by Erica L. Meltzer | Aug 10, 2015
9/3/25
In the 1930s, the concept of showing movies outdoors wasn’t new: people often watched silent films on screens set up at beaches or other places boasting an abundance of sky. However, it was an auto-parts salesman named Richard Hollingshead whom saw the genius in giving a car-loving society one more activity to do in their vehicles.
A. NO CHANGE
B. who
C. which
D. and
Click here for the answer.
9/2/25
On a gloomy Wednesday morning, thousands of spectators gathered in Washington, D.C.’s Potomac Park to witness what would be the world’s first regularly scheduled airmail service. As the crowd buzzed with excitement, President Woodrow Wilson stood with the pilot, Second Lieutenant George Leroy Boyle. The two men chatted for a few minutes, Wilson in a three-piece suit and bowler hat, Boyle in his leather flying cap, a cigarette in his mouth. The president dropped a letter in Boyle’s sack, and the pilot took off for his journey from Washington, D.C., to New York, with plans to stop in Philadelphia for delivery and refueling. The flight, however, never made it to the City of Brotherly Love.
The writer is considering deleting the underlined portion of the sentence (replacing the comma after minutes with a period). Should the writer do this?
A. Yes, because it is irrelevant to the paragraph’s focus on the airmail service’s first flight.
B. Yes, because it suggests that Wilson and Boyle disagreed about the importance of the airmail service.
C. No, because it provides a detailed description that helps the reader envision the encounter between Wilson and Boyle.
D. No, because it emphasizes that Wilson and Boyle were able to overcome their differences.
Click here for the answer.
9/1/25
In southern Manitoba, a bison kept escaping a ranch. The locals nicknamed him Freddy, and he became something of a minor celebrity. He even had a song dedicated to him. After witnessing the media coverage surrounding Freddy, a renaissance-style choral arrangement was inspired to be crafted by composer Elliot Britton, complete with contemporary pop-chord progressions accompanied by traditional fiddle and electronically distorted bison noises.
A. NO CHANGE
B. the crafting of a renaissance-style choral arrangement was inspired by composer Elliot Britton.
C. composer Elliot Britton was inspired to craft a renaissance-style choral arrangement,
D. composer Elliot Britton, who was inspired to craft a renaissance-style choral arrangement,
Click here for the answer.
8/31/25
Researchers at the University at Buffalo have developed a solar water purifier they hope can sanitize water more quickly, cheaply, and effectively than other models. The device resembles a small A-frame tent. Black carbon-dipped paper is draped over a triangular form and set on top of the water. The edges of the paper trail in the water, soaking it up like a sponge.
What is the best way to combine the underlined sentences?
A. A triangular form is set on top of the water and draped with carbon-dipped paper, whose edges trail in the water, soaking it up like a sponge.
B. A triangular form is set on top of the water, and carbon-dipped paper is draped over it, whose edges trail in the water and soak it up like a sponge.
C. Black carbon-dipped paper is draped over a triangular form and, then, set on top of the water, its edges trailing and soaking it up like a sponge.
D. Draped over a triangular form, black carbon-dipped paper is set on top of the water, whose edges trail, soaking it up like a sponge.
Click here for the answer.
8/30/25
In the late nineteenth century, the most sophisticated railroad managers and some economists argued that railroads were “natural monopolies,” the inevitable consequence of an industry that required huge investments in land and construction. However, competition was expensive and wasteful. In 1886, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and the Missouri Pacific Railroad both built railroad tracks heading west from the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in Kansas to Greeley County on the western border, roughly 200 miles away. The tracks ran parallel to each other, about two miles apart.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Therefore,
C. Indeed,
D. Still,
Click here for the answer.
8/29/25
In the early twentieth century, new knowledge about nutrition science fueled widespread “expert” condemnation of dishes featuring a range of ingredients mixed together. Instead, reformers insisted with great confidence (but scant evidence), that it was healthier to eat simple foods with few ingredients—meals in which meats and plain vegetables were clearly separated.
A. NO CHANGE
B. confidence, (but scant evidence),
C. confidence, (but scant evidence)
D. confidence (but scant evidence)
Click here for the answer.
8/28/25
Debbie Smith has her work cut out for her. Since 2010, she has been the artist responsible to record the likeness of every clown registered with Clowns International, the oldest established organization for clowns in the United Kingdom. It’s a seemingly straightforward task—that is, until you discover what she uses as a canvas: eggs.
A. NO CHANGE
B. for recording
C. in recording
D. with recording
Click here for the answer.
8/27/25
Bill Bowerman’s “eureka” moment came while eating breakfast with his wife on a summer Sunday in 1976. As he stared at his waffles, it occurred to him that the grooves of the waffle iron were a perfect mold for multi-terrain sneaker soles. He poured molten rubber into iron after iron that he perfected the waffle-sole pattern that Nike, which he co-founded in 1964, continues to use on some running and training shoes today.
A. NO CHANGE
B. which
C. until
D. when
Click here for the answer.
8/26/25
During the Renaissance, first-person accounts of little-explored lands and botanical discoveries thrilled armchair gardeners, working horticulturists and scholars, although the high cost of producing books and manuscripts tended to limit their audience. At a more practical level, interest in garden design and new techniques of cultivation blossomed and was accompanied by a combustion of interest in previously unknown plants.
A. NO CHANGE
B. a bang
C. a blowup
D. an explosion
Click here for the answer.
8/25/25
In 2004, Debra Britt and her sisters, Felicia Walker and Tamara Mattison, began to collect and make dolls, doll clothes, and accessories. By 2012, the serious hobby had overrun their home, so they rented a storefront space in downtown Mansfield, Massachusetts, where they were living, and transformed it into the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture.
A. NO CHANGE
B. have lived
C. would live
D. would have lived
Click here for the answer.
8/24/25
For most of history, humans weren’t interested in the direct consumption of milk. Instead, the early milkers of the fertile crescent transformed it into sour yogurt, butter and cheese because the hot climate caused milk to quickly spoil. Even so, milk was a vital symbol in the mythology of the Sumerians, Greeks and Egyptians.
Which of the following is the LEAST acceptable placement for the underlined word?
A. where it is now.
B. after the word climate.
C. after the word milk.
D. after the word spoil.
Click here for the answer.
8/23/25
In James Dinh’s proposal for the National Museum of the American Indian’s new memorial, concentric circles—“ripples,” in Dinh’s imagination—radiate outward from a star and fountain and is bounded on one side by a mound of earth inlaid with a stone wall. One stretch of this wall, which Dinh terms the “Wall of Stories,” is particularly striking: it features a seated bronze sculpture of a mother and child.
A. NO CHANGE
B. are
C. has been
D. have been
Click here for the answer.
8/22/25
In a 2012 paper, marketing researchers Rajeev Batra, Aaron Ahuvia and Richard P. Bagozzi developed a model of “brand love.” Based on studies of consumers’ brand attachment, they showed that in order to form meaningful attachment with a brand, consumers need to experience them in ways that go beyond simply buying and using a product.
A. NO CHANGE
B. themselves
C. itself
D. it
Click here for the answer.
8/21/25
Before Star Trek premiered on September 8, 1966, the show’s ingredients had been slow-cooking in creator Gene Roddenberry’s brain for years. At first, Roddenberry’s initial idea was to write a show about a 19th-century blimp that journeyed from place to place, making contact with distant peoples. Deciding instead to set the show in the future, Roddenberry drew upon his youthful immersion in science fiction magazines like Astounding Stories.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Roddenberry had the initial idea
C. Roddenberry’s idea initially was
D. Roddenberry’s idea was
Click here for the answer.
8/20/25
Even before the advent of digital technologies, critics predicted the collapse of existing media. After television was invented, many claimed radio would die. But radio ended up surviving by finding new uses; people started listening in cars, during train rides and on factory floors.
Which of the following would NOT be an acceptable alternative to the underlined word?
A. destruction
B. demise
C. revolt
D. disappearance
Click here for the answer.
8/19/25
On March 19, 1918, Woodrow Wilson signed the Calder Act, requiring people in the United States to set their clocks to standard time; less than two weeks later, on March 31, they would be required to abandon standard time and pushed their clocks ahead by an hour for the nation’s first experiment with daylight saving.
A. NO CHANGE
B. push
C. have pushed
D. had pushed
Click here for the answer.
8/18/25
In an exhibition called Figuring History, the African-American artist Robert Colescott provided a tongue-in-cheek send-up of the famous depiction of George Washington crossing the Delaware. The Oakland, California, native places George Washington Carver, the agricultural pioneer at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, in the spot of his namesake.
A. NO CHANGE
B. artist, Robert Colescott
C. artist Robert Colescott,
D. artist, Robert Colescott,
Click here for the answer.
8/17/25
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) has been the site of many creative adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. Some are a multimedia mashup of characters, lines and scenes from Shakespeare’s history plays. “Extensively cut,” “deeply cut” and “severely cut” are some of the favorite phrases used by the reviewers of these types of experimental stage and film adaptations. The job can involve rearranging scenes, simplifying plotlines, and eliminating characters. In such cases, cutting up Shakespeare is not an act of destruction but an act of creation. Professional playwrights in Shakespeare’s time even thought about creating scripts as “cutwork,” like constructing costumes by cutting and stitching.
Which answer creates the most logical transition between the preceding sentence and the information that follows?
A. NO CHANGE
B. During Shakespeare’s time, it was not uncommon for multiple versions of plays to circulate.
C. Multimedia websites also offer contemporary “translations” of Shakespeare’s plays, along with notes and interviews.
D. Cutting, however, doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of something.
Click here for the answer.
8/16/25
To some extent, the fear of having a book or movie plot “spoiled” is well-grounded. You only have one opportunity to learn something for the first time. Once you’ve learned it, that knowledge affects what you notice, what you anticipate, and even what your imagination can do.
A. NO CHANGE
B. what you can imagine.
C. what is in your imagination.
D. what your imagination is like.
Click here for the answer.
8/15/25
Long before smartphones filmed the stiffened appendages of people seeking internet fame, striking a pose was a popular form of entertainment in Victorian England. They called the practice “tableaux vivants” (literally, “living pictures”). The technique had its roots in medieval drama, but it became a fashionable Victorian-era dinner party game similar to charades. People would select a famous scene and position themselves in it, frozen, for their guests and friends to observe.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Participants
C. One
D. We
Click here for the answer.
8/14/25
Paradoxically, time is perceived to pass slowly in situations in which there is either nothing happening or a great deal is happening. In other words, the complexity of the situation is either much higher or much lower than normal.
A. NO CHANGE
B. a great deal happens.
C. a great deal has happened.
D. a great deal happening.
Click here for the answer.
8/13/25
Since April 2017, a canoe powered solely by solar energy travels back and forth along the 42-mile stretch of the Capahuari and Pastaza rivers that connect the nine isolated settlements that live along their banks. The boat, named Tapiatpia after a mythical electric eel in the area, is the Amazon’s first solar powered public transport system.
A. NO CHANGE
B. has traveled
C. would travel
D. traveled
Click here for the answer.
8/12/25
Protection from ultraviolet (UV) rays is nothing new: many organisms, including microbes, plants, and animals, have developed the ability to shield themselves by producing small molecules that absorb UV rays, and block radiation, from entering cells and damaging the DNA.
A. NO CHANGE
B. molecules, that absorb UV rays and block radiation
C. molecules that absorb UV rays and block radiation
D. molecules that absorb UV rays and block radiation,
Click here for the answer.
8/11/25
Deep twilight settles in over Wales, Alaska. As the last traces of sunset orange give way to blue black on the western horizon, the icy Bering Strait and Siberia beyond are invisible in the night. All is quiet in the tiny village—a cluster of buildings with a single string of streetlights, tucked between frozen hills and frozen sea.
