Standard English Completion Quiz 1

The Mission 66 initiative, which was approved by Congress in 1956, represented a major investment in the infrastructure of overburdened national ______ it prioritized physical improvements to the parks, roads, utilities, employee housing, and visitor facilities while also establishing educational programming for the public.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• parks and

• parks

• parks;

• parks,

On April 5, 1977, Kitty Cone and 150 other disability rights activists entered a San Francisco federal building. After pleading for years—to no effect—for the passage of key antidiscrimination legislation, ______ until their demands were addressed. Finally, on April 28, the legislation was signed.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• pressure on lawmakers increased when the activists staged a sit-in protest

• a sit-in protest staged by the activists increased pressure on lawmakers

• lawmakers came under increased pressure when the activists staged a sit-in protest

• the activists increased pressure on lawmakers by staging a sit-in protest

French philosopher René Descartes doubted whether he could prove his own existence. Eventually, he found proof in his famous phrase “I think, therefore I am.” The ______ complexity: only those who exist would be able to ponder their existence.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• phrases’ simplicity masks its

• phrases simplicity masks their

• phrase’s simplicity masks their

• phrase’s simplicity masks its

In a 2023 study, researchers documented a fascinating behavior in the aquatic plant Elodea densa. When exposed to low levels of light, the plant’s ______ the cellular organs that generate energy from light—reshuffled to form a tightly packed, glass-like surface ideal for collecting more light.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• chloroplasts

• chloroplasts;

• chloroplasts,

• chloroplasts—

Bonnie Buratti of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ______ data about Saturn’s rings collected by the Cassini spacecraft when she made an interesting discovery: the tiny moons embedded between and within Saturn’s rings are shaped by the buildup of ring material on the moons’ surfaces.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• studies

• has been studying

• will study

• was studying

Photosynthesis, the mechanism by which plants use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into ______ is fuelled in part by an enzyme called Photosystem II that harvests energy-giving electrons from water molecules.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• nutrients

• nutrients and

• nutrients,

• nutrients—

After a spate of illnesses as a child, Wilma Rudolph was told she might never walk again. Defying all odds, Rudolph didn’t just walk, she ______ the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, she won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and clinched first place for her team in the 4x100-meter relay, becoming the first US woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• ran—fast—during

• ran—fast during

• ran—fast, during

• ran—fast. During

Professional American football player Fred Cox invented one of the world’s most popular toys. In the 1970s, he came up with the idea for the Nerf football, which ______ of the harder and heavier regulation football.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• were a smaller, foam version

• are smaller, foam versions

• were smaller, foam versions

• is a smaller, foam version

Beatrix Potter is perhaps best known for writing and illustrating children’s books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), but she also dedicated herself to mycology, the study of ______ more than 350 paintings of the fungal species she observed in nature and submitting her research on spore germination to the Linnean Society of London.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• fungi; producing

• fungi. Producing

• fungi producing

• fungi, producing

While light is known as one of the fastest-moving substances, it slows down when passing through some types of matter. One such type of matter is a form of cooled, condensed gas called a Bose-Einstein condensate ______ Dutch physicist Lene Hau famously used a BEC to slow a beam of light to a complete halt.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• (BEC),

• (BEC) and

• (BEC);

• (BEC)