<p>(Prior to) the election of Henry Cisneros (as mayor of)
San Antonio in 1981, no major city in the United States
(had had) a mayor (from Mexican descent). (No Error).</p>
<p>Is it (from Mexican descent) should it be of mexican descent?</p>
<p>And another question will it be "Neither of them is..." or "Neither of them are" ? </p>
<p>Also I encountered a sat writing question which used "and so", is this phrase considered wrong, should it be just and or just so? </p>
<p>Finally can someone tell me how they prepared for Verb tenses? Those seem to be the most difficult for me in the SAT</p>
<p>“of Mexican descent” is the correct idiom, yes.</p>
<p>“Neither . . . is” is the correct idiom.</p>
<p>If you are asking about “so” as a conjunction, then “and so” is redundant. Use “so” only if there is a cause-effect relationship. E.g., “I loved her so I sent her a card” is correct.</p>
<p>@WasatchWriter About the “and so” , I was thinking the same thing. Wouldnt it be redundant? However on a SAT problem it was the correct answer pg 893 Blue Book, if you wanna look through it…btw have you given the SAT? </p>
<p>I would be interested in seeing that sentence. I’m a college professor, so I don’t have a blue book, and I last took the SAT in 1979.</p>
<p>This is the question
The parenthesis indicates the underlined portion. </p>
<ol>
<li>In the wild, pygmy chimpanzees are found only in an inaccessible region south of the Zaire River, (since such is the case, very few are in captivity.)
(A) since such is the case, very few are in captivity
(B) and very few are in captivity because of that
© no more than a few are in captivity as a result
(D) the number in captivity is very few for this reason
(E) and so no more than a few are in captivity </li>
</ol>
<p>The answer is E but I also thought and so would be redundant and chose B…but “that” would be vague</p>
<p>B is the only other sentence that is grammatically correct, so it’s at least a contender – but tacking “because of that” onto the end means you don’t see the way the ideas fit until the very end. So it’s a bad sentence. But I don’t think both “and” and “so” are necessary in E. You could say it functions as an adverb instead of a conjunction, in which case it’s not technically wrong. But [it</a> wouldn’t be the first time](<a href=“http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001863.html"]it”>Language Log: The SAT fails a grammar test) SAT has done things weird. </p>
<p>The problem with (B) is the pronoun “that” is ambiguous. “And so” is perfectly acceptable, and will not be used to test redundancy on the SAT.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help guys. Still a bit confused about the and so, but I guess I’ll have to go with it for now</p>