Idioms

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 Ato 1512, Michelangelo, Bworking on a scaffold 60 feet above the floor, painted the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome Cwith hundreds of giant figures Dthat represented his vision of the world’s creation. ENo 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!

Subject Verb Agreement

Link of the Day

Does history repeat itself?  Think about what you learned in your history classes about the Cold War in general and the Korean War in particular.  Then read this article about North Korea’s threats against the United States.  Why are these events happening now?  What is the motivation behind the actions of different countries?  How could you use the facts from this article to back up an opinion on a variety of SAT questions involving the themes of motivation, power, the trajectory of history, authority, knowledge, and even creativity?

Writing: 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.  Then focus on the underlined portion and evaluate it using the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  Use the first error that you find to quickly eliminate wrong answer choices.

Listening to good storybooks sharpen children’s awareness and appreciation for the sounds of spoken language.

Check the first underlined word first.  “Sharpen” is a verb, so find the subject of the sentence and make sure the subject and verb agree.  You might be tempted to say that “storybooks sharpen” is correct, but storybooks cannot be the subject of this sentence.  “To good storybooks” is a prepositional phrase, and the subject of the sentence cannot be the object of a prepositional phrase.  Instead, the subject is actually “listening.”  You would not say “listening sharpen awareness;” you would say “listening sharpens awareness.”  You need a singular verb to agree with a singular subject.  Look down at your answer choices.

(A) sharpen children’s awareness

(B) sharpens children’s awareness of

(C) are what sharpens the awareness of children

(D) sharpens the awareness of children

(E) is to sharpen children’s awareness

(A) The first answer choice for this type of question always matches the original sentence, so you can eliminate it right away.

(B) This answer choice fixes the error that you found.  It also adds a preposition, so check to make sure that the word “of” is necessary in this sentence.  Parallelism dictates that you should have the same form of words on either side of an “and.”  In the original sentence, you have “awareness and appreciation for” something.  You would not say “I have an awareness for something;” it is correct to say “I have an awareness of something.”  “Awareness of and appreciation for” a certain thing is both parallel and idiomatically correct.  Keep this answer choice and quickly check the remaining choices.

(C) You already know that the word “listening” is singular, but the verb “are” is plural.  Eliminate this choice because the subject and verb do not match.

(D) This choice is more confused than the previous ones, and there is no parallelism.  Instead of having “awareness of and appreciation for,” which is balanced and correct, you now have “awareness of children and appreciation.”  The appreciation is no longer the children’s, and the meaning of the sentence has subtly shifted.  Eliminate this choice.

(E) This answer choice also changes the meaning of the sentence.  In the original sentence, you learn that listening benefits children in specific ways.  However, in this answer choice listening “is to,” (exists for the purpose of) benefiting children in specific ways, an odd statement to make.  The phrase “is to” is unnecessary.  Eliminate this choice.

The correct answer is (B).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 51% of the responses were correct.

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

Pronouns

Writing: 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 entire original sentence to yourself, listening for errors.  Then evaluate the underlined portion using the Big 8 Grammar Rules.

About 35 percent of the world’s orange juice is produced by Florida, comparing it with nearly 50 percent produced by Brazil, the world’s largest orange producer.

There are two things that you should immediately notice about the underlined portion of the sentence.  The first is that one of the underlined words ends in “-ing,” but does not have any reason to do so.  The second is that you have an unassociated “it.”  The “it” is intended to refer to the percent of juice, but “it” seems to refer to Florida within the context of the sentence.  Your Knowsys book specifically tells you to watch for both of these things and avoid them.  Look down at your answer choices.

(A) comparing it with

(B) but

(C) whereas

(D) although

(E) compared with

(A) You already found two problems with the original sentence.  This choice always matches the original sentence, so eliminate it without reading it.

(B) The word “but” sets up a contrast; however, the original sentence sets up a comparison.  This answer changes the meaning of the original sentence.  In addition, if you read the whole sentence, you will notice that the portion after the comma is missing the verb “is.”  The verb “is” would be necessary for parallelism because you have “is produced” and then only “produced.”  When there is a comma before the word “but,” a complete sentence with subject and verb should follow.  Eliminate this choice for any of these reasons.

(C) This answer choice has the same parallelism and sentence structure problem as the previous choice.  Eliminate this choice.

(D) The word “although” sets up a contrast rather than a comparison.  It also has the same parallelism and sentence structure problem as the previous two choices.  Eliminate this choice.

(E) This choice eliminates both of the problems that you found in the original sentence and produces a sentence that is clear in meaning.  It does not have the parallelism or sentence structure problem that other choices had because those words, when preceded with a comma, are meant to link complete sentences, but “compared with” does not indicate that a complete sentence is coming.

The correct answer is (E).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 57% of the responses were correct.

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

Subject Verb Agreement

Link of the Day

Are you confused as to why you have to read things by old dead guys in school?  Here is an article that lets you know how reading quality literature can directly benefit you, even if you do not want to be a writer.  This research will work as a current event example for the SAT if your topic involves the mind or feelings, but it should also motivate you to prepare five literary examples before you take the SAT!

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 and then ask, “Are there any problems?”  Quickly check each of the underlined portions against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  When you think you have found an error, mark it and move on.  Make sure that you identify a grammatical error and not just another way to say the same thing.

