Past Grammar Mistakes to learn from

Question 1

…encourage someone to do something

Answer 1

no error

Question 2

…discourage someone to do something

Answer 2

discourage someone FROM doing something

Question 3

The release from stress and anxiety…

Answer 3

The release OF stress and anxiety…

Question 4

…because they are very sharp, cut quickly, and easily controlled.

Answer 4

Tricky parallelism! Note that in this case, “cut quickly” is not an adjective! Trap! “Cut” is actually a verb; they cut quickly. Therefore, you need “…and ARE easily controlled.”

Question 5

Annie chose to buy a car different than those her friends bought years ago.

Answer 5

idiom: different FROM. Note that “those” is fine!

Question 6

…he was worried over the event.

Answer 6

idiom: worried ABOUT.

Question 7

Jack prefers hot dogs over hamburgers.

Answer 7

idiom: prefers __ TO __.

Question 8

Jack prefers hot dogs more than hamburgers.

Answer 8

idiom: prefers __ TO __.

Question 9

Some birds are more particular in their nesting sites.

Answer 9

idiom: particular ABOUT

Question 10

A neighbor brought up an issue in regards to your boisterously barking dog.

Answer 10

idiom: with regard to

Question 11

The pitcher thought it as wise to wear a heart protector.

Answer 11

idiom: thought it wise

Question 12

Jack, who needs to go to the restroom, need not howl so much about it.

Answer 12

no error! “need not” is actually correct, while “needs not” would actually be incorrect! That’s just the usage of “need not”. In fact, “Joe need ask his teacher about homework” is fine!

The sentence rearranges to “Jack does not need to howl so much about it.”

Question 13

Spotting Kim and I looking at the pandas, Kat squeezed between the two of us to get a view as well.

Answer 13

Spotting Kim and ME. Any noun after a verb is in objective form.

Question 14

Thanks to the strength of bonds between its constituent carbon atoms, a diamond has exceptional physical properties that makes it useful in a wide variety of industrial applications.

Answer 14

…that MAKE it useful. The “that” clause describes properties. Properties make something useful; a property makes something useful.

Question 15

Willie Dixon’s blues compositions helped usher in the blues during the 1950’s and have become standard numbers for the groups trying to achieve popularity during the 1960’s.

Answer 15

had become. If it said “current groups”, it would be have become, but it says groups “during the 1960’s”!

Question 16

Although the precise date and place of the origin of baseball are hotly debated, it is beyond dispute that the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn play an important role in its early development.

Answer 16

…and Brooklyn played. sike, it’s not “its”; the “its” refers to baseball; that’s fine.

Question 17

Environmentally hazardous contamination of the water and air is one of the more serious and complex issues facing urban centers in the United States, where (they have an) effect on public health, property values, and the quality of life is magnified by the density of population.

(A) they have an
(B) their
(C) an
(D) it has an
(E) its

Answer 17

Lesson: read the ENTIRE sentence. If you didn’t read the last part, which I forgot to do before, you would get it wrong by assuming that the rest of the sentence just continues with effects.

The correct answer is (E) “its”.

Question 18

The first signs (in six months of a pickup in consumer spending) are emerging, which reduces the chances that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates (when it meets next month.)

Answer 18

“which reduces” should be “reducing”. BUT WHAT GRAMMAR RULE IS THIS? REVIEW WHY!

“which” must refer to one thing; “which” could refer to the signs OR the event, therefore it’s ambiguous and it’s wrong.

Question 19

Each year the television industry takes in billions of dollars in advertising revenue annually based on ratings information, but it can owe advertisers tens of millions of dollars in free commercials when ratings fall short of expectations.

Answer 19

annually is redundant!!!!! Make sure you don’t miss one like this again!!! As soon as you see “each year” or “annually” on any question, alarm bells should be ringing for possible redundancy!!!!!!!!!

Question 20

Crocodiles spend much of their lives in the water, but as turtles, they must lay their eggs on land, because reptile embryos must respirate through the egg’s permeable shell.

Answer 20

“as turtles” is incorrect; it should be “like turtles”. Note the fine distinction between an actual animal and a type of animal, e.g. “but as reptiles” or “but as amphibians” would be correct, since those are types of animals; but “but as turtles” is incorrect, since turtles are a specific animal, and crocodiles != turtles.

Question 21

approval from

Answer 21

no error

Question 22

…arrived for a visit to New York.

Answer 22

no error; it’s actually not redundant

Question 23

She was afraid and feared for her health.

Answer 23

redundant

Question 24

His weight was estimated at 10 billion tons.

Answer 24

no error!

