UNIT 15 Grammar Review V ERB T ENSES, VOICE, AND M OOD Roots is one man s attempt to reconstruct the history of seven generations of his family. The book begins with the birth in 1750 of Alex Haley s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped from his home in the Gambia in West Africa and brought to Maryland as a slave, and ends with the death of Haley s father. Roots has inspired Americans of all races to celebrate their family heritage. In this excerpt, Kunta Kinte s mother and other women of the village of Juffure are canoeing down a bolong, or canal, to their rice fields. The passage has been annotated to show some of the verb tenses and voices covered in this unit. Past perfect tense Past progressive form Past tense of an irregular verb Literature Model from Roots by Alex Haley It was the planting season, and the first rains were soon to come. On all their farming land, the men of Juffure had piled tall stacks of dry weeds and set them afire so that the light wind would nourish the soil by scattering the ashes. And the women in their rice fields were already planting green shoots in the mud. The air was heavy with the deep, musky fragrance of the mangroves, and with the perfumes of the other plants and trees that grew thickly on both sides of the bolong. Alarmed by the passing canoes, huge families of baboons, roused from sleep, began bellowing, springing about and shaking palm-tree fronds. Wild pigs grunted and snorted, running to hide themselves among the weeds and bushes. Covering the muddy banks, thousands of pelicans, cranes, egrets, herons, storks, gulls, terns, and spoonbills interrupted their breakfast feeding to watch nervously as the canoes glided by. Some of the smaller birds took to the air ringdoves, skimmers, rails, darters, and kingfishers circling with shrill cries until the intruders had passed. 594 Unit 15
As the canoes arrowed through rippling, busy patches of water, schools of minnows would leap up together, perform a silvery dance, and then splash back. Chasing the minnows, sometimes so hungrily that they flopped right into a moving canoe, were large, fierce fish that the women would club with their paddles and stow away for a succulent evening meal. But this morning the minnows swam around them undisturbed. The twisting bolong took the rowing women around a turn to a wider tributary, and as they came into sight, a great beating of wings filled the air and a vast living carpet of seafowl hundreds of thousands of them, in every color of the rainbow rose and filled the sky. The surface of the water, darkened by the storm of birds and furrowed by their flapping wings, was flecked with feathers as the women paddled on. As they neared the marshy faros where generations of Juffure women had grown their rice crops, the canoes passed through swarming clouds of mosquitoes and then, one after another, nosed in against a walkway of thickly matted weeds. The weeds bounded and identified each woman s plot, where by now the emerald shoots of young rice stood a hand s height above the water s surface. Past tense of a regular verb Active voice Passive voice Review: Exercise 1 Identifying Principal Parts The following sentences are based on the passage from Roots. Each sentence contains a verb in one of four forms: (a) the base form, (b) the past form, (c) the present participle, or (d) the past participle. At the end of the sentence is a second verb in parentheses. First, identify the form of the verb in italics. Then rewrite the sentence, substituting the verb in parentheses for the italicized verb. 1. After the men of Juffure had piled dried weeds into stacks, they set them afire. (throw) 2. The women were starting their work in the fields. (begin) 3. The villagers always return to the same place to plant their rice crops. (go) 4. Kunta Kinte s mother and the other women journeyed in their canoes to the rice paddies. (ride) 5. Flocks of birds sailed away as the canoes passed. (fly) 6. The canoes are arrowing through rippling, busy patches of water. (dart) 7. Large, fierce fish were chasing the minnows. (pursue) 8. The twisting bolong took the rowing women around a turn. (bring) 9. They neared the marshy faros where generations of Juffure women had grown their crops. (raise) 10. The canoes passed through swarming clouds of mosquitoes. (glide) Correct shift from past tense to past perfect Grammar Review 595
