<ol>
<li>It is hilarious when my sister pulls on her black wig and preforms her imitation of Elvis Presley singing "Blue Suede Shoes."<br></li>
</ol>
<p>A)when
B)her black wig
C)performs
D)imitation of Elvis Presley
E)no error</p>
<p>2.Because the previous night's storm had downed several trees along the road, it appeared unlikely that many students would arrive on time for the assembly.</p>
<p>A)Because
B)had downed
C)it appeared unlikely
D)would
E)no error</p>
<p>For the first one I thought it would be "immitation of Elvis Presley's" and as a result put "D" but apparently it has no error.</p>
<p>and for the second one I thought it should be "will" instead of "would," so I put "D" but it also seems as if it has no error.</p>
<p>Can someone please explain to me why my reasoning was incorrect.</p>
This implies a significant distinction between “imitation of Elvis Presley singing ‘Blue Suede Shoes’” and “imitation of Elvis Presley’s singing ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’” This distinction is not tested on the SAT, first of all, so you should know immediately that it’s not relevant. Also, this issue concerning the gerund-participle (i.e., are you referring to Elvis Presley’s act of singing, or a singing Elvis Presley?) is arbitrary and not universal among respectable sources. In other words, there aren’t any clear rules to what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to this topic, so in that sense there is no way this could be on the SAT. But logically, in conforming to the guidelines that I think you subscribe to, both the original and your “correction” would be grammatically standard. You can imitate a singing person just as well as you can imitate their (the person’s) act of singing.
No. “Would” is the past tense of “will,” so it’s consistent with the sentence’s past tenses. Since “many students will” means something like “many students are going to,” think of “many students would” as meaning something like “many students were going to.” Here is the rough translation:
Because the previous night’s storm had downed several trees along the road, it appeared unlikely that many students were going to arrive on time for the assembly.
Make sense now? Evoking the entire sentence in present tense, we get:
Because today’s storm downed several trees along the road, it appears unlikely that many students are going to arrive on time for the assembly. Shame!</p>
<p>Recommendation: Don’t use Kaplan! Use the College Board’s The Official SAT Study Guide. Those sentences aren’t bad, but you are bound to find bad questions, because that is inevitable for a company trying to replicate another company’s questions.</p>
<p>Mmm But for the second one I thought that it was kind of a cause and effect relationship where last night’s storm affected today’s assembly. maybe I am over analyzing it…</p>
If that were true, then “it appeared unlikely” would be “it appears unlikely,” and “would” would indeed be “will.” (Also, “had downed” would be “downed,” since the distinction of the past perfect would be unnecessary.) The consistency of tense is essential in this particular question.</p>