyond the sky,
spreading forth from that hand, opening wide apart as they come toward us, like black pleats that sparkle with
thin, green spangles. Women work in the fields, and their white tunics in the wind are like the wings of sea-gulls
beating over the black soil.
And there it was that we saw Liberty 5-3000 walking along the furrows. Their body was straight and thin as
a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.
Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.
They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under
their feet.
We stood still; for the first time did we know fear, and then pain. And we stood still that we might not spill
this pain more precious than pleasure.
Then we heard a voice from the others call their name: “Liberty 5-3000,” and they turned and walked back.
Thus we learned their name, and we stood watching them go, till their white tunic was lost in the blue mist.
(From Chapter II)
Read the passage a second time, marking figurative language, sensory imagery, poetic
devices, and any other patterns of diction and rhetoric, then answer the questions below.
1 The women who have been assigned to work the soil live in the Home of the Peasants beyond the City. Where
2 the City ends there is a great road winding off to the north, and we Street Sweepers must keep this road clean
3 to the first mile-post. There is a hedge along the road, and beyond the hedge lie the fields. The fields are black
4 and ploughed, and they lie like a great fan before us, with their furrows gathered in some hand beyond the sky,
5 spreading forth from that hand, opening wide apart as they come toward us, like black pleats that sparkle with
6 thin, green spangles. Women work in the fields, and their white tunics in the wind are like the wings of sea-gulls
7 beating over the black soil.
8 And there it was that we saw Liberty 5-3000 walking along the furrows. Their body was straight and thin as
9 a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.
10 Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.
11 They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under
12 their feet.
13 We stood still; for the first time did we know fear, and then pain. And we stood still that we might not spill
14 this pain more precious than pleasure.
27
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 13
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 1
15 Then we heard a voice from the others call their name: “Liberty 5-3000,” and they turned and walked back.
16 Thus we learned their name, and we stood watching them go, till their white tunic was lost in the blue mist.
____1.
All of the following descriptions are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .
a. Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron (Lines 8-9)
b. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing (Line 9)
c. Their hair was golden as the sun (Line 10)
d. Their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it
(Line 10)
____2.
All of the following comparisons are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .
a. the fields are like large fans
b. the sky is like a hand
c. the furrows are like pleats
d. the sprouting crops are like spangles
____3.
The underlined words in Line 2 are examples of . . .
a. assonance
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. rhyme
____4.
The underlined words in Lines 6 and 14 are examples of . . .
a. assonance
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. rhyme
____5.
The author characterizes Liberty 5-3000 as being all of the following EXCEPT . . .
a. seductive
b. fearless
c. strong
d. superior
____6.
All of the following are examples of consonance EXCEPT . . .
a. hand, beyond (Line 4)
b. thin, green (Line 6)
c. wind, wings (Line 6)
d. lost, mist (Line 16)
28
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 14
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 2
Read the following passage the first time through for meaning.
The lash whistled like a singing wind. We tried to count the blows, but we lost count. We knew that the blows
were falling upon our back. Only we felt nothing upon our back any longer. A flaming grill kept dancing
before our eyes, and we thought of nothing save that grill, a grill, a grill of red squares, and then we knew
that we were looking at the squares of the iron grill in the door, and there were also the squares of stone on the
walls, and the squares which the lash was cutting upon our back, crossing and re-crossing itself in our flesh.
Then we saw a fist before us. It knocked our chin up, and we saw the red froth of our mouth on the withered
fingers, and the Judge asked:
“Where have you been?”
But we jerked our head away, hid our face upon our tied hands, and bit our lips.
The lash whistled again. We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal dust upon the floor, for we saw drops
of red twinkling on the stones around us.
The we knew nothing, save two voices snarling steadily, one after the other, even though we knew they were
speaking many minutes apart:
“Where have you been where have you been where have you been where have you been? . . . “
And our lips moved, but the sound trickled back into our throat, and the sound was only:
“The light . . . The light . . . The light. . . .”
Then we knew nothing. (From Chapter VI)
Read the passage a second time, marking figurative language, sensory imagery, poetic
devices, and any other patterns of diction and rhetoric, then answer the questions below.
1 The lash whistled like a singing wind. We tried to count the blows, but we lost count. We knew that the blows
2 were falling upon our back. Only we felt nothing upon our back any longer. A flaming grill kept dancing
3 before our eyes, and we thought of nothing save that grill, a grill, a grill of red squares, and then we knew
4 that we were looking at the squares of the iron grill in the door, and there were also the squares of stone on the
5 walls, and the squares which the lash was cutting upon our back, crossing and re-crossing itself in our flesh.
6 Then we saw a fist before us. It knocked our chin up, and we saw the red froth of our mouth on the withered
7 fingers, and the Judge asked:
8 “Where have you been?”
9 But we jerked our head away, hid our face upon our tied hands, and bit our lips.
10 The lash whistled again. We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal dust upon the floor, for we saw drops
11 of red twinkling on the stones around us.
12 Then we knew nothing, save two voices snarling steadily, one after the other, even though we knew they were
13 speaking many minutes apart:
14 “Where have you been where have you been where have you been where have you been? . . .”
29
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 14
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 2
15 And our lips moved, but the sound trickled back into our throat, and the sound was only:
16 “The light . . . The light . . . The light . . . “
17 Then we knew nothing.
____1.
The passage contains examples of all of the following sensory imagery EXCEPT . . .
a. sight and sound
b. sound and touch
c. taste and smell
____2.
All of the following descriptions are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .
a. A flaming grill (Line 2)
b. the red froth of our mouth (Line 6)
c. burning coal dust upon the floor (Line 10)
d. drops of red twinkling on the stones (Line 10-11)
____3.
All of the following descriptions are examples of personification EXCEPT . . .
a. The lash whistled (Line 1)
b. A flaming grill kept dancing (Line 2)
c. the sound trickled back into our throat (Line 15)
____4.
The author uses all of the following examples of repetition to heighten the
intensity of the torture EXCEPT . . .
a. that grill, a grill, a grill (Line 3)
b. red squares, the squares, the squares, the squares (Lines 3-5)
c. “Where have you been where have you been where have you been
where have you been? . . .” (Line 14)
d. “The light . . . The light . . . The light. . . .” (Line 16)
____5.
Line 9 contains all of the following poetic devices EXCEPT . . .
a. assonance
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. rhyme
____6.
Line 1 contains examples of . . .
a. personification and simile
b. metaphor and simile
c. personification and metaphor
30
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 15
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 3
Read the following passage the first time through for meaning.
It is dark here in the forest. The leaves rustle over our head, black against the last gold of the sky. The moss
is soft and warm. We shall sleep on this moss for many nights, till the beasts of the forest come to tear our
body. We have no bed now, save the moss, and no future, save the beasts.
We are old now, yet we were young this morning, when we carried our glass box through the streets of the
City to the Home of the Scholars. No men stopped us, for there were none about from the Palace of Corrective
Detention, and the others knew nothing. No men stopped us at the gate. We walked through empty passages
and into the great hall where the World Council of Scholars sat in solemn meeting.
We saw nothing as we entered, save the sky in the great windows, blue and glowing. Then we saw the Scholars
who sat around a long table; they were as shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky. There were men
whose famous names we knew, and others from distant lands whose names we had not heard. We saw a great
painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who had invented the candle.
All the heads of the Council turned to us as we entered. These great and wise of the earth did not know what
to think of us, and they looked upon us with wonder and curiosity, as if we were a miracle. It is true that our
tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had been blood. We raised our right arm and we said:
“Our greeting to you, our honored brothers of the World Council of Scholars!”
The Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked:
“Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar.”
