91“having mastered” is an Awkward “ing.” A general rule of thumb is to stay away from the words having and
being.
(B) “for mastering” is another awkward “ing” that does nothing to fix the error.
(C) “attracts students who have mastered” fixes the awkward “ing” and the sentence is clearer and
less wordy.
(D) “attracts students to be mastering” makes no sense.
(E) inserts a “they.” Stay away from ambiguous pronouns!
Revised sentence:
The Scripps National Spelling Bee attracts
students who have mastered words that the majority
of adults do not yet know how to spell, such as
menhir and apodyterium.
Correct Answer: (C)
13.Although he wrote over 2500 years ago, the
Greek playwright Sophocles is still being
read, his plays are performed on stages all
over the world.
(A) read, his plays are
(B) read; his plays being
(C) read: his plays are being
(D) read; his plays are
(E) read, yet his plays areThe sentence as written is a Run-on. Although he wrote over 2500 years ago, the Greek playwright Sophocles
is still being read is an independent clause that stands on its own, and his plays are performed on stages all over
the world is also an independent clause.
(B) there is a “being” in the part of the sentence that is not underlined. We can’t do anything about
that, but we most definitely don’t want to add another “being” to the mix! Also, his plays being
performed sets up a dependent clause so shouldn’t be prefaced by a semi-colon.
(C) “being” is bad.
(D) the semi-colon takes care of the run-on error.
(E) “yet” changes the direction of the sentence. We don’t have two opposing ideas; the fact that
Sophocles is still read and his plays are still performed fall in line with each other.
Revised sentence:
Although he wrote over 2500 years ago, the
Greek playwright Sophocles is still being
read; his plays are performed on stages all
over the world.
Correct Answer: (D)