Final grammar unit of 7th grade! Review of phrases, clauses, sentence types, and the commas that go with them. 

In the paragraph to the right… Although most of Antarctica lies beneath snow and ice, sand dunes exist in the dry valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains. Strong winds that blow the snow away before it can accumulate ripple the sand in Victoria Valley, one of the dry valleys. Volcanoes that are found in West Antarctica are part of a string of volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire. Smoke drifts up from Mount Erebus because it is an active volcano. ( ) ( Underline independent clauses. Place parentheses around dependent clauses. Strike through prepositional phrases. Circle all commas. Place a box around all conjunctions and relative pronouns. ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Clause Practice HW Check Sleep is a time of rest when the sleeper loses awareness of his or her surroundings.   All human beings need sleep; only those who get enough high-quality sleep can perform at their best. To study sleep, scientists use a machine called an electroencephalograph, which measures the electrical activity of the brain. While people are relaxed and awake, their brains emit about 10 small electrical waves per second. As they fall into a deep sleep, their brains emit slower and larger waves. S V S V ( ) S V S S V V V ( ) S S V V ( ) S V V S ( ) S V S V ( )

Clause Practice HW Check V S V The slowest, largest waves occur during the first two or three hours of sleep, which is the phase known as "slow- wave sleep."   When they are dreaming, people's eyes move rapidly, and their brains emit small, fast waves. Scientists call this dreaming phase "REM," which stands for "rapid eye movement." During an eight-hour sleep, most people experience three to five periods of dreaming. Do you remember your dreams when you wake up? ( ) S S V V S V ( ) S V S V ( ) S V V V S S V ) (

COMMA PRACTICE: Circle the commas in each sentence COMMA PRACTICE: Circle the commas in each sentence. Explain why the comma is correct. While traditional painters filled their canvases with objects that a viewer could easily identify, abstract artists were likely to fill their canvases with shapes, swirls, and thick paint. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ These bold, innovative artists rejected many of the rules and customs of earlier art. To provide contrast in their art, some abstract painters left portions of their canvases unpainted. New York City subways, which run both above and below ground, are ridden by more than a million people each day. The sisters, Emily and Marie, grew up studying classical music. Commas following adverb clauses that start a sentence. (b) Items in a series Commas between two related adjectives. Commas following verbal phrases that start a sentence. Commas surrounding non-essential adjective clauses. Commas surrounding appositives.