writing question from PR

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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Below question are from PR 11

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1.The clever grandmother, concerned because her grandsons seemed to resent their new baby sister, elected not (to take) a stern approach but raher to win (their heart) by saying how much (their sister) (would adore) them. No error
error is their heart. Why ???

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  1. she dried the dishes when, all of a sudden ,the phone rang; startled, she dropped a plate to the floor, whereupon it shattered. No error erro is dried. Why??? Thanks
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Should be “their hearts” so that number/plurality agree. This is a commonly tested rule on the SAT, and is useful in general.

I would probably say “She was drying the dishes when, all of a sudden, …” English is confusing in the fact that there isn’t simply a past tense; there are past perfect, past progressive, etc. which you can read about (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_tense#English).

In this case, by changing “dried” to “was drying” (the past progressive tense), the meaning of the sentence becomes clear: She was drying the dishes up to the moment in time that the phone rang.

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thanks so much :smiley: