English Convention Practice

After winning the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln appointed Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase, and William H.

Seward to his cabinet. Lincoln’s decision was surprising, since each of these men had run against him, but historians have

praised it, noting that Lincoln ______ his rivals’ diverse talents to strengthen his administration

• A. has leveraged

• B. is leveraging

• C. will leverage

• D. leveraged

Researchers studying magnetosensation have determined why some soil-dwelling roundworms in the Southern

Hemisphere move in the opposite direction of Earth’s magnetic field when searching for ______ in the Northern

Hemisphere, the magnetic field points down, into the ground, but in the Southern Hemisphere, it points up, toward the

surface and away from worms’ food sources.

• A. food:

• B. food,

• C. food while

• D. food

Because a cycle of lunar phases ______ 29.5 days to complete, it’s possible to observe two full moons in a single month,

one at the beginning and one at the end. 

• A. are taking

• B. have taken

• C. take

• D. takes

A model created by biologist Luis Valente predicts that the rate of speciation—the rate at which new species form—on an

isolated island located approximately 5,000 kilometers from the nearest mainland ______ triple the rate of speciation on an

island only 500 kilometers from the mainland

• A. being

• B. to be

• C. to have been

• D. will be

The Lion Light system, developed by Kenyan inventor Richard Turere, consists of LED lights installed around the perimeter

of livestock pastures. Powered with ______ the blinking LEDs keep lions away at night, thus protecting the livestock

without risking harm to the endangered lions.

• A. energy collected, by solar panels, during the day

• B. energy collected by solar panels during the day

• C. energy collected by solar panels during the day,

• D. energy, collected by solar panels during the day

Researchers studying the “terra-cotta army,” the thousands of life-size statues of warriors found interred near the tomb of

Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China, were shocked to realize that the shape of each statue’s ears, like the shape of each

person’s ears, ______ unique

• A. are

• B.  is

• C. were

• D. have been

A group of ecologists led by Axel Mithöfer at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany examined the

defensive responses of two varieties of the sweet potato ______ TN57, which is known for its insect resistance, and TN66,

which is much more susceptible to pests.

• A. plant. 

• B. plant;

• C. plant 

• D. plant:

Known for her massive photorealistic paintings of African American figures floating or swimming in pools, Calida Garcia

______ was the logical choice to design the book cover for Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, a novel about an African

American man who can travel great distances through water.

• A. Rawles-

• B. Rawles:

• C. Rawles,

• D. Rawles

With some 16,000 in attendance, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and ______ or FESTAC ‘77, as the

event was more commonly known—became the largest pan-African event on record. FESTAC drew people from around

the world to Lagos, Nigeria, for a monthlong celebration of Black and African art, scholarship, and activism.

• A. Culture:

• B. Culture—

• C. Culture,

• D. Culture

The violins handmade in the seventeeth century by Italian craftsman Antonio Stradivari have been celebrated as some of

the finest in the world. In close collaboration with musicians, Stradivari introduced changes to the shape of a traditional

violin, flattening some of the instrument’s curves and making ______ lighter overall.

• A. those

• B. one

• C. them

• D. it