Victory for the ACT Student Text 15e

448 • C AMBRIDGE P RACTICE T EST R EINFORCEMENT

27. (A) (p. 367) English/Conventions of Standard English/Grammar and Usage/Verb Tense . The use of the present tense in the passage is called the “historical present” or the “narrative present” and sometimes the “dramatic present.” It’s often used to describe historical events: “The President learns of the planned invasion at noon and tells the generals to prepare. The next morning the enemy launches an all-out assault.” And you can see why it might also be called the “dramatic present.” It refers to tours the writer has conducted in the past and will conduct in the future. The painting of the murals is an action contained entirely in the past before the writer plans a tour. 28. (H) (p. 368) English/Knowledge of Language/Style/Conciseness . “Every year” is needlessly repetitious of “annual” and should be eliminated. While “celebration” and “celebrating” are both nouns, the gerund -ing is not idiomatic here, so (H) is correct. 29. (A) (p. 368) English/Production of Writing/Organization/Paragraph-Level Structure . The last two sentences have a different tone from the preceding ones. The phrase “after . . . walking” implies a different perspective; and, in fact, the writer is winding down the tour. So a new paragraph here would reinforce this distinction and alert the reader to the fact that this is the conclusion of the narrative. 30. (H) (p. 368) English/Production of Writing/Organization/Passage-Level Structure . This selection is entitled Tour for a reason. The narrative describes the order in which the writer shows visitors the various tourist attractions. Words and phrases such as “start,” “then,” and “after” characterize this arrangement, and the order of sentences also reinforces the order of the tour. There is no warrant in the text for any of the other choices. While you might have some notion about history or popularity, the writer does not include such clues in the passage, so (F) and (G) are wrong. And though the tour starts and ends at the apartment, there is nothing to indicate geographical positioning ‹• ƒ ˆƒ…–‘”Ǥ ‘™ǡ ‹ ”‡ƒŽ‹–›ǡ ‹ˆ ›‘—…‘‡…– –Š‡ †‘–• ‘ –Š‡ ƒ’ǡ ›‘—ǯŽŽ •‡‡ –Šƒ– –Š‹• ϐ‹…–‹‘ƒŽ –‘—” ƒ…–—ƒŽŽ› ƒ‡• geographical sense. But that’s movement, not proximity. 31. (D) (p. 368) English/Production of Writing/Strategy/Appropriate Supporting Material . There is no question that the events described in the selection were “big.” A volcanic eruption could hardly be anything other than large or huge. But another important element of the eruptions is that they were also very destructive. “Cataclysm” is used to describe an event that is violent, sudden, and disastrous. So the best choice is (D). 32. (F) (p. 369) English/Conventions of Standard English/No Change . The original makes it clear that the big event is –Š‡ ‡”—’–‹‘ ƒ† –Š‡ Žƒ˜ƒ ϐŽ‘™ –Š‡ ‡š–”ƒ ’Š‡‘‡‘Ǥ ȋ Ȍ…Šƒ‰‡• –Š‡ ’”‹‘”‹–› „‡–™‡‡ –Š‡ –™‘ ‡˜‡–• „› ‹’Ž›‹‰ that the lava is the main event and the eruption a secondary development. Both (H) and (J) destroy the logic of the sentence. 33. (D) (p. 369) English/Conventions of Standard English/Punctuation/Commas . This item primarily tests punctuation. “Occurring” is the participle form of “to occur,” and the word is used here as an adjective to modify the entire sequence of events described earlier in the sentence. To make the function of “occurring” clear to the reader, you need a comma to set off the modifying phrase, and the comma needs to be placed just after the end of the word group to be ‘†‹ϐ‹‡†Ǥ •‡…‘†ƒ”› ‹••—‡ ‹• ‹†‹‘ƒ–‹…‡š’”‡••‹‘ǡ ƒ† ȋ Ȍǡ „—– ‘– ȋ Ȍǡ ’ƒ••‡• –Š‡ –‡•–Ǥ 34. (F) (p. 369) English/Conventions of Standard English/Sentence Structure/Faulty Parallelism . Sentence elements that have the same function should have similar forms. In this case, heat and weight both operate to cement the debris into rocks. So the two factors should have similar word forms, and the original is correct. (G) and (H) disrupt this parallelism, and (J) has a meaning that doesn't make sense here. 35. (C) (p. 369) E glish/Productio of Writing/Organization/Sentence-Level Structure . This item asks you to place the ’ƒ”‡–Š‡–‹…ƒŽ ”‡ƒ” ƒ– –Š‡ ’‘‹– ™Š‡”‡ –Š‡ Ž‘‰‹…ƒŽ ϐŽ‘™ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ’ƒ”ƒ‰”ƒ’Š ™‹ŽŽ „‡ „‡•– ’”‡•‡”˜‡†Ǥ Š‡ ‘‡ ‡–‹‘ of caldera is made in the third sentence, so the information should be close by. If this were a parenthetical phrase as opposed to a complete sentence, the information could be inserted directly following the word caldera, but that is not an option you are given. The next best choice is (C), and this is a good location for the insert since it is a complete sentence.