Modifiers

Link of the Day

Today’s question mentions Enrico Caruso, an opera singer who became an international celebrity without the use of radio or television.  He relied on newspapers, silent films, and phonographic records to reach his audiences when he was not traveling.  Click here to learn more about Enrico Caruso’s career and hear his voice.  He would be an excellent historical figure to mention in an example for your SAT essay.

9/23 Improving Sentences

Part or all of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.  

Read the original sentence to yourself, listening for errors.  Evaluate the underlined portion using the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  Your goal is to create a clear and precise sentence.

Enrico Caruso sang opera in Italy before traveling to the United States, then he gave his first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1903.

Paraphrase this sentence.  Enrico sang opera in Italy before going to the US, then gave his first performance at the Metropolitan Opera.  Does that make sense?  The timing in the original sentence is illogical.  The man cannot give his first performance after going to the United States because he sang opera in Italy before that.  An opera is a performance!  If the underlined word is misleading, how can you change it?  The second part of the sentence describes where Enrico performed (at the Metropolitan Opera).  Replace the word “then” with “where” and see whether that improves the sentence.  Now the first performance at the Metropolitan is Enrico’s first performance in the United States, rather than his first performance ever.  That makes sense. Look down at your answer choices.

(A) then

(B) when

(C) and which

(D) in that

(E) where

The correct answer is (E).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 77% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT writing questions, visit www.myknowsys.com!