Texas Civil Service Exam Grammar and Writing Skills 5

Question 1

Which sentence correctly uses a hyphen?

Accepted Answer

The well-known officer received a commendation.

Answer

Compound adjectives placed before a noun are hyphenated, so 'well-known' requires a hyphen here.

Question 2

Which sentence avoids redundancy?

Accepted Answer

The forensic analyst submitted a detailed report of the findings.

Answer

'Returned back,' 'final outcome,' and 'repeat again' are all redundant; the fourth sentence is concise.

Question 3

Choose the sentence that uses capitalization correctly.

Accepted Answer

The Texas Department of Public Safety issued a new directive.

Answer

Official names of government agencies are proper nouns and must be fully capitalized.

Question 4

Which sentence uses 'between' vs. 'among' correctly?

Accepted Answer

The disagreement arose between Officer Ruiz and Officer Chen.

Answer

'Between' is used when referring to exactly two parties; Officer Ruiz and Officer Chen are two individuals.

Question 5

Select the option that correctly completes the sentence with a pronoun-antecedent agreement. 'Each supervisor must submit ____ timesheet by Friday.'

Accepted Answer

his or her

Answer

In formal writing, singular indefinite pronouns like 'each' require singular pronouns such as 'his or her.'

Texas Civil Service Exam Practice Test