All ACT English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Pronoun Usage Errors
The teacher had several questions for her students when they returned from the museum. Who did they talk to? What did they see?
“We talked to whoever would answer our questions,” replied Jake with the red hair (as opposed to Jake who sat behind him with the brown hair). “Our questions were answered by one woman most of the time.”
"But who was that woman?" the teacher asked.
"We never got her name," Jake with the brown hair said. "At the time, we didn't think her name was important."
Upon hearing this, Hugh was getting annoyed. "Her name wasn't 'Important,'" said Hugh, "it was Ingrid."
"Oh," Jake with the brown hair said. "I knew it started with an 'I.'"
"We saw several paintings by some guy named Renoir," Jake with the red hair said.
"What were these?" Jake with the brown hair asked.
"They were the bigger of the three by the door," Jake with the brown hair replied.
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
who
anyone
NO CHANGE
whom
NO CHANGE
Since the interrogative pronoun here is the subject of the clause "whoever would answer our questions," the object pronoun "whoever" is used, and the "-ever" prefix is used to show that anyone could have talked to the boys.
Example Question #21 : Usage Errors
The teacher had several questions for her students when they returned from the museum. Who did they talk to? What did they see?
“We talked to whoever would answer our questions,” replied Jake with the red hair (as opposed to Jake who sat behind him with the brown hair). “Our questions were answered by one woman most of the time.”
"But who was that woman?" the teacher asked.
"We never got her name," Jake with the brown hair said. "At the time, we didn't think her name was important."
Upon hearing this, Hugh was getting annoyed. "Her name wasn't 'Important,'" said Hugh, "it was Ingrid."
"Oh," Jake with the brown hair said. "I knew it started with an 'I.'"
"We saw several paintings by some guy named Renoir," Jake with the red hair said.
"What were these?" Jake with the brown hair asked.
"They were the bigger of the three by the door," Jake with the brown hair replied.
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
NO CHANGE
Which
Whatever
Whichever
Which
The boy is asking which of the paintings were done by Renoir.
Example Question #22 : Usage Errors
The teacher had several questions for her students when they returned from the museum. Who did they talk to? What did they see?
“We talked to whoever would answer our questions,” replied Jake with the red hair (as opposed to Jake who sat behind him with the brown hair). “Our questions were answered by one woman most of the time.”
"But who was that woman?" the teacher asked.
"We never got her name," Jake with the brown hair said. "At the time, we didn't think her name was important."
Upon hearing this, Hugh was getting annoyed. "Her name wasn't 'Important,'" said Hugh, "it was Ingrid."
"Oh," Jake with the brown hair said. "I knew it started with an 'I.'"
"We saw several paintings by some guy named Renoir," Jake with the red hair said.
"What were these?" Jake with the brown hair asked.
"They were the bigger of the three by the door," Jake with the brown hair replied.
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
that
theses
those
NO CHANGE
those
"Those" would be the correct demonstrative pronoun to refer to a plural of the paintings.
Example Question #1 : Pronoun Antecedent Agreement Errors
Jimmy is annoyed at the video game that he was playing. For one thing, there was not nearly enough interesting characters suspenseful moments or exciting escapes in the game to satisfy him. For another, it was incredibly hard while playing the game to control the cars. It always wanted to veer to the left when he tried to steer to the right. But the ending of the game was worst. By the time he got to the end, the hero had decided to stop chasing rogue spies and therefore marry his girlfriend, a surprise attack resulted in her being kidnapped, and the hero must go on a final mission to save her before the game can be completed. That would of been fine, except it involved tracking the enemy using a helicopter, and Jimmy much to his chagrin never mastered flying the helicopter.
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the bolded and underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
They
The game
NO CHANGE
Jimmy
They
The previous sentence makes it clear that it is the cars that Jimmy cannot control. "Cars" is a plural noun, so the pronoun should be changed to the plural "they."
Example Question #2 : Pronoun Antecedent Agreement Errors
Jimmy is annoyed at the video game that he was playing. For one thing, there was not nearly enough interesting characters suspenseful moments or exciting escapes in the game to satisfy him. For another, it was incredibly hard while playing the game to control the cars. It always wanted to veer to the left when he tried to steer to the right. But the ending of the game was worst. By the time he got to the end, the hero had decided to stop chasing rogue spies and therefore marry his girlfriend, a surprise attack resulted in her being kidnapped, and the hero must go on a final mission to save her before the game can be completed. That would of been fine, except it involved tracking the enemy using a helicopter, and Jimmy much to his chagrin never mastered flying the helicopter.
