4/17/24
Although the concept of sleep-learning, also referred to as hypnopaedia, has been discredited, neuroscientists are now discovering ways to use stimuli such as sound cues during sleep to strengthen peoples’ memories.
A. NO CHANGE
B. peoples memories’.
C. people’s memories.
D. people’s memory’s.
When a question tests two consecutive nouns with apostrophes, the standard pattern is that the first noun is possessive (apostrophe) and the second is plural (no apostrophe). That is the case here: the underlined portion refers to memories belonging to people, so the first noun is possessive. (B) can be eliminated because peoples is plural rather than possessive, so the question becomes whether the apostrophe should be placed before or after -s. For regular nouns, the plural possessive is formed by adding –s + apostrophe, but people, the plural of person, is irregular. When a plural noun is irregular, the plural possessive is formed by adding apostrophe + -s, so (A) can be eliminated. (D) is incorrect as well because memory’s is the singular possessive form. (C) correctly forms the possessive of the first noun by adding apostrophe + -s and the plural of the second by adding -ies. People’s memories = memories of people.
4/16/24
Once upon a time, it seems that Mars had oceans. However, the exact appearance of these bodies of surface water is a matter of intense debate. Most evidence points towards the deep past, some 4 billion years ago, as the age where Mars could have held marine environments. Since then, the red planet has most likely been cold and arid, with only the occasional shift of climate conditions.
A. NO CHANGE
B. in which
C. which
D. in that
Where can only be used to refer to places, not times/time period, so (A) can be eliminated. (C) is incorrect because which alone should not be used to refer to a time period either. (D) is incorrect because in that is a synonym for because, a meaning that does not make sense in this context. The only two options are when and in which. Because when does not appear as a choice, in which must be used. That makes (B) correct.
4/15/24
Baseball has a long and rich history in Japanese-American diplomacy. After the sport was introduced to Japan in the 1870s by the American educator Horace Wilson, it became an important part of Japanese popular culture. Over time, baseball has served as a unifier, bringing together the people of two nations with very different histories and cultures.
A. NO CHANGE
B. educator, Horace Wilson
C. educator, Horace Wilson,
D. educator Horace Wilson
When a name appears in the middle of a sentence, as is the case here, it is always incorrect to place a comma only before the name. As a result, (B) can be eliminated automatically. Placing a comma both before and after a name indicates that the name is being used non-essentially and can be crossed out of the sentence without disturbing its basic structure or meaning. To check (C), cross out Horace Wilson and read the sentence without those words: After the sport was introduced to Japan in the 1870s by the American educator… it became an important part of Japanese popular culture. No, it does not make sense to refer to the American educator without providing his name. Although the sentence is acceptable grammatically, it does not work from a meaning standpoint. Now, the question is whether a comma is needed after the name. In this case, the answer is yes: the sentence begins with a dependent clause (After the sport was introduced to Japan in the 1870s by the American educator Horace Wilson) that is then followed by an independent clause (it became an important part of Japanese popular culture). When an independent clause follows a dependent clause this way, a comma must be used to separate them. That makes the answer (A).
4/14/24
One of the most renowned architects of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright was the pioneer of the Prairie School movement and he developed the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States.
A. NO CHANGE
B. and developing
C. the developer of
D. had developed
The sentence indicates that Wright was two things: the pioneer of the Prairie School movement of architecture and __________. To keep the sentence parallel, the two sides must match. The non-underlined portion of the sentence contains a noun (pioneer), so the underlined portion of the sentence must contain a noun as well (developer). (C) is the only answer to include this construction, so it is correct. Note that although it is technically grammatically acceptable, if not parallel, (A) does not work because the information that follows and is a complete sentence, and so a comma is required before that word.
4/13/24
In terms of intelligence, the octopus stands far above most other animals. During one really cool study, researchers tested whether this creature is able to distinguish between different people. Two individuals interacted with an octopus, with one acting extremely friendly and another seeming cold and standoffish. Later, when the two people entered the octopus’s living area, the octopus ignored the impersonal one in favor of the friendlier guest.
A. NO CHANGE
B. awesome
C. intriguing
D. totally neat
This question is testing register, or formal vs. informal language. Really cool, awesome, and totally neat are all overly casual when compared to the rest of the passage. Only intriguing is consistent with its moderately serious tone. That makes (C) the answer.
4/12/24
In the early days of mariachi music, players dressed informally. With increased employment opportunities and more formal presentations, however, uniforms became common. When mariachis first acquired the purchasing power to dress their groups in uniforms, the apparel they had chose most often was the charro suit, which consisted of fitted trousers, a short jacket, and an embroidered belt.
