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04-26-2008, 05:38 AM
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#1 | | New Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Threads: 3
Posts: 21
| Collegeboard's SAT Question of the Day
Hey Folks,
Today's SAT question of the day confused me a little, so I am posting this one here:
Part of the following sentence is in capital letters; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.
Listening to good storybooks SHARPEN CHILDREN'S AWARENESS and appreciation for the sounds of spoken language.
1. sharpen children’s awareness
2. sharpens children’s awareness of
3. are what sharpens the awareness of children
4. sharpens the awareness of children
5. is to sharpen children’s awareness
I took answer 4. Wrong. Answer 2 firstly seemed to be the right one to me, but the "of" at the end sounds too weird, doesn't it? Collegeboard says that 2 is the right one. Isnt it an "of" too much? | 
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04-26-2008, 05:48 AM
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#2 | | New Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Threads: 3
Posts: 21
| infinitives such as listening always takes the singular verb since infinitives are singular. The mistake in the first sentence is "sharpen" which is plural, while it should be "sharpens" which is singular  | |
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04-26-2008, 07:00 AM
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#3 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Threads: 17
Posts: 137
| Yes but he is asking why "of" at the end of 2 is right. I wonder that too, anyone? | |
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04-26-2008, 07:16 AM
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#4 | | Member
Join Date: Mar 2008 Gender: Not Saying
Threads: 20
Posts: 307
| yeah I choos eanswer D too. | |
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04-26-2008, 07:44 AM
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#5 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ontario Gender: Male
Threads: 6
Posts: 52
| Listening to good storybooks SHARPEN CHILDREN'S AWARENESS and appreciation for the sounds of spoken language.
It has an"of" in there because it refers to the "sounds of spoken langauge"... at the same time... "appreciation FOR" the "sounds of spoken language"
Basically, without the "of" in there...the "CHILDREN'S AWARENESS" wouldn't be able to relate to the "sounds of the spoken language"
I don't know if you understand what I am trying to convey. In short, you need OF in there because you have appreciation FOR the sounds of spoken language. | |
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04-26-2008, 07:44 AM
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#6 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Threads: 11
Posts: 248
| Hm... I think it's 2, but the "of" is wrong, so it can't be 2. Did you accidentally type "of" at the end, or is it intentionally there? I see what Diaphontes is saying, but are you sure that the of is correctly used in this context? | |
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04-26-2008, 07:59 AM
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#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Threads: 81
Posts: 4,935
| The "of" is correct. What's confusing you is the sentence's inclusion of "and appeciation for". Remove that clause, and the sentence as written reads:
"Listening to good storybooks SHARPEN CHILDREN'S AWARENESS the sounds of spoken language."
That's now obviously incorrect. It should be:
"Listening to good storybooks SHARPEN CHILDREN'S AWARENESS of the sounds of spoken language."
The full sentence would then read:
"Listening to good storybooks SHARPEN CHILDREN'S AWARENESS of and appreciation for the sounds of spoken language."
Another way to think of it is parallelism. "Appreciation for" is correct, so "awareness" also needs something after it to connect to "the sounds". In this case, the missing word is "of". | |
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04-26-2008, 08:58 AM
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#8 | | Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Threads: 65
Posts: 510
| so there is a mistake in the question? | |
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04-26-2008, 09:00 AM
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#9 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Threads: 12
Posts: 272
| no, there is no flaw in the question/answer. | |
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04-26-2008, 09:23 AM
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#10 | | Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Threads: 71
Posts: 473
| You need of in there.
Listening to good storybooks SHARPEN CHILDREN'S AWARENESS and appreciation for the sounds of spoken language.
Think of it this way, awareness and appreciation for the sounds.... appreciation fits with for, but awareness for does not make sense. Therefore we add of, which makes it sound better. Awareness of and appreciation for the sound. And obviously the SHARPEN needs to be SHARPENS. | |
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04-26-2008, 10:20 AM
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#11 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Threads: 11
Posts: 248
| You're right. I see the relevance of the of. Thanks for clearing that up. | |
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04-26-2008, 12:15 PM
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#12 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008 Gender: Female
Threads: 23
Posts: 122
| It's all about the parallel sentence structure. | |
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04-27-2008, 09:57 AM
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#13 | | New Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Threads: 3
Posts: 21
| Ok, I think I got it. Thank you guys...I still hope there wont be a question like that on 7th of June :-) | |
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