Before you start
What is different about this drill
Every other drill on this site practices one skill, or one family of skills. This one mixes all three families, the way the GED test does. A passage of ten sentences may test a comma splice, then a verb, then an apostrophe, then a joining word, in any order.
So the drill does not tell you what each sentence is testing. Finding that out is the first step every time. Look at how the choices differ from one another:
- If they differ in punctuation between two groups of words (a period, a comma, a semicolon, or nothing), ask whether there are two complete sentences.
- If they are different forms of one verb, find the subject and the time words.
- If they are pronouns, ask what the pronoun points back to, and what job it does in the sentence.
- If they sound alike, say the test for that pair, such as it is for it’s.
- If they differ in an apostrophe or a capital letter, ask whether something belongs to someone, or whether the word is a name.
- If they are longer pieces of a sentence, check a list for matching parts, and check an opening phrase for who is doing the action.
When you check your answers, the reasoning under each question names the skill it tested and links to the drill that practices that skill alone. If you miss several questions on the same skill, go to that drill.
Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
- First ask what this sentence is testing. The choices are forms of one verb, so it is subject-verb agreement.
- Find the subject: boxes, more than one. In the hallway only tells where the boxes are.
- More than one takes the verb without an s.
Answer: The boxes in the hallway belong to the building.
Example 2
- First ask what this sentence is testing. The choices differ in two ways: a capital letter, and what joins the two parts. So check both.
- Monday is a day of the week, a name: it takes a capital.
- I called the office on Monday and nobody answered are both complete sentences. A comma alone cannot join them; a comma and but can.
Answer: I called the office on Monday, but nobody answered.
Where this is taught: Sentences: Start Here · Grammar: Start Here · Punctuation: Start Here
In your Kaplan book: Unit 1, Chapters 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9
The drill
Twenty questions
The questions are the sentences of a passage, in order: one passage of ten sentences in a set of ten, two passages in a set of twenty. Read each one, open its drop-down, and choose the words that make it correct. Then press Check my answers at the bottom.Read each passage in order. In each sentence, circle the choice in the brackets that makes it correct. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.