Grammar and Language Workbook

10. Collision, shattered, windshield
Active:
Passive:
Unit 14, Composition
327
Copyright © by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Name ___________________________________________________ Class _________ Date ____________________
Composition

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 Exercise 3 
Rewrite the following paragraph using more effective sentences.
“Ring-Around-the Rosie” is a popular children’s rhyme. Most people don’t know about its
history. It was really written during the Middle Ages. It’s actually about what happened during
the Great Plague or Black Death. The Great Plague was an epidemic that killed lots of people. It
had killed about a third of the people who lived in Europe by the late 1300s. “Rosie” was the
rash that was caused by the disease. “A pocketful of posies” were the herbs that people carried.
They believed these herbs might keep them from getting the disease. “We all fall down” means
that people were dying from the disease. 
Name ___________________________________________________ Class _________ Date ____________________
328 
Grammar and Language Workbook, Grade 12
Copyright © by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Composition

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Lesson 108
Building Paragraphs
Supporting details in a paragraph can be arranged in several ways. 
Chronological order
places events in the order in which they happened. 
Spatial order 
describes how objects
might appear to an observer. 
Compare/contrast order
shows similarities and differences
among the items you are writing about.
The first of the following paragraphs illustrates the use of chronological order; the
second, spatial order; and the third, compare/contrast order.
We arrived in New York at 5:05, just in time for rush hour. It was 6:15 by the time
our cab driver inched his way to our hotel. We had just enough time to scramble out of
the taxi and run to our rooms to get ready. We wanted to be there when the curtain
opened at 7:00.
When we flew into New York I was surprised to see the layers and layers of tall
buildings on what seemed like such a tiny island. As I hailed a cab, I became instantly
aware of the crush of people and cars in this bustling city. Traffic was bumper-to-
bumper, and horns blared as cars and buses jockeyed for position. I was anxious to get
to my hotel room where I might find a few minutes of solace behind a closed door.
Some people describe New York as a city with the best and worst of everything. It
has some of the world’s top artists, most successful businesses, and most impressive
museums, but it’s also overcrowded, expensive, and has a high rate of crime. Most
people say they either love or hate the city of New York. Few visitors leave the city
without forming any opinion at all.
 Exercise 1