A. NO CHANGE
B. have chosen
C. chose
D. choose
All of the non-underlined verbs in the passage are in the simple past tense (became, acquired, was, consisted), so the underlined verb must be in this tense as well. (A) is not only in the past perfect (had + past participle), but it also incorrectly forms this tense: the simple past chose rather than the past participle chosen appears after had. In (B), the present perfect (has/have + past participle) is correctly constructed, but this tense is not consistent with the rest of the verbs in the passage. (D) is incorrect because choose is the present tense, which again does not fit. (C) correctly provides the simple past form, chose.
4/11/24
You can probably recall a situation, in sports or otherwise, in which you felt like you had momentum on your side: your body was in sync, your mind was focused, and you had a high level of confidence. In these moments of flow, success feels inevitable, and effortless.
A. NO CHANGE
B. you had a high confidence level.
C. your high confidence level.
D. your level of confidence was high.
The underlined portion is the third item in a list, and so it must be presented in the same format as the first two items. Both of those items begin with your, so the third item must begin this way as well. That eliminates (A) and (B). (C) is incorrect as well because each of the two previous items contains the pattern your noun + verb, and this answer does not contain a verb. (D) correctly begins the third item with your and includes a verb (was), maintaining the pattern used in the first two items.
4/10/24
Despite decades of research, the sun remains an enigma. Every 11 years or so its activity spikes, creating flares and coronal mass ejections—the plasma-spewing eruptions that shower Earth with charged particles and beautiful auroral displays. Then, however, the so-called solar maximum fades toward solar minimum, and the sun’s surface grows eerie quiet.
A. NO CHANGE
B. eerily quiet.
C. eerie quietly.
D. eerily quietly.
Logically, the suns’s surface must grow (i.e., become) quiet, not quietly, so the second underlined word must be an adjective. That eliminates (C) and (D). The adjective must in turn be modified by an adverb. (How quiet does the sun’s surface become? Eerily quiet). Note that because the adjective eerie already ends in an –ee sound, –ily must be added to form the adverb. (B) is thus correct.
4/9/24
According to research, people are generally biased toward believing that information is true. (After all, most things that we read or hear are true.) In fact, there’s some evidence that we initially process all statements as true and that cognitive effort is required to mentally mark some of them as false.
In the last sentence, the word “mark” most nearly means
A. distort
B. label
C. transmit
D. inscribe
The structure of the sentence provides a subtle but important clue to the meaning of the underlined word. The construction we initially process all statements as true and that cognitive effort is required to mentally mark some of them as false indicates that the word in question must be generally consistent with the idea of processing or perceiving. The only option that makes sense in that context is label: the sentence is saying that the brain requires extra information to assign things to the “false” category, i.e., to label them as such. Transmit (send) and inscribe (engrave) do not fit at all, but be careful with distort: something that is false does indeed provide a distorted picture, but the underlined word itself does not actually have this meaning.
4/8/24
It has taken a while for scientists to piece together the riddle of just when and where cats first became domesticated. In many cases, this type of question can be easily answered by the archaeological record, but in this instance the matter is complicated by the fact that wild cats and domesticated cats have remarkably similar skeletons.
All of the following placements for the underlined word would be acceptable EXCEPT
A. where it is now.
B. after the word can.
C. after the word answered.
D. after the word the.
Easily is an adverb and can only modify a verb. Because modifiers must be placed next to the words they modify, the three acceptable answers must place easily next to verbs. In (A), be is a verb; in (B), can is a verb; and in (C), answered is a verb. Only (D) does not place easily either before or after a verb (the, archaeological). Because the question asks you to identify which placement would NOT be acceptable, (D) is correct.
4/7/24
Knowing that an employee demonstrates high levels of conscientiousness won’t tell you whether his or her work will be careful or sloppy if you inspect it at a particular moment. But if a large company hires hundreds of employees which are all conscientious, this strategy will likely pay off with a small but consistent average increase in careful work.
A. NO CHANGE
B. who
C. whom
D. DELETE the underlined word.
The underlined pronoun refers to employees, i.e., people. Which should be used to refer to things only, so (A) can be eliminated. (C) is incorrect because whom would be placed right before the verb are, and as a rule, whom should not come before a verb. (D) is incorrect because deleting the underlined word would create a nonsense construction (But if a large company hires hundreds of employees are all conscientious…) — a pronoun is needed to refer back to employees. (B) correctly uses who to refer to people. Unlike whom, this pronoun can be placed before a verb.
4/6/24
Growing hardy and plentiful on short, stout bushes, the prairie cherry’s ornamental blooms and glossy leaves produce a deep-red fruit that is less sweet than the traditional cherry, and can be eaten straight from the tree.
