CELSA Basic 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is a run-on sentence?
- She studied for the exam, and she passed.
- She studied for the exam; she passed.
- She studied for the exam she passed. (Correct answer)
- Because she studied for the exam, she passed.
Correct answer: She studied for the exam she passed.
A run-on sentence joins two independent clauses without proper punctuation or a conjunction.
Question 2: Which of the following is a sentence fragment?
- Running through the park every morning. (Correct answer)
- She runs through the park every morning.
- Every morning, she runs through the park.
- She likes running through the park every morning.
Correct answer: Running through the park every morning.
A fragment lacks a subject or a main verb; 'Running through the park every morning' has no subject performing the action.
Question 3: Which sentence uses a semicolon correctly?
- I wanted to go; but it rained.
- I wanted to go; it rained, however.
- I wanted to go; it rained. (Correct answer)
- I wanted to go, it; rained.
Correct answer: I wanted to go; it rained.
A semicolon correctly joins two closely related independent clauses without a conjunction.
Question 4: Which sentence uses an apostrophe correctly?
- The dog wagged it's tail happily.
- The dogs' collar was red.
- The dog's collar was red. (Correct answer)
- The dogs collar' was red.
Correct answer: The dog's collar was red.
'Dog's' shows singular possession—the collar belonging to one dog—using apostrophe + s.
Question 5: Which sentence follows capitalization rules correctly?
- We visited the grand canyon last Summer.
- We visited the Grand Canyon last summer. (Correct answer)
- We visited The Grand Canyon last summer.
- we visited the Grand Canyon last summer.
Correct answer: We visited the Grand Canyon last summer.
Proper nouns like 'Grand Canyon' are capitalized, but common nouns like 'summer' and sentence beginnings only.
Question 6: Which sentence places the modifier correctly?
- She almost drove her children to school every day.
- She drove her children to school almost every day. (Correct answer)
- Almost she drove her children to school every day.
- She drove almost her children to school every day.
Correct answer: She drove her children to school almost every day.
The modifier 'almost' should be placed directly before 'every day,' the phrase it actually modifies.
Question 7: Which coordinating conjunction best completes this sentence? 'He wanted to stay home, ___ his boss required him to come in.'
- so
- for
- yet
- but (Correct answer)
Correct answer: but
'But' signals contrast between what he wanted and what his boss required.
CELSA Basic 3
Which of the following is a run-on sentence?