About the Book
Score higher on any standardized test with the help of CliffsNotes! For anyone taking any standardized testsuch as the SAT, ACT, GMAT, Praxis I, GRE, or othersCliffsNotes Verbal Review for Standardized Tests is designed to review, refresh, and reintroduce essential grammar and verbal skills. Written by test preparation experts, this clear, concise, and easy-to-use guide gives insight into the types of questions you'll face on the exam, and demonstrates how to avoid the common and costly errors that trap the unprepared. Grammar and usage review. English usage and sentence correction. Timed essay writing. Verbal abilityantonyms, analogies, and sentence completion. Reading comprehension. Strategies for each question type. Practice exercises with hundreds of questions and complete explanations. Parts of speech, adjectives and adverbs, linking verbs, and comparatives and superlatives. Punctuationusing commas, semi-colons, colons, apostrophes, and dashes. Writing narrative, descriptive, analytical, and expository essays. With guidance from CliffsNotes, test takers will feel at home in any standardized-test environment!
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 What This Guide Contains 1 How This Book Is Organized 2 How to Use This Guide 2 Types of Questions 4 Range of Difficulty and Scope 4 PART I: GRAMMAR AND USAGE Chapter 1: Grammar and Usage Question Types 7 General Strategies for Sentence/Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence (Vocabulary Skills) Questions 7 Sentence Correction -- Type 1 8 Directions 8 Sentence Correction -- Type 2 10 Directions 10 Sentence Correction -- Type 3 11 Directions 11 Improving Paragraphs 14 Directions 14 Sentence/Text Completion 18 Directions 18 Examples for SAT Questions 18 Examples for GRE Questions 20 Sentence Equivalence 22 Directions 23 Chapter 2: Grammar and Usage Diagnostic Test 25 Answer Sheet 25 Sentence Correction -- Type 1 27 Sentence Correction -- Type 2 30 Sentence Correction -- Type 3 36 Improving Paragraphs 43 Sentence/Text Completion 49 Sentence Equivalence 54 Answer Key for the Grammar and Usage Diagnostic Test 58 Sentence Correction -- Type 1 58 Sentence Correction -- Type 2 58 Passage I 59 Passage II 59 Passage III 59 Improving Paragraphs 59 Passage I 59 Passage II 59 Sentence/Text Completion 59 Sentence Equivalence 60 Charting and Analyzing Your Test Results 60 Diagnostic Test Answers and Explanations 61 Sentence Correction -- Type 1 61 Sentence Correction -- Type 2 62 Sentence Correction -- Type 3 63 Passage I 63 Passage II 64 Passage III 64 Improving Paragraphs 65 Passage I 65 Passage II 65 Sentence/Text Completion 66 Sentence Equivalence 68 Chapter 3: Grammar and Usage Review 71 Introduction to Grammar and Usage Review 72 Practice Exercises: Charting and Analyzing Your Results 73 Section 1: Basic Parts of Speech 75 Adjectives and Adverbs 76 Linking Verbs 76 Comparatives and Superlatives 78 Practice Exercise 1: Basic Parts of Speech 78 Answers -- Practice Exercise 1: Basic Parts of Speech 79 Section 2: Case 80 Subject and Object Errors 80 Pronouns in Apposition 81 Who and Whom 81 Possessive Errors 84 Practice Exercise 2: Case 85 Part A 85 Part B 85 Answers -- Practice Exercise 2: Case 86 Part A 86 Part B 86 Section 3: Agreement 87 Subject and Verb Agreement 87 Pronoun Agreement91 Practice Exercise 3: Agreement 93 Answers -- Practice Exercise 3: Agreement 94 Section 4: Verbs 95 Verb Tenses 96 Subjunctives 100 Lie/Lay, Rise/Raise, Sit/Set 101 Practice Exercise 4: Verbs 102 Answers -- Practice Exercise 4: Verbs 103 Section 5: Misplaced Parts and Dangling Modifiers 105 Dangling Modifiers 107 Participles 108 Gerunds 108 Infinitives 109 Prepositional Phrases and Elliptical Clauses 109 Practice Exercise 5: Misplaced Parts and Dangling Modifiers 110 Answers -- Practice Exercise 5: Misplaced Parts and Dangling Modifiers 111 Section 6: Parallelism 112 Common Parallelism Errors 113 Unnecessary Shifts in Verb Tenses 114 Unnecessary Shifts from an Active to a Passive Verb 114 Unnecessary Shifts in Person 114 Parallelism Errors in a List or Series 115 Parallelism Errors in Correlatives 115 Practice Exercise 6: Parallelism 117 Answers -- Practice Exercise 6: Parallelism 119 Section 7: Ambiguous Pronouns 120 Practice Exercise 7: Ambiguous Pronouns 121 Answers -- Practice Exercise 7: Ambiguous Pronouns 122 Section 8: Other Errors of Grammar 122 Sentence Fragments 122 Double Negatives 123 Omission of Necessary Words 123 Direct and Indirect Questions 126 Like and As 127 Who, Which, and That--Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses 127 Practice Exercise 8: Other Errors of Grammar 128 Part A 128 Part B 129 8: Other Errors of Grammar 130 Part A 130 Part B 131 Section 9: Errors of Diction, Idiom, and Style 132 Diction 132 Fewer/Less, Many/Much, Number/Amount 132 Between/Among 133 Affect/Effect 133 Idiom 133 Style 135 Practice Exercise 9: Errors of Diction, Idiom, and Style 137 Part A 137 Part B 138 Answers -- Practice Exercise 9: Errors of Diction, Idiom, and Style 139 Part A 139 Part B 139 Section 10: Punctuation 140 Commas, Semicolons, and Colons 142 Comma 142 Semicolon 143 Colon 143 Other Marks of Punctuation 144 Dash 144 Apostrophe 144 Practice Exercise 10: Punctuation 145 Answers -- Practice Exercise 10: Punctuation 148 Vocabulary Skills Review 149 Prefixes 149 Suffixes 150 Roots 151 Grammar and Usage Review Test 151 Answers and Explanations -- Grammar and Usage Review Test 157 Chapter 4: English Grammar and Usage Practice Test 161 Answer Sheets 161 Section 1: Sentence Correction -- Type 1 161 Section 2: Sentence Correction -- Type 2 162 Section 3: Sentence Correction -- Type 3 162 Section 4: Improving Paragraphs 163 Section 5: Sentence/Text Completion 163 Section 6: Sentence Equivalence 164 Section 1: Sentence Correction -- Type 1 166 Directions 166 Set 1 166 Set 2 168 Set 3 171 Set 4 173 Section 2: Sentence Correction -- Type 2 176 Directions 176 Set 1 176 Set 2 180 Set 3 184 Section 3: Sentence Correction -- Type 3 188 Directions 188 Set 1: Passages I and II 188 Set 2: Passages III, IV, and V 194 Set 3: Passages VI and VII 200 Set 4: Passages VIII and IX 204 Section 4: Improving Paragraphs 208 Directions 208 Set 1: Passages I and II 208 Set 2: Passages III and IV 214 Set 3: Passage V 218 Section 5: Sentence/Text Completion 221 Directions 221 Set 1 221 Set 2 225 Set 3 228 Set 4 232 Set 5 236 Section 6: Sentence Equivalence 241 Directions 241 Set 1 241 Set 2 245 Set 3 249 Answer Key 253 Section 1: Sentence Correction -- Type 1 253 Set 1 253 Set 2 253 Set 3 253 Set 4 253 Correction -- Type 2 254 Set 1 254 Set 2 254 Set 3 254 Section 3: Sentence Correction -- Type 3 254 Set 1: Passages I and II 254 Set 2: Passages III, IV, and V 255 Set 3: Passages VI and VII 255 Set 4: Passages VIII and IX 255 Section 4: Improving Paragraphs 256 Set 1: Passages I and II 256 Set 2: Passages III and IV 256 Set 3: Passage V 256 Section 5: Sentence/Text Completion 257 Set 1 257 Set 2 257 Set 3 257 Set 4 257 Set 5 258 Section 6: Sentence Equivalence 258 Set 1 258 Set 2 258 Set 3 258 Charting and Analyzing Your Test Results 259 Answers and Explanations 260 Section 1: Sentence Correction -- Type 1 260 Set 1 260 Set 2 261 Set 3 261 Set 4 262 Section 2: Sentence Correction -- Type 2 263 Set 1 263 Set 2 264 Set 3 265 Section 3: Sentence Correction -- Type 3 267 Set 1: Passages I and II 267 Set 2: Passages III, IV, and V 268 Set 3: Passages VI and VII 269 Set 4: Passages VIII and IX 270 Section 4: Improving Paragraphs 271 Set 1: Passages I and II 271 Set 2: Passages III and IV 273 Set 3: Passage V 274 Section 5: Sentence/Text Completion 274 Set 1 274 Set 2 275 Set 3 277 Set 4 278 Set 5 281 Section 6: Sentence Equivalence 283 Set 1 283 Set 2 285 Set 3 287 PART II: READING COMPREHENSION Chapter 5: Reading Comprehension Review 293 Reading Comprehension Passages 294 Content of Passages 294 Reading Comprehension Questions 294 Specific Types of Questions 297 General Strategies for Success 298 Time Management 298 Directions 299 Section 1 -- Brief Passages 299 Suggested Strategies for Brief Passages 300 Question Type: The Writer's Main Purpose 300 Question Type: Vocabulary in Context 301 Other Specific Types of Questions 302 Question Type: Infer the Writer's Point of View 302 Question Type: Identify a Summary of Ideas 303 Question Type: Draw Conclusions Based on a Passage's Contents 303 Question Type: Identify the Main Idea of the Passage 304 Question Type: Envision the Intended Audience for the Passage 305 GRE Question Types 306 Question Type: Select One or More Answers 306 Question Type: Select in Passage 307 GMAT Question Types 308 Question Type: Critical Reasoning 308 Question Type: Plan of Action 309 CBEST Question Types 309 Tables of Contents or Indexes 310 Graphs, Charts, and Tables 311 Passages with Numbered Sentences 312 Question Type: Fact vs Opinion 313 Question Type: Assess the Strengths and Weaknesses of an Argument 314 Question Type: Inserts and Transitions 314 Question Type: Summaries in Outline Form 315 Section 2: Long Passages -- Intermediate Difficulty 315 Strategies for Long Passages 316 Question Type: Identify the