Mid-Term AssessmentsMid-Term Assessmentsfor

The Third “Ideal” KISS Grammar BookThe Third “Ideal” KISS Grammar Book

This booklet includes

the directions for and the texts

from which the tests have

been taken or adapted. Your

teacher may want you to read

and discuss them, especially

so that you will know the

meanings of all of the words

in them before you do the

tests. It also has a sample test that you might use and discuss so that you know the

format for answering the questions.

Book 3 Mid-term Directions..............................................................................................2Sample Mid-term Based on “Garden Memories”..........................................................3

Texts from Which Assessments are Taken or Adapted........................................................5Garden Memories...........................................................................................................5For Book 3, Mid-term # 2: The Frogs and the Ox.........................................................7For Book 3, Mid-Term #3: The Bear and the Bees.......................................................8

For more information about the KISS Grammar “Ideal” books, go to:http://kissgrammar.org/Ideal_Sequence/index.html

© Ed Vavra 12/16/2016

The Turtle Doveby

Sophie Anderson(French, 1823 – 1903)

Atheneum

Book 3 Mid-term DirectionsBook 3 Mid-term Directions

Analyze each sentence as you normally would:1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.2. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” or

“DO”).3. Write “V” over every verbal, and label the complements of verbals as you would the

complements of a finite verb.4. Put brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause that functions as a direct object, and

write “DO” above the opening bracket.5. Put a vertical line after every main clause.

Then follow the Directions: For “Clause Pattern(s),” write the words in the S/V/C pattern(s) of the main and subordinate clause(s) in each sentence. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and label the type of complements. Put brackets around the pattern of each subordinate clause and a vertical line after each main clause pattern.

For the listed words, explain how each connects to a word in the S/V/C pattern or to a verbal. If the word is a verbal, simply write “verbal.” See the examples below. Once you get to a word that you have already explained, you can stop.

Examples:1. The blossoms spread their yellow disks, and the yellow birds

appeared, twittering and fluttering about them. Clause Pattern(s): blossoms spread disks (DO) | birds appeared |

twittering verbalfluttering verbal

them obj. of prep “about” The prep phrase is adverbial to “twittering” and “fluttering.”

2. I think he liked yellow flowers. Clause Pattern(s): I think [DO he liked flowers (DO).] |

yellow adj. to “flowers”3. Knowing what he had done, Sam was worried. Clause Pattern(s): [DO what (DO) he had done] Sam was worried |

Knowing Verbalhe Subj in the clause “what . . . done” The clause is the DO of

“Knowing.”

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Name:__________________________________________________

Sample Mid-term Based on “Garden Memories”

1 The man living there had a sister named Sally.

Clause Pattern(s):

_____________________________________________________________

living _____________________________________________________

there ______________________________________________________

named _____________________________________________________

Sally ______________________________________________________

2. Oliver's father would stop in front of the house, and Sally would come

out to talk to them, and gather some flowers for the little boy.

Clause Pattern(s):

_____________________________________________________________

Oliver’s ____________________________________________________

front ______________________________________________________

house _____________________________________________________

talk _______________________________________________________

gather _____________________________________________________

some ______________________________________________________

boy _______________________________________________________

(continued on next page)

3

Name:__________________________________________________

Sample Mid-term Based on “Garden Memories,” page 2.

3. Sally would pick a bunch of flowers and say, “Here is a posy for the

little boy.”

Clause Pattern(s):

_____________________________________________________________

flowers ____________________________________________________

Here ______________________________________________________

little ______________________________________________________

4. He wondered if the yellow birds would return; and he

planted a row of sunflowers like the row standing near

the pear tree.

Clause Pattern(s):

_____________________________________________________________

sunflowers _________________________________________________

row (second one)_____________________________________________

standing ___________________________________________________

pear _______________________________________________________

4

Texts from Which Assessments are Taken or Adapted

Garden Memories

[Two exercises, one for the sample test and one for the 1st test]

From Cyr’s Third Reader by Ellen M. Cyr

Ginn & Company, 1896, pp. 126-7.

1. When Oliver was quite small he used to ride with his father and

mother, sitting between them, and sometimes driving the horse. One of their

drives was over the bridge to the next town. There was an old brown house

by the roadside, and in the yard was a garden of many bright flowers.

2. The man who lived there had a sister whose name was

Sally. Oliver’s father would stop in front of the house, and Sally

would come out to talk to them, and gather some flowers for the

little boy. She was very fond of the yellow marigolds, and would pick a

bunch of them and say, “Here is a posy for the little boy.”

3. After Oliver grew to be an old man, he always remembered that

kind, soft voice; when he smelled a marigold he could close his eyes and

imagine the picture of the low brown cottage with its garden, and the

nodding golden marigolds.

4. I think he liked yellow flowers. In his own garden there was a row

of tall sunflowers growing near an old pear tree. The yellow birds seemed

5

very fond of them, and Oliver loved to watch them flutter about, “golden, in

the golden light, over the golden flowers.”

5. When Oliver became a man he tried to make the garden look as it

did when he was a boy. He said the squash bugs and caterpillars came back

and were as friendly as ever. The same buff-colored bugs fed upon his roses;

the butterflies came back, and also the bees and the birds.

6. He wondered if the yellow birds would return; and he

planted a row of sunflowers like the row which stood near the pear

tree when he was a boy. As soon as the blossoms spread their

yellow disks, and the seeds began to ripen, the yellow birds appeared,

twittering and fluttering about them as in his boyhood.

6

For Book 3, Mid-term # 2: The Frogs and the Ox

From The Æsop for Childrenwith pictures by Milo Winter

Rand McNally & Co. 1919

An Ox came down to a reedy pool to drink. As he

splashed heavily into the water, he crushed a young

Frog into the mud. The old Frog soon missed the little

one and asked his brothers and sisters what had

become of him.

“A great big monster,” said one of them, “stepped on little brother

with one of his huge feet!”

“Big, was he!” said the old Frog, puffing herself up. “Was he as big as

this?”

“Oh, much bigger!” they cried.

The Frog puffed up still more.

“He could not have been bigger than this,” she said. But the little

Frogs all declared that the monster was much, much bigger and the old Frog

kept puffing herself out more and more until, all at once, she burst.

Do not attempt the impossible.

7

For Book 3, Mid-Term #3: The Bear and the Bees

From The Æsop for Childrenwith pictures by Milo Winter

Rand McNally & Co. 1919

A Bear roaming the woods in search of

berries happened on a fallen tree in which a swarm

of Bees had stored their honey. The Bear began to

nose around the log very carefully to find out if the

Bees were at home. Just then one of the swarm

came home from the clover field with a load of sweets. Guessing what the

Bear was after, the Bee flew at him, stung him sharply and then disappeared

into the hollow log.

The Bear lost his temper in an instant, and sprang upon the log tooth

and claw, to destroy the nest. But this only brought out the whole swarm.

The poor Bear had to take to his heels, and he was able to save himself only

by diving into a pool of water.

It is wiser to bear a single injury in silence

than to provoke a thousand by flying into a rage.

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