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SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 19)

Drill 19 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 19) 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.

Five hard questions on the summarizing dash, restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses, misplaced modifiers, unclear pronoun reference, and parallel structure.

Questions & Explanations

Text
When Leonhard Euler took up a famous puzzle in 1736, he stripped the city of Königsberg down to its essentials: two islands, two riverbanks, and seven ______ were the features he reduced to a simple network of points and lines.

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

  • A) bridges, these
  • B) bridges—these ✓
  • C) bridges: these
  • D) bridges; these

Explanation: The string "two islands, two riverbanks, and seven bridges" is a list of nouns, not a complete sentence, so the summarizing clause "these were the features..." needs a mark that can follow a list and lead into a full statement. A dash does that, which makes (B) right. (A) puts only a comma before the summary, which is not enough punctuation to join the list to the clause that follows. (C) uses a colon, but a colon has to follow a complete sentence, and a list of nouns is not one. (D) uses a semicolon, which links two complete sentences, and the part before it is just a list.

Text
Among electronic instruments, the best-known one ______ is the theremin, whose pitch a player controls by moving a hand through the air.

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

  • A) that a musician plays without touching ✓
  • B) , which a musician plays without touching,
  • C) , which a musician plays without touching
  • D) that a musician plays without touching,

Explanation: The clause picks out which instrument the sentence means, so it is essential and takes no commas, making (A) right. (B) wraps the clause in two commas, which signals removable extra detail and wrongly suggests the sentence already knows which instrument it means. (C) adds a single leading comma, both fencing an essential clause and supplying only one comma where a pair would be needed. (D) leaves a stray comma after the clause, splitting it from the verb "is."

Text
When the Endurance was crushed by the pack ice, Shackleton ______, not a single member of his crew.

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

  • A) only lost the ship
  • B) lost the only ship
  • C) lost the ship only
  • D) lost only the ship ✓

Explanation: The contrast "not a single member of his crew" shows that "only" has to single out the ship as the thing lost, so (D) is right. (A) places "only" before the verb, limiting the action to losing rather than pointing at the ship. (B) gives "the only ship," which claims there was just one ship in the first place. (C) puts "only" at the end, an awkward spot that blurs which word it limits.

Text
When buyers and sellers signed contracts for tulip bulbs they had never seen, ______ sometimes changed hands many times before a single flower bloomed.

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

  • A) they
  • B) the buyers
  • C) the contracts ✓
  • D) these

Explanation: Three plural nouns sit nearby, buyers, sellers, and bulbs, so a pronoun here has no single clear owner. Naming the contracts fixes that, which is why (C) is right: it was the contracts that traded repeatedly. (A) leaves "they" pointing at any of the earlier nouns. (B) names the buyers, but people do not "change hands," so it misreads the sentence. (D) swaps in "these" without saying these what, so the reference remains unclear.

Text
The cast brass plaques of Benin depicted royal history, documented court ceremonies, and ______.

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

  • A) honored the kingdom's military victories ✓
  • B) the kingdom's military victories were honored
  • C) honoring the kingdom's military victories
  • D) to honor the kingdom's military victories

Explanation: The series already has two past-tense verb phrases, "depicted royal history" and "documented court ceremonies," so the third item must match that form, making (A) right. (B) switches to a passive clause with its own subject, breaking the pattern. (C) uses the "-ing" form "honoring," which does not match the finite verbs before it. (D) uses the infinitive "to honor," which does not match "depicted" and "documented."