Bell Work (By Date)

January 4-7, 2016

Use a highlighter/ coloring pencil to correct each sentence.

Topic Inventory


Each numbered item contains a single error or no error at all. Correct each error. There may be more than one way to correct an error.

Circle the number of each item that does not contain an error.

Don’t guess.

If you are not sure, put a question mark (?) next to the item.

JAN 4
1. We decided to go ice skating, but it turned out that no one could get a ride to the rink.

2. I was just getting ready to ride over to a friend’s house, I had to help my sister with some chores.

3. The runners were ready the stands were full the weather was beautiful.

4. The student driver was just getting comfortable. As the time for the lesson ran out.

5. To be good enough to play professional soccer. That was one of his great desires.

6. When I was younger I had a dog named Dirk, who learned tricks quickly.

7. Rachel helped a girl across a busy street who was blind.

8. While at the pool one day, it was sunny and windy.

9. The play was starting; who had to hold my little cousin so she would not talk or cry during the show.

10. Where all the mouse had gone was a mystery.

JAN 5
11. That pot is too small for eight potatos.

12. John’s favorite saying is, “The sky’s the limit.”


13. Whom has the keys to the yearbook office?

14. Somebody took their textbook home by mistake.

15. Three boys volunteered to take the dirt bike to get it fixed.

16. The warm water feels.

17. The lonely cowboy dreams.

18. At the concert, the band played my favorite song.

19. Even though I was late coming back from lunch, I didn’t miss anything because class begun just as I arrived.

20. Anthony sent the e-mail just as he notices a spelling mistake.

21. The crowd was restless as they wait for the year-end sale to begin.

22. Erin and Ryan decides to move west.

23. Whichever contestant has the most points win the game.

24. Why are everyone laughing?


JAN 6
25. Dancers sometimes seems to move their bodies in ways that defy nature and gravity.

26. Hikers often find their packs are too heavy and they have tight shoes.

27. The camper said she would rather take the train than go by car ride.

28. Matt walked very slow to school.

29. Harry and Ashley decorated their house very well.

30. David played golf badly.

31. Danny was the less experienced of the members of the softball team.

32. Compared to Julie, Rosalie was the most creative.

33. Tim concluded that his opinion was different than that of his parents.

34. Brandon was obsessed by space travel.

35. Well that certainly was an interesting experience.

JAN 7
36. I wiped the apple with a paper towel, before I took a bite out of it.

37. Either Olivia was going to give her mom a chaperone’s phone number, or she wasn’t going to the prom after-party.

38. I was ready to leave; but my friends still wanted to stay.

39. You should keep these things in the trunk of your car; jack, spare tire, and flares.

40. Learning to do an Ollie it’s a skateboard trick was challenging but also lots of fun.

41. Its very likely that I will play softball this weekend.

42. The mens’ restroom was closed for cleaning.

43. The question is, “Will it rain tomorrow”?






August 17-20

1. My father knows well to teach English.

2. We want a new house to live.

3. I waited for you since 9 o’clock in the morning.

4. James is suffering from fever since yesterday.

5. Neither Ann nor Mary have arrived.

6. I will call on you before I will leave.

7. I have returned all the books to the library yesterday.

8. Each man and each woman have the right to vote.

9. Walking along the road, a bus ran over the old man.

10. He is studying hard for the last two weeks.

11. I am not used to drive in busy streets.

12. The poet and dramatist are dead.

August 25-28

ACT Student.org

A Microscope in the Kitchen
I grew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet; tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table. Having studied, my mother is a marine biologist. Our household might have been described as uncooperative. Our meals weren’t always served in the expected order of breakfast, lunch, and supper. Everything was subservient to the disposal of the tides. When the tide was low, Mom could be found down on the mudflats. When the tide was high, she would be standing on the inlet bridge with her plankton net.
I have great respect for my mother. I learned early that the moon affected the tides. Mom was always waiting for a full or new moon, when low tide would be lower than average and high tide higher than average. The moon being aligned with Earth and the sun when full or new, so its gravity combines with the sun’s gravity to create an even stronger gravitational pull. I knew that it took about eight hours for the tides to change from high to low, sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides. 9 I didn’t have to wait to learn these things in school. In our house they were everyday knowledge.
[1] Often, my brother and I, joined our mother on her adventures into tidal lands. [2] At the very low tides of the full moon, when almost all the water was sucked away, we found the hideaways where crabs, snails, starfish, and sea urchins hid in order not to be seen. [3] Sometimes we would dig with shovels in the mud, where yellow and white worms lived in their leathery tunnels. 13
For plankton tows, we would stand on the bridge while Mom lowered a cone-shaped net that is often used by marine biologists. Then we would patiently wait. After a while, she would pull up the net, and we would go home. Later, we would see her sitting at the kitchen table, peering at a drop of water through the lenses of her microscope from the bottle—watching the thousands of tiny swimming organisms.

