writing questions

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<li>In his new book, Quest for Adventure, the [A]renowned British mountaineer Chris Bonington examines the **past century’s most remarkable expeditions, [C]profiling such explorers [D]including Neil Armstrong, Thor Heyerdahl, and Maurice Herzog. </li>
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<p>D is wrong but what should it be changed to?</p>

<li>The famous filmmaker [A]had a tendency ** of changing his recollections, perhaps [C]out of boredom [D]at having to tell interviewers the same story over and over. </li>
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<p>The answer is B but if that is changed to “to change” wouldn’t that not be parallel structure anymore since D is “at having”. </p>

<li>[A]Having studied hard for the podiatry examination, Charles felt **capable to make distinctions [C]among the various problems [D]associated with the joints in the foot. </li>
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<p>Here B should be “capable of making” but #3 is “to change”. These two seem similar but why are they different?</p>

<li>The museum [A] is submitting proposals **to several foundations [C]in the hope [D]to gain funds to build a tropical butterfly conservatory. </li>
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<p>Again similar questions, why should C be “of gaining”</p>

<li>Widowed in 1859, novelist Margaret Oliphant succeeded [A] to provide for **her own and her brother’s children with the [C]profits from her books, which numbered [D]well over 100 volumes.</li>
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<p>I think this is a tense error. Should A be “in providing”.<br>
I’m confused over when to use infinitives and when to use the -ing form.</p>

<p>Is there some systematic way of doing these questions cuz I always overlook the errors and pick E. Also I have not seem similar questions from BB (these are from the official practice tests, PSATs and QAS) so if there are similar questions in BB can someone point them out. Thanks.</p>

2

<ol>
<li><p>"Including" should be changed to "as". Such (plural noun) as (list) is just a standard construction.</p></li>
<li><p>No, parallel structure is something like: "I like eatING pancakes, drinkING milk and chewING gum." </p></li>
<li><p>"Capable of" is a idiomatic expression (I believe), and "a tendency to" is another one. Blah. It's just memorization. I know, it sucks. The best way to learn it is to write a lot and read a lot.</p></li>
<li><p>You're only supposed to use verbs in the form of "to X" where x is a verb if that's coming right off of another verb. For example, "I like to eat." I like is a verb conjugated for me to like something. English recongizes that there's no reason to have two conjugated verbs in a row, so the second one just says in the "to X" form.</p></li>
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<p>The best way to prepare is to read a lot, and practice a lot. After a fair amount of practice you'll start picking up all the little details.</p>

3

<p>1.) D should be "like"</p>

<p>3.) its b "to change" yoru right. there is no parallel structure here, parallel structure only occurs when there at least 2 ideas, usually like "john was strong, skilled, and smart" all the adjectives are past tense.</p>

<p>"Here B should be "capable of making" but #3 is "to change". These two seem similar but why are they different?"</p>

<p>Idioms. you have to memorize them, it is wrong to say "of" it has to be "to"</p>

<p>'I think this is a tense error. Should A be "in providing". "</p>

<p>I agree.</p>

<p>Hmm way fo identifying? practice bro, thats all i do.hope i helped.</p>

4

<p>hey but if you have QAS can i get some please? pm me for my email and well talk :)</p>

5

<p>I think your main problem is not knowing the idiomatic phrases/verb-preposition pairs . If you have Barron's 2400 book some are on p131.</p>

<h1>1 is 'such [blanks] as [blinks]'. #3 is iffy because I'm pretty sure either "tendency of" and "tendency to" are both correct... but #4 the idiom is "capable of [blarking]". #5 is "in the hope of [blooking]". #6 is also weird, because the phrase IS "succeeded in blanking"... I'm afraid I have no idea about that one.</h1>

<p>My advice is to go over those phrases, and when doing sentence correction DON'T rely on your 'ear' to judge them; read the sentence carefully a couple times if needed and try to be able to pinpoint the cause for a mistake if you think there is one. There's not much more beyond that other than the usual practice tests. </p>

<p>I used to think I was a grammar nitpick, but then I met the SAT. The SAT goes beyond nitpick. It is THE time to let your grammar Nazi skills shine! (ahem)</p>

6

<p>@ndnguy: For number 1, D would be "like" if the word "such" wasn't there, but as such it is indeed "as"</p>

7

<p>^ my bad, got it now.</p>