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SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 8)

Drill 8 · Reading & Writing · Standard English Conventions

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Standard English Conventions (Drill 8) 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 semicolons in a complex series, joining two independent clauses, keeping a long subject next to its verb, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and closing a phrase opened by a dash.

Questions & Explanations

Text
A mountaineer attempting part of the Seven Summits challenge might climb one giant on each of three continents: Aconcagua, the highest summit in South ______ which stands near the top of North America in Alaska; and Kilimanjaro, which rises alone above the Tanzanian plains.

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

  • A) America, Denali,
  • B) America; Denali, ✓
  • C) America: Denali,
  • D) America Denali,

Explanation: Each item in this list already carries its own commas, so the items have to be separated by semicolons, which makes (B) correct. (A) uses a comma, which blends into the commas inside each item and makes the list harder to follow. (C) uses a colon, but a colon introduces a list, it does not divide the items within one. (D) runs the first two peaks together with no break between them. The semicolon before "and Kilimanjaro" is the tell that the whole series runs on semicolons.

Text
Tardigrades, the microscopic animals often called water bears, can survive conditions that would kill most ______ endured extreme heat, crushing pressure, and even the vacuum of space.

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

  • A) animals; they have ✓
  • B) animals, they have
  • C) animals they have
  • D) animals; having

Explanation: Both halves are complete sentences, so they need a semicolon or a period between them, and (A) is correct. (B) joins them with only a comma, which makes a comma splice. (C) uses no punctuation at all and fuses them. (D) puts a participle after the semicolon, so the second part is a fragment rather than the complete clause a semicolon requires.

Text
The map projection that the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator devised in ______ invaluable for navigation by letting sailors plot a constant compass bearing as a straight line, even though it badly exaggerates the size of land near the poles.

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

  • A) 1569, proved
  • B) 1569 proved ✓
  • C) 1569; proved
  • D) 1569: proved

Explanation: The subject is the long phrase "The map projection that the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator devised in 1569," and its verb is "proved." Nothing should stand between a subject and its verb, so (B), with no punctuation, is correct. (A) drops a comma between the subject and the verb. (C) uses a semicolon, which needs a complete clause on each side. (D) uses a colon, which needs a complete clause before it, and the subject phrase by itself is not one.

Text
Founded around 930 at Thingvellir, the Althing gathered free men from across Iceland each summer to settle disputes and recite the law, and for centuries ______ decisions shaped daily life on the island.

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

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

Explanation: The thing whose decisions shaped the island is the Althing, a single institution, so the singular possessive "its" is correct and (D) is right. (A) "their" reaches back to the plural "free men," but they are not what this part of the sentence is about. (B) "they're" means "they are," which cannot sit in front of "decisions." (C) "it's" means "it is," with the same problem.

Text
The daguerreotype—the first practical photographic process to be made ______ a single, unrepeatable image on a polished silver-plated copper plate, which made every portrait one of a kind.

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

  • A) public, produced
  • B) public; produced
  • C) public—produced ✓
  • D) public produced

Explanation: The phrase "the first practical photographic process to be made public" interrupts the sentence and is opened by a dash, so it has to be closed by a matching dash, which makes (C) correct. (A) closes the phrase with a comma, but a dash and a comma cannot pair off the same insertion. (B) uses a semicolon, which needs complete clauses on both sides and cannot fence a phrase. (D) gives no closing mark, so the inserted phrase runs straight into the verb "produced."