Which of the following is the LEAST acceptable alternative to the underlined portion?
A. village, a cluster
B. village: a cluster
C. village and a cluster
D. village; it is a cluster
Click here for the answer.
8/10/25
Unlike his peers, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright also had a rare artistic passion that was very unusual: Japanese art. Wright first became interested in his early twenties, and within a decade, he was an internationally known collector of Japanese woodblock prints.
A. NO CHANGE
B. a rarely unusual artistic passion
C. a rare and unusual artistic passion
D. a rare artistic passion
Click here for the answer.
8/9/25
Spam has become a sought-after product in many countries around the world since its introduction in the 1930s, especially those that have faced economic hardship. Because it’s cheap, filling, and long-lasting, it addresses a genuine need.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Since its introduction in the 1930s, Spam has become a sought-after product in many countries around the world,
C. In many countries around the world, Spam has become a sought-after product since its introduction in the 1930s,
D. Around the world, in many countries, Spam has become a sought-after product since its introduction in the 1930s,
Click here for the answer.
8/8/25
In the 1840s, the travel writer Alexander Mackay described the “extraordinary number” of newspapers that travelers would encounter everywhere they went. Henry David Thoreau, on the other hand, was more appalled than dazzled. In fact, he loathed newspapers, denouncing them for a variety of offenses, including “servility” and outright baseness.
A. NO CHANGE
B. However,
C. Likewise,
D. Subsequently,
Click here for the answer.
8/7/25
The more often people hear a statement, the more likely they are to believe it’s true—a phenomenon commonly known as the illusory truth effect. Adding a picture can also change how believable a statement is. Sometimes, images can make messages more convincing; other times, skepticism is increased.
A. NO CHANGE
B. skepticism would be increased.
C. there is an increase in skepticism.
D. they can increase skepticism.
Click here for the answer.
8/6/25
When he published The Sun Also Rises in 1926, Ernest Hemingway was already well-known among expatriate writers in Paris and cosmopolitan literary circles in New York and Chicago. However, it was his second novel A Farewell to Arms, that truly made him a celebrity. With this newfound fame, Hemingway learned, came fan mail, and lots of it.
A. NO CHANGE
B. novel: A Farewell to Arms
C. novel, A Farewell to Arms,
D. novel, A Farewell to Arms
Click here for the answer.
8/5/25
In the late 1970s, a group of researchers set out testing the improbable idea of making computers “talk” to one another by using digital information packets that could be traded among multiple machines. The project, called ARPANET, went on to fundamentally change life on Earth under its more common name: the Internet.
A. NO CHANGE
B. in testing
C. for testing
D. to test
Click here for the answer.
8/4/25
In the nineteenth century, people in the United States ate dessert puddings that still are recognizable today; however, they also ate main-course puddings like steak and kidney pudding, pigeon pudding, or eating mutton pudding, in which stewed meats were surrounded by a flour or potato crust. Other puddings had no crust at all. Some, like Yorkshire pudding, were a kind of cooked batter.
A. NO CHANGE
B. they ate
C. ate
D. DELETE the underlined word.
Click here for the answer.
8/3/25
You are invited into Do Ho Suh’s apartment. You put down your bag, remove your coat and step inside. The hallway changes color as you proceed, first pink, then green and then blue. There is a red staircase outside, and beyond it people are moving around. You can see them right through the walls. Back home, the only things that behave this way are cobwebs, but here, everything—door panels, chain locks, light switches, sprinkler system dissolves delightfully into colored light.
A. NO CHANGE
B. chain locks; light switches, sprinkler system,
C. chain locks, light switches sprinkler system
D. chain locks, light switches, sprinkler system—
Click here for the answer.
8/2/25
Researchers have reported that individuals, who live in urban areas of more than half a million inhabitants, are exposed to night-time light levels three to six times brighter than those in small towns and rural areas. People living in regions with more intense light sleep less, are more tired during the daytime, and report feeling more dissatisfied with their sleep.
