<p>Hey all, I have a few writing questions that I need some clarification on. Please also write why that answer is correct. Thanks</p>
<p>1) Many of blues great Bessie Smith's songs describe the expiernces of southern Black migrants, especially the struggles of black women to adjust to urban life in the northern United States.</p>
<p>A) the struggles of black women to adjust
B) how Black women struggled at adjusting</p>
<p>2) Winston knew that if he pracited often enough he would one day be able to play the piano as well as his brother's playing.</p>
<p>A) his brother's playing
B) that of his brother
C) his brother's
D) his brother could
E) what his brother did</p>
<p>3) The Sun was shining for nearly five billion years and is thought to have sufficient thermonuclear fuel *in its core **to shine for about another five billion. **No error
*</p>
<p>4) Of ancient origin, the game of checkers was played in Egypt during the time **of the pharaohs and **is mentioned in the writings of Homer and Plato. No error.</p>
<p>5) By the early 1920's Louis Armstrong recorded his first solos as a member of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in such pieces as "Chimes Blues" and "Tears", which he composed with pianist Lil Hardin. No error.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>B, because A is wrong, but I can’t explain how…I just feel strongly as if ‘black women’ should go before ‘struggles’, and that saying ‘the struggles of black women to adjust’ is too wordy. There’s a rule for this somewhere but I can’t pinpoint the name of it…</p></li>
<li><p>D. The word you’re using to compare Winston to his brother, as used in the sentence, is the verb “play”. Therefore, to follow rules of parallelism, that must be compared to another verb (knocking it down to A and D) of the same ‘kind’, as in, you can’t compare play to playing (which eliminates A); could is the only other verb there (it’s short for ‘could play’–you don’t need to use the word ‘play’ again in that sentence since it is obvious that’s what it’s referring to–so just writing ‘his brother could’ is sufficient).</p></li>
<li><p>A; it should say ‘has been shining’. ‘Was shining for nearly five billion years’ is wrong because that answer implies that the sun is no longer shining.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m slightly torn between D and E but I’m going to say D. It should say ‘was mentioned’ in order to be parallel with the other ‘was’ earlier in the sentence.</p></li>
<li><p>A; it’s more practical to say ‘In’ than ‘By’. If you use ‘By’ you’d also have to say ‘had recorded’ instead of ‘recorded’.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think 1 is A because “the struggles…” parallels the experiences better. Option B has “how the black women struggled”, which doesn’t parallel the “experiences”. I don’t know how to explain it either. But that’s the best i could come up with it. I would think A is a better fit. </p>
<p>For 4, I think the answer is E. The fact that there is an “is” is correct. As of present day, the “game of checkers IS mentioned in the writings of Plato and Homer”
Everary–take a look at number 3.</p>
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<p>The “is thought” is perfectly acceptable although the usage of “has shining exists”. In other words, “is” is not parallel to ““has shining…” but “is” is acceptable. “was” is not parallel to is” but it is still acceptable. </p>
<p>And for Number 5, the answer is E i think. Just because it is MORE practical to say “in” doesn’t mean that the usage of “by” is NOT PRACTICAL AT ALL. “by” is acceptable and correect. E is the answer.</p>
<p>For #1, the sentence implies that “the stuggles (of black women” were trying “to adjust.” Therefore. B puts Black women in the active voice with clear subject/verb agreement.</p>
Struggles are experiences. The songs describe experiences, especially the experiences in which black women struggled to adjust to urban life in the northern U.S. The songs describe experiences, especially the struggles of black women to adjust. . . . The sentence is stating what types of experiences (i.e., struggles) southern Black migrants are especially experiencing.</p>
<p>In B, “struggled at adjusting” should be “struggled to adjust.” “How Black women struggled to adjust” is not an experience, so you can’t say, “Bessie Smith’s songs describe the experiences, . . . especially how they struggled.” The struggle itself is an experience, but how they struggled is just an attribute (description) of the struggle.
CORRECT: X plays as well as Y plays.
CORRECT: X plays as well as Y does.
“As well as” compares two verbs/actions. Answer choices A, B, C, and E are noun phrases. You cannot compare how well someone plays to someone else’s playing, because that would be comparing skill in an action to the mere action. It’s illogical. You can only compare how good someone is to how good someone else is. “I run as fast as you” is correct; “I run as fast as your speed” is wrong. You can say, “My speed is identical to your speed,” but you can’t say, “My speed is identical to how fast you are.” You can think of it as having to be parallel.
The answer is A. “Was shining” should be “has been” shining because the sun is still shining today. “The sun has been shining for nearly five billion years” means that the sun started shining 5 billion years ago, has been shining in that period of 5 billion years, and is still shining today. “. . . was shining” implies that the sun shone in the past for 5 billion years, but not necessarily up until now.
The answer is E, No Error. “Of ancient origin” describes the game of checkers; the origin of the game of checkers is ancient–i.e., the game of checkers was created a very long time ago. “The game of checkers was played in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs” is grammatically correct because it is in the past tense and describes the past time during which checkers was played in Egypt. “Is mentioned” is grammatically correct because the contents of literature are stated in the present tense; for example, if I am talking about a character from a book, I might say, “Donald eats a duck in chapter 4.”
Louis Armstrong recorded his first solos during the early 1920’s, not by the early 1920’s.</p>
<p>I’m backing up the choices of SandwichGirl and crazybandit, that #3 is A, for the reason stated. I’ve occasionally fallen into the “Oh, it must be a typo in the answer key” fallacy, but in this case, I think it is a typo in the answer key (or a question writer with a tin ear for English).</p>