Exercise 4

Locating Subjects and Verbs in Simple Sentences

Directions:

  1. In each of the following sentences, locate the subjects and verbs for each main clause.

  2. And type the subject word (or words) and the verb word (or words) in the spaces provided.

  3. Be sure to check your answers when you have finished this exercise.

Flat Coconut Shell Button

Example:

Most people pay little if any attention to buttons stitched onto a shirt front.
Subject:
Verb:

Subjects and Verbs in Simple Sentences

1. However, buttons designed for Hawaiian clothing during the decade of the 30s would have been difficult to overlook.
Subject:
Verb:

2. With more than 100 Hawaiian motifs to choose from, consumers must have had a field day in selecting or simply admiring store-bought shirts with these decorative embellishments.
Subject:
Verb:

3. In 1935, the Eastman Kodak store located near the Beach at Waikiki offered a large assortment of coconut buttons for sale.
Subject:
Verb:

4. The reasonably priced artifacts used to adorn Hawaiian shirts and dresses came in many different sizes and styles.
Subject:
Verb:

5. But who were the people responsible for manufacturing these highly prized buttons?
Subject:
Verb:

6. The textile historian, Nancy Schiffer, talks about original buttons playing an important role in the development of Hawaiian shirt styles.
Subject:
Verb:

7. Some of the earliest buttons were made out of wood, colored plastics, or machine stamped metal.
Subject:
Verb:

8. Others made use of the shiny substance found in oyster shells.
Subject:
Verb:

9. Plaited strips of fiber taken from coconut husks and flat or carved segments of coconut shells were also materials selected by some of the best designers.
Subject:
Verb:

10. A metal flower head and a simulated basket weave pattern on a flat metal disc were two of the many designs found on buttons with holes on the backside.
Subject:
Verb:

11. Some unusual plastic buttons were painted to look just like bamboo.
Subject:
Verb:

12. Has all of this information about shirt buttons whetted your appetite to know more about the making of buttons?
Subject:
Verb:

13. Braided fabric and "Chinese style" buttons are specially crafted button adornments.
Subject:
Verb:

14. The story of Dorothy Shimabukuro, a worker in the button-making industry, sheds some light on the subject.
Subject:
Verb:

15. Mrs. Shimabukuro made buttons every evening within the confines of her home.
Subject:
Verb:

16. During the daytime, she assembled the materials for the intricate Chinese buttons to be made that night.
Subject:
Verb:

17. As a worker for Hawaii's garment industry, she was expected to make 600 buttons in a single evening and 10,000 buttons in the space of one month.
Subject:
Verb:

18. However, that is just the beginning of her story.
Subject:
Verb:

19. For like 23 of her other male and female colleagues working independently in their own homes, Mrs. Shimabukuro was blind and could not see.
Subject:
Verb:

20. Since 1957, workers like her were assigned by the Department of Social Services to work as subcontractors for the Hawaiian garment industry.
Subject:
Verb:

21. Each afternoon, clothing manufacturers would schedule a woman to deliver strips of bias fabric, cut from partially sewn garments, to button makers to be worked with that night.
Subject:
Verb:

22. At eight o'clock the next morning, the delivery lady would collect the finished buttons from each home on her route and bring them back to the garment factory.
Subject:
Verb:

23. Because of the need to collect strips of material left over from pattern pieces cut from bolts of cloth on a particular day, the rigid pick-up and delivery schedule was precisely adhered to.
Subject:
Verb:

24. For the cloth-covered buttons had to be sewn onto nearly completed garments prior to the addition of finishing touches.
Subject:
Verb:

25. Rather than being just a means of fastening one side of a shirt or a dress front to the other, a button is a relic with a history of its own.
Subject:
Verb: