ACT Prep English Practice Questions

I grew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet; tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table. Choose the best replacement answer for this part of the sentence: "waiting by the back door;" A. NO CHANGE B. waiting, by the back door, C. waiting by the back door, D. waiting by the back door A (It provides the best punctuation for the underlined portion. The phrase "waiting by the back door" describes the noun nets and is essential because it tells which nets the narrator "grew up with." Therefore, no comma should be placed after nets. The semicolon after the word door is appropriate because semicolons are used between items in a series when one or more of these items include commas. So, basically since each item also has a semicolon after it in the list, this item should also have a semicolon after it to keep it the same.) I grew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet; tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table. Choose the best replacement answer for this part of the sentence: "was sitting" A. NO CHANGE B. would sit C. sitting D. sat C (The verb form sitting is best here because it creates a parallel structure for all three items in the series: "nets waiting," "hip-waders hanging," "a microscope sitting.") Having studied, my mother is a marine biologist. Choose the best replacement answer for this part of the sentence: "Having studied, my mother" A. NO CHANGE B. As my mother's interest is science, she is C. My mother's occupation is that of D. My mother is D (It offers the clearest, most concise wording for this sentence. "My mother is a marine biologist," is a clear statement that avoids unnecessary or confusing words.)