Texas Civil Service Writing and Grammar Questions and Answers

Question 1

An officer is writing a report and needs to choose the correct sentence. Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

Accepted Answer

The team of investigators is gathering facts about the case.

Answer

The correct answer is 'The team of investigators is gathering facts about the case.' The subject of the sentence is 'team,' which is a singular noun, even though it represents a group of individuals. Therefore, it requires the singular verb 'is.' In the other options, 'suspect' is the singular subject requiring 'was,' 'Each' is a singular pronoun requiring 'was,' and 'victim' is the subject closest to the verb in the 'neither/nor' construction, requiring the singular verb 'wants'.

Question 2

A memo is being drafted to all department heads. Which of the following sentences uses punctuation correctly?

Accepted Answer

The new policy, which takes effect on Monday, requires all employees to display their ID badges.

Answer

The correct sentence is 'The new policy, which takes effect on Monday, requires all employees to display their ID badges.' The phrase 'which takes effect on Monday' is a non-restrictive clause, meaning it provides additional information but is not essential to the sentence's main meaning. Such clauses must be set off by commas, one before and one after.

Question 3

An employee is filling out an official form and comes across a field that requires a description of a past event. Which sentence is written in the correct past tense?

Accepted Answer

The dispatcher had already broadcast the alert before my arrival.

Answer

The sentence 'The dispatcher had already broadcast the alert before my arrival' correctly uses the past perfect tense ('had broadcast') to indicate an action that was completed before another past action ('my arrival'). The other options use incorrect verb forms: 'runned' should be 'ran,' 'seen' should be 'saw,' and 'should of' should be 'should have.'

Question 4

Which of the following words is spelled INCORRECTLY?

Accepted Answer

Maintainence

Answer

The word 'Maintainence' is spelled incorrectly. The correct spelling is 'maintenance.' This is a common spelling error tested on civil service exams.

Question 5

A supervisor reviews an incident report and finds a sentence with a pronoun error. Which sentence needs correction?

Accepted Answer

Each officer must complete their own daily activity log.

Answer

The sentence 'Each officer must complete their own daily activity log' contains a pronoun-antecedent agreement error. The antecedent 'Each officer' is singular, so the pronoun referring to it should also be singular ('his or her' or rewriting the sentence). While 'their' is often used colloquially, in formal grammar, it is plural. The other sentences use pronouns correctly ('me' as an object, 'her' as an object, and 'whom' as the object of a preposition).

Texas Civil Service Exam Practice Test

Texas Civil Service Exam Practice Test

Texas Civil Service Writing and Grammar Questions and Answers