“Our name is Equality 7-2521,” we answered, “and we are a Street Sweeper of this City.”
Then it was as if a great wind had stricken the hall, for all the Scholars spoke at once, and they were angry
and frightened. (From Chapter VII)
Read the passage a second time, marking figurative language, sensory imagery, poetic
devices, and any other patterns of diction and rhetoric, then answer the questions below.
1 It is dark here in the forest. The leaves rustle over our head, black against the last gold of the sky. The moss
2 is soft and warm. We shall sleep on this moss for many nights, till the beasts of the forest come to tear our
3 body. We have no bed now, save the moss, and no future, save the beasts.
4 We are old now, yet we were young this morning, when we carried our glass box through the streets of the
5 City to the Home of the Scholars. No men stopped us, for there were none about from the Palace of Corrective
6 Detention, and the others knew nothing. No men stopped us at the gate. We walked through empty passages
7 and into the great hall where the World Council of Scholars sat in solemn meeting.
8 We saw nothing as we entered, save the sky in the great windows, blue and glowing. Then we saw the Scholars
9 who sat around a long table; they were as shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky. They were men
10 whose famous names we knew, and others from distant lands whose names we had not heard. We saw a great
11 painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who had invented the candle.
12 All the heads of the Council turned to us as we entered. These great and wise of the earth did not know what
31
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 15
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 3
13 to think of us, and they looked upon us with wonder and curiosity, as if we were a miracle. It is true that our
14 tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had been blood. We raised our right arm and we said:
15 “Our greeting to you, our honored brothers of the World Council of Scholars!”
16 The Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked:
17 “Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar.”
18 “Our name is Equality 7-2521,” we answered, “and we are a Street Sweeper of this City.”
19 Then it was as if a great had stricken the hall, for all the Scholars spoke at once, and they were angry
20 and frightened.
____1.
The flashback beginning in Line 4 is signaled by all of the following devices
EXCEPT . . .
a. a change in setting
b. a change in character
c. a change in time of day
d. a change in tense
____2.
The underlined words in Line 9 are an example of . . .
a. simile
b. metaphor
c. personification
____3.
All of the following word pairs are examples of assonance EXCEPT . . .
a. over, our (Line 1)
b. moss, soft (Line 1-2)
c. famous, names (Line 10)
d. true, tunic (Line 13-14)
____4.
A parallel tone is achieved between Lines 1-3 and . . .
a. Lines 4-6
b. Line 8-10
c. Lines 15-17
d. Lines 19-20
____5.
In Lines 13-14, It is true that our tunic was torn contains all of the
following poetic devices EXCEPT . . .
a. assonance
b. consonance
c. alliteration
d. rhyme
____6.
All of the following contrasts are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .
a. alienation/community b. dark/light c. trust/betrayal d. maturity/naïvety
32
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 16
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 4
Read the following passage the first time through for meaning.
We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell across our face. We wanted to leap to our feet, as we have had to leap
every morning of our life, but we remembered suddenly that no bell had rung and that there was no bell to
ring anywhere. We lay on our back, we threw our arms out, and we looked up at the sky. The leaves had
edges of silver that trembled and rippled like a river of green and fire flowing high above us.
We did not wish to move. We thought suddenly that we could lie thus as long as we wished, and we laughed
aloud at the thought. We could also rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again. We were thinking that these
were thoughts without sense, but before we knew it our body had risen in one leap. Our arms stretched out
of their own will, and our body whirled and whirled, till it raised a wind to rustle through the leaves of the
bushes. Then our hands seized a branch and swung us high into a tree, with no aim save the wonder of
learning the strength of our body. The branch snapped under us and we fell upon the moss that was soft
as a cushion. Then our body, losing all sense, rolled over and over on the moss, dry leaves in our tunic, in
our hair, in our face. And we heard suddenly that we were laughing, laughing aloud, laughing as if there
were no power left in us save laughter.
Then we took our glass box, and we went on into the forest. We went on, cutting through branches, and it
was as if we were swimming through a sea of leaves, with the bushes as waves rising and falling and rising
around us, and flinging their green sprays high to the treetops. The trees parted before us, calling us
forward. The forest seemed to welcome us. We went on, without thought, without care, with nothing to
feel save the song of our body. (From Chapter VIII)
Read the passage a second time, marking figurative language, sensory imagery, poetic
devices, and any other patterns of diction and rhetoric, then answer the questions below.
1 We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell across our face. We wanted to leap to our feet, as we have had to leap
2 every morning of our life, but we remembered suddenly that no bell had rung and that there was no bell to
3 ring anywhere. We lay on our back, we threw our arms out, and we looked up at the sky. The leaves had
4 edges of silver that trembled and rippled like a river of green and fire flowing high above us.
5 We did not wish to move. We thought suddenly that we could lie thus as long as we wished, and we laughed
6 aloud at the thought. We could also rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again. We were thinking that these
7 were thoughts without sense, but before we knew it our body had risen in one leap. Our arms stretched out
8 of their own will, and our body whirled and whirled, till it raised a wind to rustle through the leaves of the
9 bushes. Then our hands seized a branch and swung us high into a tree, with no aim save the wonder of
10 learning the strength of our body. The branch snapped under us and we fell upon the moss that was soft
11 as a cushion. Then our body, losing all sense, rolled over and over on the moss, dry leaves in our tunic, in
12 our hair, in our face. And we heard suddenly that we were laughing, laughing aloud, laughing as if there
13 were no power left in us save laughter.
33
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
EXERCISE 16
STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 4
14 Then we took our glass box, and we went on into the forest. We went on, cutting through the branches, and it
15 was as if we were swimming through a sea of leaves, with the bushes as waves rising and falling and rising
16 around us, and flinging their green sprays high to the treetops. The trees parted before us, calling us
17 forward. The forest seemed to welcome us. We went on, without thought, without care, with nothing
18 to feel save the song of our body.
____1.
The attitude of the main character can be described by all of the following words
EXCEPT . . .
a. joyful
b. triumphant c. adventurous d. playful
____2.
The extended metaphor in the passage compares . . .
a. foliage to water
b. freedom to leisure
c. laughter to power
____3.
In Line 18, the song of our body is an example of . . .
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. personification
____4.
The underlined words in Lines 10-11 contain examples of all of the following
devices EXCEPT . . .
a. assonance b. consonance c. alliteration d. simile
____5.
Lines 16-17 contain examples of . . .
a. metaphor b. simile c. personification
____6.
All of the following lines are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .
a. our body whirled and whirled (Line 8)
b. rolled over and over (Line 11)
c. laughing, laughing aloud, laughing (Line 12)
d. rising and falling and rising (Line 15)
34
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
ANSWER KEY
EXERCISES 1-16
EXERCISE 1:
1. v 2. conj 3. prep 4. n 5. prep 6. adv 7. adj 8. conj 9. pron
10. adj 11. n 12. v 13. adj 14. pron 15. prep 16. v 17. n
18. adv 19. adj 20. adv 21. n 22. pron 23. conj 24. adv 25. prep
EXERCISE 2:
PASSAGE 1
PASSAGE 2
1. a 2. c 3. c 4. a 5. b 6. c
1. c 2. b 3. a 4. a 5. a 6. c
EXERCISE 3:
PASSAGE 1
PASSAGE 2
1. b 2. d 3. a 4. c 5. a 6. b
1. a 2. c 3. a 4. b 5. a 6. c
EXERCISE 4:
1. C 2. CC 3. CC 4. C 5. CX 6. S 7. CC 8. CX 9. C 10. CX
11. CX 12. CX 13. CX 14. CX 15. CC 16. CX 17. CX 18. CX
19. CX 20. C 21. CX 22. S 23. CX 24. S 25. S
EXERCISE 5:
1. d.o. 2. p.a. 3. o.p. 4. p.a. 5. d.o. 6. p.n. 7. d.o. 8. p.a. 9. o.p.