A. NO CHANGE
B. cherry, and can be eaten straight,
C. cherry and can be eaten straight
D. cherry and can be eaten straight,
Comma + and = period, but a period cannot be plugged in without creating nonsense: Growing hardy and plentiful on short, stout bushes, the prairie cherry’s ornamental blooms and glossy leaves produce a deep-red fruit that is less sweet than the traditional cherry. Can be eaten straight from the tree. As a result, the comma is unnecessary, and (A) and (B) can be eliminated. (D) is incorrect as well because the comma after straight incorrectly places a comma before a preposition (from). (C) is correct because no punctuation is needed in the underlined section.
4/5/24
During the early days of space travel, astronauts squeezed most of their meals out of tubes. A sugary, orange-flavored drink, sold commercially as Tang, was considered a tasty treat. Food was fuel, and little more. Meals are stored in locker trays held by a net so they won’t float away. In fact astronauts can dine on a variety of freeze-dried meals using regular forks and spoons. And, for a few years, crews in the International Space Station (ISS) have been able to savor a taste of food that’s actually fresh.
Which of the following provides the best transition between the previous sentence and the sentence that follows?
A. NO CHANGE.
B. Salt and pepper are available, but only in liquid form.
C. Today, eating in space has become much less of a chore.
D. Being in space can put a damper on an astronaut’s appetite.
Although the question asks about the underlined portion in terms of the previous and following sentences, you may find it helpful to take more information into account. The beginning of the passage focuses on the fact that eating in space had little resemblance to that act on Earth and involved unappealing food. The latter part of the passage emphasizes that more recently, astronauts’ food has been considerably improved. The underlined portion must therefore set up the contrast between those two ideas and introduce the fact that eating in space is more pleasant than it used to be. In other words, it “has become much less of a chore.” That makes the answer (C). All the other options are off-topic.
4/4/24
Fraudulent images have been around for as long as photography itself, but Photoshop ushered image doctoring into the digital age. Now, artificial intelligence is poised to take photographic fakery to a new level of sophistication thanks to artificial neural networks who’s algorithms can analyze millions of pictures of real people and places and use them to create convincing fictional ones.
A. NO CHANGE
B. who’s algorithms’
C. whose algorithm’s
D. whose algorithms
Who’s = who is, and you would not say …thanks to artificial neural networks who is algorithms can analyze millions of pictures. Rather, the possessive whose must be used. Whose algorithms = the algorithms of artificial neural networks. That eliminates (A) and (B). (C) is incorrect because algorithm’s is possessive, and a possessive noun can only be placed before another noun. The word following algorithms is can, which is a verb, and so no apostrophe should be used. The plural algorithms is thus correct, making (D) the answer.
4/3/24
The human eye may seem capable of taking in a lot of information, but in reality it can focus on only a thumbnail-sized area of vision—the brain fills in the rest. Furthermore, peripheral vision provides less details than central vision does, conveying images at a much lower resolution.
A. NO CHANGE
B. less details then
C. fewer details than
D. fewer details as
Less can only be used to modify singular, non-countable nouns. It would be acceptable to say less detail because detail is singular and cannot be counted, but details is plural and can be counted. Fewer must be used to modify plural nouns, making (C) and (D) the only possible options. In addition, the comparative (-er) form of an adjective must be paired with than, not as, eliminating (D) and making (C) correct.
4/2/24
When trying to learn new material, you might assume that the more work you put in, the better you will perform. Yet taking the occasional down time – to do literally nothing – may be exactly what you need. Dimming the lights, sitting back, and enjoying a few moments of quality contemplation will help one retain the information much more effectively.
A. NO CHANGE
B. us
C. you
D. them
To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the underlined pronoun in the context of the passage as a whole; the sentence in which that word appears does not provide enough information to answer the question. If you look back at the first two sentences, you can notice that they are addressed to you (you might assume, the more work you put in, may be exactly what you need). To keep the passage consistent, you must be used in the last sentence as well, making the answer (C).
4/1/24
Kagome baskets are characterized by a symmetrical pattern of interlaced triangles. A pattern that has preoccupied physicists for decades.
A. NO CHANGE
B. triangles, it is a pattern
C. triangles—a pattern
D. triangles; a pattern
The statement A pattern that has preoccupied physicists for decades is not a complete sentence because it is missing a main verb that corresponds to the subject. The verb has preoccupied “belongs” to the word that rather than to the subject, A pattern. Because it is not a sentence, it cannot follow a period or semicolon, eliminating both (A) and (D). (B) is incorrect because it contains a comma splice — two complete sentences separated by a comma (tip-off: comma + it). (C) correctly uses a single dash to create a single sentence broken into two parts and create a brief dramatic pause between those parts. Note that while a dash used this way must be preceded by a complete sentence, it can be followed by a fragment.
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