Link of the Day
Today’s link is actually two links. Read this article and then this article. Both articles are about the same event, but
they have very different interpretations of that event. Why do they differ so much? What does this tell you about finding news on
the internet? Even if you think that you
have found a good news source, double check the accuracy of the report.
Next think about these articles in terms of
a current event. How could you use the
information surrounding the fact that a man just won $338 million to support a
position on an SAT essay? What conclusions could you draw about the themes of
money, fame, power, motivation, success, planning, chance, and even
information?
Writing: 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.
Read
the entire sentence to yourself, listening for errors. Then quickly check each underlined portion of
the sentence against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.
Identify and mark any error, but be sure to look at all of the answer
choices.
Between 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo, working on a scaffold 60 feet above the floor, painted the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with hundreds of giant figures that represented his vision of the world’s creation. No error
(A) The
underlined word “to” connects two different times. This is actually a conflation of two
different idioms. You can say “from 1508
to 1512,” but there is no “from” in this sentence. Instead, you have the word “between.” The correct idiom is “between x and y,” so
you must change the “to” into an “and.”
Make this change and quickly look at the rest of the answer choices.
(B)
Whenever you see an “-ing” ending, check to make sure it is
necessary. Here, the “-ing” ending lets
you know that this is not the main verb.
The main verb is “painted.” The
entire part of the sentence that reads “working on a scaffold 60 feet above the
floor” is set off by commas and simply describes Michelangelo’s position while
painting. The preposition “on” is the
correct preposition because Michelangelo is actually on top of the
scaffold. There is no error here.
(C)
This underlined portion is idiomatically correct. You can use the word “with” to say “I paint
with a brush” and mean that you are using the brush, but you can also use the
word “with” to indicate what you have painted.
Both uses are correct.
Michelangelo has painted “hundreds of giant figures.” The preposition “of” is also idiomatically correct. There is no error here.
(D)
When you see the word “that,” check to make sure that the word “which”
is not needed. The word “which” must
have a comma before it, and there is no comma here. The word “represented” is also correct. It is in past tense to match the tense of
“painted.” Although you could change the
tense of “represented” and still be technically correct, you are looking for
errors, not ways to revise the sentence.
There is no error here.
(E)
This answer choice cannot be correct because you have already identified
an error.
The correct answer is (A).
On sat.collegeboard.org, 55% of the responses were correct.
For more help with SAT writing, visit www.myknowsys.com!
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