Just wacko grammar questions

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Pretty sure I'm overthinking. Kind of a lot. </p>

<ol>
<li>Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein partly because (....) a myth of the ancient greeks.</li>
</ol>

<p>B. Her desire was the adapting of
C. She wanted to adapt</p>

<p>Okay, the answer is C. While reviewing, I looked at B, and it seems fine too. I know C is more concise, shorter, and sweeter, but what's wrong with B. Is it in passive voice or something?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Difference between 'in that' and 'because'. I googled the question and it just said that 'in that' is a qualification, while 'because' is a cause & effect relationship. Isn't that the same thing?</p></li>
<li><p>Should conjunctions (and, but, or) be parallel on both sides all the time? Like for example: I ate a hot dog and I walked boardwalk. </p></li>
<li><p>(....) firsthand experience would add to the credibility of her biography of Matthew Henson, a discoverer of the North Pole, the author spent a winter north of the Arctic circle.
A. In believing that
B. Believing that
C. Because believing that</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Right answer is B. But why can't A & C be right also?</p>

<ol>
<li>The Anasazi Indians settled in the Southwest in the first century but, perhaps because of the gradual drying of the climate, eventually abandoned their settlements.</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) century but, perhaps because of the gradual drying of the climate, eventually abandoned their settlements.</p>

<p>Isn't A a comma splice, like A in an independent sentence?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>In the first world war, the united states army refused accrediting women as news correspondents...
Is accrediting supposed to be changed into "to accredit"?</p></li>
<li><p>Facing overwhelming odds at the Battle of Yorktown, Cornwallis naturally tried to avoid being trapped but it failed.
Supposed to be just 'failed' right? Or it is because of the ambiguous pronoun?</p></li>
</ol>

2

<ol>
<li><p>SAT looks for most concise</p></li>
<li><p>there is a difference:
because: I took a break because I was tired.
in that: The SAT is a bad test in that it doesn’t accurately measure intelligence. You could use because here if you wanted, but in that would be better.</p></li>
<li><p>On the SAT, yes. In real life, not necessarily. </p></li>
<li><p>“In believing that” has an extra word. It also sounds like it implies something different to me, perhaps a later poster can help. “Because believing that” is grammatically incorrect. It would be “because she believed that” were it to be correct. </p></li>
<li><p>“perhaps because of the gradual drying of the climate” is some type of clause (can’t remember which cause it’s been forever since I’ve learned) so it needs to be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>The pronoun is ambiguous as there is no part of the sentence it could refer to. It should be “he failed” or just "failed.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hope I’m accurate haha.</p>

3

<p>I like your responses. But I’m still asking for the reason. Like I know it’s wrong, but I don’t know WHY it’s wrong</p>

4

<ol>
<li><p>B is wrong because it is indirect, the subject in the sentence is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, so we should be talking about her (she wanted to adapt), not her desire. Always look for direct and concise answer.</p></li>
<li><p>What is the sentence about? Most likely the correct is “because”</p></li>
<li><p>Always.</p></li>
<li><p>“In believing” wrong idiom, “because believing” is superfluous. “Believing that” is exactly enough.</p></li>
<li><p>It is an interrupting phrase, so it must be separated.If you remove such phrase, the sentence is fine on its own.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes. The United States army refused what? to accredit women as news correspondents.</p></li>
<li><p>I believe that Cornwallis is a person but even if it was a name of an army, the sentence is already short “Cornwallis naturally tried to avoid being trapped but failed”, adding “it” is superfluous. It should be clear what we are talking about.</p></li>
</ol>

5

<ol>
<li>Independent sentence is when there is a subject and action, but in your sentence it is only a thought adding more information.</li>
</ol>

6

<p>This is another opportunity for my favorite little sermonette: the only way to really understand English usage and vocabulary is to do a lot of reading in English. The real answer, for example, to to why B is wrong in 2 above is: no good writer of English would ever use that wording. Read novels, magazines, and newspapers.</p>

7

<p>I do. But for 2, I was just wondering. I know it’s concise-er, sweeter, etc, but it seems to be grammatically correct.</p>

8

<p>But it’s obviously and totally wrong. That’s my point.</p>

9

<p>There might be grammatically correct answers between other choices. SAT wants us to choose the concise versions.</p>

10

<p>"no good writer of English would ever use that wording. Read novels, magazines, and newspapers. "</p>

<p>no good writer of English would use the phrase “good writer”.</p>

11

<ol>
<li>Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein partly because (…) a myth of the ancient greeks.</li>
</ol>

<p>B. Her desire was the adapting of
C. She wanted to adapt One of the quickest tips for this is that -ing words very often make an answer incorrect. Not always but 99% of the time. Can make a sentence passive which inherently makes the sentence less concise.</p>

