RLA - Reasoning through Language Arts Grammar and Word Usage Questions and Answers

Question 1

Read the following sentence.

The manager asked to see Jay and I after the meeting.

Which of the following correctly revises the sentence?

Accepted Answer

The manager asked to see Jay and me after the meeting.

Answer

The pronoun is part of the object of the verb 'to see'. The objective case pronoun is 'me', not the subjective case 'I'. A simple way to check is to remove the other person from the sentence: 'The manager asked to see me' is correct, whereas 'The manager asked to see I' is incorrect.

Question 2

Which of the following sentences contains a grammatical error?

Accepted Answer

Each of the players have their own locker.

Answer

The subject of the sentence is 'Each', which is a singular indefinite pronoun. Therefore, the verb must also be singular ('has' instead of 'have') and the possessive pronoun should be singular ('his or her' instead of 'their'). The correct sentence would be: 'Each of the players has his or her own locker.'

Question 3

Read the following sentence.

The company plans to introduce the new product line, it hopes to increase market share.

Which of the following is the best way to revise this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The company plans to introduce the new product line, and it hopes to increase market share.

Answer

The original sentence contains a comma splice, which is an error where two independent clauses (complete sentences) are joined by only a comma. To fix this, a coordinating conjunction like 'and' is needed after the comma to properly connect the two related ideas.

Question 4

Which of the following sentences demonstrates correct parallel structure?

Accepted Answer

He is responsible for managing the budget, supervising the staff, and implementing new policies.

Answer

This sentence uses a consistent grammatical pattern (the '-ing' form of verbs, or gerunds) for all three items in the list: 'managing', 'supervising', and 'implementing'. The other options mix different grammatical forms, which violates the rule of parallel structure.

Question 5

Read the following sentence.

Slithering through the tall grass, the hiker was startled by the snake.

What is the main grammatical issue with this sentence?

Accepted Answer

It contains a misplaced modifier.

Answer

The sentence contains a misplaced modifier. The introductory phrase 'Slithering through the tall grass' should describe the snake, but its placement next to 'the hiker' incorrectly suggests that the hiker was doing the slithering. A corrected version would be: 'The hiker was startled by the snake slithering through the tall grass.'

RLA - Reasoning through Language Arts Practice Test

RLA - Reasoning through Language Arts Practice Test

RLA - Reasoning through Language Arts Grammar and Word Usage Questions and Answers