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Proofreading exercises with All the Light We Cannot See - Long snippets

Introduction

1. Ready, set, correct

Proof It

2. No curses

3. Phantoms?

4. So curious

5. Back to life

6. Hotel of Bees

7. Long gravel lanes

8. Exasperation

9. Sirens wail

10. Dinosaur femur

11. Mad enough

12. Acceptance letter

13. Can you imagine?

14. Thick red carpet

15. Nightmares

16. The play

Wrapping up

17. See you next time

Introduction

1. Ready, set, correct

How is you spelling and punctuation?

This lesson will put it to the test. We have a big collection of snippets from Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See.

Each snippet has had some spelling scrmabled, and all the punctuation marks have been changed%

Your mission is to correct each snippet within 2 minutes, and with only limited peeks at the source snippet.

The snippets in this lesson are pretty tough! Think you can do it?

A hint: all the letters are there, they are just scarmbeld. If you're ever in doubt, peek at the source. If you don't make it in time, you can do the activity again.

If you're shaky with spelling and punctuation, this activity will be like conditioning!

Good luck!

Proof It

2. No curses

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

The despair doesn't last. Marie-Laure is too young and her father is too patient. There are, he assures her, no such things as curses. There is luck, maybe, bad or good. A slight inclination of each day toward success or failure. But no curses.

despair is too young and her is too he no things as is bad or slight inclination of each day success or no curses.

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

3. Phantoms?

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

In the absolute blackness, his vision is webbed with a thousand travelling wisps of red and blue. Flames? Phantoms? They lick along the floor, then rise to the ceiling, glowing strangely, serenely.

"Are we dead?" he shouts into the dark. "Have we died?"

the absolute blackness, his vision is webbed with a travelling wisps of red and lick the then rise to the ceiling, glowing

we he the we

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

4. So curious

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

"You want to know what it looks like. That's why you're so curious."

She rolls a murex in her hands. Holds it to her ear. Ten thousand drawers, ten thousand whispers inside ten thousand shells.

"No," she says. "I want to believe that Papa hasn't been anywhere near it."

want to know what it looks like. why so

rolls a murex in her it to her thousand ten whispers inside ten thousand

she want to believe that been anywhere near

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

5. Back to life

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

One day a neighbor's wireless goes out, and Frau Elena suggests Werner have a look. He unscrews the back plate, waggles the tubes back and forth. One is not seated properly, and he fits it back into its groove. The radio comes back to life, and the neighbor shrieks with delight.

day a wireless goes and suggests have a the back waggles the tubes back and is not and he fits it back into its radio comes to and the neighbor shrieks delight.

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

6. Hotel of Bees

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

Not so long ago, the Hotel of Bees was a cheerful address, with bright blue shutters on its facade and oysters on ice in its cafe and Breton waiters in bow ties polishing glasses behind its bar. It offered twenty-one guest rooms, commanding sea views, and a lobby fireplace as big as a truck.

so long the of was a blue shutters on its facade and on ice in its cafe and waiters in bow ties behind its bar. offered guest sea and a fireplace as big as a truck.

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

7. Long gravel lanes

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

Other days, in the hours after lessons, Werner tows his little sister through the mine complex in a wagon he has assembled from cast-off parts. They rattle down the long gravel lanes, past pit cottages and trash barrel fires, past laid-off miners squatting all day on upturned crates, motionless as statues.

in the after tows his sister through the mine in a wagon he has assembled from rattle the long past pit and trash past miners squatting all day on upturned as

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

8. Exasperation

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

He picks her up and spins her around three times. "Now," he says, "you're going to take us home."

Her mouth drops open.

"I want you to think of the model, Marie."

"But I can't possibly!"

"I'm one step behind you. I won't let anything happen. You have your cane. You know where you are."

"I do not!"

"You do."

