PUNCTUATION

1. In ancient Greece, an Epicurean was a follower of Epicurus, a philosopher whose

beliefs revolved around the pursuit of pleasure. Epicurus defined pleasure as “the absence
of pain in the body and of trouble in the _______ that all life’s virtues derived from this
absence.

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

1. A) soul,” positing
2. B) soul”: positing
3. C) soul”; positing
4. D) soul.” Positing

2. In 1937, Chinese American screen actor Anna May Wong, who had portrayed
numerous villains and secondary characters but never a heroine, finally got a starring role
in Paramount Pictures’ Daughter of Shanghai, a film that _______ “expanded the range
of possibilities for Asian images on screen.”

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

1. A) critic, Stina Chyn, claims

2. B) critic, Stina Chyn, claims,
3. C) critic Stina Chyn claims
4. D) critic Stina Chyn, claims,

3. 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.

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

1. A) food:
2. B) food,
3. C) food while
4. D) food
4. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, mathematics professor Grace Hopper was
recruited by the US military to help the war effort by solving complex equations.
Hopper’s subsequent career would involve more than just _______ as a pioneering
computer programmer, Hopper would help usher in the digital age.

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

A) equations, though:
B) equations, though,
C) equations. Though,
D) equations though

5. When writing The Other Black Girl (2021), novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris drew on her
own experiences working at a publishing office. The award-winning book is Harris’s first
novel, but her writing _______ honored before. At the age of twelve, she entered a
contest to have a story published in American Girl magazine—and won.

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

A) were
B) have been
C) has been
D) are

6. The Alvarez theory, developed in 1980 by physicist Luis Walter Alvarez and his
geologist son Walter Alvarez, maintained that the secondary effects of an asteroid impact
caused many dinosaurs and other animals to die _______ it left unexplored the question
of whether unrelated volcanic activity might have also contributed to the mass
extinctions.

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

A) out but

B) out, but

C) out

D) out,
7. The first computerized spreadsheet, Dan Bricklin’s VisiCalc, improved financial
recordkeeping not only by providing users with an easy means of adjusting data in
spreadsheets but also by automatically updating all calculations that were dependent on
these _______ to VisiCalc’s release, changing a paper spreadsheet often required redoing
the entire sheet by hand, a process that could take days.

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

A) adjustments prior

B) adjustments, prior

C) adjustments. Prior

D) adjustments and prior

8. Stomata, tiny pore structures in a leaf that absorb gases needed for plant growth, open
when guard cells surrounding each pore swell with water. In a pivotal 2007 article, plant
cell _______ showed that lipid molecules called phosphatidylinositol phosphates are
responsible for signaling guard cells to open stomata.

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

1. A) biologist, Yuree Lee

2. B) biologist Yuree Lee,
3. C) biologist Yuree Lee
4. D) biologist, Yuree Lee,

9. The intense pressure found in the deep ocean can affect the structure of proteins in
fish’s cells, distorting the proteins’ shape. The chemical trimethylamine N-oxide
(TMAO) counters this effect, ensuring that proteins retain their original ______ is found
in high concentrations in the cells of the deepest-dwelling fish.

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

A) configurations. TMAO B) configurations TMAO

C) configurations, TMAO D) configurations and TMAO

10. In her analysis of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905), scholar Candace Waid
observes that the novel depicts the upper classes of New York society as “consumed by
the appetite of a soulless ______ an apt assessment given that The House of Mirth is set
during the Gilded Age, a period marked by rapid industrialization, economic greed, and
widening wealth disparities.

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

1. A) materialism”; and
2. B) materialism” and
3. C) materialism,”
4. D) materialism”

11. Inventor John Friedman created a prototype of the first flexible straw by inserting a
screw into a paper straw and, using dental floss, binding the straw tightly around the
______ When the floss and screw were removed, the resulting corrugations in the paper
allowed the straw to bend easily over the edge of a glass.

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

1. A) screw’s thread’s.
2. B) screws’ threads.
3. C) screw’s threads.
4. D) screws threads’.

12. To humans, it does not appear that the golden orb-weaver spider uses camouflage to
capture its ______ the brightly colored arachnid seems to wait conspicuously in the
center of its large circular web for insects to approach. Researcher Po Peng of the
University of Melbourne has explained that the spider’s distinctive coloration may in fact
be part of its appeal.

