9 original Form, Structure and Sense questions, easiest first. Agreement, tense, pronouns, modifiers, parallelism. Answer them all, then submit once to see every answer explained.
By the time the rescue team reached the summit, the stranded climbers ______ there for nearly two days.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
D — had waited. The waiting was completed before another past event (the team's arrival), so the past perfect 'had waited' is required. The simple past (A) loses the sequence, and the present-related forms (C, B) clash with the past-time frame.
The city's planning commission ______ its proposed rezoning changes at a public forum next month.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A — presents. 'Planning commission' functions as a singular collective noun acting as a unit, requiring the singular present-tense verb 'presents.'
The company's quality assurance team ______ its monthly product review this coming Thursday.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A — conducts. 'Quality assurance team' functions as a singular collective noun acting as a unit, requiring the singular present-tense verb 'conducts.'
Neither the lead engineer nor the technicians ______ available to answer questions during the inspection.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
B — were. In a 'neither...nor' construction, the verb agrees with the subject closer to it—here, the plural 'technicians.' 'Were' is the correct plural past-tense verb.
Having spent three years cataloging the fossil collection, the exhibit ______ finally opened to the public by the museum's curators.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
D — was. The exhibit was opened—a completed single past action, matching the singular subject 'exhibit'—requires simple past 'was,' not the plural 'were' or the non-finite 'having been.'
A majority of the shipment's contents ______ damaged during transport, according to the inspector's initial report.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
D — were. 'A majority of' followed by a plural noun ('contents') takes a plural verb, making 'were' the correct choice, agreeing with the plural sense of the contents being damaged.
The collection of essays, written by several different authors over two decades, ______ a wide range of perspectives on urban life.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
C — offers. The subject is the singular 'collection' (not 'essays' or 'authors'), so it takes the singular verb 'offers.' The plural forms in A, B, and D disagree with the singular subject.
The committee overseeing the merger, unlike the individual shareholders it represents, ______ required to disclose potential conflicts of interest publicly.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
B — is. 'Committee' is a singular collective noun acting as a unit; the interrupting phrase 'unlike the individual shareholders it represents' does not change the subject's number, so the singular verb 'is' is correct.
Each of the proposals submitted by the engineering firms ______ evaluated according to identical criteria.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
D — was. 'Each' is a singular subject, taking the singular past-tense verb 'was,' regardless of the plural noun 'proposals' within the prepositional phrase that follows it.
Score:
Every question above is now marked up: the correct answer is highlighted, any wrong option you picked is flagged, and each explanation is open.
No. Every question here is original, written to the College Board's published Digital SAT Reading & Writing specification for the Form, Structure and Sense skill. No retired or copyrighted College Board material appears anywhere on this site.
Form, Structure and Sense covers the rest of Standard English Conventions: subject-verb agreement, verb tense and form, pronoun agreement and clarity, modifier placement, and parallel structure within a list or comparison.
For agreement, find the actual subject of the verb and mentally delete every phrase between them — the SAT inserts long prepositional phrases specifically to hide a singular subject behind a plural noun. For tense, find the other verbs and time markers in the passage and match them. For a modifier, check what the phrase sits next to: it modifies that, whether or not that is what the writer meant.
No, and deliberately so. This drill is 9 Form, Structure and Sense questions back to back; a real Reading & Writing module is 27 questions in 32 minutes drawn from all eleven skills. Use a drill to fix one weakness, then take a full module to practice the real thing.
No. The SAT has no penalty for a wrong answer — a blank and a wrong guess both score zero — so answer every question, including the ones you have to guess.