General Grammar Exam [Logo]
Click within the small circle to the left of your choice for each answer. A javascript box will appear to tell you that your choice is correct or incorrect. After clicking "OK" within the javascript alert, you may try another answer or proceed to the next question if your first choice was correct. The phrase "prescriptively correct" means that other possibilities might be acceptable in informal writing or speech, but the prescriptively correct option would be most recommended for formal, academic writing.

1. In the sentence "The dog bit her finger," the underlined pronoun has which of the following combinations of person, number, and case:
A. third person, plural, possessive
B. third person, plural, accusative
C. third person, singular, possessive
D. third person, plural, subjective
E. none of the above

2. The sentence "No one was happy with the results of the test; thus, we rechecked the data" contains which of the following parts of speech:
A. coordinating conjunction
B. subordinating conjunction
C. conjunctive adverb
D. modal verb
E. indefinite article
3. In the sentence "John was happy with the results, yet he, too, wanted to recheck the data" the underlined word is an example of which of the following parts of speech:
A. coordinating conjunction
B. subordinating conjunction
C. conjunctive adverb
D. adjective
E. preposition
4. In the sentence "Bill is drinking far too much for a person of his size," the word is is an example of which of the following parts of speech:
A. main verb
B. modal verb
C. auxiliary verb
D. linking verb
E. none of the above
5. The verb tense of the sentence "They will have already taken the test" is which of the following:
A. future past
B. present perfect
C. future perfect