10. p.a. 11. d.o. 12. i.o. 13. p.n. 14. o.p. 15. p.a. 16. p.a. 17. d.o.
18. o.p. 19. i.o. 20. p.n. 21. d.o. 22. p.n. 23. i.o. 24. i.o. 25. p.n.
EXERCISE 6:
1. inf 2. prep 3. appos 4. inf 5. prep 6. par 7. par 8. inf 9. par
10. ger 11. par 12. ger 13. prep 14. prep 15. ger 16. par 17. appos
18. inf 19. par 20. prep 21. appos 22. ger 23. par 24. inf 25. appos
EXERCISE 7:
1. inf adj 2. par adj 3. inf adv 4. par adj 5. inf d.o. 6. inf adv
7. inf d.o. 8. inf adv 9. par adj 10. ger o.p. 11. par adj 12. ger o.p.
13. ger d.o. 14. par adj 15. ger o.p. 16. inf d.o. 17. ger o.p.
18. inf adv 19. ger o.p. 20. inf d.o. 21. ger subj 22. inf adv
23. inf adj 24. inf adj 25. inf adv
EXERCISE 8:
1.adv 2. d.o. 3. adj 4. p.n. 5. d.o. 6. adj 7. d.o. 8. o.p. 9. adj
10. adj 11. subj 12. adv 13. adj 14. adj 15. d.o. 16. o.p. 17. adv
18. d.o. 19. adj 20. adv 21. d.o. 22. adj 23. adj 24. adv 25. adj
EXERCISE 9:
1. s 2. s 3. s 4. p 5. m 6. p 7. s 8. s 9. s 10. s 11. p 12. p
13. p 14. s 15. m 16. s 17. s 18. s 19. p 20. p 21. m 22. m
23. m 24. s 25. m
EXERCISE 10:
1. c 2. a 3. b 4. a 5. c 6. a 7. c 8. c 9. d 10. a 11. e 12. d
13. a 14. b 15. d 16. a 17. c 18. d 19. c 20. e 21. e 22. c 23. b
24. d 25. b
35
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style
ANSWER KEY
EXERCISES 1-16
EXERCISE 11:
1. a 2. b 3. c 4. a 5. a 6. b 7. c 8. e 9. c 10. b 11. c 12. c
13. b 14. d 15. a 16. d 17. c 18. b 19. c 20. b 21. a 22. a
23. c 24. c 25. a
EXERCISE 12:
1. c 2. a 3. e 4. a 5. c 6. e 7. e 8. e 9. a 10. d 11. d 12. d
13. a 14. a 15. a 16. b 17. b 18. b 19. e 20. e
EXERCISE 13:
1. c 2. b 3. a 4. c 5. a 6. c
EXERCISE 14:
1. c 2. a 3. c 4. d 5. d 6. a
EXERCISE 15:
1. b 2. a 3. a 4. d 5. d 6. c
EXERCISE 16:
1. b 2. a 3. a 4. c 5. c 6. d
36
Anapest. A foot of poetry with two
unaccented syllables followed by one
accented syllable. Example: disengage.
LITERARY GLOSSARY
A
Anaphora. A type of repetition in
which the same word or phrase is used at
the beginning of two or more sentences
or phrases.
Alexandrine. A line of poetry written in
iambic hexameter (six feet of iambs).
Allegory. A story with both a literal and
symbolic meaning.
Anecdote. A brief personal story about
an event or experience.
Alliteration. The repetition of initial
consonant or vowel sounds in two or
more successive or nearby words.
Example: fit and fearless; as accurate
as the ancient author.
Antagonist. A character, institution,
group, or force that is in conflict with the
protagonist.
Antihero – A protagonist who does not
have the traditional attributes of a hero.
Allusion. A reference to a well-known
person, place, event, work of art, myth,
or religion. Example: Hercules, Eden,
Waterloo, Prodigal Son, Superman.
Antimetabole. A type of repetition in
which the words in a successive clause
or phrase are reversed. Example: “Ask
not what your country can do for you
but what you can do for your
country.” John F. Kennedy.
Amphibrach. A foot of poetry with an
unaccented syllable, an accented
syllable, and an unaccented syllable.
Example: another
Antiphrasis. The use of a word or
phrases to mean the opposite of the
intended meaning. Example: In
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Antony’s
use of “. . . but Brutus is an honorable
man . . .” to convey the opposite
meaning.
Amphimacer. A foot of poetry with an
accented syllable, an unaccented
syllable, and an accented syllable.
Example: up and down.
Anadiplosis. A type of repetition in
which the last words of a sentence are
used to begin the next sentence.
Apostrophe. A figure of speech in
which the speaker directly addresses an
object, idea, or absent person. Example:
Milton! thou should be living at this
hour. (London, 1802 by William
Wordsworth).
Analogy. A comparison of two things
that are somewhat alike. Example: But
Marlow was not typical . . . to him the
meaning of an episode was not inside
like a kernel but outside, enveloping
the tale which brought it out only as a
glow brings out a haze . . . Heart of
Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
Archetypes. Primordial images and
symbols that occur in literature, myth,
religion, and folklore. Examples:
forest, moon, stars, earth mother.
warrior, innocent child, wizard.
37
LITERARY GLOSSARY
C
A
Cacophony. The unharmonious
combination of words that sound harsh
together.
Aside. In drama, lines delivered by an
actor to the audience as if the other
actors on stage could not hear what he is
saying.
Caesura. A natural pause or break in a
line of poetry. In scansion the symbol //
is used to mark a caesura.
Assonance. The repetition of vowel
sounds in two or more words that do not
rhyme. Example: The black cat
scratched the saddle.
Canto. A section of a long poem.
Caricature. Writing that exaggerates or
distorts personal qualities of an
individual.
Asyndeton. The omission of
conjunctions in a series. Example: “ I
came, I saw, I conquered.” Julius
Caesar.
Chiaroscuro. The contrasting of light
and darkness.
Cinquain. A five-line stanza.
Atmosphere. The way that setting or
landscape affects the tone or mood of a
work.
Classicism. A literary approach that
imitates the literature and art of ancient
Greece and Rome that stresses order,
balance, reason, and idealism.
B
Ballad. A songlike poem that tells a
story. Example: Barbara Allan.
Climax. The high point in the plot,
after which there is falling action. May
coincide with crisis.
Bathos. Sentimentality.
Colloquialism. A local expression that
is not accepted in formal speech or
writing.
Bildungsroman. A novel that deals
with the coming of age or growing up of
a young person from childhood or
adolescence to maturity. Example: Pip
in Great Expectations, Huckleberry
Finn, or Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.
Comedy. A work of literature that has a
happy ending.
Comic relief. Humorous action or lines
spoken in a serious point in a play.
Example: The Porter Scene in
Macbeth, Act II, scene iii).
Blank verse. Poetry written in
unrhymed iambic pentameter. Example:
Shakespeare plays.
Burlesque. Low comedy, ridiculous
exaggeration, nonsense.
Conceit. In poetry, an unusual,
elaborate comparison. Example: John
Donne compares separated lovers to the
legs of a drawing compass.
38
LITERARY GLOSSARY
Denouement. The falling action or final
revelations in the plot.
C
Description. Words that paint a picture
of a person, place, or thing using details
and sensory imagery.
Concrete poem. A poem that takes the
shape of its subject. Example: Easter
Wings by George Herbert).
Dialect. Regional speech that identifies
a character’s social status.
