31 Jan D. incorrecter.

Question 1

1. Most paragraphs should be at least _______ sentences long.

A. two

B. five

C. three

D. four

Question 2

2. Select the appropriate word to complete the following sentence.

??The secretarial tasks are divided _______ several people.

A. between

B. among

C. of

D. through

Question 3

3. Regarding the appropriate use of parentheses, all of the following statements are correct, except which one?

A. Parentheses may be used to enclose and provide supplemental information.

B. Parentheses may be used to explain a phrase or clause.

C. Parentheses may be used to de-emphasize some portion of a sentence.

D. Parentheses may be used to emphasize a counter argument.

Question 4

4. Select the appropriate word to complete the following sentence.

??_______ client is Mr. Jackson?

A. Whose’s

B. Who’s

C. Whose

D. Whos

Question 5

5. Select the sentence that is punctuated correctly.

A. The dog had it’s collar caught on a branch.

B. The aroma of Hershey’s chocolate factory could be detected for miles.

C. She declared that “Jane’s soufflé should win the blue ribbon.”

D. The rain may stop by noon, however, we still can’t attend the picnic.

Question 6

6. Which of the following would be the best choice for introducing a paragraph?

A. We selected Ellen as manager for several reasons.

B. Those were the procedures for preparing boiled eggs.

C. As you can now see, the history of the Ajax Soap Company is long and proud.

D. That is why we have chosen gray, steel file cabinets.

Question 7

7. Which of the following abbreviations requires the use of a period or periods?

A. am (the abbreviation for before noon)

B. YWCA (an organization for young women)

C. Fe (the chemical symbol for iron)

D. PA (the abbreviation for Pennsylvania)

Question 8

8. Select the sentence in which a word has been italicized incorrectly.

A. Her favorite Broadway musical is South Pacific.

B. According to an article in today’s Washington Post, Senator Giles will resign.

C. He was an avant garde poet who lived hard and died young.

D. Funding for the NASA space program has been cut in recent years.

Question 9

9. Which of the following statements correctly describes the function of transitions between paragraphs?

A. Transitions should be removed when you’re finishing a piece of writing.

B. Every sentence needs to be connected to the next with a stated transition word or phrase.

C. Transitions should be used only by professional writers.

D. Transitions can make writing more clear by giving the reader clues about what to expect.

Question 10

10. Select the appropriate word.

??His hope and dream _______ finding true love.

A. is

B. with

C. always

D. are

Question 11

11. What punctuation mark should all of the following have in common?

??Luke 41??935 A.M.??Dear Sir??3 1 (a 3 to 1 ratio)

A. Semicolon

B. Comma

C. Colon

D. Apostrophe

Question 12

12. Everyone, everything, and everybody are always matched in sentences with which of the following?

A. Adverb

B. Plural verb

C. Singular verb

D. Adjective

Question 13

13. Select the correctly punctuated item.

A. She was a faithful, generous, and devoted, friend.

B. She was a, faithful generous and devoted friend.

C. She was a faithful, generous, and devoted friend.

D. She was a faithful generous and devoted friend.

Question 14

14. Which one of the following statements accurately reflects a rule for the use of abbreviations?

A. The symbol “$” may stand alone in a sentence, because it’s a familiar symbol.

B. The abbreviation “Ph.D.” may be written only in conjunction with a proper name.

C. The abbreviation “B.C.” should be associated with a number, such as 44 B.C.

D. The abbreviations “p.m.” and “P.M. can be used interchangeably within a document.

Question 15

15. In which of the following sentences is there agreement between the subject and the verb?

A. Twenty years are a long time to wait.

B. I think both hard work and time to play is important for each individual.

C. The number of people who voted were surprisingly low.

D. Either Mavis or Cameron is responsible for answering the phone.

Question 16

16. Which one of the following words may be either a subject or an object pronoun?

A. Ours

B. Us

C. I

D. You

Question 17

17. Which one of the following sentences contains an error in the use of a hyphen?

A. Lucy identified forty-four errors in the marketing report.

B. The view from the water tower offers a bird’s-eye view of Blair Mountain.

C. Jacob’s carefully-laid plans for the backyard garden were abandoned.

D. It was decided to re-form the machine parts into a new design.

Question 18

18. In which one of the following sentences is capitalization used correctly?

A. Alexandria Egypt is named after Alexander the Great of macedonia.

B. The meadows of the Valley are filled with yellow flowers each Spring.

C. Alice stood up at her desk and said, “who’s for coffee and donuts?”

D. Alphonse, who was born in Algeria, spoke both French and English.

Question 19

19. Select the appropriate word to complete the following sentence.

??The manager behaved

A. wrong.

B. poorest.

C. badly.

D. incorrecter.

Question 20

20. Select the correctly punctuated item.

A. At the grocery store, he bought the following items, milk, bread, and eggs.

B. At the grocery store, he bought the following items: milk, bread, and eggs.

C. At the grocery store, he bought the following items; milk, bread, and eggs.

D. At the grocery store, he bought the following items (milk, bread, and eggs).