English Skills with Readings 7th Edition by John Langan

Exercise 8

See if you can locate and correct the ten sentence-skills mistakes in the following passage. The mistakes are listed in the box below. As you locate each mistake, write the number of the word group containing that mistake. Use the spaces provided. Then (on separate paper) correct the mistakes.
5 fragments _____ ________ ______ _____
5 run-ons _______ _______ _______ _______
Family Stories
1 When I was little, my parents invented some strange stories to explain everyday events to me, my father, for example, told me that trolls lived in our house. 2 When objects such as scissors or pens were missing. 3 My father would look at me and say, "The trolls took them." 4 For years, I kept a flashlight next to my bed. 5 Hoping to catch the trolls in the act as they carried away our possessions. 6 Another story I still remember is my mother's explanation of pussy willows. 7 After the fuzzy gray buds emerged in our backyard one spring. 8 I asked Mom what they were. 9 Pussy willows, she explained, were cats who had already lived nine lives, in this tenth life, only the tips of the cats' tails were visible to people. 10 All the tails looked alike. 11 So that none of the cats would be jealous of the others. 12 It was also my mother who created the legend of the birthday fairy, this fairy always knew which presents I wanted. 13 Because my mother called up on a special invisible telephone. 14 Children couldn't see these phones, every parent had a direct line to the fairy. 15 My parents' stories left a great impression on me, I still feel a surge of pleasure when I think of them.