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ACCUPLACER WRITING |
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS | LATEST UPDATE
Question : "I cannot except that you won't go to the dance
with me!"
CORRECT ANSWER : I cannot accept that you won't
go to the dance with me!
Explanation:
The easiest way to remember the difference in meaning between these two words is to look at their letters— accept has two c's that are like open arms, just waiting to hug and embrace and accept whatever is being offered, whereas except has a big X just waiting to reject and exclude something ("I will take all of the cookies except that one with the bite taken out of it").
Question : "It is clear to see that the stock market is going
to have it's ups and downs; it is important not to overreact to the volatility."
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CORRECT ANSWER : It is clear to see that the stock
market is going to have its ups and downs; it is important not to overreact to the volatility.
Explanation:
It's is a contraction of it is or it has; it never shows possession. To test whether you need it's or its, try substituting the phrase it is or it has. If either of those work, you need the apostrophe. If neither of them make sense in your sentence, you don't need the apostrophe.
Question : "Heavy rains and thunderstorms continue to
roll through the area; therefore, all flights are cancelled until tomorrow."
CORRECT ANSWER : no error
Explanation:
This question tests your knowledge of semicolon use. In this case, a semicolon is used to join two independent clauses. All is well!
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Question : "Katie did not have no time to pick Kevin up
before the game."
CORRECT ANSWER : Katie did not have any time to
pick Kevin up before the game.
Explanation:
This sentence had a double negative, which is a big no- no. Just like in math, double negatives actually create a positive, which was not the intent of the sentence.
Question : "The wily fox escape the dogs who were
chasing after it."
CORRECT ANSWER : The wily fox escaped the dogs
who were chasing after it.
Explanation:
The verbs need to match in subject and tense. In this case, the first verb, escape, did not match its subject in number (fox = singular, escape = plural) and it did not match the other verbs in tense (escape = present tense, were chasing = past tense).
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Question : "The book was thrown on the bed by Madi."
CORRECT ANSWER : No error, but the sentence would
be stronger if written in active voice: "Madi threw the
book on the bed."
Explanation:
Remember, while not grammatically incorrect, sentences written in passive voice can create weak, ineffectual writing. Try to always use active voice so that instead of the subject of the sentence being a victim of whatever action is being done, it can be the doer.
Question : "The piano keys was broken."
CORRECT ANSWER : The piano keys were broken.
Explanation:
This is a subject-verb agreement issue. The word keys is plural, but was is singular. It would be correct to say, "The piano key was broken."