Lesson One

GTTP-Lesson One

Part I

1. “Did you ever consider calling him first?” her mother asked.  (Question Marks- #3)

2.  She asked the operator if she could make a collect call.  (Periods- #2)

3. Jacob made supper for the entire family.  (Periods- #1)

4. “Call the police!” he shouted.  (Exclamation Points-#1)

5. Have you filled for bankruptcy?  (Questions Marks- #1)

6. Stephen wondered if he should stop for gas.  (Periods- #2)

7. “Carla call and said she would be late.”  (Periods- #1)

8. “How can you talk to me like that?”  (Question Marks- #1)

9. We watch the sunrise every morning.  (Periods- #1)

10. “Step away from the car!” the FBI agent shouted.  (Question Marks- #3 & Periods- #1)

11. The drug dealers were raided by the DEA.  (Periods- #1)

12. By the end of term, I will be a (I think this should be ‘an’) M.D.  (Periods- #4)

13. Do you honestly expect me to eat this?  (Question Marks- #1)

14. Sheltered in his arms, she wondered if he was telling her the truth.  (Periods- #2)

15. Did anyone verify that he was CIA?  ( Periods- #3)

16. The waiter asked if we were ready for dessert.  (Periods- #2)

17. She is so catty.  (I found this ambiguous—and might use an exclamation point if the surrounding sentences were included.)  (Periods- #2)

18. They were from Birmingham, AL.  (Periods- first rule for irregular abbreviations)

19. “Did you just hang up on him?” she laughed.  (Exclamation points- #3 & Periods- #1)

20. Marge did the laundry, dishes, dusting, etc.  I did the vacuuming.  (Periods- #4)

Part II

Postal Modern

         It’s such a cliché:  “I’ll send you a postcard.  But a century ago, the cards carried more than just vacation greetings.  They were the almost-instant messages of their time.  Back then, letter carriers made up to seven deliveries as day in big cities like New York.  Correspondents asked about health, made dinner plans and pursued sweethearts.  “Why don’t you write?” one young Colorado woman demanded of her beau (who ended up marrying another).  On early cards, addresses were on one side, and the missive went on the picture.  Then in 1907, the “divided back” debuted in the US:  address and message shared the flip side so images weren’t sullied by scrawl.  This is a card folks use today, and use it they do!  Last year, Americans sent over two billion postcards.  –Catherine L. Barker

Challenge

         It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.  Winston

                      I added a comma between ‘bright’ and ‘cold’

Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

         The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats.  At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall.  It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide:  the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heave black moustache and ruggedly handsome features.  Winston made for the stairs.  It was no use trying the lift.  Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during the daylight hours.  It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week.  The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way.  On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall.  It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move.  BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!, the caption beneath it ran.

         And I added the exclamation mark after the caption