Although the number of books Awritten in African languages Bare growing, many African writers Cfind a larger audience Dfor works written in Portuguese or English. ENo error

(A) Does it make sense to talk about the number of books “written” in a particular language?  Yes!  Also, the word “in” is the idiomatically correct preposition to introduce what language a book is written “in.”  There is no error here.

(B) When you see a verb, check to see whether it agrees with the subject.  The subject is not “languages.”  The subject is “the number of books.”  The word “books” is plural, which is meant to distract you, from realizing that this particular construction is meant to be singular.  You would never say “the number are growing;” you would say “the number is growing.”  Remember, if you have a construction that talks about “a number” of things, you will always need a plural verb.  If you are talking about “the number of things,” you will always need a singular verb.  The article is important!  Mark this error and quickly look over the other answer choices.

(C) Check to make sure verb agrees with its subject: "writers find."  It does.  This verb is also in present tense, which makes sense in context. There is no error here.

(D)  Idiomatically, the preposition “for” works in this context.  The word “works” can also be used as a noun when you are talking about the works that someone has started or finished.  There is no error here.

(E) This cannot be the correct answer because you already found and marked an error.

The correct answer is (B).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 43% of the responses were correct.

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

Sentence Structure

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 original sentence to yourself, listening for errors.  Next, quickly check the underlined portions of the sentence against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  Identify and mark any error that you find, but be sure to check all the answer choices before you select one.

The United States Ais the Blargest producer of cranberries and cranberry products, most of Cthem are consumed Dthere and in Canada. ENo error

Reading this sentence as a whole is vital to understanding the problem with it.  This sentence is actually two sentences incorrectly joined by just a comma: a comma splice.  A problem with sentence structure is not going to be noticeable if you just focus on the underlined portions of the sentence.  You cannot simply insert a semicolon in this sentence, so you must find a way to change one of the underlined portions of the sentence to create a dependent clause.

(A)   The underlined verb “is” matches the subject of the sentence, “United States,” because both are singular.  The United States is one country.  There is no problem here.

(B)  The word “largest” modifies the word “producer,” and it is as close as possible to the word it modifies.  There is no error here.

(C)  Remember that the problem with your sentence is structural.  You have two complete sentences each with a subject and verb.  The word “them” functions as the subject of the second sentence, but it refers to something already stated in the first sentence.  If you change this word, you can create a dependent clause after the comma.  Try inserting the word “which” into this blank.  It works!  It fixes your problem while maintaining the meaning of the sentence.  Quickly check your other options.

(D)  The word “there” refers to the United States, which has already been explicitly mentioned in the sentence.  There is no error here.

(E)  This is not an option because you found an error as you were reading.

The correct answer is (C).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 44% of the responses were correct.

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

Idioms

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, listening for errors.  Then quickly check each underlined portion of the sentence against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.

The Bear Gulch Limestone Formation Ain Montana is a sequence of bedded limestone layers Bup to 90 feet thick Cand approximately 8 miles Dacross. ENo error

(A)  The word “in” is the correct preposition to indicate a location such as Montana.

(B)  The phrase “up to” is an idiomatically correct way to inform readers that the layers will not be more than 90 feet thick.

(C)  The word “and” is the correct conjunction to demonstrate the relationship between these two measurements.  There is no contrast between the two requiring a word such as “but,” and the two measurements do not depend on each other so they do not require a word such as “so.”

(D)  You are already given a number to describe the thickness of the layers, so you must have a way of telling what the second number measures.  The word “across” provides the needed information.

(E)  You found no errors.  Remember that you are not looking to revise the sentence; you are only looking for errors.

The correct answer is (E).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 44% of the responses were correct.

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

Idioms

Link of the Day

It is now the month of November!  On the 1^st of November in the year 1512, the Sistine Chapel ceiling was opened to the public.  Read an article about this amazing work of art here, and see the whole ceiling here.  This would make an excellent historical example for your SAT essay.  Think about the broad themes of creativity and planning in connection to this historical example.  What other themes connect to this work of art?

11/1 Identifying Sentence Errors:  Idioms

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 consider each underlined portion of the sentence, asking yourself whether it complies with the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  If you find an error, mark it.  Then quickly check the other choices.

Most ships Amove through the Suez Canal Bwith Ctheir own power, but large ships Dmust be assisted by a tugboat. ENo error

(A)  The word “move” is a verb.  Check to make sure that it agrees with the subject of the sentence.  It does.

(B)  Think about the word “with” in context.  “With” generally means “accompanied by,” or “in the same direction as.”  Is that the meaning that you need in this sentence?  No!  This is an improper idiom.  The power is actually moving the ship.  You need a word that will express that relationship.  Try inserting the word “under” or “by” into the sentence to make it idiomatically correct.

(C)  Check that the pronoun has one and only one antecedent and that it agrees in number with that antecedent.  “Their” refers to multiple “ships,” so it is correct.  Each ship also has its own level of power, so the addition of the word “own” makes sense.

(D)  The phrase “must be” adds important information to this sentence.  You could change it to another word such as “are,” but that would change the meaning of the sentence and is completely unnecessary because there is no error in this underlined portion.

The correct answer is (B).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 45% of the responses were correct.

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