Writing questions

Test Preparation
1

<p>I have three questions for which the answers I simply don't get. </p>

<ol>
<li>The Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, the Canadian National Tower- each of these structures was the tallest in the world at the time they were built. </li>
</ol>

<p>I would've changed was to were, but CollegeBoard doesn't think so. Explain.</p>

<ol>
<li>The cost of safely disposing of the toxic chemicals is approximately five times what the company paid to purchase it.</li>
</ol>

<p>The answer is D. Why?</p>

<ol>
<li>Lynn Margulis's theory that evolution is a process involving interdependency rather than competition among organisms differs dramatically from most biologists.
Why is it D?</li>
</ol>

2

<ol>
<li> I refer you to a post I made October of last year:</li>
</ol>

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</p>

3

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</p>

<p>What is the antecedent of “it”? (It doesn’t have one.)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>It is illogical to compare biologists to theories.</p>

4

<p>Each is (almost) always a singular word. The test tried to trip you up by using a plural pronoun and verb and pretending to refer to a plural that wasn’t the subject. The writers may have strengthened that false assumption was the use of the plural word “structures.” However, it’s in a prepositional phrase, as it is preceded by the word “of.” Words in prepositional phrases are not subjects in sentences. The only noun eligible to be the main subject is “each.”</p>

<p>Edited form:
The Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, the Canadian National Tower- each of these structures was the tallest in the world at the time it was built. </p>

<p>By the way, I’m sorry if this post contains errors. I’m terrible with quoting short phrases.</p>

5

<p>Here are the other two.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The cost of safely disposing of the toxic chemicals is approximately five times what the company paid to purchase them.
Toxic chemicals (plural) is the antecedent of the final word.</p></li>
<li><p>Lynn Margulis’s theory that evolution is a process involving interdependency rather than competition among organisms differs dramatically from most biologists’ theories.
As silverturtle pointed out, you can’t logically compare theories to biologists.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>each is always singular.</p>

7

<ol>
<li><p>An easy way to think of it is by inserting the word “one” after “each:” Each [one] was the tallest… You wouldn’t say each one were the tallest…</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t know what choice “D” is, but I would guess it has something to do with ismailcc’s post about singular versus plural.</p></li>
<li><p>biologists’ theories, as ismailcc also says above, is correct</p></li>
</ol>

8

<p>Thank you for the clarifications. I have to say the second one was just sneaky.</p>

9

<p>^ Whenever you see a pronoun, you need to ask yourself what the antencedent is. If you can’t find it explicitly in the sentence, it’s wrong (by SAT standards at least). The one exception to this is pleonastic pronouns, as in:</p>

<p>“It is nice out.”</p>

10

<p>silverturtle: Sorry about that. You’re right about it being plural. I was thinking of sentences such as “The cars each have windshields,” which aren’t the same, as being exceptions.</p>