Another Writing Question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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I see no error. Do you think there’s something wrong? </p>

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<p>I agree with you. “Former” and “latter” can be plural. </p>

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<p>“Despair” is being used as a transitive verb here; “that the performance of the chief executive would ever improve,” as a noun clause, is its object. The dictionaries I referenced declare the transitive use of “despair” obsolete. Whether that makes the sentence ungrammatical is based on one’s standards of correctness, I suppose. I don’t think the SAT would test an esoteric, possibly archaic sense of a word. Is this from an official SAT test?</p>

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<p>Because there is a comma after “out,” which introduces a prepositional phrase, there should be a comma at the end of the prepositional phrase. So the sentence should be:</p>

<p>To stand in Persepolis in modern Iran and look out, as Darius the first must have done**,** at the immense sweep of fields and mountains is to grasp the vastness of the ancient Persian Empire.</p>

<p>As I mentioned a couple posts ago, though, I don’t believe an answer will ever be wrong if the correction is merely to input a comma. Unless this question belies my experience with the SAT on that matter, I’m tempted to also question whether this is from an official SAT test. </p>

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<p>It’s kind of clunky, but yeah, its grammar is fine. “It having swept almost unchecked over great distances” is an absolute phrase, which is formed by preceding a participial phrase (“having swept almost unchecked over great distances”) with the word the participle modifies (“It”). The sentence would be more eloquent if “It” were omitted, producing a simple participial phrase; the meaning would be preserved.</p>

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<p>Yep, this demonstrates the same concept of the absolute phrase. It works more effectively here because the participial phrase (“depending, initially at least, on the thickness…”) modifies “the thickness of the iceberg” rather than the subject of the clause itself (“An iceberg”) as in the sentence you wrote.</p>

42

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<p>“A response” is not meaningfully different in this context from “the response” because we don’t know whether the writer feels that there were other responses to popular protest.</p>

<p>Whether multiple nouns would be referenced with a singular noun, implying they are a collective, is a matter of subjective conceptualization. One could deem the Magna Carta and the thirteenth-century Parliament as separate responses or as one response. </p>

<p>Because “outcomes” is plural and also refers to the same compound noun, context suggests the writer conceives the compound noun as plural. Indeed, “are now seen” being the verb whose subject is that compound noun (by the way, my construction there is an absolute phrase), the writer clearly intends the compound noun to be plural and non-collective. So “a response” should be “responses,” as marvin wrote. </p>

<p><a href=“No%20matter”>quote</a> how many times Julie hears her favourite song, whenever (it) is played on the radio, she (will dance around) the room (as if) she has never heard this song before.
Answer: C. But should it become “dances around” or “would dance”??

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<p>The verb phrase should be in the present rather than future tense: “dances around.” “Whenever it is played on the radio” is also in the present tense, signaling this need. We would write “would dance” if an unreal conditional tense were used, as in</p>

<p>If Julie’s song were played on the radio, she would dance around the room.</p>

<p>But that sentence would only be logically plausible if the writer were highly skeptical that the song would ever be played on the radio.</p>

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<p>Choice (A) is grammatically correct, but it’s wordy because it uses the passive voice when the active voice would suffice. Always favor conciseness and the active voice unless the passive voice clearly better parallels the rest of the sentence. In this case, we see that “you should gather” is in the active voice, so we’d rather the rest of the sentence were too.</p>

<p>Choice (E) is wrong because the conjunction “yet” indicates contradiction. There is utter harmony between the careful documentation of sources and using books, periodicals, and the Internet as those sources. “And” is more appropriate. </p>

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<p>Looks dandy. </p>

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<p>Yes, “expect” takes an infinitive rather than gerund object. “I expect to succeed” rather than “I expect succeeding.” </p>

<p>I am happy to help to the extent I can. We wouldn’t want you to end up like Fernando. :)</p>