Conflict. The struggle between
characters and other characters, forces of
nature, or outside forces beyond their
control, internal conflict within a
character who struggles with moral
choices and matters of conscience.
Dialogue. Conversation between two or
more characters.
Diction. Word choice.
Doppelganger. A look-alike, double, or
twin. Example: Charles Darnay and
Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities.
Connotation. The universal
associations a word has apart from its
definition. Example: Connotations of
the word witch are: black cat, cauldron,
Halloween, broomstick, and evil spell.
Double entendre. A statement that has
two meanings, one of which is
suggestive, sexual, or improper.
Consonance. The repetition of a
consonant at the end of two or more
words. Example: Hop up the step.
Dramatic irony. When the reader or
audience knows or understands
something that a character does not
know.
Context. The words and phrases
surrounding a word.
Dramatic monologue. When a
character speaks to a silent listener.
Couplet. A pair of rhyming lines in the
same meter.
Dynamic character. A character who
undergoes change as a result of the
actions of the plot and the influence of
other characters.
Crisis. The point at which the
protagonist experiences change, the
turning point.
Dysphemism. A coarse or rude way of
saying something. The opposite of
euphemism. Example: A euphemism
for die would be pass away. A
dysphemism would be croak.
D
Dactyl. A poetic foot with one accented
syllable followed by two unaccented
syllables. Example: multitude.
Denotation. The definition or meaning
of a word.
39
LITERARY GLOSSARY
Ethos. Moral nature or beliefs.
D
Euphemism. An indirect way of saying
something that may be offensive.
Example: Passed away instead of died,
senior citizens instead of old people.
Dystopia. The opposite of utopia.
Literally bad place. Examples of
literature about dystopia include Anthem
by Ayn Rand, 1984 by George Orwell,
and Brave New World by Aldous
Huxley.
Existentialism. 20th century philosophy
concerned with the plight of the
individual who must assume
responsibility for acts of free will.
Characteristics are alienation, anxiety,
loneliness, absurdity. Example: The
Stranger by Albert Camus.
E
Elegy. A formal poem about death.
Extended metaphor. A metaphor that
is elaborated on and developed in several
phrases or sentences.
Elision. The omission of part of a word.
Example: o’er for over, and e’re for
ever.
Extended personification. A
personification that is elaborated on and
developed in several phrases or
sentences.
Ellipsis. Three periods (. . .) that signify
the omission of one or more words.
Epic. A long narrative poem about the
adventures of gods or a hero. Example:
Beowulf, The Odyssey by Homer.
Extended simile. A simile that is
elaborated on and developed in several
phrases or sentences.
Epilogue. A concluding statement.
F
Epiphany. A sudden insight or change
of heart that happens in an instant.
Fantasy. A 20th century literary
movement characterized by plots,
characters, and settings not based in
reality. Example: The Lord of the
Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien).
Epitaph. An inscription on a tomb or
gravestone.
Epithet. A word or phrase describing a
quality of a person, place, or thing that is
repeated throughout a work. Example:
wine-dark sea in Homer’s The Iliad.
Falling action. All action that takes
place after the climax.
Farce. Comedy that involves horseplay,
mistaken identity, exaggeration, and
witty dialogue. Example: The Comedy
of Errors by William Shakespeare, The
Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar
Wilde.
Essay. A short nonfiction work about a
specific subject. Essays may be
narrative, persuasive, descriptive,
expository, or argumentative. Example:
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
40
Hero/Heroine. The main character, the
protagonist whose actions inspire and
are admired.
LITERARY GLOSSARY
F
Heroic couplet. In poetry, a rhymed
pair of iambic pentameter lines.
Fiction. Literature about imaginary
characters and events.
Homophone. A word that sounds like
another word but has a different spelling.
Example: see/sea, two/too, here/hear,
fair/fare, threw/through.
Figurative language. The use of
figures of speech to express ideas.
Figures of Speech. Include metaphor,
simile, hyperbole, personification, and
oxymoron.
Hyperbole. A figure of speech that uses
exaggeration. Example: Our chances
are one in a million. I like this car ten
times more than our other one. I will
love you till the seas run dry.
First person narration. The story is
told from the point of view of one
character. Example: David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens, Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain.
I
Iamb. A foot of poetry with one
unaccented syllable followed by one
accented syllable. Example: alone.
Flashback. A plot device that allows
the author to jump back in time prior to
the opening scene.
Flat character. A one-dimensional
character who is not developed in the
plot. See static character.
Idiom. A saying or expression that
cannot be translated literally. Example:
jump down someone’s throat, smell a
rat, jump the gun, bite the dust.
Foil. A character who, through contrast,
reveals the characteristics of another
character. Dr. Watson is a foil to
Sherlock Holmes.
Inference. Information or action that is
hinted at or suggested, but not stated
outright.
Interior monologue. A device
associated with stream of consciousness
where a character is thinking to himself
and the reader feels like he is inside the
character’s mind.
Foreshadowing. A clue that prepares
the reader for what will happen later on
in the story.
Free verse. Poetry that is not written in
consistent patterns of rhyme or meter.
Irony. The opposite of what is
expected. A reality different from
appearance.
H
Heptastich. A seven-line stanza.
41
Metaphor. A figure of speech in which
one thing is said to be another thing.
Example: Her eye of ice continued to
dwell freezingly on mine. ( Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte).
LITERARY GLOSSARY
K
Kenning. A kind of metaphor used in
Anglo-Saxon poetry to replace a
concrete noun. Example: In Beowulf
the ship is called the ringed prow, the
foamy-necked, and the sea-farer.
Metaphysical poetry. A 17th century
literary movement that includes English
poets John Donne, George Herbert, and
Andrew Marvell. Their poems featured
intellectual playfulness, paradoxes, and
elaborate conceits.
L
Meter. The rhythm in a line of poetry.
The number and types of stresses or
beats on syllables are counted as feet.
Examples: monometer (one foot),
dimeter (two feet), trimeter (three feet),
tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five
feet), hexameter (six feet), and
heptameter (seven feet).
Legend. A tale or story that may or may
not be based in fact, but which reflects
cultural identity. Example: Legends
about King Arthur, Robin Hood, and
other folk heroes.
Litotes. Understatement that makes a
positive statement by using a negative
opposite. Example: He’s not a bad
singer.
Metonymy. The use of an object
closely associated with a word for the
word itself. Example: Using crown to
mean king, or oval office to mean
president.
Lyric poem. A poem that expresses the
emotions and observations of a single
speaker, including the elegy, ode, and
sonnet.
Mock epic. A poem about a silly or
trivial matter written in a serious tone.
Example: The Rape of the Lock by
Alexander Pope.
M
Magical realism. In 20th century art and
literature, when supernatural or magical
events are accepted as being real by both
character and audience. Example: One
Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel
Garcia Marquez.
Monologue. A speech given by one
person.
Mood. Synonymous with atmosphere
and tone.
Motif. A recurring pattern of symbols,
colors, events, allusions, or imagery.
Malapropism. The use of a word
somewhat like the one intended, but
ridiculously wrong. Example:
Huckleberry Finn’s use of diseased to
mean deceased.
Myth. A fictional tale about gods or
heroes. Allusions to Greek, Roman,
Norse, and Celtic myths are common in
English literature.
42
LITERARY GLOSSARY
N
Onomatopoeia. A figure of speech that
uses words to imitate sound. Example:
clink, buzz, hum, splash, hiss, boom.
Narrative poem. A poem that tells a
story. Example: ballads (Barbara
Allen) and epics (Beowulf, The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner).
Ottava rima. A stanza containing eight
iambic pentameter lines with the rhyme
scheme abababcc. Example: Sailing to
Byzantium by William Butler Yeats.