Writer's Tone 318 Question Type: Draw Inferences based on the Passage's Contents 319 Question Type: Envision the Intended Audience 319 Question Type: Draw a Conclusion 320 Question Type: Direct Comprehension 320 Section 3: Paired (Comparative) Reading Passages 321 Description 321 Strategy 321 Section 4: Long Passages -- Challenging 324 Question Type: Identify the Writer's Primary Purpose 326 Question Type: Direct Comprehension 326 Question Type: Understand the Meaning of Words 327 Question Type: Draw a Conclusion 327 Question Type: Make an Inference 328 Question Type: Direct Comprehension 328 How to Mark Passages 329 Answer Sheet for Reading Comprehension Practice Test 331 Section 1: Brief Passages 331 Section 2: Long Passages -- Intermediate Difficulty 331 Section 3: Long Passages -- Challenging Difficulty 332 Reading Comprehension Practice Test 333 Directions 333 Section 1: Brief Passages 333 Practice Set 1: Brief Passages I, II, III, IV 333 Practice Set 2: Brief Passages V, VI, VII, and VIII 337 Practice Set 3: Passages IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII 340 Section 2: Long Passages -- Intermediate Difficulty 344 Practice Set 1: Long Intermediate Passages I and II 344 Practice Set 2: Long Intermediate Passages III and IV 349 Practice Set 3: Long Intermediate Passages V and VI 353 Practice Set 4: Long Intermediate Passages VII and VIII 358 Practice Set 5: Paired Passages IX and X 362 Section 3: Longer Passages -- Challenging 367 Practice Set 1: Passages I, II, and III 367 Practice Set 2: Passages IV and V 376 Answer Key for Reading Comprehension Practice Test 383 Section 1: Brief Passages 383 Practice Set 1 383 Practice Set 2 383 Practice Set 3 383 Section 2: Long Passages -- Intermediate Difficulty 383 Practice Set 1 383 Practice Set 2 383 Practice Set 3 383 Practice Set 4 383 Practice Set 5 383 Section 3: Long Passages -- Challenging 384 Practice Set 1 384 Practice Set 2 384 Answers and Explanations for Reading Comprehension Practice Test 385 Section 1: Brief Passages 385 Practice Set I, Passages I, II, III, and IV 385 Practice Set 2, Passages V, VI, VII, and VIII 385 Practice Set 3, Passages IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII 386 Section 2: Longer Passages -- Intermediate Difficulty 387 Practice Set 1: Passages I and II 387 Practice Set 2: Passages III and IV 388 Practice Set 3: Passages V and VI 389 Practice Set 4: Passages VII and VIII 390 Practice Set 5: Passages IX and X 391 Section 3: Long Passages -- Challenging 392 Practice Set 1: Passages I, II, and III 392 Practice Set 2: Passages IV and V 393 PART III: WRITING TIMED ESSAYS Chapter 6: Approaches to Writing Timed Essays 397 Scoring 397 Scoring Guidelines 398 Scoring Criteria 402 General Strategies for Essay Writing 403 Strategies for Specific Types of Essays 404 The Narrative/Descriptive Essay 404 Sample Task 1 -- Narrative/Descriptive Essay 405 Overview of Sample Task 1 405 Preparing to Write 406 Writing 408 Proofreading 411 Sample Task 2 -- Narrative/Descriptive Essay 412 Overview of Sample Task 2 412 Sample Essay Response -- Task 2 413 The Analytical/Expository Essay 414 Sample Task 1 -- Analytical/Expository Essay: "Analyze an Issue" 415 Overview of Sample Task 1 415 Sample Essay Response -- Task 1 416 Sample Task 2 -- Analytical/Expository Essay: "Analyze an Issue" 417 Overview of Sample Task 2 417 Five-Paragraph Essay 418 Analyze an Argument Essay 419 Sample Task 3 -- Analytical/Expository Essay: "Analyze an Argument" 419 The Argumentative or Decision Prompt Essay 422 Sample Task 4 -- Decision Prompt Essay, "LSAT" 422 Overview of Sample Task 4 423 Sample Task 5 -- Argumentative Essay, "ACT" 425 Overview of Sample Task 5 425 Sample Task 6 -- Argumentative Essay, "PPST" 427 Overview of Sample Task 6 427 Additional Question Types and Techniques 428 Compare and Contrast Essays 428 Steps to Writing a Successful Essay 429 Essay Writing Practice 429 GRE 430 Sample Topics 430 GMAT 435 Sample Topics 435 LSAT 437 Sample Topics 437 SAT 440 Sample Topics 441 ACT 442 Sample Topics 442 PPST 444 Sample Topics 444 CBEST 445 Sample Topics 445 Essay Response Checklist 447 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 449 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 451 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 453 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 455 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 457 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 459 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 461 How Effectively Does Your Essay... 463
