|
 Printable Version
for your convenience!
Title - Writing and Grammar Unit - Lesson 2
By - John Foley
Primary Subject - Language Arts
Grade Level - 9-12
Unit Contents:
Lesson 2: Nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea. Read the following paragraph and underline all the nouns. Then, count all the words in the paragraph, and all the nouns. Divide the number of nouns by the total number of words. This yields a percentage. What does the percentage of nouns in this paragraph – typical in length, but exquisite in form – tell you about nouns?
A solitary ant, afield, cannot be considered to have much of anything on his mind; indeed, with only a few neurons strung together by fibers, he can’t be imagined to have a mind at all, much less a thought. He is more like a ganglion on legs. Four ants together, or ten, encircling a dead moth on the path, begin to look more like an idea. They fumble and shove, gradually moving the food toward the Hill, but as though by blind chance. It is only when you watch the dense mass of thousands of ants, crowded together around the Hill, blackening the ground, that you begin to see the whole beast, and now you observe it thinking, planning, calculating. It is an intelligence, a kind of live computer, with crawling bits for its wits.--Lewis Thomas
Total words____________
Total nouns____________
Nouns/Total___________%
Comment on the percentage – what does it mean? Also, why is this excerpt from Lives of the Cell considered excellent writing?
E-Mail John Foley!
|
Math
Language Arts
Science
Social Studies
Art
Computers & Internet
Music
P.E. & Health
Other
Multi-Disciplinary