<p>Okay, the answer is C. While reviewing, I looked at B, and it seems fine too. I know C is more concise, shorter, and sweeter, but what’s wrong with B. Is it in passive voice or something?</p>

<ol>
<li>Difference between ‘in that’ and ‘because’. I googled the question and it just said that ‘in that’ is a qualification, while ‘because’ is a cause & effect relationship. Isn’t that the same thing? Next, we should also be aware of the difference between because and in that. First, using pure strategy, when ETS puts both because and in that, the answer is most likely in that. Second, because is used to express a simple causal relationship whereas in that qualifies the previous statement.</li>
</ol>

<p>Confused? Look at these examples:</p>

<p>Cause and effect relationship: I went to sleep because I was tired. ==> Being tired caused me to go to sleep.</p>

<p>Qualification: Going to college is a sacrifice in that doing so requires several years of forgoing the income that students could have earned had they not attended college. ==> Going to college is a sacrifice, BUT NOT IN EVERY WAY; there are many ways in which going to college is NOT a sacrifice, but in this sentence, I want to express one way in which going to college IS a sacrifice.,</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Should conjunctions (and, but, or) be parallel on both sides all the time? Like for example: I ate a hot dog and I walked boardwalk. You don’t need “I”. I ate a hot dog and walked the boardwalk. The VERB format needs to be the same.</p></li>
<li><p>(…) firsthand experience would add to the credibility of her biography of Matthew Henson, a discoverer of the North Pole, the author spent a winter north of the Arctic circle.
A. In believing that
B. Believing that
C. Because believing that</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Right answer is B. But why can’t A & C be right also?</p>

<ol>
<li>The Anasazi Indians settled in the Southwest in the first century but, perhaps because of the gradual drying of the climate, eventually abandoned their settlements.</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) century but, perhaps because of the gradual drying of the climate, eventually abandoned their settlements.</p>

<p>Isn’t A a comma splice, like A in an independent sentence? No, not a comma splice. The information contained within the commas is extra information, which doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence. Remove the info between the commas, and you have a fine sentence. A comma splice on the SAT is primarily used with FANBOYS, so the comma would have to be in from of BUT.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>In the first world war, the united states army refused accrediting women as news correspondents…
Is accrediting supposed to be changed into “to accredit”? Yes. Again, it goes back to that -ing. If you see it, you can be pretty sure it’s wrong.</p></li>
<li><p>Facing overwhelming odds at the Battle of Yorktown, Cornwallis naturally tried to avoid being trapped but it failed.
Supposed to be just ‘failed’ right? Or it is because of the ambiguous pronoun? Whenever you see a pronoun, especially it, its, they, their, make sure that you can refer to the noun to which it is referring. In this sentence, “it” doesn’t refer to anything. It’s not ambiguous; it’s wrong.</p></li>
</ol>

12

<p>

It’s a bizarre phrasing that simply wouldn’t be used in English. Again, that’s my point. You shouldn’t even have to ask this question if you’ve read a lot of written English.</p>

<p>I don’t know the question, but I’ll bet that “because” was the right answer, and “in that” was wrong. That’s because “in that” is an awkward phrase that should be avoided.</p>

<p>On 8, you could say “Because she believed that,” but you can’t say “Because believing that.” “In believing that” you would only use if you were going to say something about the belief, such as, “In believing that he had scored well on the test, he was gravely mistaken.” It’s still awkward, though.</p>

<p>As for Cornwallis, I agree that there is no antecedent for “it.” You could say, “Facing overwhelming odds at the battle of Yorktown, Cornwallis tried a bold gambit, but it failed.”</p>

<p>lisakay is right about “ing” words–they are very often awkward in English.</p>

<p>I do disagree with lisakay about one thing–I don’t think a good writer of English is the same as a writer of good English, although I suppose neither one would say “her desire was the adapting of.”</p>

13

<p>Is it honestly that hard to tell why Number two is C?
I mean… Just read the other choice, lol.</p>

14

<p>Guys… I got it right… I was just wondering what was wrong with C, beside it’s not concise, it sounds weird, etc</p>

15

<p>

This is not so easy, perhaps, for people who are not native speakers of English. Something can be wrong without violating any rules of grammar. It’s easy to miss a question like this if your preparation is based on studying rules of grammar and vocabulary lists. Again, that’s my point in urging students to read as much as possible.</p>

<p>Note: I read the choices to my daughter (who reads a lot), and she immediately identified the wrong answer. When I asked her to explain why it’s wrong, she said, “It’s gross.”</p>