Thursday, June 21, 2007

A challenge for me and my students: Write a paragraph that contains an appositive, two examples of parallelism, and one simple sentence with a triple compound verb. (Note to readers: Can you find them?)

I had two excellent rides to the beach this morning, sandwiched around one of my favorite breakfasts. The first ride, at 5:30, was delightful – a trip through cool air, brightening light, and utterly peaceful countryside. Even with the sound of the air rushing past my ears, I still could clearly hear the songs of the first birds. The cool air and almost total lack of wind made the ride seem nearly (but not quite) effortless. When I got back into town (fairly exhausted, I must confess), I stopped at a coffee shop, bought some breakfast fare, and rode a few blocks to the park. There I indulged myself in one of the finest breakfasts I can think of: sitting on a bench in our pristine park with the sports page of the paper, a large black coffee, and a sesame bagel with grape jelly. The park was especially beautiful this morning, and so was my little meal by the pond. I then took a few hours off to do some work at home, after which I again rode out to the beach. The ride was enjoyable, but even more enjoyable was the huge construction site I stopped to see. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so close to really massive working excavation machinery. The enormous bulldozers were digging deep into the earth, turning up immense boulders, loading them into their “jaws”, and dumping them to the right or left. I was fascinated by both the delicacy and power of the machines. I felt quite small, sitting there on my featherweight bike watching these mammoth diggers doing their work.

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