<p>I got these from past PSATs:</p>
<p>(Praised for) her powerful voice and soulful interpretations, Bessie Smith, (had rose) to fame in the 1920s (as) America's (premier) blues singer.</p>
<p>A (fascinatingly) intricate (web of) cracks and faults on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa, (may conceal) an (immense) ocean.</p>
<p>Farmers (who grow) citrus fruits know that in (unseasonably) cold weather they must protect their crops from (potentially killing frost) (by providing it) with extra sources of heat.</p>
<p>The opponents of the bill (were few) but influential enough to prevent (its) (being passed) in the House.</p>
<p>For the first statement I picked No error but the correct answer is B, but I don't know why.</p>
<p>For the second statement I picked No error again but the correct answer is A</p>
<p>For the third statement I picked C (potentially killing frost) because I thought it should be potentially deadly frost and potentially killing frost makes killing sound like a verb instead of an adjective. But the correct answer is D.</p>
<p>For the last statement I picked C because I thought the its should be possessive, but the correct answer is D.</p>
<p>Can anyone explain these errors to me. I would appreciate any help. </p>
<p>Thanks :D</p>
<p>(Praised for) her powerful voice and soulful interpretations, Bessie Smith, (had rose) to fame in the 1920s (as) America's (premier) blues singer.</p>
<p>The past participle of "rise" is "risen", so the sentence should read either simple past tense "rose" or "had risen". In this case, there is no reason to use the past perfect (had risen), so "rose" is the better choice.</p>
<p>A (fascinatingly) intricate (web of) cracks and faults on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa, (may conceal) an (immense) ocean.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think your answer is okay for this one. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. The "error" they indicate with "fascinatingly" is probably that it is supposed to modify "web" and should therefore be an adjective. But it seems like it could also be modifying "intricate", in which case it would be fine. A little help out there? (By the way, was this from a real PSAT?)</p>
<p>Farmers (who grow) citrus fruits know that in (unseasonably) cold weather they must protect their crops from (potentially killing frost) (by providing it) with extra sources of heat.</p>
<p>The problem with D is the pronoun "it". It should be "they" because the pronoun is referring back to "crops", which is plural. "Killing" is used as a participle here...an -ing form of a verb used as an adjective in this case. "Killing" can also be used as a gerund - when "killing" is a noun.</p>
<p>The opponents of the bill (were few) but influential enough to prevent (its) (being passed) in the House.</p>
<p>"Its" is possessive. "It's" is the contraction for "it is". There is a better choice for D: "passage". First, the word "being" is very hard to use correctly in SAT style questions, and so is almost always wrong. In this case, "being" is used as a gerund, but there is a better non-gerund noun alternative.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thank you so much :D And yes, this is from the real PSAT last year.</p>