Jul 5, 2008

SAT Prep | Shift Errors and Comparison Errors

 Shift Errors
 There are two kinds of shift errors: tense shift and pronoun shift. 
 
  
    6.  When I saw her again after     almost  twenty years, I     can't     help but approach her and  say  "How's life  
  
      A      B      C    
 
 
  
         been     treating you?"  
  
    D       
 
 
 
  
    7.  Experience     teaches  us that we have     to work     hard and play hard if  you  want to have a  genuinely  
  
      A      B      C   D  
 
 
  
         fulfilling life.  
  
       
 
 
 Answers
 6. B
 The action of the sentence is taking place in the past—“I saw her” “Can’t” is a present tense modal. The modal helping to describe the nature and conditions of the encounter needs to be in the past tense: “I couldn’t help but approach her” 
 7. C
 In conversation, speakers often use the pronoun “you” to refer to people in general. Sometimes writers lapse into this conversational tendency in their writing, even when it violates pronoun consistency. The writer of sentence 7 errs by going from “we” and “us”—both first person plural pronouns—to second person “you.” 
 Comparison Errors
 Two types of comparison errors may occur in the Writing section: comparative/superlative errors and unequal comparison errors. 
 
  
    8.  Mons Olympus, a volcanic mountain     on  Mars, is the     taller     of all the other  known  mountains  in  
  
      A      B      C D    
 
 
  
         the Solar System.  
  
       
 
 
 
  
    9.  From a     distance, Betty seems     rather     short to me, but, when I stand next to her,  she's  clearly  
  
      A      B      C    
 
 
  
         the  tallest.  
  
      D  
 
 
 
  
    10.  My high school's track team     is  much     better     at long distance running  than  the  high school  that   
  
      A      B      C   D    
 
 
  
         won the state championship last year.  
  
       
 
 
 Answers
 8. B
 The writer discusses Mons Olympus in superlative terms: no mountain is taller than it. Hence, it is the “tallest” of all the other mountains, not simply “taller.” Also, the comparative “taller” should appear with the conjunction “than,” which does not appear in the sentence. 
 9. D
 The writer compares his or her height to that of one other person. If two things or people are being compared, the adjective needs to be in the comparative form, not the superlative. 
 10. D
 The writer clearly intended to compare two track teams; grammatically, the writer is comparing a track team to a high school. Although it’s acceptable to substitute the whole for the part—for example, high school = track team—this substitution should be applied consistently, a rule the writer fails to apply in this case.
  


            



©2000-2008
Enotes.com Inc.
All Rights Reserved