Aug 31-Sept 4

ACT Student.org

My Father's Garden
[1] When I was a boy growing up in Delhi, India, we had a kitchen garden behind our downstairs apartment. My father was an avid gardener, he still is: and every Saturday morning he would put on his work clothes, pick up his hoe and trowel, and would head out the back door. 3
[2] As a ten-year-old, I was supremely unenthusiastic about swinging a hoe in the garden when I could be out playing with my friends. Having tried and failed, my father was unable to make a gardener of me. I had no qualms, of course, about enjoying the results of his labor: the potatoes, squash, cucumbers, and cauliflower that he pursued out of the earth. I would even help him dig out the potatoes or cut a cucumber from its vine. To me, it was much more fun to reap than sowing.
[3] Many years later, living in an upstairs apartment, I am more often sorry I didn’t follow my father out to the garden. I have several indoor plants, but the experience is not the same. The few times that I’ve helped a friend with yard work has given me the joy of touching the soil with an open palm, to get the earth under my fingernails, of patting down the berm around a newly transplanted sapling. Now that I live far from my father (I live in Iowa on the other side of the world), I wish I’d spend more time with him in the garden.
[4] My favorite photograph of my father shows him squatting on his heels, trowel in hand, behind a golden heap of onions freshly pulled from the ground. 12 His glowing smile are evidence of his pride in the onions—the proof of his labor and love—and in me, the photographer, his son. In that photo, his love of the land and his love for me are somehow intertwined, indivisible. It is that same love—love of kin, love of land—that pushes under my fingernails, pushes against my skin, when I thrust my hand into the yielding earth and think that on its far side my father might be doing the same.




Sept 14-18

http://www.actstudent.org/sampletest/english/eng_03.html
English I Bell Work

September 14-25

The Andean Panpipe
Whether its bright and jaunty or haunting and melancholic, the music of the Andes highlands has a mellow sound unique in the musical world. The instrument responsible for this sound is the antara, or Andean panpipe, known for the hollow-sounding, breathy notes it creates. The antara has its origins in the Incan civilization, once the more richer and more powerful empire in South America.
The antara consists of a connected row of hollow, vertical pipes of varying lengths, which are then lined up. The pipes, which can vary numerously from three to fifteen, are fashioned from clay that is rolled around a mold. Each pipe is individually rolled to create the proper pitch before being bound to the other pipes.
The antara dates back to the ninth century. Evidence about how musicians played the instrument have come from painted images on Incan ceramic pottery. Musicians are depicted playing a six-pipe antara by holding the lower ends of the two longer pipes with the right hand while placing the left hand near the remaining tops of the four pipes. The antara was also sometimes held in one hand while the other hand beat a cylindrical drum.
[1] Due to the limited number of notes that can be played on an antara, early musicians’ most likely worked in groups, coordinating the timing and pitch of their instruments to extend the range of sounds produced. (10) [2] Other pottery images show two antara players facing each other while dancing. [3] Each player holds a set of pipes so that both sets are connected to the other set by a string, as if to suggest that those two antaras should be played together. [4] Even to this day, descendants of the Incas, the Quechua people of Peru and Bolivia, prefer to play matched antaras bound together. 12
Unfortunately, the music of the Incas can probably never be exactly re-creating. Yet one can hear in the music of their descendants, beautiful variations on a musical sound that has survived for many centuries. 15

3.Given that all of the choices are true, which one provides the most significant new information?
A. NO CHANGE B. thus forming this musical instrument.
C. arranged from shortest to longest.
D. which are fastened together.

7.The best placement for the underlined portion would be:
A. where it is now. B. before the word left.
C. before the word of. D. before the word four.

10.If the writer were to delete the phrase “coordinating the timing and pitch of their instruments” from the preceding sentence, the sentence would primarily lose:
F. a description of how musicians overcame the limitations of the antara.
G. an indication that music was an important element in Incan life.
H. the idea that the antara was a key feature of Incan music.
J. nothing of significance, because the phrase is redundant.

12.For the sake of the logic and coherence of this paragraph, Sentence 4 should be placed:
F. where it is now. G. before Sentence 1.
H. after Sentence 1. J. after Sentence 2.

15.If the writer were to change the pronoun one to we in the preceding sentence, this closing sentence would:
A. indicate that the writer is a descendant of the Incas.
B. suggest that the essay’s audience are all musicians.
C. take on a somewhat more personal tone.
D. become more clearly a call to action.

September 28

1. Your friend (talk-talks) too much.
2. The man with the roses (look-looks) like your brother.
3. The women in the pool (swim-swims) well.
4. Bill (drive-drives) a cab.
5. The football players (run-runs) five miles every day.
6. That red-haired lady in the fur hat (live-lives) across the street.
7. He (cook-cooks) dinner for his family.
8. The boys (walk-walks) to school every day.
9. The weather on the coast (appear-appears) to be good this weekend.
10. The center on the basketball team (bounce-bounces) the ball too high.

