Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/344

330 interests of the country districts in so ridiculously an unfair degree to those of a small borough.–Times.

Do cannot represent (1) be, (2) an active verb supplied from a passive, (3) an active verb in a compound tense, gerund, or infinitive; You made the very mistake that I did, but have made, was afraid of making, expected to make, shall (make).

We can of course say He lost his train, which I had warned him not to do; because lose is then represented not by do, but by which (thing).

The trick of taking breath in the middle of a sentence by means of a resumptive that or the like should be avoided; especially when it is a confession rather of the writer's short-windedness than of the unwieldy length of his sentence.

A very short-winded correspondent.

It seems to be a fair deduction that when the Japanese gained their flank position immediately West of Mukden, and when, further, they took no immediate advantage of the fact, but, on the contrary, began to hold the villages in the plain as defensive positions, that a much more ambitious plan was in operation.—Times.

If the writer means what he says, and the grounds of the deduction are not included in the sentence, reconstruction is not obvious, and that is perhaps wanted to pick up the thread; but if, as may be suspected, the when clauses contain the grounds of the deduction, we may reconstruct as