Student Instructions

Name __________________________________

D-D-Doug’s D-D-Delight

Doug Dougenhoffer has just opened a gourmet restaurant in Denver. He is calling it, unfortunately, Doug Dougenhoffer’s Denver Dining Delight. Doug is fascinated with alliteration—the repetition of a consonant sound. He has decided to name the dishes in his restaurant alliteratively. He wants a short radio ad introducing his restaurant to be alliterative, too. (Doug sometimes doesn’t display the greatest judgment in the world.)

Help Doug out. Name 10 menu items for his restaurant. (Remember that it’s a gourmet place— no chili dogs or potato chips!) You don’t have to choose “d” for your alliteration, though Doug

would probably appreciate it.

Whatever letter you choose, use the same one to write an alliterative radio ad that will introduce Doug Dougenhoffer’s Denver Dining Delight.

“A gourmet is just a glutton with brains.”

—P.W. Haberman, Jr.

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Student Instructions

Name __________________________________

Fixer Upper

Here is a real workout for your proofreading and spelling skills. Below is a restaurant review written by a newspaper reporter who clearly needs to brush up on some skills. Well, actually, he

needs to do more than brush up. He needs intense writing therapy. Please help out this poor guy by fixing all the errors in his story.

A Grate Place too Eat

The Flamboyant Plum is truely a delightful restraunt, I loved it form the frist byte to the last. The name of the palace comes form the gaint paynting of a plum in the loby. “Flamboyant” discribes the owner Miss. Allexandra Albright a woman who dreses in brite pruple close at all times, she also wheres alot of sequins and stuff. And realy high heals.

All of the food and drinks that are served at the Flamboyant Plum are vegatarian and everything is fresh, well-prepared, and served very attractively on big, huge sqware plaits with pruple flours paynted on them. For appetizers, I expescially loved the artichoke dip with olives imported from france, I also loved the plate of Crackers and Cheese.

When it comes to the main dishes served at the Flamboyant plum you cant go wrong. Miss Albrights brocolli quiche is light and tastey and her goat cheeze dumplings are a spechul treet for anyone who likes goat cheeze dumplings and I do. I frist had them on december 26 2005 at a littel place in albany new york and I couldn’t beleive how good they were, I liked them so much I ate six servings. All the main dishes are served with a garden salad and your choice of home made bisquits or or home made bluebery muffens. However you can also order wheat roles instead.

For desert, the choices are amazing. Six different deserts that feature choclate. Five kinds of fruit pie. There are several kinds of pudding and also ice cream. Seven flavors. Ive sampled seven of the deserts and the chocolate green bean pie is the only one that is not quiet wonderful.

Do’nt delay. Take your famly to the Flamboyant Plum this week. Youll be glad you

did.

“Proofread carefully to see

if you any words out.”

—Author Unknown

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Student Instructions

Name __________________________________

Passive Sentences Must Not

be Written by You

Writing is often stronger when the verbs are in active voice. Verbs are in active voice when the subject of the sentence performs the action of the sentence. They are in passive voice when the subject receives the action of the sentence instead of performing it.

It sounds complicated, but you can probably hear the difference very easily. Here is a sentence in active voice:

She ordered a pizza with disgusting anchovies.

“She” is the subject of the sentence, and “she” is doing the ordering. Here is how the sentence sounds when it is in passive voice:

A pizza with disgusting anchovies was ordered by her.

Now “pizza” is the subject, but the verb is “was ordered.” The subject is not performing the action. Here’s another example:

Active: Mom likes green olives more than black olives.

Passive: Green olives are liked by Mom more than black olives.

Notice that the passive sentences sound rather awkward in the examples above. In most cases, active voice is a much better choice than passive voice.

Turn the passive sentences below into active ones.

1.The tray of gooey cheese nachos was spilled by Joe all over

2.Candy bars were hidden all over the house by Margaret.

3.Sticks of butter were devoured by Tony’s strange new neighbor

4.Bugs are eaten by almost all little children at some time or

5.Chocolate covered ants are considered to be delicious by some

6.Bananas are eaten whole by monkeys.

7.A great source of protein is bugs.

8.A giant taco salad that was eaten for lunch by him made him

9.The plastic wading pool was filled with grape Kool-Aid by

10.Aunt Alice’s broccoli and chocolate tofu shakes were not liked by any of the five-year-olds at the birthday party.

In the U.S., anchovies always rank last on the list of favorite pizza toppings.

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Student Instructions

Name __________________________________

crazy cornucopia

Thanksgiving scenes commonly feature a cornucopia, that strange spiral cone “thingy” with all kinds of foods spilling out of it. It has been used as a symbol of abundance for centuries, and that “thingy” was originally a goat’s curved horn.

Now why on earth would someone put fruit and grain inside a goat’s horn as a symbol of abundance? According to Greek mythology, the god Cronos swallowed his children at birth. (Why? The gods and goddesses of ancient mythology did a lot of strange things!) At any rate, the mother of Zeus tricked Cronos by wrapping up a rock for him to swallow and giving the baby to a nymph named Amalthea to raise. She raised him on the milk of a goat, and Zeus was grateful. When he grew up, he gave Amalthea the goat’s horn, with special powers added. Whoever possessed it would receive anything he or she wished for.

That was the start of the cornucopia as a symbol of abundance.

A goat’s horn seems a bit dated for this century. Design your own cornucopia out of something other than a goat’s horn. What will you use instead for your symbol of abundance? And what

will you fill it with? Draw a picture or use photos cut from magazines to create your cornucopia and the items it will contain.

Then write a paragraph describing your updated cornucopia. What did you choose for the symbol, and why? What does it contain? Why?

A woman picking

through frozen turkeys at a grocery store, trying to find one large

enough: Do these turkeys get any bigger?

Grocer: No, ma’am. They’re dead.

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