2 Hard ACT English Questions

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1

Hi all,

So I am rather perplexed by this comma question. Here is the paragraph in case some of you insist context has something to do with it.

Bernays considered his uncle’s insights into the human psyche and they’re unconscious motivations to be high priced tools in manipulating the public to think and act in certain ways. Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, “the father of psychoanalysis.” In this book, Propaganda, Berndays suggested that if one could determine the “mechanisms and motive” of the group mind, it would be possible to exter indirect control over the public. He termed this (process,) “the engineering of consent.”

Inside the brackets is what is underlined.
Options are:

F: No Change.
G process-
H process:
J process

Correct answer was J. I thought that since it is clear what process he is referring to, the name could be left out. It wasn’t one of many processes.

The Second Question.

Even though Libby won the Novel Prize in 1960, experts realizing, they needed another method to corroborate Libby’s findings. They turned to a much older dating (method;) dendrochronology, the use of tree rings for mapping intervals of time.

A: No change
B: method,
C: method:
D: method

I got this question correct. The answer is C. I thought that if we enclosed dendrochronology in commas, we lose the actual name of the dating method and we are kind of left wanting for it. B creates this, D is clearly wrong (don’t know the name of the rule for this), A is incorrect because what follows is not an independent clause. Is my reasoning alright?

Looking back, I realized that the first question is similar and if we enclose it then we are also left wanting. Is there a formal rule for this.

Any help would be appreciated!

2

I’d say you have to put “process” because the word process is nowhere else stated. Without process, what would “this” exactly refer to?

And try to look at the following sentences; is there the word process anywhere stated? This can also be an indicator.

  1. You’re reasoning is 100% correct.
3

Thanks for the response. Though for the first one, we still have process if we choose F No change and put a comma after it. The question is why the comma after process is wrong.

4

process,

If you use a comma, one side of the sentence must be a complete sentence and the other side an incomplete sentence.

In the example, the comma after “process” is wrong because it creates two incomplete sentences.

5

Well, I thought of that. Doesn’t “He named this boy”, constitute a sentence on its own? I am thinking that there may be a link in terms of the rhetoric. If we put a comma we lose the name of the process itself. Therefore, it might be perfectly grammatical both ways, but not rhetorically sound with the comma.

Still not perfectly sure.

Is anyone aware if the grammatical construction,

indepedent clause, non essential clause, dependent clause is correct?

6

The answer is J because it is an appositive so it comes after.

7

the first question is correct
Think of a different sentence. Libby named her daughter “Jessica.” It wouldn’t make sense to say "Libby named her daughter, “Jessica,” because the comma interrupts what the daughter is named.

8

Thanks for the clarification!

9

For the second question, anytime that a sentence contains an independent clause followed by a dependent clause, a colon is used to separate the two clauses.