D. past perfect progressive
E. present progressive

6. In the sentence "This kind of patient normally spends his day blaming himself for mistakes he didn't make," the underlined word is an example of which of the following parts of speech:
A. personal pronoun
B. reflexive pronoun
C. reciprocal pronoun
D. indefinite pronoun
E. demonstrative pronoun
7. In the sentence "While I have no reservations about hiring her, I don't think we can afford the kind of salary that she will probably demand," the word while is an example of which of the following parts of speech:
A. preposition
B. coordinating conjunction
C. subordinating conjunction
D. indefinite pronoun
E. relative pronoun
8. In the sentence "Each of the dogs have a pedigree," the verb agreement is which of the following:
A. CORRECT
B. INCORRECT
9. In the sentence "Mary helped Bill with his homework," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. objective complement
B. predicate noun
C. direct object
D. indirect object
E. predicate adjective
10. In the sentence "Bill looked sad for someone who was graduating," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. objective complement
B. predicate noun
C. direct object
D. indirect object
E. predicate adjective
11. In the sentence "I considered her highly capable of doing the job," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. objective complement
B. predicate noun
C. direct object
D. indirect object
E. predicate adjective
12. In the sentence "My father sent me pictures of his new motorcyle," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. objective complement
B. predicate noun
C. direct object
D. indirect object
E. predicate adjective
13. In the sentence "My mother is a psychiatric nurse," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. objective complement
B. predicate noun
C. direct object
D. indirect object
E. predicate adjective
14. In the sentence "Sitting in the hot sun all day is not my idea of a good time," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. participle
B. gerund
C. main verb
D. infinitive
E. auxiliary verb
15. In the sentence "Thinking that I was dialing the number of my new girlfriend, I made a mistake and called my old girlfriend instead," the underlined word is correctly classified as which of the following:
A. participle
B. gerund
C. main verb
D. infinitive
E. auxiliary verb
16. In the sentence "I have miles to go before I sleep," which of the following is true:
A. A participle serves as an adverb.
B. An infinitive serves as an adjective.
C. An infinitive serves as a direct object.
D. A participle serves as an indirect object.
E. An infinitive serves as an indirect object.
17. In the sentence "To make my motorcycle sound even louder, I drilled out the first set of baffles with a half-inch drill bit," which of the following is true:
A. A participle serves as an adverb.
B. An infinitive serves as an adverb.
C. An infinitive serves as a direct object.
D. A participle serves as an indirect object.
E. An infinitive serves as an indirect object.
18. What is true of the following example? "After walking the dog, cleaning the house, and mowing the yard, I felt that I had earned a beer."
A. It contains a comma splice.
B. It is a compound sentence.
C. It is a complex sentence.
D. It is a compound-complex sentence.
E. It is a simple sentence.
19. What is true of the following example? "I need to hire a person to work on my webpage for me."
A. It contains a participial phrase functioning as an adjective.
B. It contains a prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective.
C. It contains a prepositional phrase functioning as a verb.
D. It contains an infinitive phrase functioning as an adverb.
E. It contains an infinitive phrase functioning as an adjective.
20. What is true of the following example? "She believes that the police are lying."
A. It contains a prepositional phrase.
B. It contains an adjectival clause.
C. It contains an infinitive phrase.
D. It contains a noun clause.
E. It contains an adverbial clause.
21. What punctuation does the following example require? "She has carefully read all of her works moreover, she has published several critical articles about those works."
A. A comma after "works"
B. A semicolon after "works"
C. A period after "works"
D. A colon after "works"
E. None.
22. How can you describe the underlined portion of the following example? "She walked across the room, her bare feet kicking up hundreds of dust bunnies."
A. It is an adverbial clause.
B. It is an adjectival clause.
C. It is a noun clause.
D. It is an independent clause.
E. It is an absolute phrase.
23. What is true of the following example? "If you choose the wrong door, the wicked grammar teacher will get you."
A. It is a comma splice.
B. It is a run-together sentence.
C. It is a simple sentence.
D. It is prescriptively correct.
E. Both C and D
24. What is true of the following example? "Having eaten far too much banana-cream pie, Bowie skipped his dinner and retired to contemplate his bellyache."
A. It contains an appositive phrase.
B. It contains a participial phrase.
C. It contains a prepositional phrase.
D. It contains an absolute phrase.
E. None of the above
25. What is true of the following example? "The term English Education is potentially misleading because our discipline embraces considerably more than English languages and literature."
A. It is prescriptively correct.
B. It is a run-together sentence.
C. It is a comma splice.
D. It is a compound-complex sentence.
E. Both A and D.
26. What is true of the following example? "Your claim that serious literature is humorless can be easily refuted."
A. It contains a prepositional phrase.
B. It contains an adjectival clause.
C. It contains an adverbial clause.
D. It contains a noun clause.
E. None of the above.
27. What is true of the following example? "Doctor Adams apologizes after he slams the door."
A. It contains a noun clause.
B. It contains an adverbial clause.
C. It is a comma splice.
D. It is a sentence fragment.
E. It is a run-together sentence.
28. What is true of the following example? "Students that are highly motivated to do well are easy to teach; the others present the challenge."
A. It contains a noun clause.
B. It contains an adverbial clause.
