Science Passage (grammar/writing)

Don’t read the passage first.

Identify important material if there is a stated question.

Read for context.

Examine the structure of the answers.

Choose the answer that best fits the context and, if applicable, the stated question.

Take time to review any questions you’ve flagged as difficult.

The answer is D. This question combines aspects of punctuation with those of sentence structure, as well as a choice of verb form. The “Clause Test” on CLT Grammar & Writing is a strategy that allows you to determine how to connect clauses in a sentence. The rule for the comma is that a comma alone can only separate two clauses if one of them is incomplete (that is, could not stand on its own as a sentence). Our first task, then, is to evaluate the two clauses for completeness. The first clause stretches from the beginning of the sentence to the word proofs; this clause is complete in that it could stand on its own as a sentence. However, as long as we are retaining the word “showing”, the second clause is not an independent (complete) clause. Beginning with “showing that,” it is a dependent clause describing the “investigations” that Archimedes has undertaken.

These are the perfect conditions for a comma. We cannot use either a period (with new capitalization of the next word) or a semicolon, as both of these punctuation marks are used to join two independent clauses. That leaves us with choices B and D, whose difference lies in the form of the verb to show. The voice is active here, describing what Archimedes has done, so the passive “shown” is inappropriate. The word “showing”, by contrast, works well to introduce a discussion of exactly what his investigations showed.

The answer is A. A “clearest and most concise” question will ask you to eliminate answers that 1) are too wordy (fail to be concise); 2) use unclear phrasing (are not clear); or 3) do not convey all the information given (leave something out). Here, choice B falls into the first of these categories; notice how it is much longer than the original selection. Choice C fails the second test; it is not clearly written, especially in the fact that it puts the phrase “since then” confusingly at the end of the sentence. Choice D is certainly quite concise, but it takes out important information from the sentence. It’s best here to keep the sentence as written.

The answer is D. The issue here is agreement, both with the pronouns (“it” versus “they” and “this” versus “these”) and the verb (“is” versus “are”). In all three cases, as with agreement questions generally, the issue is singular versus plural. We have to read the context in the previous sentence to determine whether singular or plural is called for. In that sentence, Archimedes is only talking about plural things like “theorems” and “proofs.” We’re looking for the uniformly plural answer. Choice A succeeds in pluralizing the pronoun “these” and choice C has the plural “They are,” but only choice D pluralizes all three words.

The answer is C. This question asks us to chose the appropriate possessive pronoun. We know this because the word after the underlined word, “radius”, goes with the word before it, “circle”. The relationship is one of possession: a radius belongs to a circle or a circle possesses a radius.

Once we have identified possession, we ask whether the “possessing” word is a noun or a pronoun. If it’s a noun, we’ll use an apostrophe, either before the s in the case of singular (the girl’s books means one girl) or after the s in the case of plural (the girls’ books means two or more girls). If it’s a pronoun, we don’t use an apostrophe, and this fact helps us distinguish a possessive pronoun from similar forms. For example, consider the classic it’s versus its. The latter of these two is the possessive pronoun; the form with the apostrophe means “it is”.

In this case, we know we have a pronoun because it is pointing to the noun “circle”. Therefore, no apostrophe, so not NO CHANGE. But we do need a possessive form; “who” is simply the subject form, with no possession implied, so choice C is out. And we definitely don’t want to say “who is” here, which would create “a circle who is radius …” Whose is the winner because “whose” is a possessive noun.

The answer is D. This question combines verb tense with subject/verb agreement. For the tense, we need to read the whole sentence (as always!) and notice that the near context includes the phrase “before my time.” This locates the action in the past, eliminating choices A and B. What about agreement? The subject of the verb in this case is “those who,” a plural reference. If we plug in “he/she” as a singular example and “they” as a plural example, we would have “they was” versus “they were.” The latter is correct. Note: the relative pronoun “who” is not enough to tell you whether the verbal is singular or plural, because “who” can work for both. You have to look further back, to the word “those”.

The answer is B. There are a couple of sentence structure elements to keep in mind here. One is the issue of the modifier; in this case, the introductory phrase that comes before this portion of text must agree with the beginning of what follows. In other words, when the text says “having set aside …” and then ends the introductory phrase with a comma, the very next words spoken must be who did the setting aside. That consideration alone points to answer B; it is “I” (Archimedes) who did the setting aside, not “my former investigations” (choice A), “these properties” (choice C), or “no hesitation” (choice D).

