3. That verbs without objects cannot be used in the passive voice.

4. That verbs with objects may be used in the passive voice.

5. That the predicate in the passive voice cannot be a single word, but must be a verb phrase.

6. That the subject in the active voice has the preposition by before it in the passive voice.

The object of a verb names the person or thing acted upon.

A transitive verb is one that is followed by an object.

An intransitive verb is one that is not followed by an object.

Voice belongs only to verbs and indicates whether the subject acts or is acted upon.

The active voice represents the subject as acting. The passive voice represents the subject as acted upon.

EXERCISES

I

Find the transitive verbs and their objects in these sen

tences:

1. The war in Europe showed the value of aircraft.

2. Congress appropriated two thirds of a billion dollars for aircraft alone.

3. Many children planted war gardens.

4. In February, 1915, Germany declared a blockade of the British Isles.

5. On November 11, 1918, the German envoys accepted from General Foch an armistice.

II

Tell which verbs are transitive and which intransitive in these sentences: 1

1. He reads slowly.

2. She reads good books.

3. Rolling clouds blotted out the lights of the village.

4. He has sold his automobile.

5. Farmers raise corn and wheat.

6. Oak trees grow slowly.

7. She sings like a bird.

8. The trumpeter blew a loud blast.
9. She sits and sews all day.

IO. I laid the book on the table.

III

In the following sentences change each active voice into the passive voice, and each passive voice into the active voice:

1. They were tanned by the sun.

2. Shallow waters make most noise.

1 In such a sentence as "He eats slowly," eats is sometimes called a transitive verb used intransitively. There is no such thing as a transitive verb used intransitively, or an intransitive verb used transitively. Use, or service in the sentence, is what alone makes a verb transitive or intransitive. When a verb in the active voice does not take a direct object in a particular sentence, it is an intransitive verb in that sentence, whatever it may be elsewhere.

3. Temptation is prevented by constant occupation.

4. Death keeps no calendar.

5. We knew both husband and wife.

6. The debilitated frame of Mr. Bertram was exhausted by rage and indignation.

7. He and his son sold or gave away all of their property.

8. Troops were moved with amazing rapidity by Stonewall Jackson.

9. The last puff of the wind brought the scent of damp woodsmoke.

10. Exercise strengthens the muscles and keeps the body in good condition.

CHAPTER XLIX

II. AMERICA

For Study and Composition

We learned in Chapter XLV that America is compounded of many nations but that she is yet different from them all. Here is a poem written by an American who was returning home from a visit to Europe and who expressed some of these differences in a very interesting way:

I

'Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,

To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings —
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome,
But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.

I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack:
The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea,
To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

- HENRY VAN DYKE: America for Me (1910).

II

In the long years that are to come, what will be the relation of the Old World to the New World? I, for one, hope that foreigners will not only like us more and more but that they will turn to us more and more for guidance and inspiration. They have helped us. Why should not we continue to help them? I hope, too, that as the years pass America will come more and more to realize in daily life and thought those great ideals that gave her birth. Both of these hopes seem to me to be approaching a partial fulfillment as I write these words. Here at least is an eloquent expression of them:

And my dream is this: that as the years go on and the world knows more and more of America, it will also drink at these fountains of youth and renewal, that it will also turn to America for those moral inspirations that lie at the base of human freedom, that it will never fear America unless it finds itself engaged in some enterprise inconsistent with the rights of humanity, and that America will come into the full light of that day when all shall know she puts human rights above all other rights, and that her flag is the flag not only of America, but the flag of humanity. WOODROW WILSON, July 4, 1914.

EXERCISES

I

1. What are some of the things that Doctor van Dyke liked in Europe?

2. What new name does he give to America in the second stanza? in the last stanza?

3. Talk for not more than two minutes on America Compared with Europe." End by repeating the third

stanza.

4. Write a paragraph on the same topic.

II

1. Put into your own words President Wilson's dream about America.

2. Talk for not more than two minutes on "My Country in the Years to Come."

3. Write a paragraph on the same topic.