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Example Questions
Example Question #231 : Sat Writing
1 Although agritourism is a fairly recent phenomenon in the Western world; it is proving popular in many countries. 2 Agritourism is broadly defined as any activity or attraction that draws visitors to a farm, and it can include anything from corn mazes and apple picking to vineyard tours, workshops on animal husbandry, and work-stay exchange programs. 3 The practice is particularly prevocalic in North America, Europe, and Australia. 4 With a huge variety of farms and activities available to agritourists. 5 For example: visitors can learn how to run a cattle drive in Wyoming, make cheese in France, harvest olives in Sicily, or pick kiwi fruit in New Zealand.
6 Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble as well as educate the public about where their food comes from. 7 Henceforth, most people agree that agritourism is benevolent for everyone involved. 8 While there are some who argue that it is a cheap ploy designed to make selfish tourists feel better about their vacations. 9 All in all, it will be interesting to see how agritourism continues to develop in the future.
How should Sentence 6 be rewritten?
Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble, as well as educate the public about from where their food comes.
Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble, and the farms can help educate the public about from where their food is coming.
Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble as well as educate the public about from where their food is coming.
Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble as well as educate the public about where their food comes from. (no change)
Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble, and the farms can help educate the public about where their food comes from.
Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble, and the farms can help educate the public about where their food comes from.
The original sentence implies that it is the income that helps educate the public, not the farms themselves, which is incorrect. By adding a few words to the second half of the sentence, we can be more precise. It is not necessary to rewrite the sentence in a convoluted way to avoid ending with a preposition; that’s an outdated rule that can be acknowledged when convenient but ignored when not.
Example Question #232 : Sat Writing
1 Although agritourism is a fairly recent phenomenon in the Western world; it is proving popular in many countries. 2 Agritourism is broadly defined as any activity or attraction that draws visitors to a farm, and it can include anything from corn mazes and apple picking to vineyard tours, workshops on animal husbandry, and work-stay exchange programs. 3 The practice is particularly prevocalic in North America, Europe, and Australia. 4 With a huge variety of farms and activities available to agritourists. 5 For example: visitors can learn how to run a cattle drive in Wyoming, make cheese in France, harvest olives in Sicily, or pick kiwi fruit in New Zealand.
6 Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble as well as educate the public about where their food comes from. 7 Henceforth, most people agree that agritourism is benevolent for everyone involved. 8 While there are some who argue that it is a cheap ploy designed to make selfish tourists feel better about their vacations. 9 All in all, it will be interesting to see how agritourism continues to develop in the future.
Which of the following is a sentence fragment?
Sentence 5
Sentence 6
Sentence 8
none of the other choices
Sentence 7
Sentence 8
Sentence 8 is a dependent clause lacking an independent clause, which makes it a sentence fragment. Here is one way to rewrite it correctly: “However, there are some who argue that it is a cheap ploy designed to make selfish tourists feel better about their vacations.”
Example Question #27 : Rewriting A Full Sentence
1 Tattoos have even been found on ancient Icelandic, Egyptian, and South American mummies.2 On their various voyages to the South Pacific, Captain Cook and other European explorers brought back accounts of colorfully inked natives, and their sailors soon began to adopt the practice. 3 Early medieval Northern European tribes such as the Picts and Visigoths were often heavily tattooed; particularly the warriors. 4 Over the centuries, various cultures have described various meanings to tattoos, with indelible ink signifying everything from royalty to gang membership to magical powers.
5 Interestingly modern-day tattooing’s popularity evolved out of its adoption by wealthy British nobility, and by American celebrities, musicians, and actors. 6 While tattoos do have a dark past, most notably at Auschwitz, where Nazi’s identified prisoners by tattooing numbers on their arms. 7 Tattoos can be signs of joy, belief, or even healing, such as the colorful tattoos that breast cancer survivors use to cover mastectomy scars.
8 Today, there are more options than ever before, tattoo artists often have fine arts training, lengthy apprenticeships, and can offer specialty inks that glow in the dark or are easier to remove. 9 The internet is full of design ideas, tattoo parlor rankings, and even horror stories about bad tattoo experiences. 10 Now more than ever, information about ink abounds. 11 Choose wisely!
Which of the following sentences needs an apostrophe deleted from it?
