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ACT English Unit 3: Conventions of Standard English

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Unit 3: Conventions of Standard English

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Question 1

Consider the sentence: "To succeed in the competition; you must practice daily, sleep adequately, and manage your anxiety." What punctuation error does this sentence contain?

A.No error — the semicolon correctly separates the introductory phrase from the main clause.B.The semicolon after "competition" should be a comma — an introductory infinitive phrase is followed by a comma, not a semicolon.C.The commas in the list should be semicolons because the list has three items.D.No comma is needed after "competition" — introductory phrases don't require any punctuation.

Question 2

Choose the correct version of the underlined pronoun in this sentence: "The professor gave detailed feedback to both Maya and I/me after our presentations."

A."I" — because the sentence mentions another person first (Maya), a subject pronoun is required.B."me" — because the pronoun is the object of the preposition "to."C."I" — because a compound object sounds more formal with a subject pronoun.D."me" — because "me" is always used when another person is mentioned first.

Question 3

Consider the sentence: "Walking into the room, the chandelier's crystals sparkled above the guests." What is the grammatical problem, and how should it be corrected?

A.No error — the participial phrase correctly modifies "crystals," which were above the walking guests.B.Dangling modifier — "walking into the room" modifies no person named in the main clause; fix by making "the guests" the subject: "Walking into the room, the guests admired the chandelier's sparkling crystals."C.Misplaced modifier — move "the chandelier's crystals" to the beginning of the main clause to fix the error.D.No error — participial phrases can describe the setting rather than a specific subject.

Question 4

Choose the correct version of the underlined word: "Each of the solutions have/has its own set of tradeoffs that engineers must weigh carefully."

A."have" — because "solutions" is plural, the verb should be plural.B."has" — because the subject is "Each," which is always singular.C."have" — because the verb should agree with the object of the preposition ("solutions").D."has" — because "its" in the same sentence is singular, so the verb must match.

Question 5

A sentence reads: "The new policy affects everyone who works in the building, the employees must therefore sign the updated agreement." What is the grammatical error?

A.No error — the comma before "the employees" correctly introduces the consequence.B.Comma splice — two independent clauses are joined only by a comma.C."therefore" requires a semicolon after it to function as a conjunctive adverb.D."affects" should be "effects" — the policy has an effect on employees.

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Question 6

Consider the sentence: "The dog wagged its tail, it seemed happy to see us." What punctuation error does this sentence contain?

A.No error — the comma correctly joins two related thoughts.B.A comma splice — two independent clauses are joined by only a comma, which is insufficient.C.A sentence fragment — the second clause is missing a subject.D.A run-on sentence — too many words have been combined without any punctuation.

Question 7

A sentence reads: "The report's findings implicates all three managers in the incident." Identify the agreement error.

A.No error — "findings" is grammatically singular because it refers to a single report.B."implicates" should be "implicate" — the subject is "findings," which is plural.C."implicates" should be "implicated" — the verb should be in the past tense.D.The subject is "report's," which is singular, so "implicates" is correct.

Question 8

A student writes: "The teams performance, which included both the offense's and defenses contributions, exceeded the coaches' expectations for the season." How many apostrophe errors does this sentence contain?

A.One error — "teams" should be "team's" (possessive).B.Two errors — "teams" should be "team's" and "defenses" should be "defense's."C.Three errors — "teams," "defenses," and "coaches'" all need corrections.D.No errors — all apostrophes are used correctly in the sentence.

Question 9

Consider the sentence: "The committee have reached its decision after three hours of deliberation." Which correction is needed?

A.Change "have" to "has" — collective nouns take singular verbs in American English.B.No change needed — "committee" is a plural noun because it refers to multiple people.C.Change "its" to "their" — a group of people is referred to with "their."D.Change both "have" to "has" and "its" to "their."

Question 10

A sentence reads: "Running through the park, my phone fell out of my pocket. " What is the grammatical problem with the bolded clause?

A.There is no problem; the sentence is grammatically correct.B.It creates a dangling modifier — "running" should modify the person, but the subject of the main clause is "my phone."C.The verb tense is incorrect — "fell" should be "had fallen" to show past perfect.D."My phone" should be replaced with "the phone" to avoid possessive confusion.

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Question 11

Consider the sentence: "Neither the managers nor the assistant were prepared for the announcement." Is the bolded verb correct?

A.Yes — "were" is correct because the subject includes multiple people.B.No — it should be "was" because with "neither...nor" the verb agrees with the nearer subject.C.No — it should be "was" because "neither" always takes a singular verb regardless of the "nor" clause.D.Yes — "were" is correct because two separate subjects always require a plural verb.

Question 12

Consider the sentence: "The students in our class, who studies diligently, will succeed on the exam." Identify the error in the bolded portion.

A.No error — "who studies" is correct because "class" is singular.B."who study" — the relative pronoun "who" refers to "students" (plural), requiring a plural verb.C."which studies" — relative pronouns referring to people should use "which," not "who."D."who had studied" — the past perfect is needed to describe prior study.

ACT English Unit 3: Conventions of Standard English — Free with Answer Explanations | Test Practice Hub