Question 25

The Neuse River in North Carolina is thought to be about two million years old, and there has likely been human settlements in the basin for at least 14,000 years.

Answer 25

“Has” refers to settlementS, so it should be “Have”.

Question 26

Seventy-five percent of what we perceive as taste, especially the perception of flavor, is really attributable to one’s sense of smell.

Answer 26

shift from “we” to “one’s”; change “one’s” to “our”

Question 27

The oil sands in Alberta are viewed as a resource.

Answer 27

No error!

Question 28

Life on Earth is a vast and sophisticated system (for) capturing, converting, storing, and moving solar energy, the evolutionary success (of each species) (depends) (in part) on how well it taps into that system.

Answer 28

There is an error; you spotted the comma splice, right? But how to fix it…

This is tricky, but DO NOT IGNORE THE COMMA SPLICE! DO NOT JUST PUT NO ERROR; THAT’S WRONG!

The error is “depends”; change it to “depending” and there’s no longer a comma splice.

Question 29

The prices of either of the cars seem to be well worth it.

Answer 29

Error! “it” error; what does “well worth it” mean? well worth what?
(It does appear in colloquial English, but it’s not grammatically correct, which makes this question even harder.)

Change to “Either of the cars seems (note, not “seem”!) to be well worth its price.”

Question 30

Perhaps as (a consequence of) warfare (that erupted) when natural resources became scarce, many of Easter Island’s large stone statues, called Moai, (have been toppled) by the islanders (themselves) three centuries ago.

Answer 30

“have been toppled” is incorrect; it does not agree with “three centuries ago”. Note that you needed to READ THE ENTIRE SENTENCE to get this correct!!!!!! If you skipped “three centuries ago”, you would have gotten it wrong, since “have been toppled” is fine without a clear reference to the past.

Question 31

According to the study, personality traits may vary as much from one dog to another than from one person to another.

Answer 31

…dog to another AS from one person to another. Conjunction pair: as much…as…
Rearranging, we get
“According to the study, personality traits may vary from one dog to another as much as from one person to another.”

Question 32

Medical students must learn to (pay attention and be) respectful of the needs of both their patients and their patients’ families.

(A) pay attention and be
(B) be attentive to and
(C) pay attention to and
(D) be attentive with and
(E) be both attentive and

Answer 32

Super tricky! There are multiple forms of parallelism here, aka level 5 parallelism.

First, notice that the “paying attention” and “being respectful” connect with the same thing: the “needs.” “be respectful of the needs” is good, but “pay attention of the needs” is not–alarm bell! The answer is thus not (A). We can also eliminate (D) because it just doesn’t work. After a careful look, (C) doesn’t fit either.

We’re left with (B) and (E). However, (E) doesn’t have the “to” preposition that’s supposed to go along with “attentive”! The answer is (B), which has the parallelism “adjective preposition”: “attentive to” and “respectful of” the needs.

Question 33

In his new book, Quest for Adventure, the (renowned) British mountaineer Chris Bonington examines the (past century’s) most remarkable expeditions, (profiling) such explorers (including) Neil Armstrong, Thor Heyerdahl, and Maurice Herzog.

Answer 33

…profiling such explorers AS. “…such…as…” is a set-in-stone sentence structure.

Question 34

Babe Ruth is regarded by many to be the greatest baseball player.

Answer 34

…is regarded (by many) AS the greatest baseball player. idiom. ALWAYS REGARDED AS, NEVER REGARDED TO BE.

Question 35

The process of reducing stone, wood, and ivory to a desired shape is cool.

Answer 35

No error. This isn’t an error in comparing three things to one thing; it’s making three things into one thing, which is fine.

Question 36

The pattern is composed of thousands of scales, each of which is the product of a single cell.

Answer 36

No error! “each of which…” is actually not an independent clause, because of the “which”, so there’s no comma splice (this special phrase type is called a “relative” clause, and it includes “all of which”, “the first of whom”, etc.)

Question 37

Right or wrong:
Remarkable breakthroughs in gene research may lead to dramatic changes in medical treatment, where it may be possible to create drugs tailored to a patient’s genetic makeup.

Answer 37

Wrong! “where” MUST refer to a place, so it is used incorrectly here.

Question 38

Identify AND fix the error correctly:
Once a model of corporate innovation and talent, Enron had by the early 2000s become so corrupt and fraudulent to where it could no longer cover up its massive losses.

Answer 38

“to where” is definitely wrong, since “where” must refer to a place; but what to replace it with? hmm…

To replace it, you have to look at the previous words, and then you can see that there is an unmatched word pair!

…had become SO…(corrupt and fraudulent)…THAT it could no longer cover up its massive losses.