Sentence 5
Sentence 6
Sentence 7
Sentence 3
Sentence 4
Sentence 6
The plural of Nazi is Nazis, not "Nazi's." (Generally, apostrophes are not used to change a singular noun into a plural one.)
Example Question #21 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Some of the best-known badlands occur in North America; Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah, and the Big Muddy Badlands in Saskatchewan. 2 Have you ever been to the badlands? 3 Despite their name, badlands are often fascinating topographical regions. 4 With beautiful vistas as well. 5 Elsewhere badlands can be found in Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and Argentina.6 Badlands are distinguished by their stark, dry terrain, their sharply eroded landscapes, their lack of vegetation, and their colorful, clay-rich rocks. 7 They often include geological features such as canyons, gullies, mesas, buttes, and hoodoos. 8 Nevertheless, visiting badlands can be an uncommon but rewarding experience.
What punctuation mark should be added to Sentence 6 to provide clarity?
;
,
–
none of the other answers
:
;
Sentence 6 presents complex items in a list. Because these items themselves contain commas, adding a semicolon as a sort of “super comma” keeps the items in the list distinct from each other. The correction would look like this: “Badlands are distinguished by their stark, dry terrain; their sharply eroded landscapes; their lack of vegetation; and their colorful, clay-rich rocks.”
Example Question #21 : Correcting Grammatical Errors In A Full Sentence
1 All in all, aviation will likely continue to fascinate people for centuries to come. 2 Long before the famous Wright brothers humans were attempting to fly. 3 The ancient Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus shows the tantalizing allusion of flight. 4 With large kites’ in China may have been the first successful instance of human flight several thousand years ago. 5 Hundreds of years later and despite many hazings; the Montgolfier brothers and other pioneering aviators began experimenting with manned hot-air balloon flights. 6 Therefore, technology has advanced to the point of supersonic and hypersonic flight, but people are still trying to break new barriers and invent new methods of flight.
How should Sentence 2 be rewritten?
Long before the famous Wright brothers humans were attempting to fly. (no change)
Long before the famous Wright brothers, humans were attempting to fly.
Long before, the famous Wright brothers; humans were attempting to fly.
Long before the famous Wright brothers; humans were attempting to fly.
Long before, the famous Wright brothers humans were attempting to fly.
Long before the famous Wright brothers, humans were attempting to fly.
Here, we have a dependent clause “Long before the famous Wright brothers” and an independent clause “humans were attempting to fly,” so we need to separate them with a comma.
Example Question #31 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or other United States are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person. 2 To someone who is not familiar with this religious community, the lifestyle seems to harp back to a bygone era. 3 In particular the Amish are known for their plain garments, their eschewal of modern technology, their use of horses and buggies, and their exquisite handicrafts, including: wooden furniture, intricate quilts, and fruit pies. 4 Contact with the outside world is limited, and communities are often as insolent now as when they emigrated from Switzerland in the 1700s.
5 The people are governed strictly in their auspicious behavior, dress, and lifestyle by a set of rules known as Ordnung, and most speak both Pennsylvania Dutch and English. 6 Their religious beliefs are most closely related to Mennonites, and they observe many common Christian practices: baptism, marriage, and Sunday church services, for example. 7 Whereas, the Amish also practice rumspringa, a period of adolescent exploration, as well as excommunication and shunning to exclude those who do not conform to the community’s beliefs and practices. 8 What does life look like inside an Amish community? 9 Wherewithal, there seem to be both positive and negative aspects to this emphasis on family ties, manual labor, and religious belief.
How should Sentence 1 be rewritten?
Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or other United States are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person. (no change)
Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or the other United States are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person.
Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or other states are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person.
Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or other United States are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person.
Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, or Ohio, or the other United States are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person.
Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or other states are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person.
Even though it contains 50 states, “the United States” is a singular noun (there’s only one United States, after all), so “other United States” is incorrect. The reader can infer that the passage is talking about other states in the United States if we simply write “other states,” so that’s the best, most concise option.
Example Question #31 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Dehydration is a potentially serious medical condition that arrives when a patients’ metabolic processes are disrupted by a lack of water in the body. 2 What can cause dehydration? 3 Dehydration can be caused by overexertion, sickness (vomiting or diarrhea), or sun exposure; among other factors. 4 Treatments for dehydration include: drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration. 5 Symptoms of dehydration vary by the severance of water loss, but the most common signs are increased thirst, a swollen tongue, dizziness, weakness, and fainting. 6 If treatment is not sanctioned quickly dehydration can result in delirium, seizures, and even death. 7 Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world, where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care causing many preventable infant fatalities.
