Answer: "Jim cast his fishing rod into the water and within minutes he caught a fish."  The original sentence mixes the active voice (“Jim cast his fishing rod into the water” with the passive voice (“a fish was caught”). This sets up an unclear meaning - do we really know that “a fish was caught” means that Jim caught it?  Or did Jim cast his rod and someone else caught a fish? The correct answer uses the active voice for both verbs of the sentence: Jim cast his rod and Jim caught the fish. This makes it crystal clear what happened in the sentence.

Answer: “abide”  The sentence uses the imperative mood - the verb form that commands - to say that the student handbook mandates two things. Because of that, you should connect both verbs mandated by the handbook to the phrase “the handbook mandates that students ______”  The handbook mandates that students wear appropriate clothing. And the handbook mandates that students abide by certain rules. Note that the -ing form of the verb suggests that that is ongoing, but the mandate really conveys the idea that this is a command for all times, not a temporary, current action.

Answer: Priyanka has been learning French and taking Geometry. Notice that this sentence talks about what has happened since Priyanka started high school a month ago. The word “since” suggests that the events started recently and are still going on, and the fact that she only started school a month ago means that it is quite unlikely she has already finished learning French or taking Geometry. And the fact that both events have been occurring in the same short timeframe suggests that they should be in the same tense.  The “started recently and is still ongoing” tense is the present perfect continuous tense, constructed by has been + an -ing verb.  Therefore “Priyanka has been learning French and taking Geometry” is correct.  Note, also, that “will learn” or “will take” does not match with the time signal of “since starting high school” which means that the action started in the past, but “will” means that it will begin in the future.

Answer: “ran so swiftly that she recorded a record time”  Two choices in this problem use the passive voice “a record time was recorded” but notice that the passive voice does not directly assign the record time to Allyson. “a record time was recorded” could mean that anyone in the race set a record, leaving it unclear what really happened. And notice, also, that since the record time occurred in the past (either “was recorded” or “she recorded”), the simple past tense “ran so swiftly” is the most efficient way to say what happened - and it is the same tense as “started so quickly.”  The correct answer will use the simple past tense “ran so swiftly” and the active voice “she recorded a record time” to create a logical sequence of events and a clear meaning as to who set the record.

Answer: “to use headlights even during daylight hours and wear seat belts.” This sentence uses the imperative mood - the verb form that makes commands to say that drivers are required to do two things: 1) use headlights and 2) wear seat belts. The imperative mood uses a command (such as “requires”) plus the infinitive form of the verb (e.g. “to use”), minus the word “to.”  So you would say that “the law requires drivers to use headlights” or “the law requires drivers to wear seat belts.”  Since the law requires both things, you need “the law requires drivers to use...and wear” and only one sentence has that.  The choices that include “should” or “need to” do so redundantly and incorrectly: you wouldn’t say “the law requires drivers they need to wear” because “need to” or “should” is already conveyed by the word “requires.”

Answer: Last month, Carlton began doing his own laundry and will start flossing his teeth after every meal. In this sentence, the modifier “last month” applies to every action in the sentence, so the shift from the past tense “began” to the future tense “will start flossing” does not get the timeline right. “Will start flossing” cannot take place in the past.  Notice that the sentences about Will and Jeff take active steps to properly shift to the future: in the sentence about Will, the word “so” sets up a cause and effect situation: because Will increased his grades in the past, the result is that he will be able to go to his dream school in the future. And in the sentence about Jeff, the shift from past to future follows the same action: Jeff started an action (walking to school) and plans to keep doing that action.  In both of those sentences, also, the pronoun “he” begins a new clause (“he will be attending” and “he plans to keep doing so”) which also sets up a new timeframe.  With the sentence about Carlton, there is no pronoun to reintroduce Carlton in a new context.  

Answer: “wished that she were able to fly; now, as a pilot, she does” This sentence requires a shift in verb voice and tense. As a child, Melissa wished that something were the case, and that requires the subjunctive mood “Melissa wished that she were able to fly” (note that “was” would be incorrect as it suggests that she really did fly as a child).  But nowadays it’s no longer a wish: she’s a pilot so she does fly.  Note that the verbs “is” or “does” have to carry over a verb that has already been stated (“fly”).  The word “is” cannot work, because you would never say “she is fly” but instead would have to say “she is flying.”  But you can say “she does fly,” making “she does” correct.

 If you want to play soccer on Tuesday, he or she must call the park first. This sentence does NOT correct the error in the shift of person. “Someone” is the third person and “you” is the second person so these tenses do not match. The same goes for “If you want to play soccer on Tuesday, he or she must call the park first.” “You” is the second person and “he or she” is third-person singular so they are mismatched. The other choices are all in the same tense and have corrected the error.

The word “take” in the first portion of the sentence is written in an imperative mood while “you should call” in the second half is written in an indicative mood so there is a shift in mood. An imperative mood gives a command while an indicative mood states a fact or asks a question. In order to correct the shift, both parts of the sentence must be in the same mood. By correcting the sentence with “and then call the doctor.” both halves are now written in an imperative mood.

This answer choice has an improper shift in verb tense. “Last month” sets the sentence in the past tense, “threw” is also past tense, but then it shifts to future tense with “will recover”. If this is happening during the same game it should say “and recovered a fumble” to maintain the same tense throughout. The other choices are all in the same tense and there are no errors in shifts.