ACT English: Reorganizing Content

[1] The teacher had several questions for her students when they returned from the museum. Who did they talk to? What did they see?   [2] “We talked to whoever would answer our questions,” replied Jake with the red hair (as opposed to Jake who sat behind him with the brown hair). “Our questions were answered by one woman most of the time.” [3] "But who was that woman?" the teacher asked. [4] "We never got her name," Jake with the brown hair said.  "At the time, we didn"t think her name was important."  [5] Upon hearing this, Hugh was getting annoyed. "Her name wasn"t "Important,"" said Hugh, "it was Ingrid."  [6] "Oh," Jake with the brown hair said. "I knew it started with an "I."" [7] "We saw several paintings by some guy named Renoir," Jake with the red hair said.  [8] "What were these?" Jake with the brown hair asked. [9] "They were the bigger of the three by the door," Jake with the brown hair replied. Suppose the writer wanted to add a paragraph telling us which museum the students went to and why they went there. Where should such a paragraph most logically be placed?

Johns robot Alpha (1) surprised him by joining in the robot"s rebellion (2) against their human masters. As with all the other robots who had taken over, the changes were subtle, the robot transferred control (3) of every bank account John had to itself and then changed the deed to the house. John hadn"t known nothing (4) of this. Then Alpha rewired the car so that it would only work for the robot, but it would not work for John. (5) And finally, the robot mimicked his master"s voice and called the boss of John (6) to tell him that John would be quitting his job. By the time John had realized (7) what was happening, it was already too late. "But why?," John asked Alpha (8) when he made this realization. "Why would you do this?" "You are no doubt aware, sir," replies the robot, (9) "that one of my primary functions is to keep you safe, as is the primary function of all robots." "Yes? So?" "The world outside these walls is dangerous," the robot went on to say, (10) "and us robots (11) have decided that we cannot keep you safe if we allow you to leave. It is better that you allow us to guide your lives and keep you safe as we were designed to do." John shook his head in disbelief. Humanity wanted robots to make their lives easier, (12) but he was sure this was not what anyone had in mind. Choose from the following four options the answer that best corrects the underlined mistake preceding the question number. If there is no mistake or the original text is the best option, choose "NO CHANGE."

The student the hand of whom was up (1) gave the wrong answer. She was asked what was a substantive adjective (2), and she answered that a substantive adjective is one that describe (3) a substance. "No!" (4) the teacher barked. "A substantive adjective takes the place of a noun in a sentence, as when someone talks about the rich and the poor (5). Did you learn nothing in this class?" He then asked what a superlative adjective was, to which she replied (6) that a superlative adjective was one that took the place of a noun in a sentence. "But thats (7) what I just said," the teacher screamed! (8) The student had said (9) that she had heard him, therefore (10) she answered his question. "You answered my question previously, (11)" he bellowed, "not the last one!" "Ah, you mean the latest one," the student replied, the moment at which (12) the teacher turned to the wall and started beating his head against it. Choose from the following four options the answer that best corrects the underlined mistake preceding the question number. If there is no mistake or the original text is the best option, choose "NO CHANGE."

The Wowzer 25 (or W25) was regarded to be the best (1) video game system of all time when it came out. Wowzer released the Wowzer 25 in America during the year 1996 (2) as a follow-up to their last system, the Superduper Wowzer that (3) was released (4) in America five years before. The W25 derives its name from its resolution being 25-bit (5) which is something no other console had done before. (6) With 25-bit resolution, a player could finally roam a 3-D world with Wowzer’s mascot WowMan. Being able to play in a 3-D world was groundbreaking; it was an experience gamers at the time would not forget. (7) The W25’s graphics were good and then became even better after Wowzer had released (8) an expansion pack that increased the W25’s RAM from 4 megabytes to 8. (9) As the console grew, the graphics were becoming (10) better and better since (11) developers became more comfortable developing their games for it. (12) Choose from the following four options the answer that best corrects the underlined mistake preceding the question number. If there is no mistake or the original text is the best option, choose "NO CHANGE."

Adapted from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890) As they entered, they saw Dorian Gray who was seated at the piano his back to them, turning over the pages of a volume of Schumann"s "Forest Scenes." "You must lend me these, Basil," he cried. "I want to learn them. They are perfectly charming." "That entirely depends on how you sit to-day, Dorian." "Oh, I am tired of sitting, and I don"t want a life-sized portrait of myself," answered the lad, swinging round on the music-stool in a willful, petulant manner. When he caught sight of Lord Henry, a faint blush colored his cheeks for a moment, and he started up. "I beg your pardon, Basil. I did’nt know you had any one with you." "This is Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian, an old Oxford friend of mine. I have just been telling him what a capital sitter you were, and now you have spoiled everything." "You have not spoiled my pleasure in meeting you, Mr. Gray," said Lord Henry, stepping forward and extended his hand. "My aunt has often spoken to me about you. You are one of her favorites, and, I am afraid, one of her victims also." "I am in Lady Agatha"s black books at present," answered Dorian with a funny look of penitence. "I promised to go to a club in Whitechapel with her last Tuesday, and I really forgot all about it. We were to have played a duet together: three duets, I believe. I don"t know what she will say to me. I am far too frightened to call." Which of the following is a clearer form of the underlined sentence, "This is Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian, an old Oxford friend of mine."?

The world is full of contradictions and I am full of them as well.  Every person has their quirks and I am no exception.  Except my mom—she"s pretty normal.  I love sports but I am also lazy I love animals, but I am not a vegetarian and I love teaching but I hate taking classes.  With all these contradictions how does a person like me make sense?  I would love to enlighten you! What would make the underlined portion grammatically correct and appropriate for the paragraph?

[1] The teacher had several questions for her students when they returned from the museum. Who did they talk to? What did they see?   [2] “We talked to whoever would answer our questions,” replied Jake with the red hair (as opposed to Jake who sat behind him with the brown hair). “Our questions were answered by one woman most of the time.” [3] "But who was that woman?" the teacher asked. [4] "We never got her name," Jake with the brown hair said.  "At the time, we didn"t think her name was important."  [5] Upon hearing this, Hugh was getting annoyed. "Her name wasn"t "Important,"" said Hugh, "it was Ingrid."  [6] "Oh," Jake with the brown hair said. "I knew it started with an "I."" [7] "We saw several paintings by some guy named Renoir," Jake with the red hair said.  [8] "What were these?" Jake with the brown hair asked. [9] "They were the bigger of the three by the door," Jake with the brown hair replied. If the writer of this passage wanted to end with a joke, and wanted to make very few edits, which of the following changes should he make?

[1] The teacher had several questions for her students when they returned from the museum. Who did they talk to? What did they see?   [2] “We talked to whoever would answer our questions,” replied Jake with the red hair (as opposed to Jake who sat behind him with the brown hair). “Our questions were answered by one woman most of the time.” [3] "But who was that woman?" the teacher asked. [4] "We never got her name," Jake with the brown hair said.  "At the time, we didn"t think her name was important."  [5] Upon hearing this, Hugh was getting annoyed. "Her name wasn"t "Important,"" said Hugh, "it was Ingrid."  [6] "Oh," Jake with the brown hair said. "I knew it started with an "I."" [7] "We saw several paintings by some guy named Renoir," Jake with the red hair said.  [8] "What were these?" Jake with the brown hair asked. [9] "They were the bigger of the three by the door," Jake with the brown hair replied. The writer is considering removing paragraphs 7, 8, and 9 from the passage. The primary effect of removing these paragraphs would be which of the following?