Narrator. The person telling the story.
Oxymoron. A figure of speech that
combines words that are opposites.
Example: sweet sorrow, dark victory,
jumbo shrimp.
Naturalism. A late 19th century literary
movement that viewed individuals as
fated victims of natural laws. Example:
To Build a Fire by Jack London.
P
Neoclassicism. A literary movement
during the Restoration and 18th century
(1660-1798) characterized by Greek and
Roman literary forms, reason, harmony,
restraint, and decorum.
Parable. A story that teaches a lesson.
Paradox. A statement that on the
surface seems a contradiction, but that
actually contains some truth. Example:
For when I am weak, then I am
strong. Saint Paul.
Nonfiction. Prose writing about real
people, places, things, or events.
Paraphrase. The restatement of a
phrase, sentence, or group of sentences
using different words that mean the same
as the original.
Novel. A long work of fiction that has
plot, characters, themes, symbols, and
settings.
Novella. A lengthy tale or short story.
Parallelism. Arranging words and
phrases consistently to express similar
ideas. Example: I like to hike, fishing,
and swimming. (Incorrect) I like hiking,
fishing, and swimming. (Correct).
O
Octave. An eight-line stanza.
Parataxis. Sentences, phrases, clauses,
or words arranged in coordinate rather
than subordinate construction. Example:
Every little while he locked me in and
went down to the store, three miles, to
the ferry, and traded fish and game
for whisky, and fetched it home and
got drunk and had a good time, and
licked me. (Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain).
Ode. A long, formal poem with three
alternating stanza patterns: strophe,
antistrophe, and epode.
Omniscient narrator. When the
narrator’s knowledge extends to the
internal thoughts and states of mind of
all characters. Example: The Pearl by
John Steinbeck.
43
Picaresque. A story told in episodes
where the protagonist has adventures
and may be a rascal. Example:
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
LITERARY GLOSSARY
P
Parody. Witty writing that imitates and
often ridicules another author’s style.
Example: Ancient Mariner Dot Com
is a parody of The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner.
Plot. The sequence of events in a story.
Poetic devices. Words with harmonious
sounds including assonance,
consonance, alliteration, repetition,
and rhyme.
Pastoral. A poem set among shepherds
or rural life.
Point of view. The perspective from
which a story is told.
Pathos. Pity, sympathy, or sorrow felt
by the reader in response to an author’s
words.
Polysyndeton. The overuse of
conjunctions in a sentence.
Pentameter. Five feet of verse in a
poem.
Postmodern. Contemporary fiction
characterized by an antihero and
experimental style.
Peroration. The last lines of an oration
in which the major points are
summarized.
Prose. Written language that is not
poetry, drama, or song. Prose can be
fiction or nonfiction.
Persona. The voice in a work of
literature. The persona may be the
narrator or the author who uses the
narrator to express ideas.
Protagonist. The main character.
Pun. A play on words. Example: He
wanted to become a chef, but he didn’t
have the thyme.
Personification. A figure of speech that
attributes human qualities to an
inanimate object. Example: The wind
sighed. The moon hid behind the
clouds.
Pyrrhic. A foot of poetry with two
successive unaccented syllables.
Example: unsinkable.
Petrarchan sonnet. A sonnet divided
into two parts: 8 line octave that rhymes
abba abba, 6 line sestet that rhymes cde
cde. The octave presents a situation or
problem, and the sestet solves the
problem. Also called an Italian sonnet.
Q
Quatrain. A four-line stanza.
R
Realism. Writing that is characterized
by details of everyday life.
44
Romanticism. 18th-19th century literary
movement that portrayed the beauty of
untamed nature, emotion, the nobility of
the common man, rights of the
individual, spiritualism, folklore and
myth, magic, imagination, and fancy.
LITERARY GLOSSARY
R
Refrain. Regularly repeated line or
group of lines in a poem or song.
Regionalism. Writing about a specific
geographic area using speech, folklore,
beliefs, and customs.
Round character. A complex character
who undergoes change during the course
of the story. Example: Sydney Carton
in A Tale of Two Cities.
Repartee. A comeback, a quick
response.
Run-on line. In poetry a line that does
not stop, but continues to the next line.
Repetition. A poetic device that uses
the repeating of words, sounds, phrases,
or sentences.
S
Sarcasm. A bitter remark intending to
hurt and express disapproval.
Rhetoric. The art of persuasion. Words
used to persuade.
Satire. Writing that blends humor and
wit with criticism of institutions or
mankind in general. Noted satirists
include Chaucer, Dante, Voltaire,
Moliere, Swift, and Twain.
Rhyme. Words with identical sounds,
but different spellings. Example:
cat/hat, glare/air, tight/write.
Rhyme scheme. The pattern of rhyming
words. The last word in each line is
assigned a letter of the alphabet
beginning with a. Example: If the last
words in each of four lines are me (a),
grave (b), see (a), and save (b), the
rhyme scheme is abab.
Scansion. The process of determining
the meter of a poem. Stressed syllables
are marked with a slanted line over the
sound. Unstressed syllables are marked
with a horseshoe over the sound. When
the pattern emerges, one can then
determine the meter and number of feet
in a line of poetry.
Rising action. The path of the plot
leading to the climax.
Sensory imagery. Language that
evokes images and triggers memories in
the reader of the five senses: sight,
sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Romance. A story about distant,
imagined events as opposed to realistic
experience. Originally referred to
medieval tales about knights and nobles.
Modern usage refers to sentimental love
stories.
Sestet. A six-line stanza.
Setting. The time and place where a
story takes place.
45
Static character. A character who
changes little in the course of the story.
Example: Jerry Cruncher in A Tale of
Two Cities, Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry
Finn.
LITERARY GLOSSARY
S
Shakespearean sonnet. A sonnet with
three four-line quatrains and a two-line
couplet that ends the poem and presents
a concluding statement. The rhyme
scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Also
called an English sonnet.
Stream of Consciousness. A narrative
technique that imitates the stream of
thought in a character’s mind. Example:
The Sound and the Fury by William
Faulkner.
Style. The individual way an author
writes.
Short story. A brief work of fiction
with a simple plot, and few characters
and settings.
Subplot. A minor or secondary plot that
complicates a story. Example: Mr.
Micawber and his family in David
Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
Simile. A figure of speech that
compares two things that are not alike,
using the words like, as, or than.
Example: eyes gleaming like live coals,
as delicate as a snowflake, colder than
ice.
Surrealism. 20th century art, literature,
and film that juxtaposes unnatural
combinations of images for a fantastic or
dreamlike effect.
Soliloquy. A long speech made by a
character who is alone, who reveals
private thoughts and feelings to the
reader or audience.
Suspense. Anticipation of the outcome.
Speaker. The imaginary voice that tells
a poem.
Symbol. Something that stands for
something else. Example: the albatross
(guilt) in The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner; the handkerchief (infidelity)
in Othello, the red letter A (adultery) in
The Scarlet Letter.
Spenserian stanza. A stanza with nine
iambic lines rhymed ababbcbcc. All
lines are pentameters except the last line
written in hexameter or alexandrine.
Synecdoche. A figure of speech in
which the part symbolizes the whole.
Example: All hands on deck, I’ve got
some new wheels.
Spondee. A foot of poetry with two
equally strong stresses. Example:
bathtub, workday, swing shift.
Syntax. Word order, the way in which
words are strung together.
Sonnet. A fourteen-line lyric poem
about a single theme.
Stanza. Lines of poetry considered as a
group.
46
LITERARY GLOSSARY
U
Understatement. Saying less than is
actually called for. Example: referring
to an Olympic sprinter as being pretty
fast.
