The Complete Guide To The TOEFL Test

204 Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression

~Sample Items

The most important period of physical growth in humans occurred

ABC

during their first two years.

- 0 -

Choice (C) is best. The simple present tense, not the past tense, should be used because the situation described in this sentence always occurs.

Personal taxes for Americans rose sharply since 1945.

Option (C) is again best. The time phrase since 1945 means from 1945 until now. Therefore, the present perfect (have risen) is required in place of the past tense. ...

C) Incorrect Verb Forms

Some of the verb errors are errors in form. An -ing form may be used in place of a part participle, a simple form in place of an -ing form, an infinitive in place of a simple form, and so on. Some involve irregular verbs that have different forms for the past tense and the past participle-took and taken, for example. The following information may help you choose the correct form of the main verb.

• The simple form follows all modal auxiliaries.

• The past participle is used after a form of have in all perfect forms of the verb.

• The -ing form is used after a form of be in all progressive forms of the verb.

• The past participle is used after a form of be in all passive forms of the verb.

Verb-form problems may also involve auxiliary verbs: has may be used in place of did, is in place of does, and so on.

Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression 205

... Sample Items

The first bicycle race on record in the United States

A B

taken place in 1883.

The correct verb is the past tense form (took), not a past participle.

The Michigan Dunes, located on Lake Michigan's eastern

A B

shore, may to reach a height of 200 feet. e 0

After a modal auxiliary, the simple form of the verb (reach) should be used in place of the full infinitive (to reach).

The correct auxiliary verb in this sentence is does, not is. The auxiliary does

replaces the present tense verb tastes. ...

Exercise 34.1

Focus: Choosing correct verb forms to achieve subject-verb agreement.

Directions: Underline the form that correctly completes each sentence. The first one is done as an example.

1.Ethics @fare) the study of moral duties, principles, and values.

2.The first bridge to be built with electric lights (was/were) the Brooklyn Bridge.

3.There (is/are) two types of calculus, differential and integral.

4.George Gershwin, together with his brother Ira, (was/were) the creator of the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize.

5.In a chess game, the player with the white pieces always (moves/move) first.

6.The Earth and Pluto (is/are) the only two planets believed to have a single moon.

7.A number of special conditions (is/are) necessary for the formation of a geyser.

8.Each of the Ice Ages (was/were) more than a million years long.

9.The battery, along with the alternator and starter, (makes/make) up the electrical system of a car.

10.Teeth (is/are) covered with a hard substance called enamel.

11.The more-or-less rhythmic succession of economic booms and busts (is/are) referred to as the business cycle.

12.The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom (varies/vary) from element to element.

13.All trees, except for the tree fern, (is/are) seed-bearing plants.

206 Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression

14.Fifteen hundred dollars a year (was/were) the per capita income in the United States in 1950.

15.Everyone who (goes/go) into the woods should recognize common poisonous plants such as poison ivy and poison oak.

Exercise 34.2

Focus: Recognizing and correcting errors in verb tense and form.

Directions: If the underlined form is correct, mark the sentence C If the underlined form is incorrect, mark the sentence X and write a correction for the underlined form in the blank at the end of the sentence. The first one is done as an example.

~1. Coal, grain, steel, and other products are often shipping by barge on inland waterways.

Bh;nned),

2.The first cotton mill in Massachusetts has built in the town of Beverly in 1787.

3.Physician Alice Hamilton is known for her research on industrial diseases. ______

4.When scientists search a site for fossils, they begin by examining places where the soil has wore away from the rock. ______

5.The popularity of recreational vehicles has been grown over the last few decades.

6.Experts have estimated that termites cause as much property damage every year as fire has. ______

---7. In music, a chord is the sound of two or more notes that are playing together.

8.The white pine ~ the most commercially important forest tree in North America until the beginning of the twentieth century. ______

9.In 1846 the Swiss naturalist LouisAgassiz come to the United States to give a series of lectures. ______

10.Parrots and crows are considered the most intelligent birds. ______

11.Portable fire extinguishers generally containing liquid carbon dioxide. ______

12.The first experimental telegraph line in the United States run from Baltimore to Washington, a distance of forty miles. ______

13.The first seven American astronauts were chose in 1959. ______

14.Since ancient times, farmers used scarecrows to protect their crops from hungry birds.

