TASC Writing Practice Quiz 2
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. Firefighters and police officers risk their lives often by stepping into the way of danger physically; (therefore,) professionals such as doctors and lawyers have an equally significant impact on individuals’ lives medically and legally.
The first clause (everything before the semi colon) definitely does not cause what is explained in the second clause (everything after the semi colon), so “therefore” is an inappropriate transition. This sentence is presenting contrasting professions (firefighter/police officer and doctor/lawyer) since two are viewed as blue-collar (working class) and the others are white-collar (professional); therefore, a contrasting conjunction is needed. Choice (“therefore”), choice (“as a result”) and choice (“and”) do not present contrasting conjunctions. In this sentence “but” is not your best option for a conjunction. A semi-colon is used, so the three simple conjunctions (and/but/yet/etc.) are not as appropriate as the complex conjunctions (therefore/however/nevertheless/etc.). If just a comma was used, then “but” would have been appropriate (i.e. “...into the way of danger physically, but professionals such as doctors...”). So now it’s down to “nevertheless.” Choice “nevertheless” is your best answer.
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. (In many cultures they consider fish eggs a delicacy.)
The correct answer is “In many cultures fish eggs are considered a delicacy.” (“In many cultures they consider fish eggs a delicacy.” is tempting, but the pronoun “they” is vague. “They consider fish eggs to be a delicacy in many cultures.” has the same vague pronoun problem. “In many cultures a delicacy is considered to be fish eggs.” is just weird all over. “Fish eggs, a delicacy in many cultures.” is a fragment.)
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised.: Sports are a significant part of life for people all across the world, as was demonstrated in 2006 when billions of people came together to be involved with the (World Cup either through playing, watching or thru advertising.)
This sentence tests your knowledge of capitalization and awareness of parallelism. The original sentence is incorrect because choice “World Cup either through playing, watching or thru advertising.” destroys the parallelism (i.e. thru advertising instead of simply “advertising”) and uses the informal spelling of through (i.e. “thru”). Only choices “World Cup either through playing, watching or advertising.” and “World Cup either through playing, watching or advertising for it.” correct the parallelism error; however, the list should strictly contain gerunds in order to be parallel, so “advertising for it” is not the best choice. By ending with “for it” the author is also implying that one may “play for it” and “watch for it,” and although one may play for the World Cup through a grammar stretch, one cannot possibly “watch for it” and do the same thing as one who simply “watches it.” Choice “World Cup either through playing, watching or advertising for it.” uses the appropriate capitalization (because the World Cup is a major sports event it is a proper noun that must be capitalized) and maintains strict parallelism in the concluding list of ways to be involved.
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. : The argument (between Paarin and me about the dent in his car continued) until the early morning.
The correct answer is “between Paarin and me about the dent in his car continued” (“between Paarin and I about the dent in his car continued”, “about the dent in his car continued for Paarin and I”, and “between Paarin and I on the dent in his car continued” all have pronoun case errors: when the pronoun is the object of a preposition like “between,” you need to use the objective case. “on the dent in his car between Paarin and me continued” is awkward, especially in its misused idiom: “argument on.”)
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. : During the (summer many students go away to summer camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.)
Only choice “summer many students go away to camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.” corrects the redundancy error in this sentence of writing “...summer camps...” after already stating that this event occurs “During the summer...” Choice “summer many students go away to summer camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.”, “Summer many students go away to summer camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.” and “summer many students go away to summer camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and maintaining integrity.” suffer such redundancy. Choice “summer many students go away to summer camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and maintaining integrity.” also breaks the list’s parallelism (values such as camaraderie and perseverance that should be followed simply by “integrity”). Choice “summer many students go away to camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.” and “Summer many students go away to camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.” remain, but choice “Summer many students go away to camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.” makes the same mistake of choice “Summer many students go away to summer camps that teach them skills about camaraderie, perseverance and integrity.” by capitalizing a season. Although it may look better, seasons are NOT supposed to be capitalized unless they appear in a title or a proper noun.