It is also generally wise to avoid the passive voice when a more direct expression is available. The phrase “by me” in choices A and D is less than optimal. Much better to say “I feel no hesitation” than “no hesitation is felt by me”. As for choice C, in addition to not starting with “I” as the subject, it places “without hesitation” in an awkward place at the end of the sentence where it’s not perfectly clear what that phrase refers to.

The answer is C. Finding the right choice here requires breaking down the structure of this rather long sentence. After the phrase “established that” midway through the sentence, we have references to what exactly has been established. Here we are helped by the parallel phrase “any pyramid … any cone.” Focusing on those two subjects, we see that first a pyramid, then a cone is described in parallel fashion. This means that the connector leading into these subjects should also be parallel. Since the word “that”, following “established”, precedes “any pyramid,” we should use another “that” to introduce the parallel “any cone”. But these are two separate ideas, so we also need an “and” to connect them. Choice A and B leave out one word or the other, and simply taking away the underlined portion, as Choice D suggests, would leave us without the necessary connectors to make this part of the sentence make sense.

The answer is D. This is a word choice question with a focus on idiom. When we use an idiom (and there are thousands of them in English), we associate words in a commonly accepted way that has nothing to do with grammar. An idiom “just is what it is” for a speaker of the language in which it is found. For this reason, we can’t judge this question according to any rule of usage or mechanics; we have to “trust our ear,” reading over all the choices repeatedly in context until we have determined what sounds best. The phrase here is “observed ___ anyone”; in context, it’s clear that “anyone” is doing the observing, not being observed. So “by” makes most sense. In addition, there are no commonly accepted idiomatic uses of “observed to,” “observed of,” or “observed for,” so we can eliminate those. They just don’t sound right!

The answer is A. A word choice question seeking an adjective to modify “ability” in this particular context, this question requires reading the whole sentence carefully (as you always should!). The ability mentioned appears to be what is necessary or required “to examine these discoveries of mine.” Archimedes is telling his addressees that his teachings may well be plain to them, but only if they are able to examine his discoveries intelligently. The word meaning “necessary” or “required” here is requisite, choice A.

However, you may ask: What if I don’t know what “requisite” means? In that case, your best strategy is process of elimination combined with reading each answer into the context to see how it sounds. The two most common words among the choices are “requested” and “recollected”. There is nothing in the context to suggest that someone has asked for this ability, so we can get rid of “requested”. “Recollected” might seem close because this ability probably does involve remembering certain things, but the ability itself is not what’s remembered. That leaves “recumbent” and “requisite”. If you know that “recumbent” means “lying down,” you can take that out quickly (though it makes for a funny image!). But if you know neither “recumbent” nor “requisite,” you’ll have to read them both into the sentence and guess based on sound. Also, you can consider the roots of words you don’t know, using natural similarities as well as other languages you might have studied (especially if you’ve studied Latin!). The first part of the word “requisite” looks like the first half of “required,” so that would be a strong educated guess to choose instead of “recumbent”.

The answer is C. This question asks for a conjunction that joins (“conjunction” literally means something that joins) the two halves of the sentence together. In the first part of the sentence, Archimedes is lamenting the absence of Conon, who he thinks would have been an ideal person to evaluate his recent intellectual work. After the conjunction we need here, Archimedes nevertheless is sending this information to the addressee of the book so that person can play the role Conon would have played had he been alive. Notice that we naturally use the word “nevertheless” in describing this relationship because there is a sense of contrast or opposition present. Even though Conon is not around to make the evaluation, which would have been ideal, Archimedes is still offering his insights to the reader for consideration. With this opposition in mind, “but” makes the most sense.

Choice B, “for”, would imply cause and effect in this case, with the cause coming second. Archimedes would have to be saying that because he is sending his work to the reader, Conon would have been the ideal person to evaluate it. That clearly doesn’t make sense. Choice D, “and”, is not a strong enough connector to express the specific relationship between Conon hypothetically evaluating the work and the reader actually doing it.

Choice A, “so”, is probably the most tempting wrong answer. If we could tweak the sentence a little bit, it would make sense to say, “Conon would have been the perfect person to do this, but he’s not around, so I’m sending this to you.” But notice that we have to change the sentence and add some new phrasing to set it up that way. The idea is not quite the same. Rather, Archimedes is saying (if we can take a little bit of license in paraphrasing him), “I wish Conon were here to evaluate my work, but I’ll settle for you.” We must have the contrast here that the word “but” implies.