PARCC Grammar Practice Online Questions

Question 1

1. Everyone in the bank-including the manager and the tellers, ran to the door when the fire alarm rang.

Accepted Answer

tellers-ran

Answer

The phrase 'including the manager and the tellers' is an appositive phrase that adds non-essential information and should be set off by matching punctuation. Since a dash is used before 'including,' another dash is required after 'tellers' to properly enclose the phrase and separate it from the main clause of the sentence. This creates a clear parenthetical interruption.

Question 2

2. To no ones surprise, Joe didn't have his homework ready.

Accepted Answer

no one's surprise

Answer

The phrase 'no one's surprise' requires an apostrophe to indicate possession. 'No one' is a singular indefinite pronoun, and its possessive form is 'no one's.' The original 'no ones' is incorrect as it does not show possession, and 'no ones'' would imply a plural possessive, which is not applicable here.

Question 3

3. If he would have read "The White Birds," he might have liked William Butler Yeats' poetry.

Accepted Answer

had read

Answer

This sentence uses a third conditional structure, which requires the past perfect tense in the 'if' clause to describe a hypothetical situation in the past. The correct grammatical construction is 'If he had read,' not 'If he would have read.' The past perfect tense (had + past participle) correctly conveys this unfulfilled past condition.

Question 4

4. After the hurricane, uprooted trees were laying all over the ground.

Accepted Answer

were lying

Answer

The verb 'laying' is the present participle of 'to lay,' which means to place something down and requires a direct object. However, the sentence describes the trees resting or reclining on the ground on their own. The correct verb for something resting or reclining is 'to lie,' and its present participle is 'lying.' Therefore, 'were lying' is the grammatically correct choice.

Question 5

5. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), the great transcendentalist philosopher, wrote in his essay "Self-Reliance" of the need for an individual to develop his capacities.

Accepted Answer

essay "Self-Reliance"

Answer

When a title of a short work, such as an essay, is preceded by a descriptive term like 'essay,' no comma is needed between the descriptive term and the title. The title itself, 'Self-Reliance,' should be enclosed in quotation marks. This punctuation rule ensures clarity and proper formatting for titles.

PARCC Practice Test

PARCC Practice Test

PARCC Grammar Practice Online Questions