Yours very truly,
Exercise 178
When an adverbial clause or a participial adjective phrase is put at the beginning of a sentence to secure emphasis, it is called an initial clause or participial phrase. A comma separates it from the independent clause to help the reader to see where the subordinate idea ends and where the main idea begins. Rewrite the following from dictation, noticing the punctuation of initial elements:
If a city is to be kept in good condition, every citizen must pay his share of the expense. If the dreadful epidemics are to be exterminated, there must be a good board of health to see that everything is kept sanitary. When the health officers do their work well, the health of the city improves. In order that the decrees of the health department and of the courts may be enforced, there must be a good police department. Besides having these advantages, cities need good streets and good schools. Because all of these good things cost a great deal of money, high taxes must be levied to pay for them.
Rule 4.—An initial clause or participial phrase must be set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma.
Punctuate the following:
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Although cotton seed used to be considered worse than rubbish there now come from it every year millions of dollars in profit. Formerly if it was not hauled away to rot it was usually dumped into a neighboring stream and there it did much harm even if we had the space it would be impossible to explain all the products now made from the seed paper and an excellent meal for cattle may be made from the hulls but the most important products are made from the kernels besides making meal for cattle they are readily converted into crude oil according to the degree of refining that it receives this oil may appear as oil for miner's lamps lard compounds or salad oils as an illustration of the way in which modern manufacturers utilize former waste products the cotton seed is supreme.
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