A. NO CHANGE
B. individuals, who live in urban areas of more than half a million inhabitants
C. individuals who live in urban areas of more than half a million inhabitants,
D. individuals who live in urban areas of more than half a million inhabitants
Click here for the answer.
8/1/25
The Museum of Bad Art was founded in 1994, when Boston art and antique dealer Scott Wilson rescued a portrait of a handsome grandmother, pensively poised under an aggressively yellow sky in a windswept meadow, from a Boston trash heap. Wilson wanted to sell the frame, but upon seeing the painting (later dubbed Lucy in the Field with Flowers), an objection was made by his friend Jerry Reilly. Reilly took the tribute to someone else’s elder and hung it in his own home.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Jerry Reilly, his friend made an objection.
C. his friend Jerry Reilly, who made an objection.
D. his friend Jerry Reilly objected.
Click here for the answer.
7/31/25
For years, Stefan Strumbel, a street artist born and raised in the small city of Offenburg, Germany, has wrestled with the idea of “heimat”—a German word that translates loosely as “homeland”—and how his art should reflect it. That’s one reason, he says that he decided to stop painting graffiti and focus on cuckoo clocks instead.
A. NO CHANGE
B. reason he says, that
C. reason, he says, that
D. reason he says that,
Click here for the answer.
7/30/25
Before publishing Silent Spring, the book that flung the modern environmental movement, Rachel Carson was a well-known author of beautifully descriptive books about marine life, including The Sea Around Us, which became a surprise hit after it was published in 1951.
A. NO CHANGE
B. hurled
C. launched
D. tossed
Click here for the answer.
7/29/25
Because the Hollywood sign is so famous today, it may be surprising to learn that it wasn’t until fairly recently that it achieved its iconic status. In the 1930s and 1940s, however, the sign made an appearance in only a few of the movies that were about Hollywood or the movie industry. Other Hollywood institutions, like the Brown Derby restaurant, tended to represent the film world.
A. NO CHANGE
B. for example,
C. therefore,
D. likewise,
Click here for the answer.
7/28/25
It turns out that water worlds may be some of the worst places to look for living things. One recent study shows how a planet covered in oceans could be starved of phosphorus, a nutrient without which earthly life cannot thrive. Other work concludes that a planet swamped in even deeper water would be geologically dead, lacking any of the planetary processes that nurture life on Earth.
A. NO CHANGE
B. it
C. this
D. DELETE the underlined word.
Click here for the answer.
7/27/25
In 1934, Babe Ruth and his American teammates embarked on an 18-game tour of Japan. Swatting 13 home runs, waving American and Japanese flags, clowning with kids, and he even donned a kimono, the Babe won the hearts and minds of the Japanese people.
A. NO CHANGE
B. even donning
C. even to don
D. even don
Click here for the answer.
7/26/25
Our relationship with horses is distinct from our relationships with cats and dogs; horses sit at the intersection of being wild and domesticated and don’t fit easily into the category of pet. Perhaps this difference also has to do with its large size, which creates an element of danger.
A. NO CHANGE
B. it’s
C. their
D. they’re
Click here for the answer.
7/25/25
Recently, I did something that many people would consider unthinkable, or at least very strange. Before going to see a movie, I deliberately read a review that revealed all of the major plot points, from start to finish.
A. NO CHANGE
B. movie, I deliberately: read a review that
C. movie I deliberately read a review, that
D. movie, I deliberately read a review
Click here for the answer.
7/24/25
For centuries people set their clocks and watches by looking up at the sun and estimating, a tradition that led to wildly dissimilar results between (and often within) cities and towns. To railroad companies around the world, that wasn’t acceptable. They needed synchronized, predictable station times for arrivals and departures, so they proposed splitting up the globe into 24 time zones.
Which of the following would NOT be an acceptable alternative to the underlined word?
A. produced
B. created
C. resulted
D. yielded
Click here for the answer.
