1. Which of the following sentences contains one or more
strong, active verbs?
A. Having been away in London for two years, Conrad was
happy to see Denise.
B. The phone directory was hastily searched by Conrad.
C. Conrad trembled with anxiety and anticipation as he
pressed Denise’s doorbell.
D. It was believed by some that Conrad’s father had been a
war hero.
2. Which of the following is a simple sentence?
A. Karen and David arrived at the airport at 3:35 P.M. and
took a taxi to their hotel.
B. I went to the airport, but I was too late to meet them.
C. When I realized I was too late, I called David’s cell
phone and made arrangements to meet them in town.
D. I got to the airport late because the traffic was
so terrible.
3. In which of the following sentences do you find a comma or commas used correctly?
A. After a fire at their home, Carlie and her mother rented a house in Glendale,
Arizona from November 14, 2007 to January 28, 2008.
B. William of Orange, arrived in England in 1688, to claim the English throne from
James II.
C. Claire’s plum pudding was mainly distinctive, for its absence of plums.
D. Christopher Wren, a contemporary of Isaac Newton and John Locke, was the
architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
4. Which of the following sentences is without any surface errors?
A. I reluctently gave the hampster to my cousin because I was afraid Teddy, my cat,
would attack it.
B. Mr. Campbell gave copies of his novel to Ruth and me.
C. The town is located near just a few miles from lake Ontario.
D. It’s up to Georgia and I who drives the car, whether Carl likes it or not.
5. In the process of revision, your main objective is to
A. demonstrate correct grammar.
B. establish proper tone.
C. clarify your ideas.
D. explain your essay’s purposes.
6. Choosing a good reviewer for your writing means finding someone who
A. will concentrate on your ideas and how well you support them.
B. is a close friend and will give you a positive review.
C. knows everything about writing and will find every mistake.
D. concentrates on correcting your spelling and grammar errors.
7. A judicial decision handed down in court uses the _______ level of diction.
A. informal C. legal
B. popular D. formal
8. Which of the following sentences uses a coordinating conjunction in a
compound sentence?
A. We fired our old housekeeper, who we thought had stolen Grandma’s rings;
we later regretted it.
B. The budget payment is much higher than we anticipated, but the price of heating
oil has skyrocketed this year.
C. Out in the yard, the children shouted loudly and threw silly insults at each other.
D. My aunt, who usually behaves like a queen, was suddenly asking—no, begging—
for help.
9. Which of the following sentences uses parallelism effectively?
A. The large plant-eating dinosaurs were quite slow, rather stupid, and
extremely hungry.
B. The Red Sox fans screamed, yelled, and were applauding wildly.
C. The report was good because it was factual and offered many details.
D. Laura spent all her time gardening and arranging flowers, when she wasn’t in a
shoe store to shop.
10. Which of the following is a good rule to follow when proofreading an essay?
A. Scan the essay twice, once for organization and once for surface errors.
B. Read the essay aloud to hear where words are missing or awkward phrasing or
grammatical errors occur.
C. Use the computer’s spell-check and grammar-check functions to be sure you catch
any errors.
D. Ask your best friend to critique your essay.
