Look It Up!
23. B Without the phrase what if you don’t?, the next sentence (Well, Urban Dictionary can save
the day.) does not make sense. Therefore, the phrase should be kept, and eliminate (C) and
(D). Because the sentence following the phrase answers the question being asked, the
correct answer is (B).
24. D The correct idiomatic expression to use when looking for (or trying to discover) someone
or something is turn up. All the other choices could follow turn in other circumstances
(turn down the volume, turn in your homework, turn back before it’s too late). However,
in this sentence, the reader is instructed to look for something in a Google search. What the
reader finds would be what the reader turns up, making (D) the correct answer.
25. D The correct choice will feature words that are as precise as possible. Where Sentence 2 is
currently placed, it is unclear what they is referring back to, so eliminate (A). There would
be nothing for they to refer back to if Sentence 2 were placed at the beginning of the
paragraph, so eliminate (B). In placing Sentence 2 after Sentence 5, they seems to be
referring back to Urban Dictionary, which is singular. They is plural and, therefore,
inconsistent, so (C) is also incorrect. Choice (D) is correct because the construction is
consistent with Sentences 8 and 9, and they is appropriately placed so that they refers back
to the plural noun dictionaries.
26. A The verb in the underlined portion should be consistent with the rest of the verb phrase:
were not, did not, and did not have can’t come before existed, so (B), (C), and (D) are
incorrect. The verb phrase have not...existed is therefore correct as written. Choice (A) is
correct.
27. C The word pronunciation may be more common, but that does not make it more relevant in
the circumstances, so (A) is incorrect. Diction does have a precise meaning (that is, the
choice and use of words or phrases in speech and writing), so (B) is incorrect. Choice (D)
is incorrect because the two words do not have radically different definitions. Since the
beginning of the sentence mentions the term dictionary and when this word was coined, the
phrase should be kept for the reason stated in (C).
28. D The sentence already contains furthermore, which is not underlined, so using indeed would
be redundant. Eliminate (B). Both (A) and (C) mean the same thing, but (A) is more
concise; eliminate (C). However, you can have a comma between two complete ideas only
when it accompanies a FANBOYS; therefore, eliminate (A) as well. The first idea
(Furthermore...Modern period) needs to be incomplete because the idea following the
comma is complete. By adding while before numerous dictionaries, the first idea is
incomplete, making (D) the correct answer.
29. C There should be a comma after every item in a list—in this case, consistent spellings,
variant definitions, textual usages, and alphabetical arrangements. This eliminates (D).
Choice (B) is incorrect because a comma is not needed after and. The phrase alphabetical
arrangements needs to be together, so there should not be a comma separating those two
words, which means (A) is incorrect and (C) is the answer.