7/23/25
When the radio became prevalent in the 1930s, Orson Welles perpetrated a famous hoax about extraterrestrials with his infamous “War of the Worlds” program. This broadcast didn’t actually cause widespread fear of an alien invasion among listeners, as some have claimed; however, they did spark a national conversation about mass media and audience gullibility.
A. NO CHANGE
B. it
C. these
D. DELETE the underlined word.
Click here for the answer.
7/22/25
Based in Mexico City, the artist known only as Curiot is famous for his colorful paintings featuring mythical half-animal, half-human figures. Most of which are rooted in Mexican tradition and depicted with meticulous detail, geometrical patterns, and vibrant hues.
A. NO CHANGE
B. figures. Most of these creatures
C. figures, with most of these creatures
D. figures, most of them
Click here for the answer.
7/21/25
I don’t know why that particular photo of a half-finished sweater caught my attention, but as soon as I saw it, I wanted to learn to knit. At first, I wasn’t sure I needed another hobby, but after I read an essay by Ann Hood, “Ten Things I Learned From Knitting,” the decision was made by me.
A. NO CHANGE
B. my decision was made by me.
C. my decision had been made.
D. I made my decision.
Click here for the answer.
7/20/25
Located in Abu Dhabi, the new branch of the Louvre Museum is intended to look like a floating dome: the glimmering structure appears to hover over the sparkling water that surrounds it, and its webbed pattern allows the sky to filter through. The overall effect is meant to evoke rays of sunlight passing through palm leaves in a desert oasis.
If the writer were to delete the words glimmering and sparkling from the underlined portion, the sentence would most nearly lose details that:
A. emphasize the effects of light on the museum building.
B. highlight the contrast in appearance between the museum building and its surroundings.
C. provide an overview of the main sections of the museum.
D. make clear that water is the primary influence on the museum’s design.
Click here for the answer.
7/19/25
Unlike the Venus flytrap, the lobes or leaves of the waterwheel do not change shape when they snap shut; rather, closing like two halves of a mussel shell. In contrast, the Venus flytrap flexes its leaves from flat to curved when enclosing its prey.
A. NO CHANGE
B. shut, but rather closing
C. shut but rather close
D. shut but rather closes
Click here for the answer.
7/18/25
There are almost 90 million cats in the United States, or one for every three households. That makes cats more popular, petwise, than dogs. The majority of them—about two-thirds to three-fourths, surveys say—are sweet, harmless, cuddly housecats, which seldom set foot outside. The other one-quarter to one-third aren’t so harmless. Equipped with laser-quick paws and razor-tipped claws, they are the stuff of every bird and small mammal’s nightmares.
A. NO CHANGE
B. three-fourths, surveys say, are sweet
C. three-fourths, surveys say, are sweet—
D. three-fourths—surveys say are sweet,
Click here for the answer.
7/17/25
Announced in 2013, the BRAIN Initiative is a massive project undertaken by a group of agencies and individuals, including universities, technology companies, and neuroscientists. The Initiative includes a variety of programs designed to lower the barriers between the human brain and the digital world, with the goal being to understand how the brain processes information.
A. NO CHANGE
B. to be
C. has been
D. is
Click here for the answer.
7/16/25
Training to go to Mars requires a substantial suspension of disbelief. But that has not stopped scores of people from participating in simulations that re-create Mars on Earth in order to better understand and prepare for the challenges of one day sending humans to the red planet. Often set in dusty, remote locations, these so-called Mars analogs often feature lifestyle choices meant to approximate humanity’s journey to the next planet over. There’s a 20-minute communications delay (no phone calls); freeze-dried meals; and limited water supplies. Moreover, participants can never leave the habitat without a spacesuit on.
The writer is considering deleting the underlined portion of the sentence. Should the writer do this?
A. Yes, because it provides background information that is irrelevant to the main focus of the paragraph.
B. Yes, because it suggests that people will travel to Mars in the near future.
C. No, because it provides an explanation for why people choose to participate in simulations of life on Mars.
D. No, because it describes some of the challenges involved in traveling to Mars.
Click here for the answer.
