Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
I stayed ______ my daughter was sick.Choices: home. Because / home because / home; because
- The words after the choice, because my daughter was sick, cannot stand alone. Because she was sick, what?
- So they must join the sentence before them. A period would leave them as a fragment, and a semicolon joins only two complete sentences.
- When the because part comes second, no comma is needed.
Answer: I stayed home because my daughter was sick.
Example 2
Mi-rae ______ for the night shift.Choices: getting ready / was getting ready / to get ready
- The sentence names Mi-rae, but nothing happens yet. It needs a complete verb.
- Getting ready alone is not a complete verb; an -ing word needs a helper, such as was. To get ready is not a complete verb either.
- Was getting ready is the helper and the -ing word together.
Answer: Mi-rae was getting ready for the night shift.
Where this is taught: Sentences: Start Here, Part 1: What a sentence needs
More practice: Quiz 32, Fragments · In your Kaplan book: Unit 1, Chapter 4, Lesson 1, “Simple Sentences”
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
In each sentence, open the drop-down and choose the words that make the sentence correct, the way the GED test asks. A few questions ask you to tap a whole sentence instead. Then press Check my answers at the bottom.In each sentence, circle the choice in the brackets that makes the sentence correct; where whole sentences are given, circle one. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.