SAT Grammar 3.1

A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mary Golda Ross is renowned for her contributions to NASA’s Planetary Flight Handbook, which _______ detailed mathematical guidance for missions to Mars and Venus. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A) provided

• B) having provided

• C) to provide

• D) providing

Typically, underlines, scribbles, and notes left in the margins by a former owner lower a book’s ______ when the former owner is a famous poet like Walt Whitman, such markings, known as marginalia, can be a gold mine to literary scholars. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• value, but

• value but

• value,

• value

After the United Kingdom began rolling out taxes equivalent to a few cents on single-use plastic grocery bags in 2011, plastic-bag consumption decreased by up to ninety ______ taxes are subject to what economists call the “rebound effect”: as the change became normalized, plastic-bag use started to creep back up. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• percent, such

• percent and such

• percent. Such

• percent such

As British scientist Peter Whibberley has observed, “the Earth is not a very good timekeeper.” Earth’s slightly irregular rotation rate means that measurements of time must be periodically adjusted. Specifically, an extra “leap second” (the 86,401st second of the day) is ______ time based on the planet’s rotation lags a full nine-tenths of a second behind time kept by precise atomic clocks. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• added, whenever

• added; whenever

• added. Whenever

• added whenever

Bengali author Toru Dutt’s A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), a volume of English translations of French poems, ______ scholars’ understanding of the transnational and multilingual contexts in which Dutt lived and worked. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• has enhanced

• are enhancing

• have enhanced

• enhance

Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” a title that has appeared in hundreds of articles about him since the 1990s. Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather ________ feeling that it didn’t encapsulate his devotion to the broader African American blues music tradition as well as “bluesologist,” the moniker he preferred. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• nickname, however

• nickname, however;

• nickname, however,

• nickname; however,

From afar, African American fiber artist Bisa Butler’s portraits look like paintings, their depictions of human faces, bodies, and clothing so intricate that it seems only a fine brush could have rendered them. When viewed up close, however, the portraits reveal themselves to be ________ stitching barely visible among the thousands of pieces of printed, microcut fabric. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• quilts, and the

• quilts, the

• quilts; the

• quilts. The

Most conifers (trees belonging to the phylum Coniferophyta) are evergreen. That is, they keep their green leaves or needles year-round. However, not all conifer species are evergreen. Larch trees, ________ lose their needles every fall. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• for instance,

• nevertheless,

• meanwhile,

• in addition,