In This Chapter
Putting your grammar skills to the test with a practice English passage
Practicing questions that test sentence structure concerns
Seeing the English Test questions in context
You didn’t think that we crammed those grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure rules into your head just so you could lord your perfect speech over your friends, did you? Here we show you just how knowing the stimulating rules we cover in Chapters 5 and 6 comes in handy for the ACT. This practice chapter has one passage and 15 questions. Multiply that by 5 for the real ACT English Test. After you complete each question, you can review your answer by reading the explanation that follows.
Directions: Following are four paragraphs containing underlined portions. Alternate ways of stating the underlined portions follow the paragraphs. Choose the best alternative. If the original is the best way of stating the underlined portion, choose NO CHANGE. You also see questions that refer to the passage or ask you to reorder the sentences within a passage. These questions are identified by a number in a box. Choose the best answer.
Marian Anderson: Groundbreaking Singer and Friend of First Ladies
1.(A)NO CHANGE
(B)has had
(C)has
(D)is having
Because Marian Anderson’s influence has already been felt, future tense isn’t appropriate. Ms. Anderson has influenced and continues to influence. The verb tense that shows past action that continues or may continue into the present and beyond is present perfect, so the correct answer is (B). (See Chapter 5 for more information on verb tenses.)2.(F)
2.
(F)
NO CHANGE
(G)
a greater
(H)
one of the greatest
(J)
a great
You need to read the entire sentence before deciding on an answer. If you read “the greatest influence” all by itself, it sounds correct. However, if you continue to read the sentence, you find the comparative than. You cannot say “the greatest influence than” but rather “a greater influence than.” The correct answer is (G).
Be very careful to read the entire sentence. You may save a few seconds by reading only the underlined portion, but you’ll sacrifice a lot of points.
3.(A)NO CHANGE
(B)dating so far
(C)so far dated
(D)OMIT the underlined portion.
To date and so far are redundant; they mean the same thing. You can use one or the other but not both. (Quick! Notify the Department of Redundancy Department!) The correct answer is (D).
4.(F) NO CHANGE
(G)
has been learning
(H)
learned
(J)
is learning
Because Marian Anderson is no longer six years old, the sentence requires the past tense, learned. Hint: If you aren’t sure of the tense, check out the rest of the sentence. You’re told that Ms. Anderson “was singing,” meaning the situation occurred in the past. So the correct answer is (H).
5.(A)NO CHANGE
(B)still a young child
(C)still young
(D)OMIT the underlined portion and end the sentence with a period.
A person who is eight is still a young child — duh! The underlined portion is superfluous, unnecessary. Eliminate it. The period is necessary to finish the sentence. The correct answer is (D).
6.
(F)
NO CHANGE
(G)
less than
(H)
fewer than
(J)
no fewer than
Use fewer to describe plural nouns, as in fewer brain cells, for example. Use less to describe singular nouns, like less intelligence. Because singers is a plural noun, use fewer rather than less. The correct answer is (J).
If you picked Choice (H), you fell for the trap. You forgot to reread the sentence with your answer inserted. The meaning of the whole sentence changes with the phrase “fewer than 300 singers.” In that case, you’re diminishing the winner’s accomplishment. The tone of the passage is one of respect. The author is impressed that Ms. Anderson beat out “no fewer than 300 singers.” Keep in mind that you must make your answers fit the overall tone or attitude of the passage. If a passage is complimentary, be sure that your answers are, too.
7.(A)NO CHANGE
(B)Launching her career,
(C)Her career was launched, but
(D)Upon launching it (her career),
Be very suspicious of that two-letter rascal it. Always double-check it out because it is so often misused and abused. It must refer to one specific thing: “Where is the book? Here it is.” In Question 7, it doesn’t have a clear reference. It could mean that winning the concert launched her career, or it may seem that the New York Philharmonic launched her career. Another problem with Choice (A) is that pesky comma. It belongs before but, not after it. Choices (B) and (D) sound as if America launched Ms. Anderson’s career: “Upon launching it … America was not quite ready ….” Be sure to go back and reread the entire sentence with your answer inserted. The correct answer is (C).
Although the presence of passive voice in an answer is often an indication that the choice is wrong, that’s not always the case. Passive voice may be okay if knowing who completed the action isn’t important and when the choice that uses it is better than other choices with glaring grammar or punctuation problems.
8.
(F)
NO CHANGE
(G)
asked her
(H)
was asking her
(J)
asking
The original is a fragment, an incomplete sentence. It tries to fool you into thinking that asking is the verb, but ing words all by themselves with no helping verbs to assist them can’t work as verbs. The remedy is to change asking to the simple past verb asked. Because the sentence gives you a specific date, you know that the event happened at one point in the past. Therefore, Choice (H) is wrong. The White House wasn’t in a continuous state of asking Ms. Anderson. So the correct answer is (G).
