ACT English : Revising Content
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Example Questions
Example Question #46 : Avoiding Ambiguity And Redundancy
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, select “NO CHANGE.”
Julia wanted to buy the fastest car on the market, one which could go faster than any other car.
a car faster than any other car, the fastest car on the market.
the fastest car on the market, one which could go the fastest any other car.
NO CHANGE
the fastest car on the market
a fast car.
the fastest car on the market
This questions asks you to address redundancy in a sentence. The phrase "the fastest car on the market" already makes it clear that this car will be "faster than any other car," so the use of the second phrase is redundant and unnecessary. Shortening the phrase to simply "a fast car," however, changes the sentence's meaning: Julia does not just want any fast car, she wants the fastest one that exists. Therefore, the best answer is "Julia wanted to buy the fastest car on the market."
Example Question #262 : Revising Content
Maybe your thinking of getting a dog; but you are not sure how it will affect your budget. Don’t worry! It’s possible to enjoy the companionship with a dog without spending too much of your precious dollars.
First, you will want to make a list of all the necessary items needed before you bring Fluffy home. Compare costs at different pet stores, grocery stores and big box stores. You will need to buy food, a leash, and purchase toys for your dog.
When it comes to the many dog food choices, you don’t want to just buy the cheaper option. You will want to do some research to see what is healthiest for your dog! One of the best ways to save money on dog food is to buy it in bulk.
Don’t forget to plan for some other big expenses, the vet consultation, wellness exam, and any treatments your dog needs. When you bring your pet to the vet, they may need shots, which can vary for price. Call different clinics in the area and ask how much they charge for the standard immunizations? You might find that there is a lot of differences between offices.
The key to sticking to your budget is planning everything out! With good preparation and organization, a dog will not cost you more money than you planned for.
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."
a list of all the necessary items
NO CHANGE
a list of all the necessary items you need
a necessary list of all the needed items
a list of all the required items needed
a list of all the necessary items
This question asks you to eliminate redundant words. The words "necessary" and "needed" convey the same meaning in this statement, so it is not necessary to include both. The phrase "all the necessary items" conveys the same meaning concisely.
Example Question #321 : Writing And Revising Effectively
That little dog is so cute--he is small, fluffy, and sweet. I enjoy adorable tiny animals of all kinds! Do you have any for sale?
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."
NO CHANGE
That sweet dog is so cute--he is small, cute, and little.
That sweet little dog is small, fluffy, and cute.
That little dog is so cute--he is fluffy and sweet.
That little dog is so cute--he is fluffy.
That little dog is so cute--he is fluffy and sweet.
This question asks you to eliminate redundant words from a sentence. Since the words "little" and "small" have the exact same meaning, we do not need to use both in this sentence. However, removing any of the other adjectives is incorrect because to do so changes the sentence's meaning.
Example Question #322 : Writing And Revising Effectively
[1] Some people are excited, some people are just annoyed. [2] Being called to jury duty can inspire a range of different emotions. [3] Unsure how long the trial will take, a call to jury duty can be stressful for people who can’t afford to miss work or school.
Some people will be making attempts to get out of jury duty. However, most will still need to serve. Fortunately, many cases are settled before going to trial and is not uncommon for trials to just last only one day. Either way, once you have served on a jury, you won’t have to do it again for a while!
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."
for trials to last only one day
for trials to last just only one day
for trials only to last just one day
for trials just to last only one day
NO CHANGE
for trials to last only one day
This question asks you to correct redundancy in a sentence. The words "just" and "only" have the same meaning in this context, so it is not necessary to use both. Removing the word "just" makes the sentence more concise while preserving its meaning.
Example Question #51 : Avoiding Ambiguity And Redundancy
Coupons
Are you trying to stick to a budget? Using coupons for [61] purchases, also known as “couponing” is a great way to save money on groceries. [62] Coupons are a little piece of paper that can give you a discount on what you buy. You will be amazed at the [63] great bargains and amazing savings you can get!