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

A) prey, rather, B) prey rather,

C) prey, rather; D) prey; rather,

13. In Death Valley National Park’s Racetrack Playa, a flat, dry lakebed, are 162 rocks—
some weighing less than a pound but others almost 700 pounds—that move periodically
from place to place, seemingly of their own volition. Racetrack-like trails in the ______
mysterious migration.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A) playas sediment mark the rock’s

B) playa’s sediment mark the rocks

C) playa’s sediment mark the rocks’

D) playas’ sediment mark the rocks

14. In crafting her fantasy fiction, Nigerian-born British author Helen Oyeyemi has
drawn inspiration from the classic nineteenth-century fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.
Her 2014 novel Boy, Snow, Bird, for instance, is a complex retelling of the story of Snow
White, while her 2019 novel ______ offers a delicious twist on the classic tale of Hansel
and Gretel.

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

A) Gingerbread—

B) Gingerbread,

C) Gingerbread

D) Gingerbread:

15. While many video game creators strive to make their graphics ever more ______
others look to the past, developing titles with visuals inspired by the “8-bit” games of the
1980s and 1990s. (The term “8-bit” refers to a console whose processor could only
handle eight bits of data at once.)

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

A) lifelike but

B) lifelike

C) lifelike,

D) lifelike, but
16. 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?

1. A) fungi; producing
2. B) fungi. Producing
3. C) fungi producing
4. D) fungi, producing

17. Joshua Hinson, director of the language revitalization program of the Chickasaw
Nation in Oklahoma, helped produce the world’s first Indigenous-language instructional
app, Chickasaw ______ Chickasaw TV, in 2010; and a Rosetta Stone language course in
Chickasaw, in 2015.

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

A) Basic; in 2009, an online television network;

B) Basic; in 2009, an online television network,

C) Basic, in 2009; an online television network,

D) Basic, in 2009, an online television network,

18. The forty-seven geothermal springs of Arkansas’ Hot Springs National Park are
sourced via a process known as natural groundwater recharge, in which rainwater
percolates downward through the earth—in this case, the porous rocks of the hills around
Hot ______ collect in a subterranean basin.

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

A) Springs to

B) Springs: to

C) Springs—to

D) Springs, to
19. Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta’s celebrated literary oeuvre includes The Joys of
Motherhood, a novel about the changing roles of women in 1950s ______ a television
play about the private struggles of a newlywed couple in Nigeria; and Head Above Water,
her autobiography.

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

1. A) Lagos, A Kind of Marriage,

2. B) Lagos; A Kind of Marriage,
3. C) Lagos, A Kind of Marriage:
4. D) Lagos; A Kind of Marriage

20. Over twenty years ago, in a landmark experiment in the psychology of choice,
professor Sheena Iyengar set up a jam-tasting booth at a grocery store. The number of
jams available for tasting ______ some shoppers had twenty-four different options, others
only six. Interestingly, the shoppers with fewer jams to choose from purchased more jam.

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

1. A) varied:
2. B) varied,
3. C) varied, while
4. D) varied while

21. 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?

A) value, but

B) value

C) value,

D) value but

22. 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?

1. A) added, whenever
2. B) added; whenever
3. C) added. Whenever
4. D) added whenever

23. 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?

1. A) percent, such
2. B) percent and such
3. C) percent. Such
4. D) percent such

24. 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.

I thought that the offer was too good to be true.

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

1. A) nickname, however
2. B) nickname, however;
3. C) nickname, however,
4. D) nickname; however,

25. 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?

1. A) quilts, and the

2. B) quilts, the
3. C) quilts; the
4. D) quilts. The

26. The life spans of rockfish vary greatly by species. For instance, the colorful calico
rockfish (Sebastes dallii) can survive for a little over a ______ the rougheye rockfish
(Sebastes aleutianus) boasts a maximum life span of about two centuries.