Exasperation.

her up and spins her around three he says, going to us

mouth drops

want you to think of the

one step let anything have your know where you

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

9. Sirens wail

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

Sirens wail. She closes the shutters and relatches the window. Every second the airplanes draw closer; every second is a second lost. She should be rushing downstairs. She should be making for the corner of the kitchen where a little trapdoor opens into a cellar full of dust and mouse-chewed rugs and ancient trunks long unopened.

closes the shutters and relatches the second the draw every is a second should be rushing be making for the corner of the kitchen where a trapdoor a cellar full of and and ancient long

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

10. Dinosaur femur

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

The children watch engineers use pulleys to lift a fossilized dinosaur femur. They see a stuffed giraffe in a closet, patches of hide wearing off its back. They peer into taxidermists' drawers full of feathers and talons and glass eyeballs; they flip through two-hundred-year-old herbarium sheets bedecked with orchids and daisies and herbs.

watch engineers use pulleys to lift a dinosaur see a stuffed giraffe in a of hide off its peer drawers full of feathers and and glass they flip herbarium bedecked with orchids and daisies and

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

11. Mad enough

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

He says the takeover of Austria is nothing to worry about. He says everyone remembers the last war, and no one is mad enough to go through that again, The director is not worrying, he says, and neither are the department heads, so neither should young girls who have lessons to learn.

It seems true: nothing changes but the days of the week.

says the takeover of is nothing to worry says everyone the and no one is mad to go that director is not he and neither are the so neither should young who have lessons to

seems true: nothing changes but the days of the

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

12. Acceptance letter

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

But before the girls arrive, news of his acceptance has reverberated around the block. Neighbors come over one after another and exclaim and wag their chins. Coal wives bring pig knuckles and cheese; they pass around Werner's acceptance letter; the ones who can read, read it aloud to the ones who cannot, and Jutta comes home to a crowded, exhilarated room.

before the girls news of his has around the over one and exclaim and wag their bring pig and they pass around acceptance the ones who can read it aloud to the ones who and home to a exhilarated

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

13. Can you imagine?

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

That chunk of coal was once a green plant, a fern or reed that lived one million years ago, or maybe two million, or maybe one hundred million. Can you imagine one hundred million years? Every summer for the whole life of that plant, its leaves caught what light they could and transformed the sun's energy into itself. Into bark, twigs, stems. Because plants eat light, in much the way we eat food.

of coal was once a green plant, a fern or reed lived one million or maybe two or one hundred you one hundred summer for the whole of that its leaves what light they and transformed the sun's into plants eat in much the way we eat

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

14. Thick red carpet

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

A thick red carpet sucks at the soles of Werner's brogues; electric bulbs burn in a chandelier above the table; roses twine across the wallpaper. A fire smolders in the fireplace. On all four walls hang framed tintypes of glowering ancestors. Is this where they arrest boys whose sisters listen to foreign radio stations? The woman turns pages of her magazine, one after another. Her fingernails are bright pink.

thick red at the soles of electric burn in a chandelier above the roses twine across the fire smolders in the fireplace. all four hang tintypes of glowering this where they boys whose sisters to foreign radio woman turns pages of her one after fingernails are bright

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

15. Nightmares

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

She has nightmares. Silent Germans row up the Seine in synchrony; their skiffs glide as if through oil. They fly noiselessly beneath the bridge trestles; they have beasts with them on chains; their beasts leap out of the boats and sprint past the massifs of flowers, down the rows of hedges. They sniff the air on the steps to the Grand Gallery. Slavering. Ravenous. They surge into the museum, scatter into the departments. The windows go black with blood.

has row up the in skiffs as if fly noiselessly beneath the have beasts with them on beasts leap out of the boats and sprint past the massifs of flowers, down the rows of sniff the air on the steps to the surge the into the windows go black blood.

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

16. The play

This is a Proofing exercise - please correct the mistakes in this snippet.

All twelve children sit riveted. In the play, the invaders pose as hook-nosed department-store owners, crooked jewelers, dishonorable bankers; they sell glittering trash; they drive established village businessmen out of work. Soon they plot to murder German children in their beds. Eventually a vigilant and humble neighbor catches on. Police are called: big handsome-sounding policemen with splendid voices. They break down the doors. They drag the invaders away.

twelve children sit the the as crooked dishonorable they drive out of they plot to murder in their a vigilant and humble neighbor catches are big policemen with splendid break down the drag the away.

All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrSource

Wrapping up

17. See you next time

Holy moly, if you made it this far you are a proofreading berserker. You'll take on all teh typos and bad spelligns and punctuation:?

Perhaps seeing thoes typos has made you so mad that you wish you could fix them too...

On to the next mission!