9.(A)NO CHANGE
(B)different from
(C)differed from
(D)more different than
Standard English says different from rather than different than. Choice (D) adds more to the sentence to try to make than sound like a proper comparison term, but its addition also changes the meaning of the sentence. The White House concert wasn’t more different than other concerts. It was simply different from other concerts that weren’t as anxiety-provoking. The correct answer is (B).
Choice (C) changes than to from, but it introduces another verb into a sentence that already has a verb. You may not notice the problem if you don’t reread the sentence with Choice (C) inserted. Always reread the sentence with your answer choice inserted before you mark the answer on your sheet to make sure you haven’t missed something important.
10.
(F)
NO CHANGE
(G)
close friends, and
(H)
close friends — which
(J)
close and friendly,
The clause “but this friendship … became evident …” makes no sense in the context. Use but only to indicate opposition or change; use a comma and the word and to add to and continue a thought. The correct answer is (G).
11.(A)NO CHANGE
(B)between the First Lady and she became
(C)between her and the First Lady became
(D)OMIT the underlined portion.
The pronoun is the problem in this question. Between is a preposition, which means that the pronoun and noun that come after it are objects of the preposition. Therefore, the pronoun has to be in objective form. The objective form of she is her. You can’t omit the underlined words because the resulting clause has no verb. The correct answer is (C).
Many students tend to choose “OMIT the underlined portion” every time they see it, reasoning that it would not be a choice unless it were correct. Not so. If you decide to omit the underlined portion, be especially careful to reread the entire sentence. Often, omitting the underlined portion makes nonsense out of the sentence.
12.
(F)
NO CHANGE
(G)
in 1939; however, the White House
(H)
in 1939 but the White House
(J)
in 1939. Although the White House
To answer this question, you must correct the comma splice in the original sentence. You can’t use a comma all by itself to join two independent clauses (complete sentences) in one sentence. You could separate them by putting a period after 1939 and capitalizing the. The answers don’t give you that option, though. Choice (J) separates the clauses with a period, but adding although makes the second sentence a fragment. Another way to join two independent clauses together is with a semicolon. Choice (G) changes the comma to a semicolon and adds however for a smooth transition to the next thought. It properly places a comma after however, too. Choice (H) lacks a necessary comma before but. The correct answer is (G).
13.The author is considering inserting a sentence that presents a short list of other venues where Marian Anderson performed during her career. Would that insertion be appropriate here?
(A)
Yes, because the primary purpose of this paragraph is to emphasize the great number of places where Marian Anderson performed.
(B) Yes, because it’s always better to include many specific examples to advance an idea.
(C) No, because the paragraph is about the obstacles that Marian Anderson had to overcome rather than the number of concert halls she performed in.
(D) No, because providing a list of examples is never appropriate in an essay about a person’s life.
When you see one of these “yes, yes, no, no” questions on the English Test, figure out the short answer to the question. Would a list of venues be appropriate? Probably not. (Please. The test is boring enough without having to read through a list of concert venues.) Ignore the yes answers for now and focus on the no choices. The paragraph seems to focus on the racial prejudice Anderson experienced rather than the number of places she performed in. So the correct answer is (C).
You can be pretty certain that Choices (B) and (D) are wrong. Both of them contain debatable words, such as always and never, that should raise a red flag for you. If you’re thinking of choosing an answer that contains one of these all-encompassing words that leaves no room for exception, first make sure that the position is justified.
14.(F) NO CHANGE
(G)
Medal, being the first African American
(H)
Medal; the first African American
(J)
Medal, the first African American
The original is okay the way it’s written. The other choices make it sound like the medal was the first African American to receive such an honor. Choice (H) adds insult to injury by using a semicolon to do a comma’s job. Note that the job of the semicolon is to separate two independent sentences; each sentence could stand alone. The correct answer is (F).
Don’t forget that the sentence doesn’t have to have an error. About 20 percent of the time the underlined portion requires NO CHANGE.
15.If the author of this passage were to add the following lines to the article, where would they be most logically placed?
It was an era of racial prejudice, a time when people were still legally excluded from jobs, housing, and even entertainment merely because of their race. Thus, the early promise of success seemed impossible until something amazing for the times happened.
(A)After Sentence 2
(B)After Sentence 6
(C)After Sentence 3
(D)After Sentence 5
You know from the answer options to look only in the first two paragraphs. Because the first sentence of the addition talks about racial prejudice, look in the beginning of the passage for something that mentions Marian Anderson’s race. That topic is specifically discussed only in Sentence 6. So the correct answer is (B).