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

1. A) decade: while
2. B) decade. While
3. C) decade; while
4. D) decade, while

27. Materials scientist Marie-Agathe Charpagne and her colleagues believed they could
improve on the multicomponent alloy NiCoCr, an equal-proportions mixture of nickel
(Ni), cobalt (Co), and chromium (Cr), by replacing chromium with ruthenium ______ the
alloy that resulted, NiCoRu, turned out to be an unsuitable replacement for NiCoCr.

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

1. A) (Ru)
2. B) (Ru) but
3. C) (Ru),
4. D) (Ru), but

28. 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.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?
 1. A) energy collected, by solar panels, during the day
2. B) energy collected by solar panels during the day
3. C) energy collected by solar panels during the day,
4. D) energy, collected by solar panels during the day,

30. When external forces are applied to common glass made from silicates, energy builds
up around minuscule defects in the material, resulting in fractures. Recently, engineer
Erkka Frankberg of Tampere University in Finland used the chemical ______ to make a
glassy solid that can withstand higher strain than silicate glass can before fracturing.

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

1. A) compound, aluminum oxide

2. B) compound aluminum oxide,
3. C) compound, aluminum oxide,
4. D) compound aluminum oxide

31. Hegra is an archaeological site in present-day Saudi Arabia and was the second
largest city of the Nabataean Kingdom (fourth century BCE to first century CE).
Archaeologist Laila Nehmé recently traveled to Hegra to study its ancient ______ into
the rocky outcrops of a vast desert, these burial chambers seem to blend seamlessly with
nature.

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

1. A) tombs. Built
2. B) tombs, built
3. C) tombs and built
4. D) tombs built

32. Literary agents estimate that more than half of all nonfiction books credited to a
celebrity or other public figure are in fact written by ghostwriters, professional authors
who are paid to write other _______ but whose names never appear on book covers.

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

1. A) people’s stories
2. B) peoples story’s
3. C) peoples stories
4. D) people’s story’s
33. 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 4 ×100-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?

A) ran—fast—during

B) ran—fast during

C) ran—fast, during

D) ran—fast. During

34. Seneca sculptor Marie Watt’s blanket art comes in a range of shapes and sizes. In
2004, Watt sewed strips of blankets together to craft a 10-by-13-inch _______ in 2014,
she arranged folded blankets into two large stacks and then cast them in bronze, creating
two curving 18-foot-tall blue-bronze pillars.

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

A) sampler later,

B) sampler;
C) sampler,
D) sampler, later,

35. The Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden in Norway and the Jardim Botânico of Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil are two of many botanical gardens around the world dedicated to
growing diverse plant _______ fostering scientific research; and educating the public
about plant conservation.

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

A) species, both native and nonnative,

B) species, both native and nonnative;

C) species; both native and nonnative,

D) species both native and nonnative,

36. Sociologist Alton Okinaka sits on the review board tasked with adding new sites to
the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places, which includes Pi‘ilanihale Heiau and the
‘Ōpaeka‘a Road Bridge. Okinaka doesn’t make such decisions _______ all historical
designations must be approved by a group of nine other experts from the fields of
architecture, archaeology, history, and Hawaiian culture.

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

1. A) single-handedly, however;
2. B) single-handedly; however,
3. C) single-handedly, however,
4. D) single-handedly however

37. In his groundbreaking book Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian
America, Vivek Bald uses newspaper articles, census records, ships’ logs, and memoirs to
tell the _______ who made New York City their home in the early twentieth century.

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

A) story’s of the South Asian immigrants

B) story’s of the South Asian immigrants’

C) stories of the South Asian immigrants

D)stories’ of the South Asian immigrant’s

38. 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.

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

A) of

B) of,

C) of—
D) of:

39. A study led by scientist Rebecca Kirby at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

found that black bears that eat human food before hibernation have increased levels of a
rare carbon isotope, _______ due to the higher 13C levels in corn and cane sugar. Bears
with these elevated levels were also found to have much shorter hibernation periods on
average.