How should Sentence 4 be rewritten?
Treatments for dehydration include: drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration. (no change)
Treatments for dehydration, including drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration.
Treatments for dehydration include, drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration.
Treatments for dehydration include drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration.
Treatments for dehydration: including drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration.
Treatments for dehydration include drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration.
The original colon is incorrect, since it should only be used if the part of the sentence preceding the colon is an independent clause. No comma is necessary, either.
Example Question #33 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Dehydration is a potentially serious medical condition that arrives when a patients’ metabolic processes are disrupted by a lack of water in the body. 2 What can cause dehydration? 3 Dehydration can be caused by overexertion, sickness (vomiting or diarrhea), or sun exposure; among other factors. 4 Treatments for dehydration include: drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration. 5 Symptoms of dehydration vary by the severance of water loss, but the most common signs are increased thirst, a swollen tongue, dizziness, weakness, and fainting. 6 If treatment is not sanctioned quickly dehydration can result in delirium, seizures, and even death. 7 Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world, where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care causing many preventable infant fatalities.
How should Sentence 7 be rewritten?
Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world; where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care cause many preventable infant fatalities.
Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world; where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care causing many preventable infant fatalities.
Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world where insect- and water-borne disease, and a lack of accessible medical care, cause many preventable infant fatalities.
Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world, where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care cause many preventable infant fatalities.
Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world, where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care causing many preventable infant fatalities. (no change)
Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world, where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care cause many preventable infant fatalities.
Sentence 7 is a mixed construction. To fix it, we must change the tense of “causing” to “cause.” No semicolon is necessary, since we don’t have two independent clauses here.
Example Question #34 : Improving Paragraphs
1 The Moluccas is a chain, or archetype, of islands belonging to Indonesia. 2 Historically, these islands were known as the Spice Islands for their abundance of nutmeg, cloves, mace, and pepper, this profundity of spices eventually drew colonial attention. 3 Spices such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, anise, and pepper were particularly popular during the medieval times. 4 In the 1600s, the Spice Wars arose as a result of competing Portuguese and Dutch interest’s in the Spice Islands. 5 The bloody conflict ended in the deaths of many native Moluccans as well as European traders, wherefore both Portugal and the Netherlands gained and lost territories ranging from Africa and South America. 6 For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.7 It is located just west of New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, and its more than 1,000 islands are home to more than 2 million people today.
How should Sentence 6 be rewritten?
For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands, although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.
For this day strife occasionally breaks out on the islands although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.
For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands; although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.
For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements. (no change)
For this day strife occasionally breaks out on the islands, although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.
For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands, although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.
Sentence 6 contains an independent clause (“For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands”) and a dependent clause (“although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements”), so a comma must be used to separate them. A comma is also needed after introductory phrases such as “For this day.”
Example Question #35 : Improving Paragraphs
1 One such example of regional cooking could be found in the American South. 2 Wherefore foods such as gumbo, barbecue, fried chicken, and watermelons can now be found all across the country, it was once specific to states south of the Mason-Dixon line. 3 And while Southern cuisine has been influenced by Native American tribes, Scottish immigrants, and Cajun settlers, one of the most significant culinary inspirations came from the South’s black population. 4 Dishes such as cornbread, succotash, collard or turnip greens, pimento cheese, crawfish, and sweet tea all hale from the South, as well. 5 For example, okra, black-eyed peas, and sorghum are all foods brought to America and cultivated by African slaves. 6 Soon, soul food (a sometimes contentious term among black chefs) began to be served in black-owned restaurants in the South. 7 Borne out of competing cultural influences and not-infrequent strife, it should be no surprise that Southern food remains a complex delicious cuisine to this day.
Which sentence needs a comma added to it?
Sentence 3
Sentence 4
Sentence 5
Sentence 7
Sentence 6
Sentence 7
Sentence 7 lacks a comma between “complex” and “delicious,” as these are two separate adjectives both appearing immediately before the same noun. (A good way to test whether a comma is needed between two adjectives is to see if the word “and” makes sense between those adjectives. If it does, then a comma is usually necessary.)
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