Reference no: EM133204013

Read the selections and answer the question.

Selection 1:

A Coming-of-Age Grammar Tale

In the seventh grade, we were given handouts claiming that the English language could be , Begin underlined words,divided neatly, End underlined words, into eight categories. They were called "the parts of speech," and they consisted of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, and interjections. Having already established some familiarity with the first five in the lower grades, we had only to 1) memorize the three articles, 2) practice underlining prepositional phrases, and 3) respect interjections as their own entities, before being done with the matter. "Who says English is a , Begin underlined words,difficult language, End underlined words,?" we balked. "I'm only in seventh grade, and I can mark up this whole sentence with my part-of-speech notations!"

And then, in college, long after we had burned our grammar workbooks at summer camp, we were presented with sentences like this:

What did you turn your socks from inside out to outside in for?

We started at it with fear and trembling. Are "inside out" and "outside in" prepositional phrases? Is "for" some kind of adverb? What kind of , Begin underlined words,shiftless nonsense, End underlined words, is this? It was then that we began to understand that language was never as , Begin underlined word,simple, End underlined word, as it seemed in those five-question pop quizzes. Disquieted, we put down our pens and opened a fresh textbook.

Selection 2:

Can You Use It in a Sentence?

As a teacher of grammar, I am often asked questions such as "Is the word very an adjective?" or "What part of speech is the word that?" Expecting only a one-word answer on my part, the askers often appear confused as I struggle to call to mind all the information I need to answer the question.

Although the word very is very often labeled as an adjective, it does not share the typical adjective characteristics. For instance, adjectives can be used in various degree forms, such as big, bigger, biggest. They can also be "stacked" with other adjectives: The big yellow bus. And yet, words like very or really have no degree forms and are not stackable in nature. You have probably never said that something was the veriest thing or the big very bus. Thus, the word very may belong to an entirely different category, known as "intensifiers."

The word that is even more complicated. It can be used as a determiner, pronoun, adverb, qualifier, conjunction, or complementizer. For example, that sentence that I just said should be helpful in demonstrating that words are not that fixed, and that it is nearly impossible to say that that is one part of speech or another without context.

Which word from Selection 1 would the author of Selection 2 use to describe the English language?

A. "simple"

B. "divided neatly"

C. "difficult language"

D. "shiftless nonsense"