Verbal Ability and Comprehension Flashcards

Which of the following is an example of a compound sentence?

Answer: She was tired, but she finished her homework.

A compound sentence joins two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction; option B joins 'she was tired' and 'she finished her homework' with 'but'.

Choose the word closest in meaning to 'loquacious':

Answer: Talkative

Loquacious means tending to talk a great deal; it comes from the Latin 'loqui,' meaning to speak.

Which literary device is used in the phrase 'The thunder roared angrily across the sky'?

Answer: Personification

Personification gives human qualities (roaring angrily) to a non-human thing (thunder).

Identify the correctly punctuated sentence:

Answer: It's a beautiful day, isn't it?

It's (with apostrophe) is the contraction for 'it is,' and the sentence ends with a question mark because it contains a question tag.

The word 'ephemeral' most nearly means:

Answer: Brief and short-lived

Ephemeral describes something that lasts for a very short time, from the Greek 'ephemeros' (lasting a day).

Which of the following sentences contains a misplaced modifier?

Answer: She nearly drove her children to school every day.

In option A, 'nearly' is misplaced next to 'drove,' suggesting she almost drove but didn't, rather than meaning she drove them almost every day.

When reading for the author's purpose, which category does a persuasive essay belong to?

Answer: To persuade

A persuasive essay is explicitly designed to convince the reader to adopt a particular viewpoint or take an action.