GED Reasoning Through Language Arts – Language and Grammar

Question 1

Which of the following sentences uses correct subject-verb agreement?

Accepted Answer

Neither of the options is acceptable.

Answer

With 'neither…of,' the verb must agree with the subject 'neither,' which is singular — so 'is' is correct. 'The team' and 'the group' are collective nouns that can be tricky, but 'neither' is always singular. In choices A, B, and D, the verbs 'are,' 'have,' and 'were' incorrectly treat singular subjects as plural.

Question 2

Choose the sentence that uses a comma correctly.

Accepted Answer

Although it was raining, the game continued as scheduled.

Answer

When a subordinate clause introduced by a word like 'although' comes before the main clause, it is followed by a comma. Answer A incorrectly places a comma before 'she' after the conjunction 'but.' Answer C places a comma before 'and' in a simple list instead of before the final item. Answer D uses unnecessary commas around 'and.'

Question 3

Which sentence contains a dangling modifier?

Accepted Answer

Having finished the exam, the test booklets were collected by the proctor.

Answer

In answer C, the phrase 'Having finished the exam' implies a person finished the exam, but the subject of the main clause is 'the test booklets' — booklets cannot finish an exam. The modifier is left dangling with no logical subject. The other sentences correctly match the modifying phrase to the right subject.

Question 4

Which word correctly completes the following sentence? 'The committee made _____ decision after hours of debate.'

Accepted Answer

its

Answer

'Its' (no apostrophe) is the possessive form of 'it,' meaning the decision belonging to the committee. 'It's' is a contraction meaning 'it is' or 'it has.' 'Its'' and 'its's' are not standard English words. Possessive pronouns (his, her, its, their) never use apostrophes.

Question 5

Which of the following is a run-on sentence?

Accepted Answer

The storm was severe it knocked out the power for three days.

Answer

Answer C fuses two independent clauses — 'The storm was severe' and 'it knocked out the power for three days' — without any punctuation or conjunction between them. This makes it a run-on sentence. It can be fixed with a period, semicolon, or conjunction: 'The storm was severe; it knocked out the power for three days.'

GED Practice Test

GED Practice Test

GED Reasoning Through Language Arts – Language and Grammar