Please help me with the following writing probs.

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>These questions are from section 4 of test no. 3, CB’s online course:
The part is brackets is the underlined portion.</p>

<p>Q. 11: The Pony Express was an ingenious system for carrying (mail; it was in existence only briefly, however,) before the telegraph system made it obsolete.
A) same as the underlined portion.
B) mail, for it was in existence only briefly, however,
C) mail; however, existing only briefly
D) mail, having existed only briefly
E) mail, but was existing only briefly</p>

<p>I thought the answer should have been D. It is precise and correct. The participle phrase beginning with “having” correctly modifies The Pony Express and is aptly preceded by a comma. For instance, if the participle phrase is brought at the beginning of the sentence, there will be no grammatical error in this sentence.</p>

<p>The correct answer, however, is A. Although the choice is grammatically correct, I thought it is more verbose than D.</p>

<p>Q. 19: After the prince characterized modern architecture (as ugly), he (has been) (severely) criticized for having been (so outspoken) in public. (No Error)</p>

<p>Now the actual error occurs at has been. (According to CB)
The explanation: The use of after with the past tense “characterized” in the introductory clause requires the use of past and not present perfect tense in the main clause. Therefore, “has been: should be changed to “was”. Duh??</p>

<p>I have never come across this grammatical rule. I thought that has been makes a perfect sense because the criticism might continue up to this day. Please clarify.</p>

<p>Q 27: I have gone (to) (only one) foot ball game (after) I (graduated) from high school. (No Error.)</p>

<p>The error occurs at after. (According to CB) It should be replaced by since, which is more idiomatic.</p>

<p>But I thought that error occurred at “graduated” because “have graduated” makes more sense. Even if “after” is replace by since, have graduated will make more sense. The reason: First, “have graduated” will become parallel with “have gone”. Second, the graduation continues up to this day- as in, he has graduated in the past and continues to be graduated to this day; thus, present perfect tense should have been used. I really found this question tricky. Please help!</p>

<p>Section 10:
Q 1: (A recent discovery is the finding that) people who both drink and smoke have greater cancer risks than those who do only one of these things.
A) Same. ; B) and C) do not make sense in any case.
D) It has recently been discovered that
E) It is a resent discovery that.
The correct answer is D. Now I understand that D sounds perfectly grammatical. But I thought that D was passive. So E made a better answer since the latter it is lesser wordy, grammatically correct and active. Clarify please.
Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>For the first one, D is not correct because using a comma there makes it seem like the following clause is its reason.</p>

<p>What I mean to say is that in Choice D, it sounds like "having existed only briefly" is WHY the Pony Express was an ingenious system for carrying mail.</p>

<p>In the second one, your logic is flawed. For events that are still going on, we use Since. By using "after", we suppose that the event occurred soon after that time and ended... at least grammatically, we do.</p>

<p>For that reason, WAS is correct.</p>

<p>In the third one, you only graduate once. You don't continue to keep graduating each day.</p>

<p>In the last, D is correct. You normally don't say "It is a recent discovery that". I don't know how to explain this ... it just comes naturally to me.</p>

3

<p>q 1, do u see the contrast betweeen the popularity of the express and the evanescence of it? context plays a role here =S</p>

<p>q2. u see the word after, often times its in past tense.</p>

<p>q3. i actually got this wrong when i did this, i guess sincei s more idiomatic. =s
q4 D is alot more idiomatic, also, what is "IT" in E? whats the discovery?</p>

4

<p>hey thanks for you feedback.
@ Ren: could you please elaborate on what does the contrast in Q 11 imply grammatically. I am unable to figure it out myself. I mean how do the contrast and sentence structure they not go together?</p>

<p>@ Uttaresh: Are you sure that AFTER connotates some thing that ended. Because I have been unable to find out the exact usage of AFTER anywhere.</p>

<p>Anyone else?</p>

5

<p>Yes, I am sure.</p>

<p>The King was melancholy after his son passed away.</p>

<p>The King has been melancholy since his son passed away.</p>

6

<p>Q11 . the right answer is saying that ---the pony express was a brilliant success, but because of the other innovations,it became outdated. theres the contrast between good and bad.--
u picked D, D is saying that --- pony express is a success because it existed short period of time--- this contradicts logic~~</p>