The following twenty test sentences where published in the Amish monthly, The Family Life, February 2010 issue. They all contain mistakes in grammar, spelling, or usage–in the editors opinion. Readers are told to try their hand at correcting the sentences, with five points deducted from 100 for each wrong answer. Just to tweak things a little, three correct sentences are included.
1. He is recovering from his illness, but is still not quite up to power.
2. Among other injuries, his rotary cuff was broken.
3. Black clouds rolled ominously toward him. Lightning flashed and thunder roared.
4. When humans become dissatisfied with their church, they are more easily let astray by false teachings.
5. The principal of separation from the world is taught in Romans 12:2.
6. After his heart attack, he had a stint put in his heart.
7. We had a cacci camel duck this year. They are better layers than a chicken, and some have laid 365 eggs in a year.
8. Grandma broke the chocolate into handy little morals for us to share.
9. Son Nathan ran over a snake and killed it about three times. It turned out to be a copperhead.
10. The border officials asked us for our personal indentification.
11. Some children have learned that they can argue with their parents and get their own way.
12. The child was badly hurt when he fell beneath a row tarry hoe.
13. While hospitalized, he suffered staff infection.
14. Submission is a hard lesson to learn. It is always easiest to learn it at Daddy’s knee and Mama’s lap.
15. I prepared an early lunch for our pre-scholars.
16. Someone counted the amount of people at the funeral and there were 650.
17. Kraft produces enough Cool Whip in one year to fill the Grand Canyon.
18. In I Peter 2:12 we are cautioned to “live in the world but not be of it.”
19. Windmills were a common site when the Amish first arrived but are now rarely used.
20. The person who wrote the forward of the book recomended it highly.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Answers.
1. Power should be par.
2. The correct term is rotator cuff.
3. Sentence correct.
4. Should read, more easily led astray
5. Principal should be principle.
6. Stint should be stent.
7. The breed of duck referred to is the Khaki Campbell.
8. Morals should be morsels
9. You cannot kill three times.
10. Identification not indentification
11. Sentence correct
12. The farm implement referred to is a rotary hoe.
13. Staff should be staph.
14. Sentence is correct
15. Pre-scholar should be preschooler.
16. If the people could be counted, then it would be correct to say, the number of people at the funeral. Amount refers to a mass, not to something we can count.
17. Just a minute. Someone doesn’t realize how big the Grand Canyon is. The estimated amount comes to ten gallons every day for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.A. Any responsible editor should catch such wild claims and not print them.
18. It is uncertain what Bible verse is being quoted, but it certainly isn’t 1 Peter 2:12.
19. Site should be sight.
20. Two mistakes here. The correct spellings are foreword and recommended.
Filed under: Amish Fiction by Jerry
2 Comments »
