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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
It was there fault that the car was parked there in the first place.
Here, a reader must be able to distinguish between the homonyms “there,” “their,” and “they’re.” Because “there” refers to a location, “their” is a possessive pronoun, and “they’re” is a contraction that’s short for “they are,” the correct usage is, “It was their fault that the car was parked there in the first place.”
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American history is compelling for people whom are interested in politics.
Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
"Whom," in the original sentence, is the wrong choice of relative pronoun when referring to "people." "Whom" is the objective form of the pronoun "who," but we need to use the word "who" in the sentence as a relative pronoun to connect the main independent clause to the subordinate clause. Recognizing this error, we can automatically rule out the answer "American history is compelling for people, whom are interested in politics," as the added comma does not make the use of the pronoun correct. "That" and "which" are also incorrect relative pronouns to refer to "people," and the phrase "people being interested in politics" lacks a relative pronoun altogether. The correct answer is thus "American history is compelling for people who are interested in politics." "Who" is the correct relative pronoun to use with "people."
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"A small group of students is proceeding to the regional spelling bee," she said to her fellow teachers. No error
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
"Is" correctly refers to the "small group," which is singular. "To" is the correct preposition to follow "proceeding" and precede "the regional spelling bee." The dialogue ends correctly with a comma followed by quotation marks, and "she" is correctly lowercased following the dialogue. Therefore, there is no error in this sentence.
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Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
The clowns that we saw at an impromptu show in the city square yesterday is wearing matching hats. No error.
The phrase "is wearing" does not match the number of the subject.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Although I had not wanted to attend the jazz concert, I was soon covered in goose bumps as I listened to the beautiful music.
The sentence is best in its original form.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
When you do research on the Internet, it is imperative that you evaluate each site; you must consider the date of the information, the reliability of the author, and the accuracy of the facts.
No change. This is the most concise, most correct answer.
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Bethany simply could not believe it when she was asked to join the city council; she had been waiting for an opportunity like this for years.
The sentence is best in its original form. This is a question testing your ability to make the right word choice. "Council" means committee.
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More recently, the trend reversed itself to come back to the original position.
The underlined portion is correct as is. While the sentence is somewhat awkwardly worded, the underlined portion is gramatically correct, and there is little that other answer choices do to improve the sentence.
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The identity of the killer remained a mystery for the next fifty years.
The "identity of the killer" was unknown a while, so the use of the preposition "for" is correct, as it indicates the length of time was fully taken by the mystery of the killer's identity. The sentence is correct as written.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Zany performers can make audiences laugh without having to be as clever as serious performers.
Although slightly awkward, the underlined portion is grammatically correct. The comparison needs to have both uses of the word "as," and to describe distinctly the quality being compared and what is being compared.
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Forcing the issue, the students brought up the teacher's overly long assignments.
The underlined section of the sentence is a dependent clause, meaning it defines the rest of the sentence, but is not able to stand alone. The phrase "Forcing the issue" is correct in its usage.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Children frequently want toys they have seen advertised on their favorite television shows.
The underlined portion of the sentence, while slightly awkwardly worded, is perfectly correct grammatically. All of the other answer choices have either an incorrect verb tense or a construction that muddles the meaning of the sentence.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.
The law prevented both active wiretapping and snooping.
The key word in the sentence is "both." This indicates that the underlined portion holds two items, "active wiretapping" and "snooping." Thus, the use of "and" appropriately separates the two items, and no punctuation is necessary.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Rivers were once the key transportation method in civilization, but the paving of roads created concrete rivers across land masses.
The underlined portion of the sentence features a gerund, a present verb form that can be used as a noun. Thus, the phrase "the paving of roads" can appropriately be a subject in the phrase, and the sentence is correct as written.
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.
You and I will be the ones to go into the room first.
The appropriate use of the pronouns "you" and "I" together as the subject of the sentence is in the sentence as it is written. The correct answer is to leave it as "You and I."
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Hungry and tired, the group stopped under the tree by the river bank for the night.
The underlined phrase, although slightly awkward and over worded, is actually perfectly grammatically correct. As none of the "corrected" answer choices are grammatically correct, the unchanged form of the underlined portion is the correct answer.
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The massive effort to clean up the mess from the storm was a months long process.
While the underlined section of the sentence is rather wordy, and not perfectly stated, it is absolutely grammatically correct. More importantly, none of the other answer choices are grammatically correct. The best choice is to leave it as written.
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No one will come to our defense but ourselves in our time of need.
The use of "ourselves" is actually correct in the sentence, as it refers to the previous use of "our" in the phrase "our defense;" therefore, the correct answer is to keep the word as "ourselves."
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Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Moving into the future, the party's leaders decided to abandon their unsuccessful strategy.
The underlined section does contain a number of punctuation marks and interesting wording, but it is entirely correct. No changes need to be made to the sentence.
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Trying to understand her students' issues, the teacher found ways to ask about their problems indirectly.
The sentence is absolutely correct as written, and needs no improvement. The various corrections all make the sentence incorrect, as "asks" does not work in an infinitive, "student's" refers to one student and contradicts "their" as mentioned later, "indirectly" is an adverb and not an adjective, and writing "try" makes the sentence unclear and a fragment.
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