SAT confusing Writing section Problems help plz

Test Preparation
1

<p>These 3 problems are from Barron's and Kaplan SAT Prep book. I took the test, but I don't agree with the result. Thanx for helping me out. I already eliminated some choices.</p>

<p>Baron's Diagnostic sec4 (the whole sentenced is underlined)
1. Because he spoke out against Hitler's policies was why Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany, was arrested and eventually hanged by the Gestapo.</p>

<p>b) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany, was arrested and eventually hanged by the Gestapo because he spoke out against Hitler's policies
c) Because he spoke out against Hitler's policies, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany, was arrested and eventually hung by the Gestapo.</p>

<p>correct answer is B, but I thought B was wrong b/c I thought "he" does not have a clear pronoun antecedent. Therefore, I chose C</p>

<p>Baron Diagnostic sec10 (part after "voice" is underlined)
1. Unfortunately, soul singer Anita Baker's voice has not weathered the years as well as other singers have.</p>

<p>C)has not been weathered by the years as well as the voices of other singers have been
D)has not weathered the years as well as other singers' voices have.</p>

<p>correct answer is D, but I thought the phrase "voice has not weather the year" was not right.</p>

<p>Kaplan's Test 9 Sec4 (part after "subsidizes" is underlined)</p>

<ol>
<li>The United States Department of Education subsidizes educational loans they will deliver the funds directly to your school to pay your tuition.</li>
</ol>

<p>B)educational loans; they will deliver the funds directly to your school to pay your tuition
C)funds delivered directly to your school to pay your tuition in the form of educational loans</p>

<p>correct answer is B, but I thought the "they" in B does not have an antecdent it refer to since "United States Department of Education" is singular, not plural, and certainly not refer to a group but a Department.</p>

2

<h1>1: They’re both grammatically correct, but B is less wordy.</h1>

<h1>2: You’ll see these questions a lot. It’s voices that don’t weather the years, not singers.</h1>

<h1>3: Can’t say much about this one - you’re probably right.</h1>

<p>I’m going to honestly say, I suck at grammar. It was my worst time in AP English Language. However, I never got a Writing section question wrong both times I took it. I guess if your brain tunes to Writing and its tricks, you’ll be fine.</p>

3

<p>I’ll respond to this post, too, I guess…</p>

<p>They’re actually not both correct for number one.
B is parallel (arrested/hanged); C is not parallel (arrested/hung).
You’d use ‘hung’ when using a sentence like: I hung the towel on the hanger. </p>

<p>Both work for number two, but D is in the active voice, making it the preferable choice.</p>

<p>As for number three, I believe that they references the people who work in the company, not the company itself.
Think about it: you’d say, “My favorite band is coming to play here. They’re great live.”
They references the musicians who are in the band, not the collective band.</p>

4

<ol>
<li><p>Try excluding the area between commas. This should help quite a bit, and make more sense. Always try to boil a sentence down to its fundamental components. “Dietrich … was arrested … because he spoke.” That makes it a lot easier.</p></li>
<li><p>In addition to not having the proper voice, “weathered” and “well” don’t go together. Weathered is a negative, and well is a positive. That would be like saying, “I sucked well.” It doesn’t make sense.</p></li>
<li><p>The above user is correct. You need a little bit of discretion in this area. Also, in answer C, there should be a comma after “school” and the “to” should be replaced with “which.”</p></li>
</ol>

<p>It can be kind of confusing, but eventually you’ll catch on. You have to look for those tiny gramatical errors. Always keep in mind that we don’t write like we speak (or at least we shouldn’t). It’s little issues like “that” vs “who” or “I” vs “me” that trip people up.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Thanks guys.
I have one last question
For number 1, I thought that “he” could refer to “Dietrich Bonhoeffer” or “Gestapo”, making it an ambiguous pronoun. So that the answer would be wrong.</p>

6

<p>please correct me if I am wrong</p>

7

<p>The Gestapo is a group, so ‘he’ is referring to Dietrich.</p>