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the bolded and underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
thus
consequently
NO CHANGE
OMIT the bolded and underlined selection.
OMIT the bolded and underlined selection.
The hero's action of deciding to stop chasing rogue spies does not entail his marrying his girlfriend; he could have simply decided he needed a career change. Since there is no causal connection between the two actions, it is incorrect to use a conjunction like "therefore," "consequently," or "thus," and the conjunction should simply be omitted from the sentence: "the hero had decided to stop chasing rogue spies and marry his girlfriend."
Example Question #1 : Subject Verb Agreement Errors
Jimmy is annoyed at the video game that he was playing. For one thing, there was not nearly enough interesting characters suspenseful moments or exciting escapes in the game to satisfy him. For another, it was incredibly hard while playing the game to control the cars. It always wanted to veer to the left when he tried to steer to the right. But the ending of the game was worst. By the time he got to the end, the hero had decided to stop chasing rogue spies and therefore marry his girlfriend, a surprise attack resulted in her being kidnapped, and the hero must go on a final mission to save her before the game can be completed. That would of been fine, except it involved tracking the enemy using a helicopter, and Jimmy much to his chagrin never mastered flying the helicopter.
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the bolded and underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
there had been not nearly enough
there were not nearly enough
NO CHANGE
there is not nearly enough
there were not nearly enough
The verb in this phrase needs to agree with the phrase that follows it, which is a list of plural nouns; thus, the phrase "there were not nearly enough" is most appropriate.
Example Question #1 : Subject Verb Agreement Errors
The common goose is one type of bird that flies south for the winter.
bird that fly
birds that flies
NO CHANGE
birds that fly
birds that are flying
NO CHANGE
The original word choice is the only noun-verb pairing that correctly pairs the singular "type" with the underlined portion. Remember: all connected nouns in a name or clause must match, either singular or plural.
Example Question #2 : Subject Verb Agreement Errors
Make any necessary changes to the underlined word or phrase in the sentence.
The entire cast from her favorite television show, except the actress who plays the main character, were present at the event.
was present
NO CHANGE
had been present
is present
was present
A television "cast" is singular, so “was” matches the singular noun. All other options change the tense.
Example Question #2 : Simple Subject Errors
One of the most popular programs of all those featured on the Internet (1) is a video clip show. The format of the show is simple, each (2) week the host, a short but attractive New York native named John Jackson introduces (3) a set of three video clips from all over the Internet. These clips shows (4) people hurting themselves in accidents, getting into crazy situations, interacting stupidly with animals, and et cetera. (5) Jackson introduces each clip comically and often comments on the action with animations where (6) he makes fun of the people in the videos. While the videos are often funny, there is definitely an element of schadenfreude involved in watching these clips. Schadenfreude is a German word for "the pleasure one takes at seeing the suffering of others". (7) Jacksons (8) show are (9) not far removed from popular TV programs like (10) The U.S. Laughs at You there is also a version of which (11) on the Internet. It is an open question whether laughing at these videos is a harmless activity or it causes harm to us. (12)
Choose from the following four options the answer that best corrects the underlined mistake preceding the question number. If there is no mistake or the original text is the best option, choose "NO CHANGE."
Those clips shows
NO CHANGE
These clips show
These clips showing
These clips show
The error is subject-verb agreement, so the correct answer should be "these clips show."
Example Question #3 : Subject Verb Agreement Errors
One of the most popular programs of all those featured on the Internet (1) is a video clip show. The format of the show is simple, each (2) week the host, a short but attractive New York native named John Jackson introduces (3) a set of three video clips from all over the Internet. These clips shows (4) people hurting themselves in accidents, getting into crazy situations, interacting stupidly with animals, and et cetera. (5) Jackson introduces each clip comically and often comments on the action with animations where (6) he makes fun of the people in the videos. While the videos are often funny, there is definitely an element of schadenfreude involved in watching these clips. Schadenfreude is a German word for "the pleasure one takes at seeing the suffering of others". (7) Jacksons (8) show are (9) not far removed from popular TV programs like (10) The U.S. Laughs at You there is also a version of which (11) on the Internet. It is an open question whether laughing at these videos is a harmless activity or it causes harm to us. (12)
Choose from the following four options the answer that best corrects the underlined mistake preceding the question number. If there is no mistake or the original text is the best option, choose "NO CHANGE."
NO CHANGE
shows are
shows is
show is
show is
Johnson has only one show with several episodes, and thus the error is a subject-verb agreement problem that can only be fixed with "show is."
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