📐 SAT
📝 ACT
🎓 AP Exams
About Contact Blog Privacy Policy

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 23)

Drill 23 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

0 / 5
←
Previous drill
Drill 22
Next drill
Drill 24
→
More Sat Reading Writing Standard English Conventions drills
Drill 1 5 questions → Drill 2 5 questions → Drill 3 5 questions → Drill 4 5 questions → Drill 5 5 questions → Drill 6 5 questions → Drill 7 5 questions → Drill 8 5 questions → Drill 9 5 questions → Drill 10 5 questions → Drill 11 5 questions → Drill 12 5 questions → Drill 13 5 questions → Drill 14 5 questions → Drill 15 5 questions → Drill 16 5 questions → Drill 17 5 questions → Drill 18 5 questions → Drill 19 5 questions → Drill 20 5 questions → Drill 21 5 questions → Drill 22 5 questions →
Drill 23 — current you are here
Drill 24 5 questions → Drill 25 5 questions → Drill 26 5 questions → Drill 27 5 questions → Drill 28 5 questions → Drill 29 5 questions → Drill 30 5 questions →

About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 23) 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 test the compound predicate that takes no comma, the single dash after a list, subject-verb agreement with "each," clearing up an ambiguous pronoun reference, and choosing the right pronoun form.

Questions & Explanations

Text
Whitney patented his cotton gin in ______ the next several years battling rivals who copied the simple design.

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

  • A) 1794, and spent
  • B) 1794; and spent
  • C) 1794 and spent ✓
  • D) 1794, spent

Explanation: "Whitney" is the only subject in the sentence, and he does two things: he patented the gin and then spent years battling rivals who copied his design. Because both verbs share one subject, no comma belongs before "and," so (C) is right. (A) adds an unnecessary comma between two verbs that share the same subject. (B) doubles the join with both a semicolon and "and." (D) drops the conjunction, leaving two verbs connected by only a comma. When one subject takes two verbs, keep them together without a comma.

Text
The meter, the liter, and the ______ units helped give the early metric system a clear decimal structure that scientists could use across borders.

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

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

Explanation: Before the blank is a list of three nouns, which is not a complete sentence, and after it is a full sentence that sums them up. A dash is the mark that bridges the list to that summarizing sentence, so (A) is right. (B) joins the fragment to a full sentence with a comma, which is too weak for the break. (C) uses a semicolon, but a semicolon needs a complete sentence on its left, and a list is not one. (D) uses a colon, which also needs a complete sentence in front of it.

Text
In a naked mole-rat colony, each of the chambers the workers ______ its own purpose, whether nursery, toilet, or food store.

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

  • A) excavate serve
  • B) excavate have
  • C) excavate fulfill
  • D) excavate serves ✓

Explanation: "Each" takes a singular verb, even when a plural noun like "chambers" sits between it and the verb. (D) "serves" is the form that fits. The plural nouns nearby, "chambers" and "workers," belong to the modifier and to the relative clause, not to the main subject. (A) "serve," (B) "have," and (C) "fulfill" are plural forms that would need a plural subject. The pronoun "its" later in the sentence also points back to a singular subject.

Text
After identifying both radium and polonium in pitchblende, Marie Curie eventually isolated a visible amount of radium, but ______ could not be isolated by the same means.

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

  • A) it
  • B) polonium ✓
  • C) this metal
  • D) the former

Explanation: With both elements just named, "it" and "this metal" could each point to either one. "The former" is grammatically clear, but "the former" is radium, and the sentence has just said Curie did isolate radium, so (D) contradicts the line itself. (B) "polonium" names the element that actually fits: Curie identified polonium, but her successful isolation work centered on radium, not on polonium.

Text
The Bretton Woods system tied many currencies to the U.S. dollar, and for decades ______ rules shaped how nations settled debts with one another.

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

  • A) its ✓
  • B) their
  • C) it's
  • D) they're

Explanation: The word standing in for a noun here refers to "the Bretton Woods system," which is singular, so the possessive is (A) "its." (B) "their" is plural and would point to "currencies" or "nations," not to the system. (C) "it's" means "it is," and (D) "they're" means "they are," so neither one can show possession. The closest nouns are plural, but the actual owner of the rules is the single system.