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SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 20)

Drill 20 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 20) 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 joining clauses with a comma and conjunction, keeping a subject next to its verb, modifier placement, agreement in an inverted sentence, and subject-verb agreement across an intervening phrase.

Questions & Explanations

Text
As Foucault's long pendulum swung in a Paris hall in 1851, its path seemed to rotate ______ the floor beneath it was the thing actually turning.

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

  • A) slowly but
  • B) slowly,
  • C) slowly, but ✓
  • D) slowly; but

Explanation: Two independent clauses meet here, "its path seemed to rotate slowly" and "the floor beneath it was the thing actually turning," and joining two independent clauses takes a comma plus a conjunction, so (C) is right. (A) leaves out the comma before "but," which would suit one subject doing two things, but the second half has its own subject. (B) uses a comma with no conjunction, splicing the two sentences together. (D) stacks a semicolon on top of "but," double-marking a single join.

Text
The watered pattern that made these blades famous in medieval ______ from the steel's own internal structure, not from any stack of welded layers.

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

  • A) markets, came
  • B) markets came ✓
  • C) markets: came
  • D) markets—came

Explanation: A subject never takes a single mark separating it from its verb, no matter how long the subject runs. The whole phrase "The watered pattern that made these blades famous in medieval markets" is the subject, and its verb is "came," so nothing belongs between them, making (B) right. (A) drops a comma in front of the verb, cutting the subject off from what it does. (C) uses a colon, which has to follow a complete sentence, not a lone subject. (D) inserts a dash that breaks the same subject-verb link.

Text
Today, museum visitors can still see the iron bar ______.

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

  • A) that injured Gage, displayed in a glass case at Harvard ✓
  • B) in a glass case at Harvard that injured Gage
  • C) that injured Gage in a glass case at Harvard
  • D) displayed in a glass case at Harvard that injured Gage, as the passage lays it out

Explanation: The clause "that injured Gage" has to sit next to the noun it describes, the iron bar, with the detail about the display following after, so (A) reads correctly. (B) places "that injured Gage" next to "Harvard," making it sound as though Harvard did the injuring. (C) lets "in a glass case at Harvard" fall right after "injured Gage," which says the injury happened inside the case. (D) makes the same error as (B), putting "that injured Gage" next to "Harvard" instead of next to the bar.

Text
Across the surface of each punched card ______ dozens of small holes, and that pattern tells the loom which threads to lift.

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

  • A) is
  • B) sits
  • C) lies
  • D) are ✓

Explanation: When a sentence opens with a place phrase and puts the verb ahead of its subject, the verb still matches that subject. The subject is "dozens of small holes," which is plural, so the verb is "are," making (D) right. The nearby words "each punched card" lure a singular verb, the likely error in (A) "is," (B) "sits," and (C) "lies," all singular forms that do not match the plural "dozens."

Text
The discovery of mauveine, the first synthetic dye made from coal-tar-derived chemicals, ______ often described as the start of the modern dye industry.

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

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

Explanation: The subject is "discovery," a singular noun, even though the plural "chemicals" sits right before the verb. A singular subject takes "is," so (B) is correct. (A) "are," (C) "were," and (D) "have been" are all plural forms pulled toward "chemicals," but "chemicals" belongs to the phrase describing mauveine, not to the subject.