[Kaplan] Identifying Sentence Errors-top 16 errors [复制链接]

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发表于 2007-4-18 04:17:00 |显示全部楼层

COMMON WRITING SECTION MISTAKES

Identifying sentence Errors
There are 16 mistakes the SAT likes to test. Most of these will appear on you administration of the SAT.

1.       subject-verb agreement: when subject follows verb

Ex. Despite an intensive campaign to encourage conservation, there is many Americans who have not accepted recycling as a way of life.

This sentence demonstrates the most common of all subject-verb agreement errors found on the writing section. It generally occurs once or twice on each test. The subject of the sentence is not there. The subject oft eh sentence is not there, the subject is Americans, which is plural. Therefore, the singular verb is incorrect; is should be replaced by the plural verb are. Watch out whenever you see there on the writing section.

2.       subject-verb agreement: when subject and verb are separated

Ex. the collection of paintings entitled“Clammy Clam Clams”are one of the most widely traveled exhibits in recent years.

You should first find the subject of the sentence. The subject is collection. The phrases that follow the subject—of paintings and entitled“Clammy Clam Clams”—merely modify the subject. The true subject is singular ad so the verb should beis.

3.       subject-verb agreement: when the subject seems plural

Ex. Neither ambient techno nor trance were a part of mainstream listening habits in the United States 10 years ago.

This sentence is tough because it has two subjects, but these two singular subjects do not add up to a plural subject. When the subject of a sentence is in the form neither ___ nor ___ or in the form either ___ or ___ and the nouns in the blanks are singular, the verb should be singular. In the sentence above, it’s as if ambient techno and trance act as subjects on at a time. So the subjects one at a time. So the verb should be the singular was. If the nouns in a neither-nor or either-or construction are plural, then a plural verb is correct.

4.       confusion of simple past and past participle

Ex. several passerby seen the bank robber leaving the scene of his crime.

The verb form seen is the past participle and should be used only with a helping verb have or be. This sentence requires the simple past form saw.

5.       confusion of infinitive and gerund

Ex. team officials heralded Cap Day as an attempt at attracting a larger turnout of fans.

This sentence is unidiomatic. There’s no grammar rule thatexplains why it’s wrong to say an attempt at attracting. If you have a good sense of idiom, you ear tell you it should be an attempt to attract. This sentence confuses the –ing gerund form with the to+ verb infinitive form.

6.       non-idiomatic preposition after verb

Ex. City council members frequently meet until the early morning hours in order to work in their stalemates.

It’s not always wrong to write work in. you might use work in to speak about the field on works in, or the place one works in. but this combination does not correspond to the meaning of this sentence. The writer means to say work through or work out--that is, overcome the stalemates.

Abide by; believe in; blame for; charge with…
7.       wrong word

Ex. Accept/except; adapt/adopt; affect/effect…

8.       wrong tense

Ex. Over the last half-century, the building of passenger airliners had grown into a multibillion-dollar industry.

In a one-verb sentence like this one, time-descriptive phrases help you determine what the time frame of a sentence is. The action being described is a process which began during the last half-century, and which is continuing to the present day. Any action starting in the past and continuing today is expressed by a verb inn the present perfect tense. The present perfect form of this verb is has grown. Using the verb had makes it seem that passenger airliners aren’t being made anymore. That can’t be! With practice, you’ll be able to spot mistakes like this with confidence.

9.       number agreement problems

Ex. The advertisement in the newspaper requested that only persons with a high school diploma apply for the position.

Nouns in a sentence must have logical number relations. The noun in question, the subject of the second clause of this sentence, is persons, a plural noun. However, the noun diploma is singular. Because the phrase is singular, it seems to say that this group of people shares one diploma, when in fact each person should have his or her own diploma. The underlined phrase should read with high school diplomas.

10.    pronoun in the wrong number

Ex. The typical college student has difficulty adjusting to academic standards much higher than those of their school.

The subject of the sentence is student, a singular noun. The pronoun their should refer to a plural noun, but in this sentence it refers back to student. Therefore, the pronoun should be the singular form his or hers, not the plural form their.

11.    pronoun in the wrong case in compound noun phrases

Ex. Uncle John and Aunt Rosie join my parents and I for dinner every Thursday.

In this sentence, the compound noun phrase in question in my parents and I, the object of the verb. Ignoring the phrase my parents, you can now read the sentence: Uncle John and Aunt Rosie join I for dinner every Thursday. The pronoun I is the incorrect form of the personal pronoun; the correct form is me, the object form.

12.    pronoun shift

Ex. One cannot sleep soundly if you exercise vigorously before retiring to bed.

The subject in the first clause is one, and the subject in the second clause is you. These two pronouns refer to the same performer of two actions, so they should be consistent in person and number. If you see the pronoun one in one part of a sentence, then elsewhere in the sentence, look for either one, he or she, or a person—all in the third person singular form. The sentence should not shift to the second person you form.

13.    pronoun with ambiguous reference

Ex. The United States entered into warmer relations with China after its compliance with recent weapons agreements.

To which country does the pronoun its refer? Grammatically and logically, either country could be the antecedent of the pronoun. With the limited information provided by this sentence alone, you simply can’t determine which country the pronoun stands in for. Its reference is ambiguous.

14.    faulty comparison

Ex. A Nobel Peace Prize winner and the author of several respected novels, Elie Wiesel’s name is still less well known than last year’s Heisman Trophy winner.

In every sentence, you should first identify what things or actions are being compared. In this sentence, Elie Wiesel’s name is compared to last year’s Heisman trophy winner. This comparison is faulty because a person’s name is compared to another person. If the first item were Elie Wiesel, then the comparison would be valid.

15.    misuse of adjective or adverb

Ex. The applicants for low-interest loans hoped to buy decent built houses for their families.

The word decent is an adjective. However, a word in this position should describe how the houses were built. A word that modifies an adjective like built is an adverb. So the word needed in this sentence is an adverb, decently. Notice also that this adverb ends in –ly, which is the most common adverbial ending.

16.    double negative

Ex. James easily passed the biology exam without hardly studying his lab notes.

Without is a negative, as is any word which indicates absence or lack. Hardly is a less familiar negative; it also denotes a scarcity of something, but perhaps not a total absence.

:) :loveliness: ;d: Work hard! You will success!
Where there is a will, there is way!

[Kaplan] Identifying Sentence Errors-top 16 errors [复制链接]

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