T
Tercet. A three-line stanza.
Terza rima. A three-line stanza first
used by Dante Alighieri in his The
Divine Comedy. The first and last lines
of each tercet rhyme. The middle line of
the first tercet rhymes with the first and
last lines of the next tercet, aba bcb cdc
ded.
Unreliable narrator. A narrator who is
not credible when it comes to telling the
story. Example: Chief Bromden in
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or
Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein.
Theme. A central idea.
W
Third person narration. When a story
is told by a voice from outside the story.
Example: Ethan Frome by Edith
Wharton.
Wordplay. Verbal wit.
Utopia. A perfect or ideal world.
Tone. The attitude toward a subject or
audience implied by a work of literature.
Trochee. A foot of poetry consisting of
one accented syllable followed by one
unaccented syllable. Example: monkey
Trancendentalism. A 19th century
American philosophical and literary
movement that promoted the belief that
intuition and conscience transcend
experience and are therefore better
guides to truth than logic and the senses.
Characteristics are respect for the
individual spirit, the presence of the
divine in nature, the belief that divine
presence is everywhere (the Over-Soul, a
concept influenced by Hinduism).
Trope. In rhetoric, a figure of speech
involving a change in meaning, the use
of a word in a sense other than the
literal.
47
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
Antecedent. A word or group of words
that a pronoun refers to or replaces.
Example: He had a conscience, and it
was a romantic conscience. (Lord Jim
by Joseph Conrad).
A
Abbreviation. A shortened form of a
word, usually followed by a period.
Example: Mr., Dr., U.S.A. Mrs.
Bennet’s best comfort was that Mr.
Bingley must be down again in summer.
(Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen).
Apostrophe. A punctuation mark (‘)
used in contractions to replace a letter,
or added to the last letter of a noun
followed by an s to indicate possession.
Example: Don’t turn me out of doors
to wander in the streets again. (Oliver
Twist by Charles Dickens).
Active voice. A verb is active if the
subject of the sentence is performing
the action. Example: Rikki-Tikki shook
some of the dust out of his fur and
sneezed. (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard
Kipling).
Appositive. A noun, pronoun, or
phrase that identifies or extends
information about another noun or
pronoun in a sentence. Example:
At the man’s heels trotted a dog,
a big native husky, the proper wolf
dog. (To Build a Fire by Jack London).
Adjective. A word that describes.
An adjective modifies a noun or
pronoun. Example: Human madness
is oftentimes a cunning and most
feline thing. (Moby Dick by Herman
Melville).
C
Capitalization. The following words
are capitalized: brand names, business
firms, calendar items, course names with
numbers, first word of a direct quotation,
first word of a line of poetry, first word
of a sentence, geographical names,
government bodies, historical events,
institutions, interjections, languages,
proper nouns, proper adjectives, races,
religions, school subjects, seasons, special
events, titles of persons, publications,
works of art, movies, novels, plays, poems,
short stories, screenplays, essays, and
speeches, words referring to Deity, words
showing family relationship. Example:
The Pontelliers possessed a very charming
home on Esplanade Street in New Orleans.
(The Awakening by Kate Chopin).
Adjective clause. A clause that
modifies a noun or pronoun. Example:
The mother who lay in the grave, was
the mother of my infancy. (David
Copperfield by Charles Dickens).
Adverb. A word that describes a verb,
explaining where, when, how, or to what
extent. An adverb modifies a verb,
adjective, or another adverb. Example:
The time I spent upon the island is still
so horrible a thought to me, that I must
pass it lightly over. (Kidnapped by
Robert Louis Stevenson).
Adverb clause. A clause that modifies
a verb, adjective, or another adverb.
Example: As she kissed me, her lips
felt like ice. (Wuthering Heights by
Emily Bronte).
48
Comma. A punctuation mark (,)
used after the salutation and closing
of a letter, between parts of a
compound sentence, in a series,
after an introductory clause or
prepositional phrase, to set off
appositives and nonessential phrases
and clauses, with coordinate adjectives,
with dates and addresses, parenthetical
expressions, quotation marks, and two
or more adjectives. Example: They
talked much of smoke, fire, and blood,
but he could not tell how much might
be lies. (The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane).
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
C
Clause. A group of words that has a
subject and a predicate. Clauses begin
with the words: as, that, what, where,
which, who, whose, until, since, although,
though, if, than. Example: At seven in
the morning we reached Hannibal,
Missouri, where my boyhood was
spent. (Life on the Mississippi by
Mark Twain).
Closing. In a letter, the words preceding
the signature at the end of a letter.
Example: Love, Best regards, Yours
truly, Sincerely. Example: Your
unworthy and unhappy friend, Henry
Jekyll (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by
Robert Louis Stevenson).
Common noun. A word that names a
person, place, or thing. Example: A
night on the sea in an open boat is a
long night. (The Open Boat by
Stephen Crane).
Complement. A word that completes
the meaning of an active verb. (direct
object, indirect object, predicate
adjective, and predicate nominative.
Collective noun. A singular noun that
names a group of persons or things.
Example: crowd, public, family, swarm,
club, army, fleet, class, audience. As for
the crew, all they knew was that I was
appointed to take the ship home. (The
Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad).
Complex sentence. One independent
clause and one or more subordinate
clauses. Example: About midnight,
while we still sat up, the storm came
rattling over the Heights in full fury.
(Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte).
Colon: A punctuation mark (:) used
after any expression meaning “note
this.” Also used after the salutation in
a business letter, before a list, between
hour and minute, biblical chapters and
verses, and volumes and pages. A colon
never follows a verb or preposition.
Example: I had three chairs in my
house: one for solitude, two for
friendship, three for society. (Walden
by Henry David Thoreau).
Compound adjective. An adjective
formed by two words separated by a
hyphen and treated as one word.
Example: He is a sweet-tempered,
amiable, charming man. (Pride and
Prejudice by Jane Austen).
49
Compound subject: Two or more
subjects that share the same verb.
Example: Bartleby and I were alone.
(Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman
Melville).
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
C
Compound complement. Two or more
words used as direct objects of the same
verb, objects of the same preposition,
predicate nominatives or predicate
adjectives of the same verb, or indirect
objects of the same understood
preposition. Example: I have a rosy
sky and a green flowery Eden in my
brain. (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte).
Compound verb. Two or more verbs
that share the same subject. Example:
He rose, dressed, and went on deck.
(Benito Cereno by Herman Melville).
Conjunction. A word that connects
words or groups of words. Examples:
and, or, nor, but, yet, for, so. Every
little while he locked me in and went
down to the store, three miles, to the
ferry, and traded fish and game for
whisky, and fetched it home and got
drunk and had a good time, and licked
me. (Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain).
Compound-complex sentence. Two or
more independent clauses and one or
more subordinate clauses. Example:
It is an honest town once more,
and the man will have to rise early
that catches it napping again. (The
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by
Mark Twain).
Contraction. A word formed by
combining two words, using an
apostrophe to replace any missing
letters. Example: Denmark’s a
prison. (Hamlet by William Shakespeare).
Compound noun. A noun composed of
more than one word. Example: The kiss
was a turning-point in Jude’s career.
(Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy).
D
Compound preposition. A preposition
composed of more than one word.
Example: because of, on account of, in
spite of, according to, instead of, out of.
Example: The sun came up upon the
left, out of the sea came he! (The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge).
Dash. A punctuation mark used to
set off abrupt change in thought, an
appositive, a parenthetical expression
or an appositivethat contains commas.
Example: My brother fired – once –
twice – and the booming of the gong
ceased. (The Lagoon by Joseph Conrad).
