English Conventions Practice

Generations of mystery and horror ______ have been influenced by the dark, gothic stories of celebrated American author

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849).

• writers

• writers,

• writers—

• writers;

The radiation that ______ during the decay of radioactive atomic nuclei is known as gamma radiation.

• occurs

• have occurred

• occur

• are occurring

On sunny days, dark rooftops absorb solar energy and convert it to unwanted heat, raising the surrounding air ______ a

light-colored covering to an existing dark roof, either by attaching prefabricated reflective sheets or spraying on a paint-

like coating, helps combat this effect. 

• temperature; by adding

• temperature, adding

• temperature. Adding

• temperature by adding

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.

• value, but

• value

• value, 

• value but

When they were first discovered in Australia in 1798, duck-billed, beaver-tailed platypuses so defied categorization that

one scientist assigned them the name Ornithorhynchus paradoxus: “paradoxical bird-snout.” The animal, which lays eggs

but also nurses ______ young with milk, has since been classified as belonging to the monotremes group.

• they’re

• their

• its

• it’s

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.

• percent, such

• percent and such

• percent. Such

• percent such

Known as Earth’s “living skin,” biocrusts are thin layers of soil held together by surface-dwelling microorganisms such as

fungi, lichens, and cyanobacteria. Fortifying soil in arid ecosystems against erosion, ______

• a recent study’s estimate is that these crusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent each year. 

• an estimated 60 percent reduction in global dust emissions each year is due to these crusts, according to a recent

  study.

• these crusts reduce global dust emissions by an estimated 60 percent each year, according to a recent study.

• a recent study has estimated that these crusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent each year

In her two major series “Memory Test” and “Autobiography,” painter Howardena Pindell explored themes ______ healing,

self-discovery, and memory by cutting and sewing back together pieces of canvas and inserting personal artifacts, such as

postcards, into some of the paintings.

• of

• of,

• of—

• of:

Archaeologists have estimated that the pre-Columbian Native American city of Cahokia, located across the Mississippi

River from modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, had as many as 20,000 inhabitants in the year 1150 ______ it one of the largest

cities in North America at the time

• CE making

• CE. Making

• CE, making

• CE; making

About 70,000 meteorites have been found on Earth. Although most meteorites are fragments of ______ hundred have

been identified as being from the Moon or Mars.

• asteroids. Several

• asteroids, several

• asteroids; several

• asteroids: several