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

A) carbon-13, (13C)

B) carbon-13 (13C)

C) carbon-13, (13C),

D) carbon-13 (13C),

40. Both Sona Charaipotra, an Indian American, and Dhonielle Clayton, an African
American, grew up frustrated by the lack of diverse characters in books for young people.
In 2011, these two writers joined forces to found CAKE Literary, a book packaging
_______ specializes in the creation and promotion of stories told from diverse
perspectives for children and young adults.

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

1. A) company,
2. B) company that
3. C) company
4. D) company, that

41. In 2010, archaeologist Noel Hidalgo Tan was visiting the twelfth-century temple of
Angkor Wat in Cambodia when he noticed markings of red paint on the temple _______
the help of digital imaging techniques, he discovered the markings to be part of an
elaborate mural containing over 200 paintings. archaeologist Noel Hidalgo Tan was
visiting the twelfth-century temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia -

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?
 1. A) walls, with
2. B) walls with
3. C) walls so with
4. D) walls. With

42. A study published by Rice University geoscientist Ming Tang in 2019 offers a new
explanation for the origin of Earth’s _______ structures called arcs, towering ridges that
form when a dense oceanic plate subducts under a less dense continental plate, melts in
the mantle below, and then rises and bursts through the continental crust above.

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

A) continents geological

B) continents: geological

C)continents; geological

D) continents. Geological

43. What makes the theremin a unique musical instrument? You play it without touching
it. When you place your _______ the pitch will shift as your hands move through the air.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

1. A) hand’s between the two antenna’s,

2. B) hands between the two antennas,
3. C) hands’ between the two antennas’,
4. D) hands’ between the two antennas,

44. Long attributed to Jacques-Louis David, the preeminent Neoclassical painter of his
day, the 1801 painting Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes gained fresh attention
in the 1990s when art historians discovered that the painting—which depicts a solitary
young woman sketching—was actually the work of little-known French portrait _______
Marie-Denise Villers (1774–1821).

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

A) artist—

B) artist
C) artist:

D) artist,

45. In 1986, conceptual artist Sophie Calle asked twenty-three people, all of whom had
been born without sight, to describe “their image of beauty”
in rich detail. Calle paired excerpts of these conversations with photographs—both of
interviewees and the items they _______ to powerful effect in her exhibition The Blind.

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

1. A) described, from hair to grass to sculptures

2. B) described, from hair to grass to sculptures—
3. C) described—from hair to grass to sculptures,
4. D) described: from hair to grass to sculptures

46. A harpsichord may look just like a piano, but the difference between the two
instruments is easy to hear. When a harpsichord’s keys are pressed, the strings inside the
_______ are plucked, not struck.

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

A) instrument:

B) instrument

C) instrument—

D) instrument,

47. Julia Alvarez’s 1994 novel In the Time of the Butterflies, a fictionalized account of
the lives of the Mirabal _______ can serve as a starting point for those wanting to explore
how the rule of dictator Rafael Trujillo has been represented in Dominican American
literature.

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

A) B) C) D)

A) sisters, and
B) sisters and

C) sisters,

D) sisters

48. On March 23, 2021, a gust of wind wreaked havoc on global trade. Ever Given, an
international shipping container vessel, became lodged in Egypt’s Suez Canal, a major
shipping route between Europe and Asia. The vessel took six days to _______ it’s as
heavy as two thousand blue whales when fully
loaded.

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

1. A) dislodge in part due to its sheer size,

2. B) dislodge, in part due to its sheer size:
3. C) dislodge, in part due to its sheer size,
4. D) dislodge, in part, due to its sheer size

49. Fans of the film Moana (2016) may not know that the deep and humorous voice
behind the_______ belongs to comedian, actor, and musician Jemaine Clement. The
versatile performer has appeared in everything from television commercials to action
movies, but voice acting, specifically, has become a notable part of his career.

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

1. A) character Tamatoa the crab

2. B) character Tamatoa the crab,
3. C) character: Tamatoa the crab,
4. D) character, Tamatoa the crab

50. American abstract artist Richard _______ his installations to make passersby keenly
aware of how one’s movements are affected by the physical features of one’s
environment, assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures that dominate the outdoor
spaces they occupy.

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

A) Serra is intending

B) Serra, intends
C) Serra, intending

D) Serra intends