Workshop Session 4 Fragments Key

English for Academic Studies (Workshop) Semester 1, 2009/10

Session 4: Fragments ©PolyU HKCC

Session 4: Fragments (Phrases and Clauses) (KEY) Part A:

Diagnostic Test

Identify and underline the sentence fragments (incomplete sentences) in the following passage.

Then, correct the sentence errors in the space between the lines.

In late February, Mr Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of the HKSAR, introduced the Three-Child Policy in order to solve the aging issue in Hong Kong. No one can deny that there are many advantages for the Three-Child Policy. However, at the same time, people must consider various aspects before adopting the policy such as the society, their children and themselves. First of all, married couples should think about their willingness and abilities of having children. If they don’t want to have a baby for whatever reason, they better not to have any. Otherwise, for those babies “accidentally” brought to the world, they would just suffer in their life. Being parents is not an easy task. Married couples should think carefully if they have enough time to take care of their children. As parents are responsible for the growth of their children, they need to ensure both their physical and mental health. Another point that young couples should consider is their financial position. Actually the expense of raising a child is very high. Therefore, married people should have a stable income and a reasonable financial position, in order to ensure their children to have a high quality of life. Part B: Grammatical Sentences – Review Complete Sentence ¾ A complete sentence consists of three components: (a) a subject, (b) a main verb, and (c) a complete thought. ¾ A complete sentence can be very short as long as it has all the above components: Example: John came. Phrase ¾ A phrase is a sequence of two or more words that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence but only as a unit in one sentence.

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English for Academic Studies (Workshop) Semester 1, 2009/10

Session 4: Fragments ©PolyU HKCC

Example: A presentation with interesting points. Clause ¾ A clause contains a subject and a main verb. ¾ An independent clause is a complete sentence. Example: Emily studied in the library. ¾ A dependent clause is a group of words that contain a subject and a verb and begins with subordinating conjunctios like if, before, although, etc. Example: After she had finished all her classes. SUBJECT 9

MAIN CLAUSE (Independent) SUBORDINATE CLAUSE 9 (Dependent - rely on the independent clause for their meaning.) PHRASE 8

MAIN VERB 9

COMPLETE BY ITSELF? 9

9

8

8

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Sentence Fragments ¾ A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence, lacking a subject, a verb, or a complete thought. ¾ In the above examples, a phrase and a dependent clause are sentence fragments. ¾ To convert a phrase into a sentence, we may need to add a subject or verb. Example: A presentation with interesting points. Æ A sentence fragment Revision: She delivered a presentation with interesting points. ¾ To change a dependent clause into a sentence, we have to complete its meaning. Example: After she had finished all her classes. Æ A sentence fragment Revision: After she had finished all her classes, Emily studied in the library. Part C: Concept Boosting Exercises Exercise C1: Identify and underline the sentence fragments (incomplete sentences) in the following passage. Then, correct the sentence errors in the space between the lines. Although the policy of CMI (Chinese as the Medium of Instruction) has been

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English for Academic Studies (Workshop) Semester 1, 2009/10

Session 4: Fragments ©PolyU HKCC

introduced for years, many students and their parents still think that the implementation of CMI will reduce the time for learning English. They believe it will affect students’ English proficiency. However, this is just a misconception about the correlation between the teaching medium and language learning. The teaching medium is only a tool to be used to impart knowledge rather than a means for language learning. In fact, English learning is not confined to classroom but can be conducted in many other ways. For example, reading English newspapers, listening to English songs and watching English movies or television programmes can be done outside classroom. In addition, schools can introduce other measures to boost students’ English competence such as hiring more native English teachers, reducing the class size for English lessons, and organising more English activities. These can help students overcome their fear of learning English, which in turn can improve their language ability. Exercise C2: Identify and underline the sentence fragments (incomplete sentences) in the following passage. Then, correct the sentence errors in the space between the lines. What is the meaning of a war? It just means death. Sorrowful tear, relentless unrest and heart-breaking cries will afflict every individual during war time. Is it right for a country to fight a war? In my opinion, there is never a reasonable ground for any country to initiate a war because it is simply inhumane. It is not an effective way to solve conflicts and it will ruin the economies of the countries involved in a war. Besides damaging the economy of a country, wars will have more adverse impacts on us. One of the most heartrending outcomes would be countless deaths and injuries, with most innocent and unarmed citizens being the victims. Therefore, we should strive to avoid wars as much as possible. Unfortunately, there were just many unjustifiable wars in our history. For instance, the US declared war against Iraq in 2003. Although the US claimed it was necessary to fight this battle to identify if any nuclear weapons were produced by Iraq, there should be other ways to achieve the same purpose. Nevertheless, many people lost their lives in this war.

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