7/15/25
Because laws prohibiting excess noise failed to satisfy people’s desire for quiet products and technologies emerged to meet the demand of increasingly sensitive consumers. In the early twentieth century, sound-muffling curtains, softer floor materials, room dividers, and ventilators kept the noise from the outside from coming in, while preventing sounds from bothering neighbors.
A. NO CHANGE
B. quiet, products and technologies
C. quiet products, and technologies
D. quiet products and technologies,
Click here for the answer.
7/14/25
There are over 50,000 therapy dogs in the United States, and they’re becoming more popular in countries from Norway to Brazil. Trained and certified by a variety of organizations, hospitals and other facilities welcome these dogs and their handlers, who interact with patients.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Trained and certified by a variety of organizations, these dogs and their handlers interact with patients and are welcomed by hospitals and other facilities.
C. These dogs and their handlers, welcomed by hospitals and other facilities and trained and certified by a variety of organizations.
D. Welcomed by hospitals and other facilities, these dogs and their handlers being trained and certified by a variety of organizations.
Click here for the answer.
7/13/25
Like many successful authors of the nineteenth century, Washington Irving struggled against literary bootleggers. In England, some of his sketches were reprinted in periodicals without his permission, a legal practice since there was no international copyright law at the time. To prevent further piracy in Britain, Irving paid to have the first four American installments published as a single volume by John Miller in London.
Which of the following would NOT be an acceptable alternative to the underlined portion?
A. permission—a legal practice
B. permission; that practice was legal
C. permission, and a legal practice
D. permission, a practice that was legal
Click here for the answer.
7/12/25
The older you get, the more difficult it is to learn to speak French like a Parisian. However, no one knows exactly what the cutoff point is—at what age it becomes harder, nevertheless, to pick up noun-verb agreements in a new language.
A. NO CHANGE
B. for instance,
C. moreover,
D. likewise,
Click here for the answer.
7/11/25
They call it “the Never-Ending Storm of Catatumbo” or “The Lighthouse of Maracaibo”: something so familiar that people in the state of Zulia in Venezuela even put it on their flag. Less than half an hour after the first cloud forms, it starts to flash. It does this faster and faster — 200 times a minute is not uncommon. Afterward, the cloud becomes a giant bulb that lights up the night.
Which choice provides new information that is relevant to the rest of the paragraph?
A. NO CHANGE
B. lightning
C. a storm
D. a natural force
Click here for the answer.
7/10/25
Crossword puzzles are said to be the most popular and widespread word game in the world, yet they have a relatively short history. The first crosswords appeared in British children’s books during the nineteenth century, they were simple games, apparently derived from the word square: a group of words arranged so that the letters read alike vertically and horizontally. In the United States, however, the puzzle developed into a serious adult pastime.
A. NO CHANGE
B. Although the first crosswords
C. Until the first crosswords
D. When the first crosswords
Click here for the answer.
7/9/25
When German immigrants first started coming to the United States in the 1700s, they brought the pretzel with them. Bavarians and other southern Germans had been enjoying pretzels for hundreds of years. Sometimes they ate pretzels as a side to a main dinner course; other times, they chowed down on sweet pretzels for dessert. In Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany, signs for bakeries still include gilded pretzels hanging over the door.
A. NO CHANGE
B. chomped on
C. consumed
D. chugged
Click here for the answer.
7/8/25
While most paintings produced by members of the Hudson River School were rendered realistically, many of the scenes they depicted were synthesized from a variety of natural images observed by the artists. In gathering the visual data for their paintings, the artists would travel to environments with extraordinary and extreme conditions that did not permit extended painting in these environments. During the expeditions, the artists recorded sketches and memories, returning to their studios to paint the finished works later.
A. NO CHANGE
B. in such environments.
C. in such places.
D. DELETE the underlined portion.
Click here for the answer.
7/7/25
Key-Sook Geum is an artist, fashion designer, and scholar from the Republic of Korea. Having taught and worked in fashion design, Geum combines art with fashion through her exquisite wire sculptures in the shape of women’s clothing.
