IX. Change the form of the verbs below from present to perfect or past perfect:—
1. The boy runs rapidly. 2. The old man rings the bell at sundown. 3. I saw the lights of the village. 4. Tiny Tim sings very sweetly. 5. We sit by the fire in the gloaming. 6. Mr. Towne teaches drawing. 7. Mary reads well. 8. He lays fresh flowers on her grave. 9. He sets a light in the window. 10. Mary plays the piano.
CHAPTER V
CONDENSATION, EXPANSION, AND PARAPHRASE
26. Writing in which the Ideas are already at Hand.—Young people have an abundance of things to write about. Their lives are usually full of interesting incidents, and their minds are fresh and eager. Before passing on, however, to the principal part of composition, that in which the writer expresses his own ideas, let us undertake a little practice in a form of composition in which the ideas are furnished us. We shall thus not have to devote so much effort to thinking what we are going to write, and can devote all the more attention to the pleasing form of what we write.
27. Condensation.—Here are two well-written and clear paragraphs on an interesting topic, and beneath each are two or three pleasing sentences which give the same idea in a shorter or condensed form.
1. Centuries ago, in a remote village among some wild hills in France, there lived a country maiden, Joan of Arc, who was at this time in her twentieth year. She had been a solitary girl from her childhood; she had often tended sheep and cattle for whole days where no human figure was seen or human voice was heard; and she had often knelt, for hours together, in the gloomy empty little village chapel, looking up at the altar and at the dim lamp burning before it, until she fancied that she saw shadowy figures standing there, and even that she heard them speak to her.—Charles Dickens: A Child's History of England.
Joan of Arc lived centuries ago in a remote French village. Her childhood had been a solitary one. Often she was for days alone with her sheep, and she knelt long alone in the gloomy village chapel, where she fancied that she saw shadowy shapes that spoke to her.