English Section
A few general strategies for the English Section…
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Never leave an answer blank!!!
Eliminate bad answer choices.
Beware “words of totality”
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All, never, none, always, etc.
Listen to your ear
Let the answer choices guide you.
Avoid and get away from redundancy…
“No change” and “OMIT underlined portion”
Be concise as possible.
Most Common misteaks mistakes…
- Punctuation
Periods, semicolons, colons
VS
- Commas
-
-
Pronoun Use
Subject/Verb Agreement
Parallelism
Misplaced Modifiers
When carbon dioxide bubbles from the
interaction of yeast and sugar makes bread
dough rise, they’re contributing to our
nourishment.
A. NO CHANGE
B. make
C. is making
D. induces
The artists who look good on camera have a
greater chance of success than those who do
not, examples are not difficult to find. (50D, 37)
A. NO CHANGE
B. not examples
C. not. Examples,
D. not. Examples
Even the parts of a chili vary the seeds and
veins of a pepper are hotter than the flesh. (57B,
58)
A. NO CHANGE
B. vary;
C. vary,
D. vary but
A mosquito was poking at my forearm, and the
batter seemed to blur into the woods behind
home plate and we weren’t playing to win,
only to play. (54D, 70)
A. NO CHANGE
B. plate. We
C. plate so we
D. plate because we
Not all visitors, however, have been so
welcome, years ago, an escaped convict made
his way to her mountain retreat and threatened
her. (57B, 8)
A. NO CHANGE
B. welcome:
C. welcome; since
D. welcome, although
To us it became a stage, on which we tapdanced or a raft on which we crossed the high
seas in search of treasure. (61F, 53)
A. NO CHANGE
B. stage: on which we tap-danced,
C. stage; on which we tap-danced,
D. stage on which we tap-danced
Use commas when:
- listing three or more objects
EX: I like cats, dogs, and ligers.
- separating two complete thoughts
EX: I assign homework, yet no one does it!
- using introductory phrases
EX: After eating twenty McDoubles, Freddy
felt ready to puke.
- using appositives
EX: Joe, my best friend, lives in NYC.
- using direct address
EX: Jack, I will not tell you again to stay quiet.
About three and a half million people a day
ride the subways I think maybe I’ve met them
all. (59F, 5)
A. NO CHANGE
B. subways, and
C. subways, which
D. subways actually
Although Walter Diemer, now a retired senior
vice president of the Fleet Corporation never
patented his invention, he had hoped to keep
his recipe a secret from the other gum
manufacturers. (57B, 40)
A. NO CHANGE
B. president, of the Fleet Corporation,
C. president of the Fleet Corporation,
D. president, of the Fleet Corporation
Hikers, typically, find that the climb takes at
least three hours. (57B, 5)
A. NO CHANGE
B. Hikers typically find
C. Hikers typically, find
D. Hikers, typically find
Then again, you can sometimes get lucky, and
a ball you thought was lost, will inexplicably
bounce back into play. (58B, 53)
A. NO CHANGE
B. lost will
C. lost, will,
D. lost will,
its
vs.
it’s
vs.
vs.
there
its’
yours
ours
their
vs.
they’re
SUBJECTIVE
I
you
he
she
we
who
VS
VS
VS
VS
VS
VS
OBJECTIVE
me
you
him
her
us
whom
RESTRICTIVE
that
VS
NON-RESTRICTIVE
which
EX: Cars that run on electricity are better for
the environment.
EX: Cars, which come in many different colors,
can be gas or electric powered.
above, across, after, against, along, among,
around, before, behind, below, beneath,
between, beyond, by, during, for, from, in, into,
of, over, through, to, toward, till, under, until,
upon, with, within, without
Utility workers use a bubble gauge to determine
the rate of flow of gas in a pipeline, to navigate
airplanes pilots they use a bubble sextant, and
carpenters use a bubble level to build houses
straight and true. (56A, 41)
A. NO CHANGE
B. where a bubble sextant is used by airplane pilots
in navigation.
C. airplane pilots use a bubble sextant to navigate,
D. a bubble sextant to navigate is used by airplane
pilots,
Bolted to a two-hundred-ton platform sixty-six
feet below sea level at Conch Reef, scientists at
this research outpost are offered a unique
opportunity to study the impact of pollution on
coral reefs. (63E, 39)
A. NO CHANGE
B. this research outpost offers scientists
C. scientists researching at this outpost are
offered
D. research scientists at this outpost are offered