C. It contains an adjectival clause.
D. It contains no dependent clause.
29. What is true of the following example? "No one believes him."
A. It contains a noun clause.
B. It contains an adverbial clause.
C. It contains an adjectival clause.
D. It contains an appositive phrase.
E. None of the above.
30. What is true of the following example? "His hobby, climbing mountains, is safer than driving on the expressway."
A. It contains a gerund phrase.
B. It contains an infinitive phrase.
C. It is a compound sentence.
D. It contains a participial phrase.
E. It is a comma splice.
31. Which of the following is both logically and grammatically correct?
A. Flannery O'Connor wrote the stories "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Revelation."
B. The American authors Flannery O'Connor and Ernest Hemingway were highly dissimilar in style and taste.
C. My parents, Tom and Dolores, will be at the party tonight.
D. None of the above
E. All of the above
32. How many sentence fragments does the following example contain? "First, put on your pants. Then, put on your socks. And only then, put on your shoes."
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3
33. What is true of the following example? "Her goal is to write five essays this year."
A. It contains a noun clause.
B. It contains an adjective clause.
C. It contains a participial phrase.
D. It contains a gerund phrase.
E. It contains an infinitive phrase.
34. What is true of the following example? "Flannery O'Connor returned to Georgia to live with her mother."
A. It contains a prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective.
B. It contains an infinitive phrase functioning as an adjective.
C. It contains an infinitive phrase functioning as an adverb.
D. It contains a absolutive phrase functioning as an adverb.
E. It contains an infinitive phrase functioning as a noun.
35. What kind of punctuation does the following example require? "After helping himself to the banana-cream pie Bowie went on to the bean dip but he didn't care for that."
A. A semicolon after "pie" only
B. A comma after "pie" only
C. A comma after "pie" and a comma after "dip"
D. A comma after "care" only
E. A comma after "dip" and a semicolon after "care"
36. How does the gerund phrase function in the following sentence? "They ruled riding skateboards on campus illegal."
A. As the subject.
B. As the direct object.
C. As the indirect object.
D. As the object of a preposition.
E. None of the above.
37. What kind of sentence is the following example? "The captain, whose name escapes me just now, made his way aft and sat down amongst us."
A. A simple sentence.
B. A compound sentence.
C. A complex sentence.
D. A compound-complex sentence.
E. A run-together sentence.
38. What is true of the following sentence? "His license having been suspended, he bought a good bicycle."
A. It contains a gerund phrase.
B. It contains a prepositional phrase.
C. It contains an infinitive phrase.
D. It contains an appositive phrase.
E. It contains an absolute phrase.
39. What is true of the following sentence? "Bill applied for the position nevertheless I don't think he'll take it if we offer it to him."
A. It is a comma splice.
B. It is a run-together sentence.
C. It is prescriptively correct.
D. None of the above.
40. How could you make the following example prescriptively correct? "Bring your dictionary to class each day you will need it."
A. Place a comma after "day"
B. Place a comma after "dictionary" and a comma after after "day"
C. Place a subordinating conjuction after "day"
D. Place a comma and an objective complement after "day"
41. What is true of the following example? "After planting the vegetable garden this year, my wife decided to add an herb garden in the backyard, "
A. It contains a comma splice.
B. It is a run-together sentence.
C. It is a compound-complex sentence.
D. None of the above.
42. Which of the following is both logically and grammatically correct?
A. Bill and Mary, both friends of mine, fight incessantly.
B. Bill and Mary both friends of mine fight incessantly.
C. Both of the above
D. None of the above
43. What is true of the following example? "My goal, to be independently wealthy by the age of fifty, is looking increasingly unrealistic."
A. It contains a gerund phrase.
B. It contains a participial phrase.
C. It contains an absolute phrase.
D. It contains an appositive phrase.
E. None of the above.
44. What is true of the following example? "O'Connor uses the perfect aspect in many of the sentences that occur in the first few pages of the story."
A. It contains no dependent clauses.
B. It contains an adjective clause.
C. It contains an adverbial clause.
D. It contains a noun clause.
45. How does the underlined clause function in the following sentence? "What you write is not as important as how you write."
A. As the subject.
B. As an adjective.
C. As a predicate nominative.
D. As an adverb.
E. As the direct object.
46. Which of the following is correctly punctuated?
A. In the last chapter of the book, the character returns to his home town under the assumption that his uncle's house has burned down.
B. In the last chapter of the book, the character returns to his home town under the assumption, that his uncle's house has burned down.
C. In the last chapter of the book the character returns to his home town, under the assumption, that his uncle's house has burned down.
D. None of the above
47. What is the name for the mood of the underlined clause in the following sentence: "The suggestion is that he be sent to Texas for sensitivity training."
A. indicative
B. subjunctive
C. imperative
D. All of the above.
E. None of the above.
48. Which of the following words is prescriptively correct in the blank within the sentence: "He ____ in bed all day yesterday because he had the flu."
A. lay
B. lie
C. laid
D. lain
E. layed
49. Which of the following words is prescriptively correct in the blank within the sentence: "She _____ the pot on the shelf."
A. sat
B. set
50. Which of the following sentences (A, B, or C) is in the passive voice:
A. No one was hired.
B. She hired me.
C. She is happy with the results.
D. All of the above.
E. None of the above.


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