Compound Modifiers and Adjective Phrases

 A compound modifier is a compound of two or more words which modify a noun. It is made up of adjectives as well as nouns and determiners. When it appears before a noun phrase, it has to be hyphenated; but hyphens aren't necessary when the compound modifier is used as a post-modifier.  

Adverbs which contain the -ly suffix (such as badly and quickly) are not hyphenated, but adverbs without the -ly suffix, for example well,  are accompanied by a hyphen. 

Examples of compound modifiers are:

• I found dust-covered books in the attic.
•  Man-eating sharks are very dangerous.
• She has got a twelve-year-old sister.

An adjective phrase also modifies a noun and its head word  is an adjective. This adjective may be accompanied by modifiers, determiners and qualifiers. An adjective phrase may appear before the noun or after a linking verb. 

For example:

• The final exams were unbelievably difficult. 
• This pie is very delicious and extremely expensive.
• He was wearing a dark brown suit.

The use of ´demonstrative + time´

"all that time", a duration of time - and that means an event occurring over a period of time. 

"all that times", incorrect grammar, not used ("That" is singular - "times" is plural.) 

"all those time", incorrect grammar, not used ("Those" is plural - "time" is singular.) 

"all those times", events of duration. "All those times" puts all the events together with some similar, or shared, characteristic(s).

Uses of paragraphing

 In paragraphing both visual impact on the reader and content are important.  

A paragraph contains a “packet of information”. So a new paragraph should contain different information. That means that you’re talking about a different topic.

It's a very simple explanation. I hope you enjoy it! 

Enjoy it!!!!

Apposition: 

When we use two noun phrases (np) next to each other in a clause, and they refer to the same person or thing, we call this apposition:

[NP 1]The living room, [NP 2] the biggest room in the house, looks out on to a beautiful garden. (The living room and the biggest room in the house are the same room.)

[NP 1]Timothy, [NP 2 ] their youngest child, is very musical. (Timothy and their youngest child are the same person.)

The second noun phrase tells us something more about the first noun phrase (its identity or its qualities). We can also reverse the order of the phrases:

[NP 1]The biggest room in the house, [NP 2] the living room, looks out on to a beautiful garden.

[NP 1]Their youngest child, [NP 2] Timothy, is very musical.

 

Types of apposition

In writing, we often separate the noun phrases by commas. We do this when the second noun phrase gives extra information which is not necessary to identify the person or thing:

Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city, has a population of around 450,000. (Scotland’s capital city is extra information which is not necessary to identify Edinburgh.)

Sometimes the second noun phrase contains information which specifies which person or thing we are referring to from a number of possible people or things. In these cases, we don’t use a comma.

Compare

commas	no commas
My brother, Philip, works at the local museum. (The speaker probably only has one brother.)	My brother Mark is a police officer. My brother Joe is still at university. (The speaker has more than one brother. Mark and Joe specify which brother we are talking about.)

How to introduce dialogues in narratives

- Each speaker has his/her own paragraph.

- Character’s language should be in quotes.

- Attributions (she said, he asked) can be used at the start of quotes, in the middle or at the end.

- If the quote is not a question or exclamation, we use a comma and not a period before the second quotation mark.

 -The pronouns of the attributions (he hesitated/she cried) are not written with capital letters.

A new mess

A new mess

It was a sunny day in the back garden. A little Red Ant was happily walking through the green grass to her house. There, her parents were waiting for her because they had good news.

Once at home, little Red Ant found something strange in her room: a new small bed. Mummy Red Ant looked at her and said:

-          “Do you like it?”

-          “Yes ... but ... what’s for?” – said little Red Ant surprised.

-          “Well, a baby is coming home. You’ll have a little brother to play with and we need to make some changes at home” – Mummy explained.

Little Red Ant didn’t answer and stared at the little bed. Mummy went out of the room and her daughter stayed there alone thinking about the news.

A few hours later, after buying some presents, Mummy noticed that the house was a mess. Little Red Ant had taken all her toys off her room and were all around the house.

-          “What’s this? – Mummy asked angrily.

-           “What’s wrong with that? It makes room for new people.” – little Red Ant replied.

And Mummy realised that that her daughter was working really hard to make space in her room for her new brother.  

Romina, Jimena. Nayla, Mariana F. & Mariana A.

Little Red Ant applies for a vacancy to an entertainment programme

               It was a sunny day and Little Red Ant didn’t go to school. Instead, she stayed at home watching “The super Ant” game programme. She was such an enthusiastic fan of the programme, that she decided to participate. It was a skills show; in order to play the game, the ants must collect a certain amount of earth, neither less nor more than required.

               As Little Red Ant was eager to win, she accumulated a bigger amount of earth than was  really necessary. She was faster than the others so, the TV presenter stopped the game. “What’s wrong with that?” said Little Red Ant- “It makes room for new people” said the presenter. She had been knocked out of the competition.

Written by Lorena Birra, Amanda Lagioia and Sandra López

A truce

It was a rainy summer day in Ituzaingo when a group of little Red Ants where forced to leave their home as theirs had been flooded by the storm.

As soon as the panic was gone, they got organized and decided to get into a house. But it was already occupied by a crowded family of cockroaches! "Let's besiege the house and push them away!", said the queen. But one of the oldest workers explained that it was a difficult task. So the queen proposed to have a word with the leader of the cockroaches. The meeting took place under the kitchen. No sooner the conversation was becoming spicy than one cockroach suggested sharing the place. Both ants and cockroaches bursted into rage. And then a soft tiny voice was heard. "What's wrong with that?", said little Red Ant. "It makes room for new people".

After a dead silence, the queen of the ants and the leader of the cockroaches made a route map of the house and decided which zone was for each group. Eventually, both leaders shook hands and they all lived together peacefully...at least, for the time being.

Written by Mariela Barletta, Andrés Lema, Marcelo Mediavilla y María Cecilia Morilla.

Panic in the Anthill

In a whole beneath the ground there lived a lot of ants. They were building a new home because a rain had drowned the other one. One of the ants was building a small house. Another one was building a medium-size home. But everyone paid attention to the big home that Little Red Ant was building. It was really big. So came Black Ant and asked Red why she was building such a big house.
“What’s wrong with that?” Said little Red Ant. “It makes room for new people,” she said as she continued building her big home.

Suddenly, there was a big cracking and a horrible loud sound. It was the Ant Eater!! Everyone started to run in all directions as the ant eater rushed into the first house, the small one. Luckily, the ants in that house had already run away. The same happened with the second house, the medium one. All the ants were panicking! It was then when they heard Red Ant’s voice shouting:
“Come along everyone, there is room for all of us”

So after a little while of not being able to reach the big Red Ant house, the Ant Eater started to feel frustrated, made a weird noise and left. All the ants were so happy! They had survived an Ant Eater attack! And all because Red Ant had the vision of making a big house! They were all so happy and grateful that they organized a feast. And the days went by with all the ants living in the big house that had saved their lives.

The end

Written by Paula, Macarena, Gisela and Agustina.

Note: it's not that I'm a fast typer, I already had it typed on my netbook :P