15.In the late nineteenth century, many important theories in both the biological and the physical sciences have been produced. ______

Exercise 34.3

Focus: Identifying and correcting errors involving verb forms. (Note: One or two items in this exercise do not focus on word-form errors. These are marked in the answer key with an asterisk.)

Directions: Decide which of the four underlined words or phrases-(A), (B), (C), or (D)-would not be considered correct, and write the letter of the expression in the blank. Then, in the line at the end of the sentence, write a correction for the underlined phrase. The first one is done as an example.

208 Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression

12. Cans of paint must be shaking to mix the pigments with the medium in which they are

in the past. __________

___ 15. Sheep are often dip in liquid chemicals to eliminate ticks and other external parasites.

ABC - 0 -

Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression 209

LESSON 35

ERRORS WITH PARALLEL STRUCTURES

Written Expression items involving errors with parallel structures are similar to those in the Structure part of the test (Lesson 24). These sentences most often contain a series of three expressions: X, Y, and Z. One of these expressions is not grammatically parallel to the other two items in the series.

Structures that are often involved in parallelism are nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositional phr--ases, gerunds, and infmitives.

Some problems with parallelism are actually word-form problems similar to those in Lesson 32.

T Sample Item

As a young man, George Washington liked boating, to hunt,

---,:- B C

and fishing.

-- 0 -

Option (C) is not parallel with the other items in the series: to hunt is an infinitive, while the other items are gerunds. You may have considered the other options that are part of the series, (B) and (D), but if you rewrote only one of these, the three expressions would still not be parallel.

In general, errors involving parallelism are easy to identify.

Exercise 35.1

Focus: Identifying and correcting errors involving parallelism.

Directions: If the underlined form is parallel to other forms in the sentence, mark the sentence C. If the underlined form is not parallel, mark the sentence X and write a correction for the underlined form in the blank at the end of the sentence. The first one is done as an example.

~1. Because of their hardness, industrial diamonds can be used for cutting, grind, and drilling. @rindin@

2.Sacramento is the commercial, industry, and financial center of California's Central Valley, as well as being the state capital. ______

3.Philosophers are concerned with questions about nature, human behavior, society, and reality. ______

4.When taking part in winter sports, one should wear clothing that is lightweight, warmth, and suitable for the activity. ______

5.Folklore consists of the beliefs, customs, traditions, and telling stories that people pass from generation to generation. ______

6.Major sources of noise pollution include automobiles and other vehicles, industrial plants, and heavy construction equipment. ______

7.Steel is alloyed with manganese to increase its strength, hardness, and resistance to wear. ______

8.Scholar John Fiske wrote on history, religious, and social issues. ____--

210Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression

9.Electricity is used to light, hot, and cool buildings. ______

10.T. S. Eliott was equally distinguished as a poet, he wrote criticism, and a dramatist.

11.Jute is a glossy fiber that is strong, does not easily stretch, and inexpensive.

12.Wetlands were once considered useless areas, but they have been found to purify water, nurture wildlife, and flood control. ______

Exercise 35.2

Focus: Identifying and correcting errors with parallel structures. (Note: One or two items in this exercise do not focus on errors involving parallel structures. These are marked in the answer key with an asterisk.)

Directions: Decide which of the four underlined words or phrases-(A), (B), (C), or (D)-would not be considered correct, and write the letter of that expression in the blank. Then, in the line at the end of the sentence, write a correction for the underlined phrase. The first one is done as an example.

~1. Computers are often used to control, adjustment, and correct complex industrial

to have economic opportunities. ______

o

Section 2 • Guide to Structure and Written Expression 211

8. Large commercial fIshing vessels are equipped to clean, packaging, and freeze the fish

ABC

that they catch at sea. ______

D

9. As a breed, golden retrievers are intelligent, loyally, and friendly dogs. ______

ABC D

10. Mathematics can be considered a language, an art, a science, a tool, or playing a game.

ABC [)

11. Paper may contain vegetable, minerals, or man-made fIbers. _____

ABC [)

12. According to Susan Sontag, our concepts of art, beauty, and nature has been changed

by photography.

___ 13. The economist Kenneth Boulding proposed a single social science that would unify

A B economic, sociology, and political science. ______

C D

14. The teeth front are llsed to bite food, the canines to tear it, and the molars to grind it.