Tricky Punctuation in Cartoons. Lidia Stanton
people say i’m lazy i say i’m on energy saving mode
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love is in the air i’m going to wear my gas mask
fruit is 90% water it is also 100% not pizza
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my teacher asked me to name all chemicals in the periodic table i thought they already had names
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TAKE A BOW
Jay wrote a sci-fi story with the help of his cat Gremlin. Can you help Jay put in all missing full stops and capital letters? Gremlin says, ‘Use a pencil and thank me later.’
I decided to clone myself I thought I could send my clone to school while I stayed at home and played computer games it obviously had to be a secret I swore my cat Gremlin not to utter a single meow to anyone I saw Dr Frankenbrain in the school lab and explained I needed to finish my old chemistry project he let Gremlin be my guinea pig so long as he behaved himself all was going well until Gremlin spotted a red dot on the cloning machine’s controls and went mad chasing the light as well as its reflection on the wall Dr Frankenbrain jumped in to help me manage the silly cat the move was a disaster as the place was full of fragile instruments and dangerous equipment what I didn’t know was that my teacher was really clumsy he tripped over a cable and got zapped by the revving machine although he didn’t get cloned he became one fortieth of his normal size he was much smaller than Gremlin I asked Dr Frankenbrain what I should do to get him back to his normal size all I got back was a series of high-pitched squeaks Gremlin the mad mice chaser did not wait for an invitation he pounced on Dr Frankenbrain and ate him up in three superfast gulps a shame really because I couldn’t think of anyone else who could help me clone myself as I was tidying up the lab Gremlin gave out the loudest burp I’ve ever heard which actually turned out to be my teacher’s real voice…
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Exclamation Mark
What do you call someone who loves animals? Bhavna. Bhavna loves all animals equally and... Wait, what is that noise?
Help! A bear!
STOP AND THINK
What makes us change our intonation when reading this sentence?
If Bhavna sounds overly dramatic, it’s because of the two exclamation marks. They literally make the narrator raise their eyebrows and cry out in a loud, high-pitched voice.
We’ve got to help Bhavna. We can start by taking out one of the exclamation marks.
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Help a bear!
Although Bhavna is not in danger anymore, she needs you to support her charity. Her message is loud and clear with the final exclamation mark.
DID YOU KNOW?
The name ‘exclamation mark’ comes from the Latin word ‘Io’, which meant ‘Hurray’.
Io = Hurray
In time, the ‘I’ gradually moved on top of the ‘o’ and became the punctuation mark we use today.
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KEY TAKEAWAY
An exclamation mark is at the end of a sentence that expresses a lot of feeling, for example enthusiasm, certainty and anger. It is also used to give an order or instruction.
Remember not to use two or three exclamation marks in a row (!!!), unless it’s a personal message or letter.
Do not leave a gap between a word and an exclamation mark:
Excellent ! Instead write: Excellent!
LEMON SQUEEZY
Can you put in missing punctuation marks? Check that all sentences start with a capital letter.
that mini heart attack you get when your foot slides down the stairs
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stop talking and listen
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i’m so glad i don’t have to take this test again
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go