Declarative sentence. A sentence that
makes a statement. Example: I was
born a slave on a plantation in Franklin
County, Virginia. (Up From Slavery by
Booker T. Washington).
Compound sentence. A sentence
consisting of two or more independent
clauses. Example: I was now about
twelve years old, and the thought of
being a slave for life began to bear
heavily upon my heart. (Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass).
50
Essential phrase or clause. Necessary
to the meaning of a sentence and
therefore not set off with commas.
Also called restrictive. Example:
Ethan was ashamed of the storm
of jealousy in his breast. (Ethan
Frome by Edith Wharton).
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
D
Demonstrative pronoun. A pronoun
used to point out a specific person, place,
thing, or idea. Example: this, that, these,
those. This was the noblest Roman of
them all. (Julius Caesar by
William Shakespeare).
Exclamation point. A punctuation
mark (!) used after an interjection and
at the end of an exclamatory sentence.
Example: Scrooge, having no better
answer ready on the spur of the moment,
said “Bah!” again; and followed it up
with “Humbug!” (A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens).
Dependent clause. Another name for
subordinate clause.
Direct object. A noun or pronoun that
receives the action of the verb.
Example: I sound my barbaric yawp
over the roofs of the world. (Song of
Myself by Walt Whitman).
Exclamatory sentence. Expresses
strong emotion and ends with an
exclamation point. Example: O Romeo,
Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead!
(Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare).
Direct quotation. The exact words
spoken. Quotation marks are used
before and after a direct quotation.
Example: “I have the advantage of
knowing your habits, my dear
Watson,” said he. (The Crooked
Man by Arthur Conan Doyle).
Expletive. A word inserted in the subject
position of a sentence that does not add to the
sense of the thought. Example: There is only
one thing in the world worse than being talked
about, and that is not being talked about.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde).
E
G
Elliptical clause. A subordinate clause
in which a word or words are omitted,
but understood. Example: I thought
[that] the heart must burst. (The
Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe).
Gerund. A verbal ending in ing used as
a noun. Example: Saying is one thing,
and paying is another. (The Mayor of
Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy).
Ellipsis. A punctuation mark (. . .)
indicating the omission of words or
a pause. Example: “Oh! Ahab,” cried
Starbuck . . . “See! Moby Dick seeks
thee not.” (Moby Dick by Herman
Melville).
Gerund phrase. A gerund with all of
its modifiers. Example: The coming
of daylight dispelled his fears, but
increased his loneliness. (White Fang
by Jack London).
51
Independent clause. A clause that
expresses a complete thought and can
stand alone as a sentence. Example:
The artist must possess the courageous
soul that dares and defies. (The
Awakening by Kate Chopin).
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
H
Helping verbs. A verb that precedes the
main verb. Example: am, is, are, has
have, had, shall, will, can, may, should,
would, could might, must, do, did, does.
And the Raven, never flitting, still is
sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of
Pallas just above my chamber door.
(The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe).
Indirect object. A noun or pronoun
that precedes a direct object and answers
the questions to or for whom? or to or for
what? Example: The horse made me a
sign to go in first. (Gulliver’s Travels by
Jonathan Swift)
Hyphen. Punctuation mark (-) used to
divide words at the end of a line,
between certain numbers (sixty-two), to
separate compound nouns and
adjectives, between some prefixes and
suffixes and their root words. Example:
Why didn’t you tell me there was danger
in men-folk? (Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy).
Infinitive. A verbal that begins with
to that is used as a noun, adjective, or
adverb. Example: to walk, to read,
to imagine. I sold the watch to get the
money to buy your combs. (The Gift
of the Magi by O. Henry).
Infinitive phrase. An infinitive with its
object and modifiers. Example: To see
him leap and run and pursue me over
hedge and ditch was the worst of
nightmares. (Treasure Island by Robert
Louis Stevenson).
I
Imperative sentence. A sentence that
gives a command or makes a request.
Example: Fetch me the handkerchief!
(Othello by William Shakespeare).
Interjection. A word that is used to
express strong feeling that is not related
grammatically to the rest of the sentence.
Example: Oh! No mortal could support
the horror of that countenance.
(Frankenstein by Mary Shelley).
Indefinite pronoun. A word that refers
to an unnamed person or thing.
Example: All, any, anybody, anything,
both each, either everybody, everyone
everything, few, many, most, neither,
nobody, none no one, nothing, others,
several, some someone, something. By
the pricking of my thumbs, something
wicked this way comes. (Macbeth by
William Shakespeare).
Interrogative sentence. A sentence
that asks a questions and ends with a
question mark. Example: Is there no
pity sitting in the clouds that sees into
the bottom of my grief? (Romeo and
Juliet by William Shakespeare).
Intransitive verb. A verb that does not
require an object. Example: By degrees
Rip’s awe and apprehension subsided.
(Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving).
52
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
N
I
Nominative pronoun. A pronoun
used as a subject or predicate
nominative. Example: I am a man
more sinned against than sinning.
(King Lear by William Shakespeare).
Inverted order. A sentence that does
not follow the typical order of
subject-verb-object. Example: Work
in the coal mine I always dreaded. (Up
From Slavery by Booker T. Washington).
Nonessential phrase or clause. Not
necessary to the meaning of a sentence
and therefore set off with commas.
Also called nonrestrictive. Example:
There stood, facing the open window,
a comfortable, roomy armchair. (The
Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin).
Irregular verb. A verb that does not
form the past tense or past participle
by adding ed or d to the present tense.
Example: But at night came his
revelry: at night he closed his shutters,
and made fast his doors, and drew out
his gold. (Silas Marner by Geroge Eliot).
Noun. A word that names a person,
place, thing, or idea. Example: This
time he was aware that it was the club,
but his madness knew no caution.
(The Call of the Wild by Jack London).
L
Linking verb. A verb that links the
subject with a predicate nominative
or a predicate adjective. Example:
is, became, remain, look, appear, seem.
Example: Miss Daisy Miller looked
extremely innocent. (Daisy Miller by
Henry James).
Noun clause. A subordinate clause used
as a subject, direct object, object of a
preposition, appositive, or predicate
nominative. Example: What saves us
is efficiency – the devotion to efficiency.
(Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad).
Loose sentence. An independent clause
followed by a dependent clause.
Example: I didn’t go shopping
because it was raining.
O
Object of preposition. The noun or
pronoun with its modifiers that follows
a preposition. Example: Along the Paris
streets, the death-carts rumble hollow and
harsh. (A Tale of Two Cities by
Charles Dickens).
M
Modifiers. Words that describe or
provide more meaning to a word.
Modifiers include adjectives, adverbs,
articles, prepositional phrases, verbals,
and clauses.
Objective case. Pronouns used as direct
objects, indirect objects, or as objects of
a preposition. Example: For he today
that sheds his blood with me shall be my
brother. (Henry V by William
Shakespeare).
53
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
O
Objective complement. A noun or adjective
that renames or describes a direct object.
Example: O God, I could be bounded
in a nutshell and count myself a king of
infinite space, were it not that I have bad
dreams. (Hamlet by William Shakespeare).
P
Passive voice. Indicates that the subject
receives the action of the verb in a
sentence. Example: The red sun was
pasted in the sky like a wafer. (The Red
Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane).
Period. A punctuation mark (.) used
at the end of a declarative sentence or
an abbreviation. Example: Such are
the true facts of the death of Dr.
Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran.
(The Adventure of the Speckled Band
by Arthur Conan Doyle).
Periodic sentence. A dependent clause
followed by an independent clause.
Example: Because it was raining, I
didn’t go shopping.
Parallelism. Arranging words and
phrases consistently to express similar
ideas. Example: I like to hike, fishing,
and swimming. (Incorrect) I like hiking,
fishing, and swimming. (Correct).
