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- ENGLISH COMPOSITION ACHIEVEMENT TEST PRACTICE
-
- Program Purpose
-
- This six-part series has been designed to prepare students to
- take the College Board Achievement Test in English Composition.
- The questions in the series, like those in the actual test,
- cover material that is presented as part of a standard high-
- school English curriculum: grammar, usage, diction, idiom, word
- choice, sentence structure, and punctuation. In an effort to
- imitate the format of the actual test as much as possible, we
- have also divided the type of questions in the program into
- four categories, which we have called call subtests.
-
-
- Program Contents
-
- Subtest I
-
- The first subtest tests knowledge of English grammatical usage
- as well as diction and idiom. Below is an example of the type
- of question in this section.
-
- ONE OF THE STRONGEST BOYS in the CLASS, John, WAS REQUESTED
- A B C
-
- to take the chair back to the SCHOOLS AUDITORIUM. NO ERROR
- D E
-
-
- You will notice that four parts of the sentence are capitalized
- and lettered A, B, C, and D. In addition, following the
- sentence is the phrase "No error," which is lettered E. The
- student must decide which (if any) of the lettered parts
- contains an error or if the sentence is correct as written. In
- the example above, the correct answer is D because an
- apostrophe is needed in the word "schools" to indicate that
- this word is in the possessive case.
-
-
- Subtest II
-
- The second subtest is designed to test the student's ability to
- recognize the most effective way to express a thought and to
- reject unacceptable or substandard usage in grammar, word
- choice, sentence structure, and punctuation. In this section,
- a sentence is presented and part or all of the sentence is
- highlighted. Following the sentence are five ways of phrasing
- the highlighted portion. The student must decide which of the
- five phrases makes the best possible sentence. The first
- choice, (A), is always an exact repetition of the highlighted
- phrase. The remaining four choices are alternate ways of
- rephrasing the original sentence. The student is asked to
- choose the phrase that correctly and most succinctly expresses
- the idea of the sentence, paying close attention to usage,
- idiom, punctuation, and sentence construction.
-
- Note the following example:
-
- Everyone in the family, except my brother and I, was
- invited to the wedding.
-
- (A) except my brother and I, was
- (B) except my brother and I, were
- (C) except my brother and me, was
- (D) except my brother and me, were
- (E) except my brother and me was
-
- In the sample sentence above, the correct answer is (C). In a
- prepositional phrase, the object of the preposition must be in
- the objective case. The objective case is "me," not "I";
- therefore, (A) and (B) are incorrect. (D) is also incorrect
- because the sentence requires the singular verb "was" to agree
- with the singular subject "Everyone." Finally, (E) is
- incorrect because the comma following "me" is missing.
-
-
- Subtest III
-
- In this subtest, a sentence is offered that may be correct or
- may contain any one of four different kinds of errors. There
- is no highlighting to call attention to possible errors and no
- choices are offered. The student simply must read the sentence
- and decide whether it is correct or incorrect. If the student
- perceives the sentence to be incorrect, he or she must then
- determine what kind of error it contains. The error
- classifications are as follows:
-
- (A) FAULTY DICTION - The sentence uses words incorrectly,
- misuses idiomatic expressions, or contains words or expressions
- that are unacceptable in standard written English.
-
- Example: We were effected by the words of the student and
- sympathized with him irregardless of his age.
-
- Explanation: "Effected" and "irregardless" represent errors in
- diction. The correct words are "affected" and "regardless."
-
- (B) WORDINESS - The sentence contains unnecessary repetition
- of words or unjustifiable repetition of ideas.
-
- Example: In the month of March, we celebrate the holiday
- honoring St. Patrick and wear the color green.
-
- Explanation: The phrases "the month of" and "the color" are
- unnecessary and should be omitted.
-
- (C) MIXED METAPHORS OR CLICHÉS - The sentence misuses
- figurative language or contains trite, overused expressions.
-
- Example: In this day and age, we admire a politician who shoots
- straight from the hip.
-
- Explanation: "In this day and age" and "shoots straight from
- the hip" are overused or trite expressions, which we term
- clichés.
-
- (D) FAULTY SENTENCE STRUCTURE OR GRAMMAR - The sentence
- contains a misplaced modifier or an error in verb form, tense,
- or agreement. It lacks parallel structure or proper
- punctuation.
-
- Example: During the summer, we spend the afternoon relaxing in
- the sun, swimming in the lake, or simply to take a leisurely
- walk in the meadow.
-
- Explanation: This sentence violates parallel structure. The
- three adverbial clauses following "afternoon" should be
- parallel but are not. There are two participial phrases
- beginning with "relaxing" and "swimming" and one infinitive
- phrase beginning with "to take." To correct this error, "to
- take" should be changed to "taking."
-
- (E) NO ERROR - The sentence is correct as written.
-
-
- Subtest IV
-
- This subtest presents a sentence that is correct and acceptable
- as written. The student is required to choose the phrase that
- correctly completes the revised sentence, maintaining as much
- as possible the sense and language of the original sentence.
-
- Here is an example:
-
- Arriving late to class, he learned that the instructor had sent
- the group to the film room.
-
- He arrived late to ________ that the instructor had sent the
- group to the film room.
-
- (A) class learning
- (B) class, he learned
- (C) class. He learned
- (D) class, and so he learned
- (E) class, and he learned
-
- The revised sentence should read as follows: He arrived late
- to class, and he learned that the instructor had sent the group
- to the film room. Therefore, (E) is correct. A sentence that
- contained the words in choices (A) and (B) would be
- grammatically incorrect. A sentence that contained the words
- in choice (D) would change the meaning of the original
- sentence. Although choice (C) would not be incorrect, it is
- less effective than (E).