<p>A(Until) the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of Americans B(could be) depended upon C(voting for) the same party D(in each) presidential election. </p>
<p>I actually have no idea for this one. Is it B?</p>
<p>A(The enactment) of zero-tolerance disciplinary practices at the school B(have contributed) to a significant increase C(in the number) of students who are D(being suspended) and expelled. </p>
<p>Is "The enactment of zero-tolerance disciplinary practices" single or plural? What's the answer?</p>
<p>The philosopher Epictetus A(popularized) the Stoic doctrine of limiting B(your desires), believing that one should act in life C(as at) a banquet D(by) taking a polite portion of all that is offered. </p>
<p>Is the correct answer B? Should it be "one's desires"?</p>
<p>The job of Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve Board A(chairmen), is B(to prevent) a downward spiral by keeping C(just) the right amount D(of air in) the economic balloon.</p>
<p>Is chairmen supposed to be chairman instead? What's the answer here?</p>
<p>If all goes A(according to plan), the Martian rover will spend the next three months B(analyzing rocks) and soil to determine C(whether) water D(once existed) on the planet.</p>
<p>Is "once existed" redundant? Or is it no error here?</p>
<p>A( As a grand finale) to the celebrations B(marking) the British Museum's 250th anniversary, the magnificent King's Library C(will reopen) this month D(after) a long and costly restoration program.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I would say [E], no error. I don’t see anything wrong with B.</p></li>
<li><p>. The subject is ‘enactment.’ The rest of the clause, ‘…of zero-tolerance disciplinary practices’ is just a preposition (usually ‘of’ either indicates preposition or possession). Don’t let ETS trick you with the ‘of.’</p></li>
<li><p>. Yes you are correct. To keep continuation in voice, ‘one’ needs to be used.</p></li>
<li><p>[A]. I agree with you. I believe it should be ‘chairman.’</p></li>
<li><p>[E]. I’m not sure if “whether water once existed.” would be considered redundant. I would say no, but this is a tough one.</p></li>
<li><p>[C]. You need passive voice. The Kings Library is being reopened, it is not doing the reopening.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yea I’m not positive on 6, and I’m aware of the colloquialism, but I still think the ETS would try to be tricky and throw something subtle like that in there.</p>
The answer to 1 is (C). “Voting for” should be “to vote for.” You depend on someone to vote; you don’t depend on someone voting. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The answer to 5 is indeed (E). “Whether water once existed” is grammatically correct. “Once existed” describes something that existed once before but not anymore. It makes sense that they are examining rocks and soil and whatnot to determine whether water “once” existed before. It does not matter whether water still exists in Mars (if it does exist, the sentence could be considered semantically incorrect–i.e., incorrect in meaning/truth) because the sentence still makes sense grammatically.</p>
<p>The answer to 6 might be (E), although I looked this sentence up and it said “reopens” instead of “will reopen.” Both could in themselves work, because “this month” could be considered to be in either present tense or future tense, as the process of reopening is long-term. Similarly, if you are eating dinner, you might say, “I am studying linguistics” when clearly you are not at that instant. Although, I should say, it is probably more precise to say that it “reopens this month . . . after a long and costly restoration program” because then the “program” would be implied to be in the past (since “reopens” is in the present and occurs “after”). To say that it “will reopen . . . after a long and costly restoration program” is to imply that the program may still be going on in the present (since “will reopen” is in the future). For example, “I am meeting my friends after work” implies that work is not in the past and that you have to get it over with before you meet your friends in the future. So, afterall, it might be better to use the present tense (“the . . . Library reopens” instead of “the . . . Library will reopen”) because it sounds like the costly restoration program has passed. So the answer might be (C) or (E). But this doesn’t sound much like an SAT question, as it is challenging and requires much thought.</p>
<p>(Until) the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of Americans B(could be) depended upon C(voting for) the same party D(in each) presidential election. </p>
<p>^Shouldn’t it be B? It is in the past (middle of the 20th century) so “could be” should be “had been”</p>
<p><a href=“Until”>quote</a> the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of Americans B(could be) depended upon C(voting for) the same party D(in each) presidential election.</p>
<p>^Shouldn’t it be B? It is in the past (middle of the 20th century) so “could be” should be “had been”
[/quote]
There’s no point in using the past perfect tense since the time period is not ambiguous. You only use the past perfect when two past actions need to be distinguished from one another in relation to sequence. “Could” is in the simple past, and it is the past tense of “can.” It refers to something that one WAS able to do, which was to depend on voters to vote consistently each election.</p>
<p>
The modifier “for…” has nothing to do with it. It is grammatical to say “depend on…to do something” and ungrammatical to say “depend on…doing something.” That’s it.</p>