Personal pronoun. Refers to a
particular person, place, thing, or idea.
Example: I, me, we, us, you, he, him,
she, her, it, they, them.
Parenthetical expression. Words that
are not grammatically related to the rest
of a sentence, set off by parentheses (( )).
Example: He had passed his life in
estimating people (it was part of the
medical trade), and in nineteen cases
out of twenty he was right. (Washington
Square by Henry James).
Phrase. A group of related words
that do not have a subject or a verb.
Example: Climbing to a high chamber,
in a well of houses, he threw himself
down in his clothes on a neglected
bed, and its pillow was wet with
wasted tears. (A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens).
Participial phrase. A participle with its
modifiers and complements. Example:
In the morning, looking into each
other’s faces, they read their fate. (The
Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte).
Possessive pronoun. A pronoun form
used to show ownership. Example: my,
mine, our, ours, your, yours, his, hers, its,
their, theirs. My Intended, my ivory ,my
station, my river, my – everything belonged
to him. (Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad).
Participle. A verbal ending in ing,
ed, d, or an irregular form that is used
as an adjective. Example: I am not
in the giving vein today. (Richard III
by William Shakespeare).
Predicate. A group of word or words
that tells something about the subject.
Example: Joe laid his hand upon my
shoulder with the touch of a woman.
(Great Expectations by Charles
Dickens).
Parts of Speech. The parts of speech
are verb, noun, adjective, adverb,
preposition, pronoun, interjection, and
conjunction.
54
Pronoun. A word that takes the
place of one or more nouns. Example:
Do all men kill the things they do
not love? (The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare).
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
P
Predicate adjective. An adjective that
modifies the subject in a sentence with a
linking verb. Example: No one is so
thoroughly superstitious as the godless
man. (Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
Beecher Stowe).
Proper adjective. A capitalized
adjective formed from a proper
noun. Example: I changed to the
Illinois edge of the island to see
what luck I could have, and I
warn’t disappointed. (Huckleberry
Finn by Mark Twain).
Predicate nominative. A noun or
pronoun that identifies, renames, or
explains the subject in a sentence with a
linking verb. Example: The scarlet
letter was her passport into regions
where other women dared not tread.
(The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel
Hawthorne).
Prefix. A word part added to the
beginning of a word to change its
basic meaning. Example: Do your
work and you shall reinforce yourself.
Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Proper noun. A capitalized noun that
names a particular person, place, thing,
or idea. Example: This is Inspector
Newcomen of Scotland Yard.
(Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert
Louis Stevenson).
Punctuation. Punctuation marks
include apostrophe, colon, comma,
dash, ellipsis, exclamation point,
(Selfhyphen, period, question mark,
quotation marks, and semicolon.
Preposition. A word that shows the
relationship between a noun or
pronoun and another word in a
sentence. Example: I had worked
hard for nearly two years, for the
sole purpose of infusing life into an
inanimate body. (Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley).
Q
Question mark. A punctuation
mark (?) used to indicate a question
or to end an interrogative sentence.
Example: Who in the rainbow can
show the line where the violet tint
ends and the orange tint begins?
(Billy Budd by Herman Melville).
Prepositional phrase. A group of
words that begins with a preposition,
ends with a noun or pronoun, and is
used as an adjective or an adverb.
Example: The mass of men lead
lives of quiet desperation.
(Walden by Henry David Thoreau).
Quotation mark. Punctuation mark (‘)
used to enclose a quotation or title within
a quotation. Example: “There’s a charming
piece of music by Handel called ‘The
Harmonious Blacksmith.’” (Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens).
55
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
Restrictive phrase or clause. Another
name for essential phrase or clause.
Q
S
Quotation marks. Punctuation mark (“)
used at the beginning and end of a
direct quotation, to enclose titles of
art works, chapters, articles, short
stories, poems, songs, and other parts
of books or magazines. Example:
Here in Milan, in an ancient
tumbledown ruin of a church, is the
mournful wreck of the most celebrated
painting in the world – “The Last
Supper,” by Leonardo da Vinci. (The
Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain).
Salutation. The opening greeting that
comes before the body of a letter. Use a
comma after the salutation in a friendly
letter and a colon after the salutation in a
business letter. My Dear Victor,
(Frankenstein by Mary Shelley).
Semicolon. A punctuation mark (;)
used to separate the independent clauses
of a compound sentence that are not
joined by conjunctions, before certain
transitional words (however, furthermore,
moreover, therefore, etc.), and between
items in a series if the items contain
commas. Example: Cowards die
many times before their deaths; the
valiant never taste of death but once.
(Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare).
R
Reflexive pronoun. A pronoun formed
by adding self or selves to a personal
pronoun. Example: myself, yourself,
himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
yourselves, themselves. The fault,
dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in
ourselves, that we are underlings.
(Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare).
Sentence. A group of words with a
subject and a verb that expresses a
complete thought. Example: The odor
of the sharp steel forced itself into
my nostrils. (The Pit and the
Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe).
Regular verb. A verb that forms its
past tense and past participle by adding
ed or d to the present tense. Example:
He ordered me like a dog, and I
obeyed like a dog. (David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens).
Sentence fragment. A group of words
that lacks either a subject or a verb that
does not express a complete thought.
Example: Scrooge! a squeezing,
wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous old sinner! (A
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens).
Relative pronoun. A pronoun that
relates an adjective clause to its
antecedent. Example: who, whom,
whose, which, that. Note: Adjective
clauses sometimes begin with where
and when. Example: There was
things which he stretched, but
mainly he told the truth. (Huckleberry
Finn by Mark Twain).
Series. Three or more words or phrases
in succession separated by commas or
semicolons. Example: At a table he sat
and consumed beefsteak, flapjacks,
doughnuts, and pie. (The Cop and the
Anthem by O. Henry).
56
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
T
Tense. The form a verb takes to show
time. Example: present, past, future,
present perfect, past perfect, and future
perfect. Example: We will have rings
and things and fine array. (The Taming
of the Shrew by William Shakespeare).
S
Simple predicate. The verb. The main
word or phrase in the complete
predicate. Example: This cold night
will turn us all to fools and madmen.
(King Lear by William Shakespeare).
Transitive verb. An action verb that
requires an object. Example: Vanity,
working on a weak head, produces
every sort of mischief. (Emma by
Jane Austen).
Simple sentence. A sentence that is one
independent clause. Example: Tom
appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket
of whitewash and a long-handled brush.
(Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain).
U
Subject. A word or group of words that
names the person, place, thing, or idea
the sentence is about. Example: A long,
low moan, indescribably sad, swept over
the moor. (The Hound of the
Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle).
Understood subject. A subject that is
understood rather than stated. Example:
[You] Give me the worst first. (A Tale
of Two Cities by Charles Dickens).
Subordinate clause. A clause that
cannot stand alone as a sentence
because it does not express a complete
thought. Also called a dependent clause.
Example: As Ichabod approached
this fearful tree, he began to whistle.
(The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by
Washington Irving).
Verb. A word or words that show the
action in the sentence and tell what the
subject is doing. Example: A girl learns
many things in a New England village.
(The House of the Seven Gables by
Nathaniel Hawthorne).
V
Verbal. A verb form used as
some other part of speech. The
three verbals are: participles,
gerunds, and infinitives.
Suffix. A word part added to the
end of a word that changes its meaning.
Example: A minority is powerless
while it conforms to the majority.
(Civil Disobedience by Henry
David Thoreau).
Verbal phrase. The main verb
plus one or more helping verbs.
Example: would have made,
will be going, should do.
After such a fall as this, I
shall think nothing of tumbling
downstairs! (Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
57