Start wherever is easiest. In this case, it can be a little bit difficult to say for sure whether we are talking
about one language or about a bunch of languages. Instead, let’s work with the pronoun. What does it refer
back to? In this sentence, it seems that the pronoun refers back to “a community,” which is a singular noun
(even though it describes a lot of people). Therefore, the only possible answer that could work is (D),
which contains the singular pronoun “its.”
Notice how we made the question irrelevant as to whether we were talking about one language or many
languages. Sometimes fixing one problem will make others irrelevant!
LEARN FROM THE ANSWER CHOICES
Let’s think about the previous question a bit more. If someone said to you, A community’s very soul, we
might say, is communicated through their language, you might not necessarily hear that as wrong. That’s
because the way we speak is often very different from the way we write. On this test, the test writers are
more concerned with how we write and with the stricter set of rules that go along with writing.
As such, the answer choices can not only tell us what a particular question is testing, but can also reveal
mistakes that we might not have otherwise seen (in the original sentence) or heard (in our heads). In the
previous question, we might not have noted the mistake at all if we hadn’t looked at what was changing in
the answer choices.
Let’s see another.
4 For all intensive purposes, any social, cultural, or historical study must start with an
analysis of language.4.
A) NO CHANGE
B) For all intents and purposes,
C) For all intent’s and purpose’s,
D) For all intensive purpose’s,Here’s How to Crack It
First, as always, check what’s changing in the answer choices. In this case, that step is especially
important because you can’t really hear the error. People misuse this idiom all the time because they so
rarely see it written, and all four of the answer choices sound basically the same. So, having checked the
answer choices in this case reveals an error that you might not have otherwise seen.
Then, start Process of Elimination. There’s no good reason to have apostrophes anywhere (there are
neither contractions nor possessions), so eliminate (C) and (D). Then, if you’re not sure, take a guess. The
correct form of the saying here is (B).