September 29

1. Each of the girls (look-looks) good on skis.
2. Everybody (was-were) asked to remain quiet.
3. Neither of the men (is-are) here yet.
4. (Is-Are) each of the girls ready to leave?
5. Several of the sheep (is-are) sick.
6. Some members of the faculty (is-are) present.
7. Nobody in the class (has-have) the answer.
8. Each of the girls (observe-observes) all the regulations.
9. All of the milk (is-are) gone.
10. Most of the seats (was-were) taken.

September 30

1. Margo and her parents (visit-visits) each other often.
2. Either the cups or the glasses (are-is) in the dishwasher.
3. Vern and Fred (need-needs) a ride to work.
4. There (is-are) a dog, a cat, and a bird in the garage.
5. Neither Matt nor his brothers (was-were) at the party.
6. Here into the main ring of the circus (come-comes) the trained elephants.
7. Either the workers or the boss (deliver-delivers) the merchandise.
8. The committee (work-works) hard for better schools.
9. There (is-are) many things to do before the holidays.
10. The jury (was-were) polled for their verdicts.
11. Here (is-are) the nails you need for the projects.
12. Either Joyce or Ellen (was-were) here.
13. The United States (is-are) a country of contrast.
14. A magazine and a book (was-were) lying on the floor.
15. The family (is-are) occupied with their individual problems.

Oct 5- 9

INSTRUCTIONS: Correct each sentence to create parallel structure.
Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level. The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions such as "and" or "or."

For Example:
Mary likes hiking, swimming, and riding a bicycle.
The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and thoroughly.
The teacher said that he was a poor student because he waited until the last minute to study for the exam, completed his lab problems in a careless manner, and lacked motivation.

1. IT was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.

2. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicks the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black.

3. He stroded in a swarm of fireflies.

4. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blowing away on a wind turned dark with burning.

5. The girl stopped and looked as if she might pull back in surprise, but instead stood regarding Montag with eyes so dark and shining and alive, that he felt he had said something quite wonderful.

6. But he knew his mouth had only moved to say hello, and then when she seemed hypnotized by the salamander on his arm and the phoenix-disc carved upon his chest, he spoke again.

7. Of course I'm happy. What does she think? I'm not?

8. He stood looking up at the ventilator grille in the hall and suddenly remembered that something lay hidden behind the grille, something that seemed to peer down at him now.

9. He moved his eyes quickly away. What a strange meeting on a depressingly strange night.

10. Yet how large that time seemed now. How immense a figure she was on the stage before him; what a shadow she threw on the wall with her slender body!

Oct 12-16

Instructions: For each, add commas where needed and briefly describe the Who, What, When, and Where of the quote.
1. "So many people are. Afraid of firemen I mean. But you're just a man after all..." He saw himself in her eyes suspended in two shining drops of bright water himself dark and tiny in fine detail the lines about his mouth everything there as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact.”
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. “Her face turned to him now was fragile milk crystal with a soft and constant light in it. It was not the hysterical light of electricity but-what? But the strangely comfortable and rare and gently flattering light of the candle.”
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. “One time when he was a child in a power-failure his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery of such illumination that space lost its vast dimensions and drew comfortably around them and they mother and son alone transformed, hoping that the power might not come on again too soon…”
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. "Well" said Beatty "take the night off!" He examined his eternal matchbox the lid of which said GUARANTEED: ONE MILLION LIGHTS IN THIS IGNITER and began to strike the chemical match abstractedly blow out strike blow out strike speak a few words blow out.
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. He looked at the flame. He blew he looked at the smoke. "When will you be well?"
"Tomorrow. The next day maybe. First of the week." Beatty puffed his pipe. "Every fireman sooner or later hits this. They only need understanding to know how the wheels run. Need to know the history of our profession. They don't feed it to rookies like they used to.
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________



October 19-23

Instructions: For each, correct grammatical errors, define underlined words and briefly describe the Who, What, When, and Where of the quotation from Fahrenheit 451.

1. They had sat in the green soft light without saying a word for a moment and then Montag talked about the weather and then the old man responded with a pale voice. It was a strange quiet meeting. The old man admitted to being a retired English professor who had been thrown out upon the world forty years ago when the last liberal arts college shut for lack of students and patronage. His name was Faber and when he finally lost his fear of Montag he talked in a cadenced voice looking at the sky and the trees and the green park and when an hour had passed he said something to Montag and Montag sensed it was a rhymeless poem.
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Then the old man grew even more courageous and said something else and that was a poem too. Faber held his hand over his left coat-pocket and spoke these words gently and Montag knew if he reached out he might pull a book of poetry from the man's coat. But he did not reach out. His. hands stayed on his knees, numbed and useless. "I don't talk things sir" said Faber. "I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I'm alive."
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Now as the vacuum-underground rushed him through the dead cellars of town jolting him he remembered the terrible logic of that sieve and he looked down and saw that he was carrying the Bible open.
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. There were people in the suction train but he held the book in his hands and the silly thought came to him if you read fast and read all maybe some of the sand will stay in the sieve.
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Trumpets blared "Denham's Dentrifice" Shut up thought Montag Consider the lilies of the field "Denham's Dentifrice."
Who, What, When, Where:______________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________