Could you let me know about structure of the sentence as follow:
Flourishing areas of the cultures were selected with a microscope, sections of agar with suitable hyphae drilled out and placed on slides.
Thank you
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Flourishing areas of the cultures – Subject
were selected – Verb
with a microscope,-- Adverb, modifying the verb
sections of agar with suitable hyphae drilled out and placed on slides – Nonfinite clause used as a sentence adverbial.
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Thank for your answer Micawber
I wonder why there is no conj between the two clause and whether “were” has been omitted from the latter clause ?Could you please to talk more about “sentence adverbial”?
Thank you
Steven
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Conjunctions are not necessary with nonfinite clauses. Here are some other examples:
Standing on my head, I thought the Eiffel Tower looked like an iron ice cream cone.
Surrounded by enemies, he could do nothing but lay down his arms.
It is not necessary to constantly interrupt me.
All of these nonfinite clauses are in fact sentence adverbials-- adverbs which cannot easily be related to any one part of the sentence, but modify the whole main clause.
If there is anything missing from your sentence, it is being:
Flourishing areas of the cultures were selected with a microscope, sections of agar with suitable hyphae [being] drilled out and placed on slides.
Whether being is actually missing or not, I leave to the etymologists among us.
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Dear Micawber
Thanks for your reply
On the basis of clues you had given to me, I further examined the usage of Nonfinite Clauses as adverbials. Here some information as follow:
Nonfinite clauses have the internal structure of sentences without having a full complete verb phrase. They are often used to give meanings in “reason” or “purpose” subcategories of the larger “process” category. Again, these clauses are called “nonfinite” because the verb phrases do not have tense.
If there is anything missing from your sentence, it is being:
Flourishing areas of the cultures were selected with a microscope, sections of agar with suitable hyphae [being] drilled out and placed on slides.
Whether being is actually missing or not, I leave to the etymologists among us.
.
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