It’s easy to get started. [64] When you open up your daily newspaper, one might find a glossy insert full of coupons. [65] Some of the coupons will be for things you don’t buy, some will be for things you buy all the time. Go through the coupons and [66] chop out the ones you can use.
The key to successful couponing is getting multiple copies of coupon circulars. Ask [67] your friends, your neighbors, and family if they have any extras. Some coupon users even go through the recycling at their office to find more coupons! [68] Completely devoted, these circulars help coupon users to get even more savings.
Couponing might sound like hard work, but for [69] many people, it’s also a hobby. Not only does it help them save hundreds of dollars per year, [70] but instead it gives them a fun challenge every time they do their shopping.
Is there perhaps a greater value to a life lived without constant counting, penny-pinching, and miserliness? [71] But of what value are such savings? [72] At the end of the day; money is a construct, invented by the elite for the sole purpose of controlling the populace. [73] If we accept this fundamental truth, it behooves one to question the monetary structures that control our lives. Indeed, from this perspective, the very practice of couponing might seem a venial distraction from the valuable human endeavor of personal philosophical consideration. [74]
The papers we pore over should be in our books; the pennies we save should be in the currency of our happiness; [75] the budget we have made should have been a budget of our contentment.
A sort of couponing of the soul might ultimately be the solution.
Choose the answer that best corrects section [65].
When you open up your daily newspaper, one finds a glossy insert full of coupons.
When you open up your daily newspaper, you might find a glossy insert full of coupons.
NO CHANGE
Upon opening up your daily newspaper, one might find a glossy insert full of coupons.
When you open up your daily newspaper, you might find a glossy insert full of coupons.
This question asks you to correct ambiguity caused by a subject shift. The first part of the sentence uses the second-person subject, “you,” but the second part of the sentence switches to the third-person neutral subject, “one.” This reduces the clarity and consistency of the text. To correct this error, replace “one” with “you.”
Example Question #323 : Writing And Revising Effectively
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
William told his friend, Timothy, that he should go golfing with their boss when the chance arises.
Timothy
NO CHANGE
he or she
you
Timothy
If the sentence is left as it appears, the highlighted pronoun is ambiguous and could refer to either William or Timothy. Two of the options make the sentence nonsensical. When the pronoun is properly replaced, it may sound strange when spoken, but it does properly fix the presented error.
Example Question #1 : Analyzing Effectiveness
Adapted from The Autobiography of John Adams (ed. 1856)
Here I will interrupt the narration for a moment to observe that, from all I have read of the history of Greece and Rome, England and France, and all I have observed at home and abroad, articulate eloquence in public assemblies is not the surest road to fame or preferment, at least, unless it be used with caution, very rarely, and with great reserve. The examples of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson is enough to show that silence and reserve in public is more efficacious than argumentation or oratory. A public speaker who inserts himself, or is urged by others, into the conduct of affairs, by daily exertions to justify his measures, and answer the objections of opponents, makes himself too familiar with the public and unavoidably makes himself enemies. Few persons can bear to be outdone in reasoning or declamation or wit or sarcasm or repartee or satire, and all these things that are very apt to grow out of public debate. In this way, in a course of years, a nation becomes full of a man’s enemies, or at least, of such as have been galled in some controversy and take a secret pleasure in assisting to humble and mortify him. So much for this digression. We will now return to our memoirs.
Which of the following sentences provides an instance that is meant to illustrate what the author is advising in this passage?
In this way, in a course of years, a nation becomes full of a man’s enemies, or at least, of such as have been galled in some controversy and take a secret pleasure in assisting to humble and mortify him.
Few persons can bear to be outdone in reasoning or declamation or wit or sarcasm or repartee or satire, and all these things that are very apt to grow out of public debate.
Here I will interrupt the narration for a moment to observe that, from all I have read of the history of Greece and Rome, England and France, and all I have observed at home and abroad, articulate eloquence in public assemblies is not the surest road to fame or preferment, at least, unless it be used with caution, very rarely, and with great reserve.
The examples of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson are enough to show that silence and reserve in public are more efficacious than argumentation or oratory.
The examples of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson are enough to show that silence and reserve in public are more efficacious than argumentation or oratory.
