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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 3. Where does the semicolon fit best?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 5. Which choice indicates the best place for a semi-colon in the sentence?
ACT English 2.3 Grammar and Usage 414 Views
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Description:
ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 2, Problem 3. Which choice best replaces the underlined portion?
Transcript
- 00:03
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the past perfect tense. It's probably not
- 00:08
as perfect as it thinks it is.
- 00:11
What should replace the underlined words below?
- 00:13
I had began to sing when she stopped me hurriedly.
- 00:22
In this sentence, we'll need to determine the proper forms of two verbs, so we'll have
Full Transcript
- 00:27
to do a little multitasking.
- 00:29
We hope this goes better than the time we tried to fry an egg and talk on the phone
- 00:32
at the same time.
- 00:33
Luckily, the helping verb "had" is around to give us a helping hand, so it shouldn't
- 00:39
be too much of a chore.
- 00:41
Since we have a helping verb, we know that we need the past participle 'begun" to go
- 00:46
along with it.
- 00:47
Therefore we can cross out both (A) and (B), which use the present tense "began."
- 00:51
Sorry, fellas, but you're just too independent to appreciate Had's overly helpful ways.
- 00:59
Both (C) and (D) use the past participle "begun," so we're going to have to look at the second
- 01:02
half of the sentence to eliminate one of them.
- 01:05
Looks like (D) is the one to go because "had begun to sing" signals that the other verb
- 01:11
in the sentence is in the past tense, not the past perfect tense.
- 01:18
That leaves us with choice (C), which correctly uses the past perfect and then the past tense
- 01:23
to let us know just how hurriedly this guy got silenced when he tried to sing.
- 01:27
Sounds like our weekly office karaoke party.
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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
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