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SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 24)

Drill 24 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 24) 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 setting off a nonessential clause with commas, keeping a correlative pair parallel, clearing up an ambiguous pronoun reference, placing a limiting word next to what it modifies, and forming a joint possessive.

Questions & Explanations

Text
Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, ______ sold cheaply enough that many townspeople in Edo could afford them.

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

  • A) that artisans produced using carved cherry-wood blocks were
  • B) that artisans produced using carved cherry-wood blocks, were
  • C) which artisans produced using carved cherry-wood blocks were
  • D) which artisans produced using carved cherry-wood blocks, were ✓

Explanation: With the opening comma already in the passage, the clause is being set off as nonessential information, which calls for "which" (not "that") and a matching closing comma. (D) supplies both. (A) and (B) use "that," which is restrictive and does not take commas at all. (C) uses "which" correctly but leaves the closing comma off, so the nonessential clause ends up half-enclosed. A nonessential clause needs matching commas on both sides.

Text
Turning fresh tea leaves into the finished product requires not only ______ but also rolling them to release their oils.

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

  • A) to wither the leaves
  • B) withering the leaves ✓
  • C) the leaves must be withered
  • D) a withering of the leaves

Explanation: "Not only ... but also" is a paired structure, and whatever follows "not only" must match the form after "but also." Since "but also" is followed by "rolling them," an "-ing" phrase, the blank takes the "-ing" form too: (B) "withering the leaves." (A) uses an infinitive, (C) a full clause, and (D) a noun phrase, none matching "rolling." Correlative pairs work only when both halves share the same form.

Text
Thomas Young made early progress on the Rosetta Stone, but Jean-François Champollion produced the decisive decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, so ______ is generally credited with the breakthrough.

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

  • A) he
  • B) the former
  • C) Champollion ✓
  • D) this scholar

Explanation: The pronoun follows two names, so "he" is unclear, and (D) "this scholar" has the same problem. (B) "the former" picks out Young, but the prior clause credits Champollion with the decisive decipherment, which is the breakthrough itself, so the wrong-noun reading contradicts the rest of the line. (C) "Champollion" is the only choice that both clears up the reference and matches the rest of the sentence.

Text
Krakatoa had been a sizable island before 1883, but after the eruption tore most of it apart, ______.

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

  • A) only a small fragment of the original island still rose above the waves ✓
  • B) a small fragment of the original island only still rose above the waves
  • C) a small fragment of the original island still only rose above the waves
  • D) a small fragment of the original island still rose above the waves only

Explanation: The sentence says most of the island was destroyed, so the point is that hardly anything was left: just a small fragment. "Only" has to sit right before "a small fragment" to carry that meaning, so the right answer is (A). In (B) and (C), "only" lands next to the verb and suggests the fragment merely rose rather than did something else. In (D), "only above the waves" wrongly limits where it rose. Put "only" right next to the thing being limited.

Text
Audiences still enjoy ______ comic operettas, the product of a partnership that yielded fourteen works together.

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

  • A) Gilbert's and Sullivan's
  • B) Gilbert and Sullivan's ✓
  • C) Gilbert and Sullivan
  • D) Gilbert's and Sullivan

Explanation: Gilbert and Sullivan created their operettas together, as one team, so this is joint ownership, which puts the apostrophe on the second name only: (B) "Gilbert and Sullivan's." (A) gives each man his own apostrophe, which would mean they owned separate sets of works. (C) drops the possessive entirely. (D) marks only the first name. When two names share ownership of the same thing, only the last name takes the apostrophe.