Review: Exercise 2 Using the Perfect Tenses Each of the following sentences describes village life in West Africa, the setting for this workshop s passage. On your paper, rewrite each sentence, adding the appropriate form of the italicized verb in the place indicated by the caret. Write the verb in the tense indicated in parentheses, using the past participle of the main verb and the appropriate form of the helping verb have. Village life in West Africa ^ the same patterns for generations. (present perfect tense of follow) Village life in West Africa has followed the same patterns for generations. 1. Traditionally villages ^ many generations of an extended family. (present perfect tense of encompass) 2. Many West African nations ^ Islam for centuries before European colonists arrived. (past perfect tense of practice) 3. By early adulthood, women ^ the duties of raising a family and working on a farm. (present perfect tense of assume) 4. By the advent of the dry season, the village ^ adequate food supplies. (future perfect tense of collect) 5. By the time the rains end, children and young people already ^ crops for food. (future perfect tense of harvest) Review: Exercise 3 Using the Progressive and Emphatic Forms The following sentences are based on passages from Roots not reproduced in this textbook. On your paper, rewrite each sentence, adding the appropriate form of the italicized verb in the place indicated by the caret. Write the verb in the form indicated in parentheses. Use the present participle of the main verb and the appropriate tense of the auxiliary verb be or the base form of the main verb and the appropriate form of do. In 1767 Kunta Kinte ^ in the Gambia. (past progressive form of live) In 1767 Kunta Kinte was living in the Gambia. 1. Kunta ^ the arts of hunting and fighting for many years, and he had become a fine young warrior. (past perfect progressive form of learn) 2. In the most dramatic episode of Roots, Kunta ^ from sentry duty in the village fields when four slave traders capture him. (present progressive form of return) 3. Kunta was shipped to Maryland in the fall of 1767; at that time, slave ships ^ thousands of Africans to America each year. (past progressive form of carry) 4. For the rest of his life, Kunta Kinte ^ to see his beloved home and family in the Gambia. (future progressive form of yearn) 5. Kunta never ^, however; he remained on plantations in Virginia for the rest of his life. (past emphatic form of return) 596 Unit 15
Review: Exercise 4 Making Tenses Compatible These sentences are based on the passage from Roots. Each sentence has an error in verb tense. On your paper, rewrite each sentence, changing the tense of the italicized verb so that the tenses are compatible. By the time the rains arrived, the villagers began to plant their crops. By the time the rains arrived, the villagers had begun to plant their crops. 1. As soon as the dry weeds burned, the wind scattered the ashes. 2. The women planted rice in the marshy faros, as their ancestors did for centuries. 3. Animals watch nervously as the women s canoes glided by. 4. Flocks of birds took to the air when the passing canoes frighten them. 5. The rice shoots grew far above the water s surface by the time the dry season ended. Review: Exercise 5 Voice of Verbs The following sentences describe the writing of Roots. First, identify each sentence as being in the passive voice or the active voice. Then rewrite the italicized portion, changing the active voice to the passive or the passive voice to the active. The book was written by Alex Haley to memorialize the lives of his ancestors. passive voice; Alex Haley wrote the book to memorialize the lives of his ancestors. 1. When young, he was told stories by his grandmother about his ancestor Kunta Kinte. 2. Only a few facts were known by Haley; he knew, for instance, that Kunta Kinte had said he lived by a river called Kamby Bolongo. 3. Linguists told Haley that Kamby Bolongo might mean the Gambia River. 4. Haley was intrigued by the idea, so he flew to the Gambia and traveled to a village where members of the Kinte clan still lived. 5. There he was told this tale by an elderly storyteller: a boy named Kunta Kinte had disappeared from the village around 1765, soon after the first slave traders had arrived. Review: Exercise 6 Proofreading The following passage tells about the Senufo people and the carved Senufo door that appears on the next page. Rewrite the passage, correcting the errors in spelling, grammar, and usage. Add any missing punctuation. There are ten errors. The Art of the Senufo 1 The West African peoples known as the Senufo lives in the grassy savannas of the northern Ivory Coast and in southern Mali. 2 The Senufo tribes speak four different languages, raise corn and millet, living in thatched mud houses, and are reknowned marimba players and sculptors. (continued) Grammar Review 597
