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ACT English 3.1 Grammar and Usage 346 Views


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ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 3, Problem 1. Which tense is correct for the underlined word?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by parallel construction. The more straight-laced

00:08

cousin of perpendicular construction.

00:13

What should replace the underlined word below?

00:16

He quickly scanned the rules and reads the instructions.

00:25

In general, verbs in a sentence should follow the rule of parallel construction unless the

00:29

content signals otherwise by showing cause and effect, or the passage of time.

00:34

In this case, that means that the correct form of "read" has to be in the past tense,

00:41

because "scanned" is the past. See how this parallel construction thing works?

00:49

It means that the original sentence is incorrect, because "reads" is in the present tense.

00:54

If we left the sentence the way it is, our construction would definitely not be parallel.

00:59

Nobody likes wonky construction, so we can take (A) out of the running.

01:03

Choice © doesn't make the cut, either, because "will read" is in the future tense.

01:08

Sorry, but typical parallel construction doesn't allow for one part to be in the future while

01:12

the other is in the past.

01:14

(D) gets all fancy and uses the present progressive tense.

01:19

Unfortunately, all we need is the simple past tense version, so (D) is out of the running.

01:24

Choice (B) is the correct answer, because "read" is the past tense of "read," and so

01:29

parallel construction is complete.

01:31

We tried to follow the rule of parallel construction when we built our restaurant, but we ended

01:35

up with two identical kitchens on either side of the building.

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