Writing Questions, Please Help

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>1) Original: If you cannot play Mozart, you cannot play Spanish music or any music, this is the opinion of Alicia de Larrocha. </p>

<pre><code>My choice: According to Alicia de Larrocha, if you cannot play Mozart, you cannot play Spanish music of any other music.
Correct Answer: If a person cannot play Mozart, in Alicia de Larrocha’s opinion, you cannot play Spanish music of any
other music.

Is this an error? Because of the a person/you inconsistency.
</code></pre>

<p>2) (Despite) the (claims of its) devotees, sunbathing is not always healthful; prolonged exposure (to it) (can sometimes
cause) skin cancer. </p>

2

<p>Ahh! I accidentally posted it without finishing. Sorry for the weird spacing.</p>

<p>2) The answer is C (to it) but I put no error.</p>

<p>3) He was (somewhat) uncertain about (how to use) the new machine and (asked for) (more specific) instructions be
sent.</p>

3

<p>Okay I guess I’m really bad with tabbing and spacing on CC…</p>

<p>3) I chose D (more specific) because I thought there isn’t an actual comparison within the sentence so it should be just specific. The correct answer is C (asked for).</p>

<p>4) Aerial photography is thought (to be) (the most efficient) technique (to gather) accurate (information about) the use of
the land.</p>

<pre><code>Answer is C (to gather) but I put no error.
</code></pre>

<p>Can someone explain why my choices were wrong and why the actual answers are correct. Thank you!</p>

4

<p>If a person cannot play Mozart, in Alicia de Larrocha’s opinion, you cannot play Spanish music of any
other music.</p>

<p>I’m assuming you acquired these questions not from the official SAT tests.</p>

<p>The sentence you chose is fine, whereas the correct sentence indicated by the book is erroneous: shifting pronouns between “you” and “one person” is bad.</p>

<p>the correct choice for Question 2 is (to it) however. </p>

<p>(Despite) the (claims of its) devotees, sunbathing is not always healthful; prolonged exposure (to it) (can sometimes
cause) skin cancer.</p>

<p>“it” refers to sunbathing but how can someone be exposed to sunbathing? I’m assuming you meant prolonged exposure to the sun? </p>

<p>3) He was (somewhat) uncertain about (how to use) the new machine and (asked for) (more specific) instructions be
sent.</p>

<p>I’m not certain if I’m correct about this question because I don’t ever remember seeing the following idea stated as a rule:
The tense in the first part of the sentence is passive: “was somewhat uncertain”; the tense shifts to active in the second part: “asked for.” and thus this part of the sentence is wrong. </p>

<p>After practicing over 20,25,30 maybe official SAT tests I’ve never seen a sentence in which shifting verb tenses would be correct </p>

<p>“more specific” is properly used because the sentence implies that the man had some instructions, albeit poor ones; thus, he needed more specific ones.</p>

<p>As a general rule of thumbs, if you see more on the SAT, think about if more should be changed to most, if not then think about if there’s a comparison error such as one between Mozart and Bach’s music peices.</p>

<p>If you still don’t understand, I have seen SAT tests use “more” in this fashion, so the comparison for “more” does not EXPLICITLY have to be stated in the sentence.</p>

<p>4.</p>

<p>I’m stumped on this one. I thought its no error as well</p>