Read the summary of the conclusion of “The World on Turtle’s Back.” [1] When the twins grew up, they continued to fight. [2] One
day they decided to hold a contest to determine who was stronger. [3] Though they tried to defeat each other in many different ways, neither one could win. [4] On the last day, they fought with weapons. [5] Using a deer antler, the right-handed twin overpowered his brother, and he threw him off the edge of the Earth. [6] Today, the right-handed twin lives in the Sky-World, and the left-handed twin lives in the dark underworld. [7] They rule the earthly world of men together. Which best describes sentence 7? It is a compound sentence. It is a compound-complex sentence. It is a simple sentence. It is a dependent sentence.
The correct answer is that it is a simple sentence. This means that it consists of only one independent clause - meaning there is only one finite verb in the sentence. In this case, the verb is <em>rule. </em><em />A compound sentence has at least two independent clauses; a compound-complex sentence has at least two independent clauses plus at least one dependent clause; a dependent clause cannot exist on its own because it is just a fragment of a larger sentence, which is obviously not the case here.
