SAT agreement, verb forms and modifiers: review and practice

• Make the verb match its subject, even when a long phrase sits between them.
• Make a pronoun match the noun it stands for: it for one thing, they for more than one.
• Pick the verb tense that fits the sentence's timeline, and make sure each clause has a real main verb (studies, not studying).
• Tell plurals, possessives and contractions apart: researchers, researcher's, researchers', its, it's.
• Put a describing phrase right next to the noun it describes, especially at the start of a sentence.

• Matching the verb to the nearest noun. In "The list of names on the walls ___ long," the subject is list, so the verb is singular (is), even though walls sits right before the blank.
• Leaving a dangling modifier. "Walking to school, the rain soaked Maya" says the rain was walking. The noun right after the comma has to be the one doing the action: "Walking to school, Maya got soaked."
• Choosing an -ing form as the only verb. "The team studying the seeds for six days" is not a sentence. "The team studied the seeds for six days" is.
• Putting a full verb inside a phrase that only describes a noun. "The screen, a surface that reflected light, allowed…" works. "The screen, a surface reflected light, allowed…" gives the sentence two main verbs.
• Using their for a singular noun. The committee, the company and the team each take its on the SAT, not their.
• Mixing up its and it's, or researcher's and researchers'. Read it's as "it is"; if that sounds wrong, you need its. For possessives, count the owners: one researcher's notes, two researchers' notes.

1. Question 1 · Easy

   In woodcut printing, a finished print ______ the uncarved surface in black and leaves the carved area white, reversing the block’s pattern. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

   • Ahave shown
   • Bshow
   • Cshows
   • Dare showing
   Show the answer

   C. Choice C is correct because the singular subject print takes shows, parallel to leaves in the same sentence. Choice B lacks the singular ending; choice A uses the plural auxiliary have; choice D uses the plural auxiliary are.

2. Question 2 · Easy

   A clay whistle recovered from a riverbank has two finger holes. To measure the whistle’s pitch range, acoustician Francesca Gatti played ______ with both holes uncovered. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

   • Athem
   • Bit
   • Cher
   • Dhim
   Show the answer

   B. The correct choice is it because played needs an object referring to the single clay whistle. Them would refer to multiple objects such as the holes; her and him refer to people, whereas the object played is an instrument.

3. Question 3 · Medium

   For *Night Orchard*, theater designer Tomás Vega built a screen from overlapping strips of translucent paper. During the performance, the screen, a surface ______ the movements of dancers positioned behind it, allowed the audience to see gestures without seeing the performers’ faces. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

   • Areveals
   • Bwould reveal
   • Crevealing
   • Drevealed
   Show the answer

   C. Revealing actively modifies surface inside the appositive, while allowed is the main predicate of the second sentence. Revealed cannot passively modify surface while retaining the direct object the movements, and would reveal and reveals improperly turn the modifier into a finite clause.

4. Question 4 · Medium

   The director reserved the final rehearsal for ______ before the public performance. During the remaining sessions, each participant worked on a short scene in a group of four. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

   • Aactors who still needed to rehearse monologue’s
   • Bactors’ who still needed to rehearse monologues
   • Cactor’s who still needed to rehearse monologues’
   • Dactors who still needed to rehearse monologues
   Show the answer

   D. Choice D uses an ordinary plural for the object of “for,” “actors,” and another for the object of “rehearse,” “monologues.” Choice B adds possession to the people, choice A adds it to the pieces being rehearsed, and choice C incorrectly marks both positions as possessive.

5. Question 5 · Hard

   The kit contains amber lenses and colorless lenses. Cast from resin containing an amber dye, ______ selectively absorb blue light; the colorless lenses transmit it. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

   • Athe kit’s lenses, including its amber lenses,
   • Bthe kit’s amber lenses, unlike its colorless lenses,
   • Cthe kit’s amber coloration, which causes its lenses to
   • Dthe amber lenses and, more generally, the kit’s lenses
   Show the answer

   B. The kit’s amber lenses, unlike its colorless lenses, makes the dyed lenses the subject of absorb while preserving the contrast with colorless lenses. Choice A applies the dyed-resin description to the whole kit, choice D broadens its initially suitable subject to that whole set, and choice C makes coloration the cast object and supplies no complete main predicate.

6. Question 6 · Hard

   Since 2018, ecologist Seoyeon Choi has compared recordings from an urban wetland with observations recorded in daily field notebooks at the water’s edge. The recordings from a microphone that automatically shuts down whenever a passing train overwhelms its input ______ by the team to identify calling periods that visual observations alone cannot establish. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

   • Ahave been used
   • Bhaving been used
   • Chas been used
   • Dused
   Show the answer

   A. Choice A is correct because plural recordings requires finite have been used, expressing the team’s use of the recordings over the period extending from 2018 to the present. Choice C incorrectly follows singular microphone or train; choice B is a nonfinite perfect participial phrase; choice D lacks the auxiliary needed for the passive, while an active reading supplies no object for used.

Ashore's SAT course starts with a 15-minute check that finds the question types costing you the most points, then gives you lessons and practice for each.

• Sentence Boundaries and Punctuation
• Choosing the Precise Word
• Purpose, Structure, and Paired Texts
• Main Ideas and Details
• Using Evidence: Quotes and Data
• Drawing Inferences
• Writing from Notes
• Transitions Between Ideas
• SAT score calculator