A position frequently espoused by journalists and orators maintains that because English is a dynamic and living language, strict adherence to rules governing expression of the language stifles creativity, conveyance of meaning and subtle inference. However, formal writing, while occupying an ever diminishing niche, is entrenched as the premier showcase of correct grammatical standards. Authors and speakers have an obligation to thoroughly comprehend those standards before deciding when and for what effect rules might be altered. To allay linguistic chaos aggravated by indolent and vernacular usage, the Grammar Police stand sentinel. (It is the opinion of the grammar police that the simplest errors, the ones that should be caught and repaired or never made at all, are the most serious).
DIRECTIONS: The paragraphs below contain errors. Brush up on your grammar, spelling, punctuation and more, because you will need to find all of the mistakes to correctly derive the final coordinates to the cache. In the spirit of fair play, “cache”, “geocachers”, and “muggling” are considered neither incorrect nor errors. In a single-spaced document, a double space between paragraphs is proper form. To reduce necessary HTML code, the two space rule for between sentences has been waived. Numbers larger than one word are generally not spelled out unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence: Sixty-three; twenty; 38. "Motion-activated" and "motion activated" are both acceptable. The last word of the puzzle is "researchers".
As you find errors, list them by type of error rather than the error itself. This will help avoid confusion in working out the cache coordinates. Some error types are listed below. The types suggested may or may not be found in the paragraphs.
Incorrect word usage -- This will not insure [ensure] that you find the cache.
Sentence fragment -- All but six of them.
Punctuation error -- George w[W]ashington; our's [ours]
Homophone error -- Your [You're] out!
Spelling error -- lisence [license]
Double negative -- Don't never [ever] come here!
Incorrect verb tense -- I seen [saw] how it was accomplished.
Subject/Verb agreement -- The sweater shrunk [shrank] when it was washed.
Misplaced modifier -- The car is in the garage which he wrecked. [The car he wrecked is in the garage.]
Faulty or misleading sentence structure -- She looked at the skinny puppy with sad eyes. [Did she look with sad eyes, or did the puppy have sad eyes?]
<< SECTION ONE >>
01....... Three geocachers anxiously awaited the return of there teammate. Hoping to recover a cache
02.. not logged in over a year. The forth member of the group had crawled into a dark, muddy
03.. drainage tunnel to narrow for more than one person. After almost fifteen minutes, the
04.. bedraggled explorer hauled his self out and shook his head disappointedly. He then related some
05.. curious information. The cacher had discovered a motion-activated video camera at the far end
06.. of the tunnel. Noone could say for certain, but it seemed that someone had went to alot of
07.. trouble to prevent muggling.
08.......An intresting newspaper article appeared the next morning. In every Maryland County,
09.. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science research teams had been studying
10.. animal use of drainage passages under highways. Cameras were positioned in 265 culverts to
11 ..record the number and variety of animals using the passages as a means of safe conduct across
12.. state roads. The 57 species observed included groundhogs, bears, turtles, and duck families.
13...Even humans had got photographed. Raccoons past through most often. Because their
14...hooves were likely to lodge among stones, deers would avoid culverts with rocky
15...floors. Great blue herons would use culverts only if the walls was wide enough to allow
16...for extended wings. The study team concluded that it's results were significant enough to provide
17...tunnel engineers with some guidelines for future designs. After sharing a laugh_ the geocachers
18...agreed that they should of posed for a group picture for the researchers.
......................................................................<< STOP >> ....................Do not go on to the next page.
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The cache is located at: ...N.. 39. 44.ABC .....W.. 77. 33.DEF.....Where:
...............A = The number of the first line that does not contain an error
...............B = The number of errors in line 6
...............C = The number of errors in line 16
...............D = The total number of errors in the second paragraph
...............E = The number of lines containing no errors
...............F = The combined number of errors in lines 11, 17 and 18
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
Check Sum = 26
B.T.W.: The puzzle paragraphs have been run through two of the leading grammar check programs online. Both missed obvious mistakes and both failed at spelling. They also objected to "writing style" and "wordiness", which reflect more preference and opinion than error. With that in mind, using checker programs to find the final coordinates is not advisable.
FTF honors to Kelster3, SgtMikal and Jimmy Z