NTN Police Writing and Grammar Skills 4

Question 1

Which sentence uses the apostrophe correctly?

Accepted Answer

The officers' reports were filed on time.

Answer

When a plural noun already ends in 's', add only an apostrophe after the 's' to show possession.

Question 2

A police report states: 'The suspect ran quick down the alley.' What is the grammatical error?

Accepted Answer

'quick' should be 'quickly' because it modifies the verb 'ran'

Answer

Adverbs modify verbs; 'quick' is an adjective, so 'quickly' is the correct adverb form to modify the verb 'ran'.

Question 3

Which of the following is a run-on sentence?

Accepted Answer

The witness refused to cooperate, he claimed he saw nothing.

Answer

Two independent clauses joined only by a comma (without a coordinating conjunction) create a comma splice, which is a type of run-on sentence.

Question 4

In a police narrative, which word correctly completes this sentence? 'The sergeant asked whether the evidence ___ been logged.'

Accepted Answer

had

Answer

In indirect questions and past-tense contexts, 'had' (past perfect auxiliary) is the correct form to agree with the past-tense context.

Question 5

Which sentence demonstrates correct subject-verb agreement?

Accepted Answer

Neither the detective nor the officers were present.

Answer

With 'neither/nor', the verb agrees with the subject closest to it; since 'officers' is plural, 'were' is correct.

(NTN Police) National Testing Network Police Test Practice Test