E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

Better Reading English
III. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Write answers to the questions.
1.
What did he do with the rules?
2.
How did he feel about the game?
3.
Why did Frank Mahan’s comment sound like a death knell to him?
4.
What did he promise the class?
5.
Was the game a success that day?
IV. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Understanding from context
Find these words in the reading. Then match each with the correct definition.
____
1.
failure 
a. attached
____ 2.
made my way 
b. a moment
____ 3.
fastened 
c. looked at
____ 4.
gazed 
d. begin and complete an action
____ 5.
instant 
e. opposite of success
____ 6.
proceeded to 
f. moved forward
When the class arrived, I called the roll and told them that I had another 
game, which I felt sure would be good. I promised them that if this was a
failure, I would not try any more experiments. I then read the rules from the 
bulletin board and proceeded to organize the game. There were eighteen
men in the class; I selected two captains and had them choose sides. When the 
teams were chosen, I placed the men on t
he loor. There were three forwards, 
three centers, and three backs on each team. I chose two of the center men to 
jump, then threw the ball between them. It was the start of the irst basketball 
game and the inish of the trouble with that class.
Source: 
Basketball: Its Origin and Development
, by James Naismith,
Kindle edition, Kindle locations 483–87

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Playing the Game
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139
B.
Use the new words
Fill in each blank using one of the words from Exercise A.
1.
The bird landed on t
he branch for an _____________________. Then it lew 
away.
2.
The old lady slowly _____________________ down the stairs.
3.
The deer _____________________ at me for a moment before it ran away.
4.
I wanted to leave, but he _____________________ tell me a long story,
and I had to wait for him to inish.
5.
We were very unhappy about the _____________________ of our 
experiment.
6.
She _____________________ several lowers to her hat for the costume.
V. UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR: CONNECTING 
SENTENCES WITH 
tHen
AND 
and tHen
A.
Read about 
then
Then
is a very common connecting word, often used to clarify a time sequence. 
It tells us that something happened next.
And then
can be used to connect two verbs with the same subject.
With thumb tacks I 
fastened
 the rules to this board and then
 walked 
across 
the gym.
In this kind of sentence, it’s possible to remove 
and
for stylistic effect.
I 
chose
 two of the center men to jump, then 
threw
 the ball between them.
And then
can also be used to connect two clauses. It is not possible to remove 
and
in this kind of sentence.
He looked up at the basket on one end of the gallery, 
and then
 his eyes 
turned to me.
Another way to write this would be:
He looked up at the basket on one end of the gallery. 
Then
 his eyes turned 
to me.
Notice that 
then
is not a coordinating conjunction. If we are connecting clauses, 
we must use 
and then
.
Another common placement for