Writing help

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>1.</p>

<p>Vanessa had a tendency [of changing] her mind often, so often in fact that her friends [gave up expecting] her to show up at their parties</p>

<p>Answer is [of changing]</p>

<p>Why is "of changing" ungrammatical? I thought [gave up expecting] was ungrammatical because it should be "gave up on expecting" but apparently not? </p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li></li>
</ol>

<p>The "Mayan Riviera," which extends down to eastern coast of Mexico, [has may hidden] caves, one of which is larger [than the size of] Monaca</p>

<p>The answer was [than the size of]</p>

<p>I knew it was wrong because it's redundant to say "larger than the size of" but wth it says "has MAY hidden." I figured it was just a typo lol. Did they do that on the actual SATs..? since this was a released exam..</p>

<hr>

<p>3.
Brazil is not only the most populous of the twelve south american countries but also the largest [in area]</p>

<p>The answer was E no error</p>

<h2>Just as I thought "than the size of" was redundant in the previous question, I thought "in area" was also redundant here, but apparently it is not. How come?</h2>

<ol>
<li>
[When thinking about which current TV shows have] the potential to become classics, only a few come to mind</li>
</ol>

<p>[When one thinks about which current TV shows have] the potential to become classics, only a few come to mind</p>

<p>2nd is correct. I got it by guess-ish, but something told me that a subject needed to be present... or a person. Idk. Why exactly is the 2nd one correct?</p>

2

<p>The first one, it’s always a “tendency to.” Not a “tendency of.”</p>

3

<p>Second one is a typo. College Board is not going to test you on whether or not you know how to spell “many”.</p>

<ol>
<li>It’s not redundant, because it’s not redundant. Haha. Can you tell me why you think it’s redundant?</li>
</ol>

4

<ol>
<li><p>You can’t have a cave that is “larger than the size of” something. You can be “larger than” something, but you just don’t say “larger than the size of” because that’s not the way people write/speak. I guess there’s probably a real explanation, but that’s my way of looking at it.</p></li>
<li><p>Here, saying “in size” is not redundant because you had never mentioned size before. Also, you are specifying what Brazil is “largest” in. Area? Population? Amount of poo-flinging monkeys? Also, other phrases like “reddest in color” or “longest in time” are/sound correct, especially (I’ve noticed) if they’re at the end of the sentence. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>ETA: Not sure if my explanations make sense, but I’m an international haha so that would be how I would reason those sentences out.</p>