If you are reading this in an email you received from me, do not click the link to sat.collegeboard.org below. Use the link to my website that is farther down on the email.
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?questionId=20140409&oq=1 (This link takes you to today’s question. If you use my archive, you will see the question related to my SAT explanation for that date.)
The answer is A. “Long been” is a wordy, awkward phrase. In addition, it is an inappropriate verb form. It even sounds bad!
I cannot stress enough how important practice is. Many of my students speak proper English but have trouble on the SAT Writing and ACT English Tests. That is because they haven’t had formal English grammar instruction and don’t recognize errors when they see them in writing. You need to practice with actual test questions so that you can become familiar with the way the test writers construct questions. That will help you recognize the errors that commonly appear on the two tests. Prior to doing the practice, it would help if you reviewed the kinds of errors that show up on the tests by taking a look a my Video 900 Series or by reading my free website chapter regarding the Writing and English Tests.
Let’s see what the ACT folks have for us today.
ACT Question of the Day: Use your “back” button to return to my website after reading the ACT Question of the Day.
The answer is F. These kinds of ACT Reading Test questions are a drag! They take lots of time because you need to go back to check the sequence of events in a passage. They aren’t hard to answer; they just take lots of time.
In lines 67-8, the narrator tells us how she and Mary sat and watched the sunset and during their conversation she told Mary about how her dad had cried at dinner. This question is tricky because watching the sunset is mentioned in the passage prior to Mr. Curley crying but it actually happened chronologically after he cried. That is different from how events are typically described in a story.
The ACT has a tendency to do these kinds of things. That is, they create questions that are not so hard to answer but require taking a lot of time to find the right answer when you go back to the passage. Work on your speed.
QotD Words of “Wiz-dom:”
Practice, practice, practice. Learn new strategies by reading my free website or watch my online video course. Then practice them. Be sure you let me know via email what problems you are having and I’ll be happy to reply.
Bob Alexander, the “SAT and ACT Wizard”