3 The art of the Senufo is considering stylized and elegant. 4 The Senufo are famous for their carved wooden masks which are wore during ceremonial dances. 5 The door shown here once barring the entrance to the shrine of a Senufo secret society. 6 A symbol of the Sun attended by five figures on horseback dominates the central panel, and carvings of animal spirits, including a crocodile, have decorated the side panels. 7 The sculptors who will have carved this work were clearly proud of their African heritage Alex Haley, the author of Roots, was equally proud of his. Senufo artists, West Africa, carved wood door (detail) Review: Exercise 7 Mixed Review The following sentences describe the life of Alex Haley. Rewrite each sentence, following the directions in parentheses. Alex Haley inspired many African Americans to trace their family history. (Change the verb to the present perfect tense.) Alex Haley has inspired many African Americans to trace their family history. Alex Haley 1. Born in Ithaca, New York, Alex Haley studied education and joins the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939. (Correct the error in the use of verb tense.) 2. During his twenty years with the Coast Guard, Haley writes many adventure stories about the sea. (Change the verb to the past tense.) 3. In 1963 Haley was asked by the African American politician Malcolm X to work on a book. (Rewrite the sentence in the active voice.) 4. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was praised by critics, and the book is still required reading in many African American studies programs. (Change the first verb to the present perfect tense.) 5. Haley had planned to write a book about school segregation in the South but instead spent ten years researching and writing Roots. (Change the first verb to the past progressive form.) 598 Unit 15
Using the Active Voice for Clearer Writing Writing Application Good writing is clear, precise, and graceful. One way to achieve a good writing style is to avoid using the passive voice. Consider the following sentence written in the passive voice: When what was wanted done by him to his shoes was finished being described by Max, they were marked by Feld, both with enormous holes in the soles which he pretended not to notice, with large white-chalk x s, and the rubber heels, thinned to the nails, were marked with o s, though he was troubled the letters might have been mixed up. It is very hard to follow what is going on in this sentence. The author, Bernard Malamud, actually used the active voice when he wrote the sentence in the short story The First Seven Years. When Max finished describing what he wanted done to the shoes, Feld marked them, both with enormous holes in the soles which he pretended not to notice, with large white-chalk x s, and the rubber heels, thinned to the nails, he marked with o s, though it troubled him he might have mixed up the letters. Notice how much clearer the sentence is when written in the active voice. TECHNIQUES WITH ACTIVE VOICE Try to apply some of Bernard Malamud s writing techniques when you write and revise your own work. 1 Whenever possible, use the active voice to make the action clear and direct. Compare the following items: PASSIVE When what was wanted done by him to his shoes was finished being described... ACTIVE When Max finished describing what he wanted done to his shoes... 2 Use the active voice to focus on the subject (the doer of the action) rather than on what is being done. PASSIVE they were marked by Feld ACTIVE Feld marked them For more about the writing process, see TIME Facing the Blank Page, pp. 111-121. Practice Practice these techniques by revising the following passage. Pay particular attention to the underlined words. Have you watched a game of catch being played by seals in a zoo? Many animals seem to enjoy playing games. In the National Zoo in Washington, D.C, a basketball is pushed around by the snout of a giant African soft-shell turtle for several hours each afternoon. In your own home, the dog may fetch a ball while bits of paper are pounced on by the cat. It has been found by scientists that play is needed by young animals. Animals use play as a way to learn about their environment. When play is being done by a kitten, it is learning how to hunt for food. But animals don t just play to learn. In highly developed animals such as dogs, cats, monkeys, and dolphins, a very human quality seems to be possessed by their play. Sometimes, it seems, animals may play just for fun. Writing Application 599