The author is arguing that "articulate eloquence in public assemblies is not the surest road to fame or preferment, at least, unless it be used with caution, very rarely, and with great reserve." Implicitly, he is meaning to offer advice against thinking that it is a means to fame. Directly after this sentence, he provides an example illustrating that silence is "more efficacious than argumentation or oratory": "The examples of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson are enough to show that silence and reserve in public are more efficacious than argumentation or oratory."
Example Question #2 : Analyzing Effectiveness
Adapted from Looking Backward: 2000 to 1887 by Edward Bellamy (1888)
I first saw the light in the city of Boston in the year 1857. "What" you say "eighteen fifty-seven? That is an odd slip. He means nineteen fifty-seven, of course." I beg pardon, but there is no mistake. It was about four in the afternoon of December the 26th, one day after Christmas, in the year 1857, not 1957, that I first breathed the east wind of Boston, which, I assure the reader, was at that remote period marked by the same penetrating quality characterizing it in the present year of grace, 2000.
These statements seem so absurd on their face, especially when I add that I am a young man apparently of about thirty years of age, that no person can be blamed for refusing to read another word of what promises to be a mere imposition upon his credulity. Nevertheless I earnestly assure the reader that no imposition is intended, and will undertake if he shall follow me a few pages to entirely convince him of this. If I may, then, provisionally assume, with the pledge of justifying the assumption, that I know better than the reader when I was born, I will go on with my narrative.
According to the passage, the year in which the narrator is writing is which of the following?
1887
1857
2000
1957
2000
The reader refers to "the present year of grace, 2000."
Example Question #3 : Analyzing Effectiveness
Adapted from "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1836)
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.
Which is the best paraphrase of the underlined section, "to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime"?
to give man, by looking at the heavens, a chance to see heaven
to provide man, via the stars, something to look at
to give man, via the sight of the stars, a continual awe-inspiring view
to give man, inside the planets, a constant state of being
to give man, via the sight of the stars, a continual awe-inspiring view
The phrase "to give man, via the sight of the stars, a continual awe-inspiring view" is closest to the original meaning of the phrase.
Example Question #266 : Revising Content
Adapted from Hard Times by Charles Dickens (1854)
A candle faintly burned in the window, to which the black ladder had often been raised for the sliding away of all that was most precious in this world to a striving wife and a brood of hungry babies. Stephen added to his other thoughts the stern reflection, that of all the casualties of this existence upon earth, not one was dealt out with so unequal a hand as death. The inequality of birth was nothing to it. For example, the child of a king and the child of a weaver were born tonight in the same moment. What would be the disparity between the death of any human creature who was serviceable to, or beloved by, another, while this abandoned woman lived on!
From the outside of his home he gloomily passed to the inside with suspended breath and with a slow footstep. He went up to his door opened it and so into the room.
Quiet and peace was there. Rachael was there, sitting by the bed.
She turned her head, and the light of her face shone in upon the midnight of his mind. She sat by the bed watching and tending his wife. That is to say, he saw that someone lay there and knew too good that it must be she. However, Rachael’s hands had put a curtain up, so that she was screened from his eyes. Her disgraceful garments were removed, and some of Rachael’s were in the room. Everything was in it’s place and order as he had always kept it. The little fire was newly trimmed, and the hearth was freshly swept. It appeared to him that he saw all this in Rachael’s face. While looking at it, it was shut out from his view by the softened tears that filled his eyes; however, this was not before he had seen how earnestly she looked at him, and how her own eyes were filled too.
Based on the remarks made in the surrounding context, what is the author inferring in the underlined sentence?
Death is perhaps the worst of all events.
Death occurs to people in a manner completely independent of circumstances.
Many people meet unfair deaths.
Death is the most lamentable of all things.
Death occurs to people in a manner completely independent of circumstances.
Later in the paragraph, the author remarks that even the weaver's son and the king share equally in being born at the same moment in time. However, death pays heed to nothing. The beloved (and presumably happy) person can die, while the miserable person lives on in misery.
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