CELSA Sentence Structure and Syntax 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?
- She almost drove her kids to school every day. (Correct answer)
- Running in the park, Maria felt refreshed.
- The chef prepared a meal that everyone loved.
- The student completed the assignment carefully.
Correct answer: She almost drove her kids to school every day.
'Almost' is misplaced — it should modify 'every day,' not 'drove,' to clarify she nearly drove daily.
Question 2: What type of sentence is this: 'Although it rained, we enjoyed the picnic, and we stayed until dark.'?
- Simple
- Compound
- Complex
- Compound-complex (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Compound-complex
The sentence has one dependent clause ('Although it rained') and two independent clauses, making it compound-complex.
Question 3: Which word in the following sentence is an appositive? 'My brother, a talented musician, won the award.'
- brother
- talented
- a talented musician (Correct answer)
- won
Correct answer: a talented musician
An appositive renames or describes the noun before it; 'a talented musician' renames 'my brother.'
Question 4: Which sentence demonstrates a run-on error?
- She was tired, so she went to bed early.
- He opened the door, and the cat came in.
- I finished the project it took all night. (Correct answer)
- Because the weather was bad, we stayed indoors.
Correct answer: I finished the project it took all night.
Two independent clauses ('I finished the project' and 'it took all night') are fused without punctuation or a conjunction.
Question 5: What is the subject of the sentence: 'Across the field ran the horses.'?
- Across
- field
- ran
- horses (Correct answer)
Correct answer: horses
Despite the inverted word order, 'horses' is the subject performing the action of running.
Question 6: Which revision best fixes this comma splice: 'The weather was perfect, we decided to go hiking.'?
- The weather was perfect, but we decided to go hiking.
- The weather was perfect; we decided to go hiking.
- The weather was perfect so we decided to go hiking.
- Both A and B are correct fixes. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Both A and B are correct fixes.
A comma splice can be fixed with a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon between the two independent clauses.
Question 7: In 'Not only did she win, but she also broke the record,' what type of conjunction is used?
- Coordinating conjunction
- Subordinating conjunction
- Correlative conjunction (Correct answer)
- Conjunctive adverb
Correct answer: Correlative conjunction
'Not only…but also' is a correlative conjunction pair that connects two parallel ideas.
CELSA Sentence Structure and Syntax 3
Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?