Some grammar questions

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Please help me</p>

<p>7.</p>

<p>In the 19th century, reproductions of cathedrals or castles made entirely of ice (often were popular features) in north american winter carnivals</p>

<p>In the 19th century, reproductions of cathedrals or castles made entirely of ice (have been featured popularly) in north american winter carnivals</p>

<ol>
<li>Why is the first the correct answer and not the second?</li>
<li>I chose the second because I thought "featured... in" and "features... of" were the correct idiom forms, making the first choice's "features... in" incorrect.</li>
<li>Doesn't the first one have awkward placement of the adverb "often"? I'm used to seeing "were often" instead of "often were" ... maybe it makes no difference lol.<br></li>
<li> What's incorrect about the 2nd?</li>
</ol>

<hr>

<p>She was concerned about how Hand would react to the incident, but (in searching his face, he did not seem to be) at all embarrassed or troubled. </p>

<p>She was concerned about how Hand would react to the incident, but (by searching his face, it showed that he was not) at all embarrassed or troubled.</p>

<p>She was concerned about how Hand would react to the incident, but (a search of his face showed that he seemed not) at all embarrassed or troubled.</p>

<p>She was concerned about how Hand would react to the incident, but (searching his face, he did not seem to be) at all embarrassed or troubled.</p>

<p>The 3rd variation is the correct choice. I got it right only because it sounded the best by ear; I could not grammatically justify the others as wrong.</p>

<ol>
<li> Why is the 1st and 2nd wrong?</li>
<li> Is it because gerunds require possession? Thus would changing "in her searching of his face" and "by her searching of his face" and "her searching of his face" make the 1st, 2nd, and 4th examples correct? But would this change make them passive?</li>
</ol>

<hr>

<ol>
<li><p>Winston Churchill, unlike many English prime ministers before him, had deep insight (INTO) the workings of the human mind</p></li>
<li><p>Okay... I thought "insight... into" was wrong and should be instead "insight... to" or "insight... in." Obviously, "insight... into" is correct. But I am wondering if the latter 2 are correct as well</p></li>
</ol>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>It is no longer the 19th century, so we should not use the present perfect tense.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>No idioms are coming into play here. “features of” is correct (e.g., "Those were features of the painting), but “features in” can also be correct (e.g., “That was a popular feature in the past”). There’s no reason that “features” cannot come before a prepositional phrase.</p>

3

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</p>

<p>Verb-modifying adverbs can be placed before or after the verb; there is no semantic difference.</p>

4

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</p>

<p>All of the incorrect choices have mis-modifying participial phrases. “searching” is functioning adjectively to modify a noun: specifically, the noun that comes after the phrase. Logically, “She” is the one who is doing the searching, so that must be the noun that the participle modifies. However, in the incorrect choices, “he” or “it” is the noun being modified.</p>

5

<p>^holy cow beat me by two minutes lol
His explanations are more comprehensive than mine, btw. I just read them a while ago. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Who or what is searching his face?</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>In my experience, “insight into” is by far the most common phrase. Occasionally, though, I have seen “insight to,” although I don’t know whether this is considered by any sources to be informal. I have never seen “insight in” used to mean the same thing as the other two phrases, but the phrase can be used to indicate the area of study in which an insight was gained (e.g., “An insight in biology into the genome of a rabbit”).</p>

7

<p>For the first one, the sentence describes reproductions as features in the 19th century. This is a completed event in the past and would thus use the simple past tense. </p>

<h1>2 “have been featured” is not a good choice for two reasons: “have been” is in the present perfect tense, which signifies that it was started in the past and its effects are still valid up to this point in time, which they are not (because it was only in the 19th century). The other reason, which is not grammatically incorrect per se, is the use of the passive tense, something you should try to avoid on the SAT whenever possible.</h1>

<hr>

<p>This one is a bit tricky, but here is how I would eliminate them:</p>

<ol>
<li>“seem to be” is redundant, “seem” alone will still make the sentence work just fine.</li>
<li>“it” has no clear antecedent; eliminate it</li>
<li>a bit odd, but no clear grammatical errors</li>
<li>“seem to be” another redundant statement.</li>
</ol>

<p>I would pick #3 (or C) here. Also, I try to avoid words ending in “ing” on the SAT unless it is clearly a possessed gerund or a progressive verb.</p>

<hr>

<p>I think you just overthought this one. “Insight into” is a correct idiomatic phrase. “Insight in” would imply that something contained insight. I’ve never heard “insight to” used before</p>

<p>I hope this helps.</p>

<p>Edit: Late response, silverturtle should clear up everything better than I could.</p>

8

<p>THanks silverturtle and company. :D</p>

<p>I am on my way to a 2400.
Or more realistically, a 2300+</p>