4 ACT English questions

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1
  1. I parked my car in downtown Fairbanks, and to keep the battery from freezing, I plugged the engine into an electrical outlet in the parking lot so that the battery would stay warm. (It was twenty below zero that afternoon, and the sky shone with a pale grey light.) I called Joan from a pay phone. She soon met me on a street corner that was close to her art studio.

If the writer were to delete the sentence in parentheses, the essay would primarily lose:
A. an indication of the narrator’s response to the weather conditions in Fairbanks
B. a detailed indication of why the narrator had to plug the car engine into an electrical outlet
C. descriptive details that help set up the scene of the narrator’s meeting with Joan
D. unnecessary details that repeat information given earlier in the paragraph

Answer is C, I chose D: I feel that although “pale grey light” is descriptive, mentioning the temperature again is redundant.

  1. Something I noticed while reading a passage: ... are her "story quilts," lively combinations of painting, quilting, and story telling. Why is the comma inside the quotation mark?
  2. Even gently touching the Haleakala ahinahina can mean death for the plant, whose delicate silver hairs protect (itself from) solar radiation and dehydration. A. NO CHANGE B. the plant under C. oneself with D. it from

Answer is D, I chose A: I’m not really sure what the difference between these two (itself, it) are and when we should use one or another, but I’ve read somewhere that we should “itself” as the subject.

  1. Right whales tend to stay (closely) to the shore. A. NO CHANGE B. more closely C. closer D. close

Answer is D: I’m curious why it isn’t A. Adverbs (closely) modify verbs (stay)? In that sense, D would be wrong. I must be missing something

Any help would be oembgad; greatly appreciated! Thanks!

2

Here’s my answer for number 3. The answer is “it” and not “itself” because it is the plant’s little hairs that are doing the protecting, not the plant itself, if that makes sense. The hairs are a part of the plant. If it said, the “the plant used its little hairs to protect (itself from) solar radiation…” then you would be right since the subject would be the plant. But in this case, the subject is not the plant but instead the little hairs, which protect the plant.
Gosh I feel like I’m rambling and not making any sense. Sorry if I just confused you even more lol.

3

Hey yeah, thanks! It does make sense. Thanks so much

4
  1. The temperature is important because it indicates the urgency with which she has to plug in her car. Plus it helps the reader appreciate how darn cold it is.
  2. The whales stay "Where?"... close to the shore. Closely as an adverb can't modify an infinitive.
5

To add to @AnimeMango 's answer, the reflexive pronoun case can only be used when the verb’s subject and object are one and the same:

I slap myself = okay
My hand slaps myself = wrong
My hand slaps itself = okay

6

Marvin, please stop slapping yourself!!!

7

That’s a pretty good idea, @midtntutor ! Maybe I’ll give it a try one day.

8

Thanks so much for your help! I have a few more questions just to make sure I understood all your tips:

  1. Ah I thought that was already stated when the writer said, "to keep the battery from freezing", but I guess it does add more concrete detail!
  2. So this means that "closely" isn't modifying stay but is part of "close to"? And only verbs can form infinitives so it has to be "close"?

Again, thanks so much for the help!

9

Hahah, thanks, that sure makes it easier to remember!