WorksheetsConciseness and Redundancy on the ACT - 12th Grade EpicEd
Total questions: 11
Worksheet time: 10mins
The writer is considering deleting the preceding sentence. Should this sentence be kept or deleted?
In the most common game of Sudoku, the player is faced with a nine-by-nine space grid with a total of 81 spaces. The solution to the puzzle requires a number, one through nine, to be placed in each box. Each number must appear only once in each row and only once in each column.
Kept, because the reader needs to understand the process by which he or she can solve the puzzle
Kept, because it helps the reader visualize the solution to a specific puzzle in a magazine.
Deleted, because it is not relevant to the preceding sentence.
Deleted, because it is unnecessarily wordy.
His landscapes of sunsets have garnered extensive awards and made his work some of the most highly prized in the world.
NO CHANGE
extensive awards that are many
numerous, extensive awards
extensive awards numbering many
Each winter, as they prepare to hibernate, many bears lower their metabolic rate and drop their core temperature by about ten degrees.
NO CHANGE
needing to drop their temperature to hibernate,
after preparing by dropping their metabolic rate,
DELETE the underlined portion.
Sprawling beneath the four-square-mile town of Bonne Terre, the mine contains over eighty square miles of stadium-sized rooms and at least seventeen miles of tunnels. The cool water that fills the mine that is below the city of Bonne Terre is remarkably clean and clear.
NO CHANGE
this sprawling, cone-shaped mine
this mine with five levels
the mine
During periods of drought, albino redwoods often wither and enter a dormant state. Later, during periods of heavy rainfall, they resurrect back to life and and latch onto their hosts.
NO CHANGE
resurrect in reanimation to latch
revive to life again, latching
revive and latch back
Patrons credit the handsome Beaux Arts aesthetic with adding enhancement to their theatergoing experience.
NO CHANGE
adding enhacement to the experience of
adding to the experience of
enhancing
Demonstrating the Beaux Arts infusion of Renaissance and Baroque details, tall, arched French windows, symmetrically placed between the columns, lighten the imposing gray limestone structure. Above the windows and frieze, an exterior balcony spans the width of the gray building.
NO CHANGE
gray limestone
limestone
DELETE the underlined portion.
Quezada helped his village with the money he earned selling pottery, but he wanted to do more. So he taught people from Mata Ortiz to make pots. Today there are more than four hundred potters around, all of whom make their pots by hand, following the traditions of the Paquime Indians. (This one is tricky! Be sure it's clear where today's potters are located.)
NO CHANGE
people creating art now,
potters in Mata Ortiz,
DELETE the underlined portion and place a comma after the word hundred.
We tried to steady ourselves with our walking sticks but slipped and stumbled because of the jumbled rocks we were slipping on.
NO CHANGE
even though we used our walking sticks.
despite any efforts to remain steady.
with each step.
But one day, after landing in Honolulu, Hawaii for an extended trip, I couldn’t locate my guitar on the luggage carousel. Panicked, I assailed airport personnel, who assured me that they would try to recover my beloved instrument. At that moment of my extended trip, continuing the trip without it seemed impossible.
NO CHANGE
moment, due to the fact that I was on an extended trip,
very moment during my time in Honolulu,
moment,
She had ideas of her own, including an idea of hers for a torpedo with a radio-controlled guidance system.
NO CHANGE
one idea that she had
her own idea
one
