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SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 29)

Drill 29 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 29) 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 Standard English Conventions questions covering semicolons between independent clauses, paired commas around an interrupter, placement of the word "only," the past perfect, and clearing up an unclear pronoun.

Questions & Explanations

Text
During an El Niño, the surface waters of the eastern Pacific grow unusually ______ this single shift in ocean temperature can disrupt rainfall and storms across much of the planet.

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

  • A) warm,
  • B) warm
  • C) warm; ✓
  • D) warm and

Explanation: Both halves here are complete sentences: "the surface waters of the eastern Pacific grow unusually warm" and "this single shift in ocean temperature can disrupt rainfall and storms." A semicolon can join two complete sentences, so (C) works. (A) puts only a comma between them, which is a comma splice. (B) runs them together with no punctuation. (D) adds "and" but drops the comma that, in formal punctuation, is expected before "and" when it links two full sentences, so the join is incomplete.

Text
The Amber ______ chamber whose walls were paneled entirely in carved amber, was looted from a Russian palace during the Second World War, and the original has never been recovered.

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

  • A) Room, a ✓
  • B) Room—a
  • C) Room a
  • D) Room: a

Explanation: The phrase "a chamber whose walls were paneled entirely in carved amber" describes the Amber Room and is dropped into the sentence as extra information. A comma already closes it after "amber," so the opening mark has to be a matching comma; that is what (A) supplies. (B) opens with a dash, but the phrase closes with a comma, and a pair has to match. (C) leaves no opening mark, so the description runs straight into "The Amber Room." (D) uses a colon, which cannot open an interrupter set into the middle of a sentence.

Text
Five ships set sail under Magellan in 1519, but after three years of storms, mutiny, and disease, ______ the entire voyage around the globe.

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

  • A) one of the five ships only completed
  • B) one of the only five ships completed
  • C) one of the five only ships completed
  • D) only one of the five ships completed ✓

Explanation: The sentence means that out of five ships, just a single one made it all the way around, so "only" has to sit right before "one." That is what (D) does. (A) places "only" before "completed," which suggests the ship did nothing but finish the voyage, changing the point. (B) "the only five ships" implies that just five ships existed anywhere, not that five set out. (C) wedges "only" between "five" and "ships," where it does not fit the sentence. The word "only" has to sit right next to what it limits.

Text
By the time Hiram Bingham brought Machu Picchu to the world's attention in 1911, a few local families ______ its terraces for generations.

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

  • A) farmed
  • B) had farmed ✓
  • C) were farming
  • D) have farmed

Explanation: Two past moments are in play: local families working the terraces, and Bingham arriving in 1911. The farming began before that 1911 visit, so the past perfect "had farmed," choice (B), is the best fit among the options. (A) "farmed" is simple past and does not show that the farming came before his arrival. (C) "were farming" only describes it as ongoing, again without ordering the two events. (D) "have farmed" is present perfect, which would tie the action to the present day rather than to 1911.

Text
The archive holds a printed pamphlet and a handwritten letter from the same year, but ______ is harder to read today, because the letter's ink has faded almost to nothing.

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

  • A) the handwritten letter ✓
  • B) it
  • C) the former
  • D) this document

Explanation: Two things have just been named, a printed pamphlet and a handwritten letter, so a pronoun like "it" or a vague "this document" could point to either one. Naming the item directly clears that up, and the reason the sentence gives, that the letter's ink has faded, can only fit the letter, so (A) is right. (B) "it" and (D) "this document" leave the reference open between the two. (C) "the former" points to the pamphlet, which the sentence never ties to the faded ink, so it contradicts the reason the sentence gives.