Name______Date______
from Of PlymouthPlantationby William Bradford
Reading Strategy: Breaking Down Sentences
One way to understand complex passages in a selection is to break down sentences to help
unlock their meaning. This strategy is especially useful for reading the work of writers fromcenturies past, who tend to write in long, complicated sentences. In the following passage from
Of Plymouth Colony, notice how the vital information telling who and what has been underlined,
while all the less essential material has been bracketed. Breaking down material in this wayhelps you analyze clarity of meaning and rewrite the sentence in your own words.
After they had enjoyed fair winds and weather for a season, they [were encountered
many times with crosswinds, and] met with many fierce storms, [with which the ship
was shrewdly shaken, and her upper works made very leaky; and one of the main
beams in the mid ships was bowed and cracked,] which put them in some fear that
the ship could not be able to perform the voyage.
New Sentence (using the central point):
The ships did well in good weather, but when the bad weather hit they weren’t sure if the ships would make it.
DIRECTIONS: Break down the following passages by bracketing less essential material and
underlining the essential information that tells who and what. Then, using the central point you have discovered, write the sentence in your own words.
1. But that which was most sad and lamentable was that in two or three months’ time, half of
their company died, wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy
and other diseases, which this long voyage and their inaccommodate condition had
brought upon them; so as there died sometimes two or three of a day, in the foresaid time;
that of one hundred and odd persons, scarce fifty remained.
New Sentence:
2. But after they had sailed that course about half a day, they fell amongst dangerous shoals
and roaring breakers, and they were so far entangled therewith as they conceived themselves
in great danger; and the wind shrinking upon them withal, they resolved to bear up
again for the Cape, and thought themselves happy to get out of those dangers before night
overtook them, as by God’s providence they did.
New Sentence:
3. At length they understood by discourse with him that he was not of these parts, butbelonged to
the eastern parts, where some English ships came to fish, with whom he wasacquainted, and
could name sundry of them by their names, amongst whom he had got hislanguage.
New Sentence:
1
Grade 11, Unit 1