Question 39

I was too (distracted by) (them) (arguing over) insignificant details (to realize) that time was running out.

Answer 39

Really tricky. Did you think it was “arguing over” –> “arguing about”? Wrong; arguing about is fine.

Were you really distracted by THEM? No–you were distracted by the ARGUING. The correction is “them” –> “their”, since you were distracted by THEIR arguing.

Question 40

I should have went to the dance.

Answer 40

…should have GONE! Present participle!

Question 41

(For) more than a century, wooden ships called “skipjacks” were (regularly used) (to harvest) oysters in Chesapeake Bay, but only a few (such vessels) remain in service today.

Answer 41

No error!

Question 42

Prior to the election of Henry as mayor of San Antonio in 1981, no major city in the US had had a mayor from Mexican descent.

Answer 42

…mayor OF Mexican descent!

Question 43

His story describes a man who decides to forge his identity rather than accept the one assigned to him.

Answer 43

NO ERROR! In this case, you might have thought you needed …“than to accept.” But in this case, the “to” is implicit.

Question 44

Bats and mosquitoes come out at twilight, (and the bats would look for mosquitoes and the mosquitoes would look) for people.
(A)
(B) and the bats come to look for mosquitoes and the mosquitoes look
(C)
(D)
(E) the bats to look for mosquitoes and the mosquitoes to look

Answer 44

(E) is correct. (B) doesn’t work because “come to look” is not parallel with “look”.

Question 45

As said in line 1, "approach" most nearly means:
(A)
(B) technique
(C)
(D)
(E) style

Answer 45

(B). Technique is like how you move your fingers for the piano, how you arch your fingers, the physical stuff, the methodology. However, style is more like “graceful”, more of the ideological stuff.

Writing music style: the soul of your music–graceful? sturdy?
Writing music technique/approach: how do you come up with your music?

Question 46

(Like his other) cookbooks, in his new book Chef Louis offers lengthy explanations (of what) (he considers) (to be) basic cooking principles.

Answer 46

Surprisingly, this is not really a parallelism error; it’s an illogical comparison error! Here’s a rearrangement of the sentence:
Like his other cookbooks, Chef Louis, in his new book, offers lengthy explanations.
We need to change it to:
As in his other cookbooks, Chef Louis, in his new book, offers lengthy explanations.

Question 47

Jack had to choose between going to his brother’s recital or his girlfriend’s recital.

Answer 47

Error: between...AND!!!!!
Note that (going to his brother's recital) and (his girlfriend's recital) is actually still parallel, because there's an implicit "going to" in the second phrase. However, if you wrote (his brother's recital) and (going to his girlfriend's recital), that would be an error in parallelism, because the later "going to" cannot imply that there is a "going to" in the earlier phrase.

Question 48

The common cold is (one of our most) indiscriminate diseases; (it makes) no (distinction between) (you and me), millionaires and paupers, or athletes and couch potatoes.

Answer 48

No error!

Question 49

Finally, Carnegie’s advice does not apply for all situations.

Answer 49

apply TO!

Question 50

(Although) the coach had (predicted that) the team would have a winning season, the (fans were) surprised by the (success of) the young, inexperienced players.

Answer 50

No error! In fact, replacing “success” with “successes” would be wrong.

Question 51

Radio frequencies have to be allocated to users so that (one transmission will not interfere with another).

Answer 51

No error!

Question 52

The Pony Express was an ingenious system for carrying mail, having existed only briefly before the telegraph system made it obsolete.

Answer 52

ERROR! What does the “having” refer to? It could refer to mail, so it’s vague, and it’s incorrect.

Question 53

After the prince characterized modern architecture (as ugly), he (has been) (severely) criticized for having been (so outspoken) in public.

Answer 53

ERROR! “Has been” is an improper tense; it should be changed to “was”.

Question 54

The radio station received (the most number) of calls from listeners (on the evening) (it) aired a discussion of (the music of) Aretha Franklin.

Answer 54

“most number of calls” is incorrect; it should be “largest number of calls”!
NOTE:
“…received the largest number of calls” is correct.
“…received the most calls” is correct.
“…received the most number of calls” is INCORRECT.

Question 55

When he began to excavate the ruins he named “ABC”, he unearthed artifacts.

Answer 55

No error!

Question 56

She cited three workers, each of which is likely to win a prize.

Answer 56

each of WHOM!!!!!

Question 57

The mayor claimed that many owners would have favored her proposal if put to the vote.

Answer 57

“if put to the vote” is ambiguous, as it could refer to the owners or the proposal! Fix with “…would have favored her proposal if it had been put to the vote.”