Delayed Adjectives

Practice 1: Matching

Match the delayed adjectives with the sentences. Write out each sentences, inserting and underlining the delayed adjectives

1. Milk, sticky and sour on her dress, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.
Toni Morrison, Beloved

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beast lying there in agony, powerless to move yet powerless to die.
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, transparent but obscure.
Edward Abbey, "Aravaipa Canyon"

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth.
Paul Roberts, Understanding English

5. I am an enthusiastic laudress, capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes into five subtly differentiated piles, but a terrible house keeper.
Nancy Mairs, Plaintext


Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate

In the model and the scrambled list, identify the delayed adjectives. Next, unscramble and write out the sentence parts of imitate the model. Finally write your own imitation of the model and identify the delayed adjectives.

Model: They ate like men, ravenous and intent
Toni Morrison, Beloved

a. They sang like angels, sweet and pure.

Own Sentence: They played like champions, flawless and unified.

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate- In the model, identify the delayed adjective, Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any delayed adjectives.

Model: He forgot that his Lesser Warders were watching, afraid to interfere.
--Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon

a. She knew how her sisters, happy to help, were feeling.

Own Sentence: They knew what the other team would do, bring the heat.