Subject Verb Agreement

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Sharks are some of nature's most magnificent predators. They have no bones (only cartilage) and their streamlined bodies allow them to glide through the water at incredible speeds. While sharks have a sinister reputation, in reality they rarely attack people. You can learn more about sharks here.

6/4 Identifying Sentence Errors

The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E. 

For Identifying Sentence Errors questions, always read the sentence and focus on anything that sounds strange or wrong. Determine whether that part of the sentence is actually incorrect, then identify the part of the sentence that, if changed, would correct the error. Double-check that the other sections of the sentence are correct as they are and, finally, mark the correct answer on your answer sheet.

AMost of the world’s Bsharks, living in temperate and tropical regions, Cthough the Greenland shark lives in the cold Arctic waters, and the huge basking shark is at home in the seas Daround Antarctica. ENo error

First, read the question carefully and listen for things that sound wrong. You might notice that B sounds a little strange. Since you see a verb -living- check the subject verb agreement. Here, the subject of the sentence is "sharks". "Living" looks like a verb but, as it is conjugated right now, it is a participle (a verb functioning as an adjective). In other words, the sentence does not have a verb. That means you need to change the word "living" to the word "live" to make sure that the sentence has both a subject and a verb. In this case you only need to spot the error however,  you should always try to predict how you could fix the sentence. This will help you to be confident in your answer.

The correct answer is B.

On sat.collegeboard.com, 69% of the responses were correct.

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