English and Language Usage TEAS

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: The correct answer is C: Tense disagreement. The sentence presents a mismatch in tenses between "is a gifted pianist" (present tense) and "struggling with the piece" (present continuous tense). This inconsistency in verb tenses creates a lack of agreement and clarity in the sentence. The correct form should be either "She is a gifted pianist, but she struggled with the piece" or "She was a gifted pianist, and she is struggling with the piece" to maintain tense consistency. Incorrect choices: A: Inappropriate transition word choice - The sentence structure is not affected by the transition word "although." B: Poor diction - The issue is not with the choice of words but with verb tense agreement. D: Incomplete sentence - The sentence is complete in structure; the issue lies in the tense disagreement.

Correct Answer: C

Rationale: The correct answer is C: Tense disagreement. The sentence presents a mismatch in tenses between "is a gifted pianist" (present tense) and "struggling with the piece" (present continuous tense). This inconsistency in verb tenses creates a lack of agreement and clarity in the sentence. The correct form should be either "She is a gifted pianist, but she struggled with the piece" or "She was a gifted pianist, and she is struggling with the piece" to maintain tense consistency. Incorrect choices: A: Inappropriate transition word choice - The sentence structure is not affected by the transition word "although." B: Poor diction - The issue is not with the choice of words but with verb tense agreement. D: Incomplete sentence - The sentence is complete in structure; the issue lies in the tense disagreement.

Correct Answer: D

Rationale: The correct answer is D: Mid-America. The word "Mid-America" is hyphenated correctly because it combines the prefix "Mid-" with "America" to create a compound word. The hyphen is used to connect the prefix and the base word to clarify their relationship. A: Ex-president is incorrect as "ex" is a prefix that does not require a hyphen when attached to a word. B: Hyperactive is incorrect as the prefix "hyper-" does not require a hyphen when attached to a word. C: Self-made is incorrect as "self" is a prefix that does not require a hyphen when attached to a word.

Correct Answer: A

Rationale: The correct answer is A, "John threw the ball," because it follows the active voice structure where the subject performs the action. In this sentence, "John" is the subject performing the action of throwing the ball. B, C, and D are written in the passive voice where the subject receives the action rather than performing it. In B, the subject is "The ball," making it the focus of the sentence. In C, the past perfect tense "had been thrown" indicates the action already took place before a certain time in the past. In D, the present tense "is thrown" also indicates a passive construction.

Correct Answer: A

Rationale: The correct answer is A because it uses non-restrictive commas correctly to provide additional, non-essential information about the runaway truck. The phrase "which had been parked on a steep hill" is additional information that can be omitted without changing the essential meaning of the sentence. Choices B and D use restrictive "which" clauses without commas, which implies the information is necessary for identifying the truck. Choice C incorrectly uses commas as if the information is essential when it is not. Therefore, A is the right choice for proper punctuation.