ACT English Help: Clarity And Concision

Jessica decided to rearrange her living room furniture. She moved the couch closer to the television in order to enhance the viewing experience.

PASSAGE IV: Monopoly’s Stolen Origins

¹ Almost everyone has played a game of Monopoly. With its iconic top hat playing piece, colorful paper money, and "Go to Jail" square, it is arguably the most famous board game in the world. According to popular corporate lore, the game was invented in 1933 by Charles Darrow, an unemployed heating engineer (31) who dreamed up the real estate trading game in his basement during the Great Depression. However, the true history of Monopoly is much more complicated, and it begins three decades earlier with a woman named Lizzie Magie.

² In 1903, Magie designed a board game she called The Landlord's Game. She was a progressive thinker and a follower of Henry George, an economist who believed that land should belong to everyone and that landlords unjustly profited from the labor of others. Magie created the game as an educational tool (32) to illustrate the negative consequences of land monopolies. (33) The board featured a continuous track around the outside, properties that could be bought, and a corner space that sent players to jail.

³ Magie’s game was unique because it featured two sets of rules. Under the "Prosperity" rules, every player gained money when a property was acquired, reflecting the idea of shared wealth. Under the "Monopolist" rules, the goal was to acquire all the land and bankrupt the other players. Magie hoped that players would experience both versions and (34) have recognized the superiority of the cooperative approach.

⁴ Instead, players found the cutthroat "Monopolist" version to be far more thrilling. Over the next thirty years, the game spread organically through word of mouth. College students, Quakers, and intellectuals made their own handcrafted boards, modifying the rules and adding local street names. (35) One of these localized versions eventually found its way to Charles Darrow.

⁵ Darrow played the game, loved it, and asked his host for a written copy of the rules. He then made his own version, claiming the invention as his own, and sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935. It became an instant sensation, (36) making Darrow a millionaire. When Parker Brothers discovered that Darrow had not actually invented the game, they quietly bought the patent for The Landlord's Game from Lizzie Magie for a mere $500. (37) Magie never received any royalties from the millions of Monopoly games sold worldwide.

⁶ For decades, Magie’s contribution was completely erased from history. It wasn't until a (38) high-profile legal battle in the 1970s that the true origins of the game were brought to light. Today, Lizzie Magie is finally being recognized as the brilliant, progressive inventor behind the world’s favorite capitalist pastime. (39) Its a profound irony that a game designed to critique the concentration of wealth was ultimately used to make a few men very, very rich. (40)

Which of the answer choices below makes the sentence most grammatically acceptable?

For a history project, Maya interviewed her grandfather about the small grocery store he ran in the 1970s. He described writing prices by hand, greeting regular customers by name, and stocking produce from nearby farms. Maya wants her report to sound straightforward and professional, so she revises one sentence for concision. Which choice is the clearest and most concise?

In her draft, Maya wrote that her grandfather “kept careful records of sales and expenses,” and she noted that he often frequently stayed late to balance the ledger.

The weather forecast predicted rainy weather conditions for the weekend.

The students were asked to write an essay at this point in time on the novel they just finished reading.

While reviewing a short story, a writer noticed that one paragraph repeated information about the main character’s fear of thunderstorms. The writer decided to keep the first mention because it explained why the character avoided camping. The second mention added no new detail, so the writer planned to delete it out of the draft.

Which choice is the clearest and most concise?

The instructions for the assignment were not clear and confusing to many students.

The author wrote a novel that was based on real events that happened in the past.

The lecture was filled with numerous descriptions of the artist's techniques.

"The Architects of the Ocean\n\nThey are visible from space, yet they are built by creatures no larger than a teacup. Coral reefs, often called the "rainforests of the sea," are the work of tiny animals known as polyps. Each of these soft-bodied organisms are [35] related to jellyfish and anemones. Using minerals drawn from the seawater, the polyp constructs a hard, protective skeleton around its base.\n\nThis construction process, repeated by billions of polyps over thousands of years, create the massive limestone structures [36] that form a reef. The polyps do not work alone; they share a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae. The algae live inside the polyp's tissue, providing food through photosynthesis and lending the coral its vivid pigmentation. [37] In return, the polyp offers the algae a safe home and access to sunlight.\n\nThe scale of this collaboration is staggering. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which stretches over 1,400 miles, [38] is the largest living structure on Earth. It is composed of nearly 3,000 individual reefs and is home to a diverse array of different species [39] of marine life. From microscopic plankton to massive humpback whales, the reef supports a complex food web. [40]\n\nDespite their size, reefs are fragile. Rising ocean temperatures can cause the polyps to expel their algal partners, a phenomenon known as bleaching. Without the algae, the coral turns white and may starve. However, [41] scientists are working to identify heat-resistant coral strains. By understanding the biology of these master builders, we hope to ensure that the "architects of the ocean" continue to thrive. [42] [43]"

Which choice is the most concise?