She is inspired by the shapes and styles of clothing from Korea’s Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910). The items tell stories about the people who wore them: their lives, values, and beliefs.
A. NO CHANGE
B. sculpture’s in the shape of womens
C. sculptures in the shape of womens’
D. sculptures’ in the shape of women’s
Click here for the answer.
7/6/25
Located in London’s Kew Gardens, the greenhouse known as the Temperate House is home to a geographically arranged collection of 10,000 plants from temperate climates around the world. These areas are sometimes described as “the Goldilocks zone” of the planet. Plants are safe from frost there.
Which of the following choices most effectively combines the underlined sentences?
A. These areas are sometimes described as the “Goldilocks zone” of the planet, being that plants are safe from frost there.
B. These areas are sometimes described as the planet’s “Goldilocks zone,” where plants are safe from frost.
C. These areas are sometimes described as the “Goldilocks zone” of the planet, and that is an area where plants are safe from frost.
D. Described sometimes as the “Goldilocks zone” of the planet, plants are safe from frost there.
Click here for the answer.
7/5/25
It’s difficult to describe how excited I was when two veteran mountain climbers asked me to join them for a winter attempt on Gasherbrum II, one of the tallest peaks in the Himalayas. Like any adventurous activity, mountaineering has hazards. They must find someone who can tolerate extremely challenging conditions—frostbite burns, intense hunger, the loss of feeling in fingers and toes, overwhelming weariness—all while maintaining the will to push forward.
Which of the following true statements provides the most appropriate transition between the previous sentence and the information that follows?
A. NO CHANGE
B. Mountaineers must choose their climbing partners with extreme care.
C. Personal preparedness and skill development are very important.
D. Instructors teach many skills, including the fundamentals of survival in a cold environment.
Click here for the answer.
7/4/25
Many marine animals are large, rare, elusive, and highly mobile. Sharks are an obvious example: in the oceans they make up a small proportion of the biomass, are difficult to catch, and they have been in conflict with humans for thousands of years.
A. NO CHANGE
B. have been
C. having been
D. being
Click here for the answer.
7/3/25
We know a lot about carbon, the element that forms the chemical backbone of life, in our crust and oceans. We know far less about it in the Earth’s core and mantle. So far, it’s proved challenging to sample the mantle, which extends up to 1,800 miles below the surface and plays a huge yet mysterious role in the global carbon cycle.
A. NO CHANGE
B. surface, and plays a huge yet mysterious,
C. surface and plays a huge, yet mysterious
D. surface, and plays a huge yet mysterious,
Click here for the answer.
7/2/25
If you’ve heard the term “grazer” before, it may bring to mind familiar farm animals, such as cows or sheep munching on pastureland. But the ocean has its own suite of grazers, one with very different — even bizarre — body forms and feeding techniques.
A. NO CHANGE
B. animals such as cows or sheep,
C. animals such as cows or sheep
D. animals such as: cows or sheep
Click here for the answer.
7/1/25
Five decades into his life, Phineas Taylor Barnum from Bethel, Connecticut, had risen above his humble beginnings as an impoverished country boy and become a showman—indeed, the “greatest showman” (as he would claim) of his generation. Thanks to a combination of brilliant marketing tactics and less-than-upstanding business practices, Barnum had truly arrived, and with his book Humbugs of the World, published in 1865, he wanted to inform you, his audience, that he hadn’t achieved his rags-to-riches success story by scamming the public.
The use of parentheses in the underlined portion is most likely intended to
A. distinguish Barnum’s exact words from the surrounding description of his life.
B. emphasize the obstacles that Barnum overcame to achieve success.
C. illustrate the pride that Barnum took in his career.
D. suggest that Barnum may have exaggerated his accomplishments.
Click here for the answer.
Looking for more practice? Check out the Quizzes and the Question of the Day Archives:
Like this? Want more? Critical Reader Books include hundreds of practice questions and explanations.
