Take this Quiz: SAT — punctuation within a sentence | Zestly

Question 1

"The architect designed the lobby, the atrium and the rooftop garden for the new corporate headquarters." Which choice best describes the punctuation in the writer's sentence?

Accepted Answer

A comma is missing before "and", where the convention this examination follows places one at the end of a series.

Answer

The sentence is correct, since the items in the series are short enough not to need a final comma.

Answer

The comma after "lobby" should be a semicolon, since the items in the series need stronger separation.

Answer

A colon is needed after "designed" to introduce the list of spaces.

Question 2

"The committee heard proposals from firms in Marlow, Ohio, Kenton, Vermont, and Ashby, Oregon." Which choice best describes the punctuation in the writer's sentence?

Accepted Answer

The items in the series contain commas of their own, so semicolons are needed between the items to show where each one ends.

Answer

The sentence is correct, since every item in a series is separated from the next by a comma.

Answer

The comma before "and" should be removed, since the sentence already contains more commas than it needs.

Answer

A colon is needed after "firms" to introduce the series of places.

Question 3

"The scientist examined the data from the two experiment's to determine the cause of the error." Which choice best describes the punctuation in the writer's sentence?

Accepted Answer

The sentence incorrectly uses a possessive apostrophe on a singular noun when a simple plural is required.

Answer

The sentence is correct because the apostrophe indicates the plural possession of the two experiments.

Answer

The sentence should use an apostrophe after the 's' in 'experiments' to indicate plural possession.

Answer

The sentence is missing a comma after 'data' to set off the prepositional phrase.

Question 4

"The company announced that its expanding into new markets, but it's revenue remains lower than expected." Which choice best describes the punctuation in the writer's sentence?

Answer

The sentence is correct, since "its" shows possession and "it's" stands for "it is".

Answer

Both words should be written "its", since a company is a single thing and the pronoun never takes an apostrophe.

Answer

The first should be "it's" and the second "its": the first stands in for "it is", and the second shows possession.

Answer

Both words should be written "it's", since each of them stands in for "it is".

Question 5

"Dr. Aris, a renowned biologist, published her findings in the journal last month." Which choice best describes the punctuation in the writer's sentence?

Answer

The sentence is correct because the commas properly enclose the non-essential appositive phrase.

Answer

The sentence should remove the commas because the appositive phrase is essential to the meaning.

Answer

The sentence should use dashes instead of commas to emphasize the biologist's reputation.

Answer

The sentence is missing a comma after 'biologist' to separate the subject from the verb.