Improving Paragraphs
Read through the tips and sample question below. When you are ready, Start the test.
Tips
In this section, you will read a draft of a short essay. The questions following the essay will test your understanding of how the sentences or paragraphs work together. The questions will ask you to indicate how you would revise the essay.
Things To Remember
- Read the entire passage carefully, and note specific problems in the composition. Reread any parts that you do not understand.
- Look at all the suggestions before you select the answer to a question.
- Make sure that the answer you choose fits the context of the passage as a whole.
- Avoid wordiness. Sometimes a simple, concise sentence is much clearer than a long, complicated sentence.
- If you decide to combine two sentences, then make sure that the revised sentence clearly expresses the intended idea.
Directions and Sample Question
The following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten.
Read the passage and select the best answers for the questions that follow. Some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask you to consider organization and development. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.
The question is based on the following passage.
(1) Chicago holds an important place in the history of American architecture. (2) The city is home to dozens of amazing buildings, and some of those buildings are the Merchandise Mart, the Water Tower building, and the Rookery Building. (3) Tourists visit Chicago to see the work of the famous architects Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, and Frank Lloyd Wright. (4) Various organizations in the area provide architecture tours in which visitors can travel on foot, in a bus, or on a boat. (5) There are many books and Web sites devoted to the city's remarkable structures.
In context, which of the following is the best version of the underlined portion of sentence 2 (reproduced below)?
The city is home to dozens of amazing buildings, and some of those buildings are the Merchandise Mart, the Water Tower building, and the Rookery Building.
(A) (As it is now)
(B) all the buildings, such as
(C) dozens of amazing buildings, such as
(D) structures that are amazing, and the structures are like
(E) more amazing buildings than you could even name, like
Note: The correct answer to this question is (C).