Practice for Portfolio_Grammar Exercise:

Practice for Portfolio_Grammar Exercise:

Fill in the blanks with the correct punctuation: comma, semi-colon, colon or full stop. If you use a full stop, remember to change the following word into capital letter.

Passage 1:
Before my friends moved out of the city, they usually recite the advantages of suburban life (1)______ green grass, flowers, swimming pools, barbecues, and so on. Yet after my friends have lived there for a year or so, they realize that suburban life is not so pleasant as they were expecting. What causes this change? Their gardens! They soon learn that one unavoidable part of suburban life is yardwork. After they work all weekend in their gardens, they are much too tired to take a swim in their pools or even to cook some meat on their barbecues. And they have another complaint (2)________ they can’t live in the suburbs without a car. Most of my friends moved to the suburbs to avoid traffic, but now they have to commute to work downtown. They sit on a busy freeway two hours every day.
My opinion about urban life are very different from my friends’(3)______I live downtown, and I love it! Why? Well, first, I love nature (4)_______ flowers, green grass, trees and animals. In the city, I have all the advantages of nature (5)________ I can walk through the public park, smell the flowers, and sit on the grass under the trees. I can visit the animals in the zoo. Yet I have none of the disadvantages (6)_______ I don’t have to do yardwork or feed the animals (7) ______ Also, in the city, I can get everywhere by bus (8)_______ if there’s a traffic jam, I can walk home.

Passage 1.
(1) :
(2) :
(3) —
(4) — / :
(5) :
(6) :
(7) .
(8) ;

Passage 2:

A university is much larger than a college. It is larger for two reasons (9)_____ First (10) _______ a university in the United States usually has several different colleges in it. Sometimes, in a university, each college is called a “school” (11)_______ “The School of Liberal Arts,” “The School of Business,” or “The School of Education.” Second, the university always has programs for advanced or graduate study in a variety of subjects (12)________there may be a medical school, a law school, and other advanced programs.

The university may get money for its expenses from several different sources (13)_______ It may get some money from the state government. If so (14)________ it is a publicly funded university. The university may get money only from private sources (15)________contributions, tuition, investments, and other sources. If this is the case (16) ________ it is a privately funded university. Finally, a university may be funded by a religious group.

Passage 2:
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(10) ,
(11) :
(12) .
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(14) ,
(15) :
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Adapted from Alice Horning. 1988. “ Higher education in the United States”. Readings in Contemporary Culture. McGraw-Hill, Central Library PE1128 Hor. NUS.