Help with homework

[mtomm[$]]

You know that I've always been a little daft so help me out here. Re-word this sentence so you can remove the apostrophe:

Paul rings the church bell at a moment's notice.

[Prepoia[$]]

I'm quite sure that there shouldn't be one to begin with. There is no such thing as a singular "moment notice" .

[emeleel]

Do you have to use all the same words?

If not:

"Paul rings the church bell at any given moment."

[mtomm[$]]

The lesson is identifying contractions and possessives. So they are doing it backwards and removing the apostrophe and replacing that with the non-contracted words or not using possessives.

So for example we did: He goes back to rescue the Patriots' papers.
We changed it to: He goes back to rescue the papers of the Patriots.

Also, we did: Cloth to cover the oars isn't all Paul leaves behind.
Changed to : Cloth to cover the oars is not all Paul leaves behind.

But I'm quite stumped by moment's notice. I'm glad to see I'm not alone.

Melanie, that sentence makes complete sense but I'm not sure it fulfills the requirement.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Prepoia said

I'm quite sure that there shouldn't be one to begin with. There is no such thing as a singular "moment notice" .

The "s" isn't being added to make a plural. The proper phrase is "a moment's notice," or "the notice of a moment" to transliterate it. Plural would be "at many moments' notice" with the apostrophe on the outside.

[pippadaisy[$]]

it's colloquial so it doesn't make any sense to do what it seems like they want you to do, which would be

notice of a moment.

[Leslie2k]

Based on your example:

Paul rings the church bell at a notice of the moment.

This is actually what I originally woud have said, but am not entirely sure that the sentence makes sense this way...

[thinkerlady[$]]

Moment is showing ownership of notice, so that is why the apostrophe.

Paul rings the church bell at any moment.

[pippadaisy[$]]

The whole sentence is poorly constructed to begin with. Why would he ring a church bell at a moment's notice? Unless his name is Quasimodo, that is.

[mtomm[$]]

Hey, thanks A LOT! The girl child was totally freaking out because she was going to have to take it back tomorrow with that answer blank. I told her I thought I knew where we could get help. Sometimes that is what makes me smart.

Paul Revere is who we are talking about here.

[jgibson2[$]]

Paul didn't ring the church bell. He lit lanterns.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Paul Revere didn't light lanterns. He looked to see how many were lit. (He also rode about 1/10th the distance of another guy who didn't have a name that fit so nicely in a poem.)

[jgibson2[$]]

The Midnight Ride of William Dawes

I am a wandering, bitter shade,
Never of me was a hero made;
Poets have never sung my praise,
Nobody crowned my brow with bays;
And if you ask me the fatal cause,
I answer only, "My name was Dawes"

'Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear --
My name was Dawes and his Revere.

When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,
Paul Revere was waiting about,
But I was already on my way.
The shadows of night fell cold and gray
As I rode, with never a break or a pause;
But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!

History rings with his silvery name;
Closed to me are the portals of fame.
Had he been Dawes and I Revere,
No one had heard of him, I fear.
No one has heard of me because
He was Revere and I was Dawes.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I never heard of Dawes, I was thinking of Israel Bissell

Israel Bissell (1752-1823) was a post rider in Massachusetts who alerted the American colonists of the British attack on April 19, 1775. He rode for four days and six hours covering the 345 miles from Watertown, Massachusetts to Philadelphia along the Old Post Road, shouting "To arms, to arms, the war has begun," and carrying a message from General Joseph Palmer...

He even killed a horse from overwork in the process.