Famous Compound Sentences

Here are a few examples of compound sentences spoken by presidents and some other well-known people:

· "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on." (John F. Kennedy)

· "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one." (Lyndon B. Johnson)

· "Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time." (Gerald R. Ford)

· "I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming." (Jimmy Carter)

· "Trust, but verify." (Ronald Reagan)

· "I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."(George H. W. Bush)

· "You can put wings on a pig, but you don't make it an eagle." (Bill Clinton)

· "I used to be snow white, but I drifted." (Mae West)

· "I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land." (Jon Stewart)

Exercise 20: Turn the sentence pairs into single compound sentences, each with a coordinating conjunction. You can rearrange or add words in the sentence to make it sound better, but only if it's necessary:

1. The black dog has won many prizes. He doesn't know many tricks. ____________

2. She saw a cat run in front of her. She fell down while roller-skating. ____________

3. There was a meteor shower. The crew did not know how to avoid the meteors. ____________

4. I wanted to buy a baby Chihuahua. I started to save my money. ____________

5. Gillian did not like to read. She was not very good at it. ____________

6. Pam liked Wayne. Leena also liked Wayne. ____________

7. The little boy did not like going to school. He went anyway. ____________

8. You can cry like a baby. You can clean your room like an adult. ____________

9. She didn't want to play with Jill. She didn't want to play with Tim. ____________

10. Arleen could not play with that boy. Arleen could not play with that other boy. ____________

11. Let's go to the swimming pool. It's hot inside the house. ____________

12. I don’t want to eat. I don't want to drink. ____________

13. I don’t want to practice playing my violin. I don’t want to disobey my mother. ____________

14. I want to own my own company. I want to pay all my workers a lot of money. ____________

15. I need to go to the store. I'm feeling too sick to drive. ____________

16. Rabbits make good pets. They don’t make too much noise and they are clean. ____________

17. I want to go to the circus. I want to ride a pony. ____________

18. I didn’t do my homework. My parents punished me. ____________

19. I have never visited Asia. I have never visited Africa. ____________

20. You can make a big poster. You can make a little clay statue. ____________

Exercise 21:Choose the best answer. Which sentence best completes the compound sentence?

1. I bought my ticket, and __________.

a) I packed my suitcase yesterday.

b) I didn't get my passport yesterday.

c) John didn't buy his ticket.

2. I wanted to go to Kislovodsk, but __________.

a) I went.

b) I had no money.

c) I had money.

3. Mary visited Moscow, and __________.

a) she spent ten days there.

b) she didn't.

c) she had two weeks for vacation.

Exercise 22:Choose the conjunction which matches the function.

1. result

2. additional information

3. choice

4. contrast or opposite

5. reason

a) but b) and c) so d) or e) for

Exercise 23:Can you find evidence of climate change?

You will ask your older relatives what the weather was like when they were young. The further back you can go, the more chance of seeing climate change in action is.

ü Think of some questions you could ask to find out what the weather was like in the past.

ü Interview 2 or 3 of your relatives to see what the weather was like when they were young.

ü Answer the questions yourself to see what the weather is like now.

ü Put the answers to your questions into order according to how old the person was. The oldest relative's answers first and your answers last.

Questions to ask:

1. What were the winters like when you were young?

2. Were they hot or cold?

3. Did it snow a lot?

4. Were they wet or dry?

5. What were the summers like when you were young?

6. Were they hot or cold?

7. Was there lots of sun?

8. Did it rain much?

Make a short report based on the answers, you can provide it with video and illustrations.

Exercise 24:Combine each group of sentences below into a compound sentence, separating the independent clauses from one another with a semicolon.

Example: A presidential candidate should be intelligent.

A presidential candidate should be honest.

Voters should scrutinize candidates carefully.

Compound sentence answer: A presidential candidate should be intelligent and honest;voters should scrutinize candidates carefully.

1. The President’s recommendation called for a tax increase.

Very few senators will vote for it.

2. The handwriting was almost illegible.

The spelling was very poor throughout the paper.

3. Most house plants prefer lots of sun.

They prefer plenty of water.

Other house plants like shade.

4. Pollution is ruining our water.

Soon we may have to ration the supply.

Soon we may have to invent new filtering methods.

5. September has its own unique character.

It is both a beginning and an end.

Exercise 25:Find the compound sentences:

1. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost.

2. I no longer wish to meet a good I do not earn, for example, to find a pot of buried gold.

3. Your goodness must have some edge to it-else it is none.

4. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men.

5. A man cannot speak but he judges himself.

6. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life.

7. I thought that it was a Sunday morning in May; that it was Easter Sunday, and as yet very early in the morning.

8. We denote the primary wisdom as intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions.

9. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.

10. In this manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more intelligence than is seen in many lads from the schools.

Exercise 26: Can you talk about Environmental issues in English?