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SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 18)

Drill 18 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 18) is a Reading & Writing practice drill covering Standard English Conventions. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

These five questions cover subject-verb agreement after "each of," the comma after an introductory clause, the semicolon and comma around the conjunctive adverb "however," a dash pair enclosing an interrupting phrase, and repairing a dangling modifier.

Questions & Explanations

Text
Each of Fleming's early reports on the Penicillium mold ______ overlooked at the time, and penicillin would sit largely unused until a wartime team purified it in the early 1940s.

Question 1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  • A) were
  • B) was ✓
  • C) are
  • D) have been

Explanation: The subject of this clause is "Each," which is grammatically singular, even though the plural "reports" sits right before the verb. A singular subject needs a singular verb, so (B) "was" is correct. (A) "were" is dragged in by the nearer noun "reports," but that word belongs to the "of" phrase, not the subject slot. (C) "are" and (D) "have been" are plural in force, and both also fail to fit the sentence's past-tense setting.

Text
Although Hagia Sophia was finished nearly fifteen centuries ______ its great dome still ranks among the widest masonry domes ever raised over an open interior.

Question 2. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  • A) ago, ✓
  • B) ago;
  • C) ago.
  • D) ago

Explanation: The sentence opens with a dependent clause, "Although Hagia Sophia was finished nearly fifteen centuries ago," which cannot stand alone and attaches to the main clause with a comma: (A). (B) puts a semicolon after the dependent clause, but a semicolon needs a complete sentence on each side. (C) uses a period, which strands "Although ..." as a fragment. (D) runs the two parts together with no mark, so the reader reaches the main clause with no signal that the opening clause has ended.

Text
Goodyear spent years failing to make rubber survive heat and ______ a rubber-and-sulfur mixture he accidentally dropped on a hot stove gave him the durable, weatherproof material he had been chasing.

Question 3. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  • A) cold, however,
  • B) cold however,
  • C) cold; however, ✓
  • D) cold; however

Explanation: "However" here links two complete sentences: Goodyear's years of failure and the accidental mix of rubber and sulfur that finally worked. When a conjunctive adverb joins two independent clauses, it takes a semicolon before it and a comma after it, so (C) is right. (A) uses commas on both sides, which leaves two full sentences spliced together by a comma. (B) drops the semicolon entirely and fuses the clauses. (D) keeps the semicolon but omits the comma that follows "however" when it opens the second clause.

Text
The Hawaiian chain grows steadily older to the ______ island carried away from the hot spot by the moving Pacific Plate—a pattern that lets geologists read the islands almost like tree rings.

Question 4. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  • A) northwest, each
  • B) northwest; each
  • C) northwest: each
  • D) northwest—each ✓

Explanation: The absolute phrase "each island carried away from the hot spot by the moving Pacific Plate" interrupts the sentence and is already closed with a dash before "a pattern." An interruption needs the same mark at both ends, so the opening mark has to be a dash too: (D). (A) opens with a comma, which cannot pair with the closing dash. (B) uses a semicolon, but the interrupting words form an absolute phrase, a noun plus a participle, not a full sentence, and a semicolon needs a complete clause after it. (C) uses a colon, which introduces what follows instead of enclosing it, and still does not match the dash.

Text
Discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well near Xi'an, ______

Question 5. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  • A) the terracotta army turned out to be a buried honor guard for China's first emperor. ✓
  • B) China's first emperor had ordered the terracotta army to guard his tomb, as the passage describes it.
  • C) it was farmers who slowly realized they had struck an ancient army.
  • D) archaeologists soon excavated thousands of life-sized clay soldiers.

Explanation: The opening phrase "Discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well near Xi'an" describes whatever noun comes right after the comma, and the thing that was discovered is the terracotta army. (A) puts "the terracotta army" in that spot, so the modifier lands on the right noun. (B) starts with "China's first emperor," who was not discovered in 1974. (C) begins with the empty placeholder "it," so the opening phrase has no real noun to attach to. (D) begins with "archaeologists," who also were not the thing dug up. The last three each read smoothly on their own, but none of them lets the opening phrase land on the army.