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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 3.1 Grammar and Usage 347 Views
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ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 3, Problem 1. Which tense is correct for the underlined word?
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
Full Transcript
- 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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