Victory for the ACT Student Text 15e

16 • E NGLISH

OVERVIEW

The English Test consists of 75 questions. You’ll have 45 minutes to read the passages and answer the questions. It doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but you are being tested on what you should already know so you won’t have to spend a lot of time on each question. You are not being tested on spelling or vocabulary or even the exact rules of grammar. Rather, you are being tested on your understanding of the rules of grammar and your ability to apply those rules. For example, you might be asked to correct an error. Exa ple: The recently created wildlife refuge, which includes nearly 30 small ponds for migrating geese and ducks, were made possible by substantial gifts from an anonymous donor to the Wildlife Protection Fund. A. NO CHANGE B. was C. have been D. being The correct answer is (B) because the sentence should read “refuge . . . was,” not “refuge . . . were.” A verb must agree in both number and person with its subject . You must be aware of this grammatical rule in order to answer the question correctly, but you would not be asked to state the rule that explains why your choice is correct. The items used by the English Test fall into one of three categories: Category What Is Tested Number of Questions Conventions of Standard English Grammar Usage Sentence Structure Punctuation 38–42 Production of Writing Organization Strategy 21–24 Knowledge of Language Conciseness Clear Meaning Idiomatic Usage 9–14 ‘—ǯŽŽ •‡‡ •’‡…‹ϐ‹…‡šƒ’Ž‡• ‘ˆ –Š‡•‡ –›’‡• ‹ –Š‡ Dz ƒ–‘›dz •‡…–‹‘ –Šƒ– ˆ‘ŽŽ‘™•Ǥ

The Cambridge Edge What’s the difference between using a grammar rule correctly and stating a grammar rule? Well, in this example, you need –‘ „‡ ƒ„Ž‡ –‘ ϐ‹š the subject-verb agreement error by choosing (B) as the correct answer, but you don’t need to write a sentence describing the error. That’s not so bad, right?