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. : A consummate gentleman, (Stefan's etiquette and social grace was unmatched.)
The correct answer is “Stefan possessed unmatched etiquette and social grace.” (“Stefan's etiquette and social grace was unmatched.”, “Stefan's etiquette and social grace were unmatched.”, “Stefan's etiquette as well as his social grace were unmatched.”, and “Stefan's social grace was matched only by his etiquette.” are all dangling modifiers. “Stefan's etiquette and social grace was unmatched.” has a verb agreement problem, too.)
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. : In countries such as China the government is recognizing the advantages of (a capitalist market rather than communism and adjust) economic policy accordingly.
The problem with this sentence is in parallel structure. The test is very particular about being consistent about the forms of words used. So specifically since the sentence refers to a capitalist market, then the sentence must refer to a communist market—not communism, which is an ideology rather than a market system in this context. Only choices “capitalist market rather than Communism and adjust”, “capitalist market rather than a communist market and adjusting” and “Capitalistic market nor a Communist market and adjusting” remain. Choice “Capitalistic market nor a Communist market and adjusting” commits terrible capitalization (neither “capitalist” nor “communist”) mistakes and structure errors (where does the “nor” fit in?! It does not!) Only choice “capitalist market rather than Communism and adjust” and choice “capitalist market rather than a communist market and adjusting” remain now, but “capitalist market rather than Communism and adjust” mistakenly capitalizes communism and does not change “adjust” to match the parallel verb (i.e. recognizing). Choice “capitalist market rather than a communist market and adjusting” uses the right adjective forms of capitalism and communism, does not make capitalization errors and maintains parallel sentence structure.
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised.: Most of my favorite movies contain (slapstick humor, however physical comedy is not) the only way to make me laugh.
The correct answer is “slapstick humor, but physical comedy is not” (“slapstick humor, however physical comedy is not” is a run-on: “however” is NOT a conjunction. “slapstick humor, and physical comedy is not” and “slapstick humor; physical comedy is not” are missing contrast. “slapstick humor, but it is not physical comedy that is” is not at all concise.)
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. : Learning a new language can be difficult for people (after one reaches a certain age; ) abilities needed to retain and apply new linguistic information deteriorate with time.
The underlined portion of this sentence is wrong because the sentence refers to people in general. Because a plural third person form of a pronoun is needed (because of the reference to “people”), “one” ,“it”, and “you” are all inappropriate responses. Choice “after one reaches a certain age”, “after it reaches a certain age” and “after you reach a certain age” are all incorrect. Choice “after they reach a certain age” is better than choice “after they reaches certain ages” because of the implied logic. People can reach a defined age; it is odd to say that multiple people are simultaneously reaching multiple ages—what is certain then? It’s almost an oxymoron to say certain ages in this context, although it is perfectly fine in other situations (i.e. This board game is only for people of certain ages). Yet the more defining difference is the singular verb form of choice “after they reaches certain ages” (i.e. reaches) mistakenly in place of the plural verb form of choice “after they reach a certain age” (i.e. reach). Choice “after they reach a certain age” is the best answer.
Determine whether the sentence in the open and close parenthesis is correct or whether it needs to be revised. : A growing technology trend is to merge multiple devices with complimentary functions such as a phone, music player and (the scheduling features of a planner.)
Choice “a planner.” is correct. The sentence is incorrect because it does not follow parallelism. A list that begins by naming devices (i.e. phone, music player) must continue and finish in that way. Although it is informative to include the details about a planner's features, it should be accompanied by the features of a phone and a music player if that is the way the sentence is being written. Therefore, choices “the scheduling features of a planner.”, “and a planner with scheduling features.”, “and scheduling features.” and “scheduling features.” are incorrect. Choice “and a planner with scheduling features” and “and scheduling features.” even add “and” again making the sentence read “...music player and and...” which is clearly wrong! Be careful; the test wants to catch you off guard. Only choice “a planner.” is direct and maintains parallelism.