Practice Set 7 — English Language

2 and 4 only. Sentence 2 is correct: suggest takes a that-clause with should + bare verb, or the bare verb alone (Oxford Learner's, suggest: "It has been suggested that bright children take their exams early", and in British English "… should take their exams early"; ch10 H, pattern 22). Sentence 4 is correct: except is a preposition, so it takes the object form me, and the subject is the singular nobody (ch10 H, pattern 21; D.3, rule 2). Sentence 1 is wrong: an opening participle must belong to the subject of the main clause, and a shower cannot cross a playground, so the participle dangles (ch10 L, pattern 38). It could read "As the new teacher was crossing the playground after the assembly, a sudden shower drenched her." Sentence 3 is wrong: advice is uncountable (Oxford Learner's marks it [uncountable]) and takes a singular verb: "was practical and timely" (ch10 H, pattern 19). (a) accepts both faulty sentences and rejects both correct ones; (c) accepts sentence 3, where the plural students just before the verb tempts were; (d) accepts sentence 1, the dangling participle.

(b). (1) An action or state that began in the past and continues now, marked by since and a starting point, takes the present perfect: "has been in use since the beginning of this session" (ch10 C.3, since/for; Wren & Martin on the present perfect). "is in use since" and "was in use since" are both wrong. (2) To insure something is to buy insurance for it (Oxford Learner's, 'insure': "to buy insurance so that you will receive money if your property ... gets damaged or stolen"), and "with an insurance company" fixes that sense. Ensure means to make sure that something happens (Oxford Learner's) and cannot take this meaning (ch10 I.5, pair 19). Oxford Learner's also records insure for ensure, especially in North American English, which is why the blank is set where only the insurance sense fits. (3) To adhere to a rule is to follow it (Oxford Learner's, 'adhere to': "to behave according to a particular law, rule, set of instructions, etc."); "adhere with" and "adhere by" are not standard. (a) has is and ensure; (c) has ensure and adhere with; (d) has was and adhere by.

Only one pair, I, is correct. To pass the buck is to make someone else responsible for something you should deal with (Oxford Learner's, 'buck': pass the buck "= make somebody else responsible"; Cambridge: "to blame someone or make them responsible for a problem that you should deal with"). II is the near-miss: to turn a blind eye is to pretend not to notice something wrong so that you need not act on it (Oxford Learner's; Merriam-Webster: "to refuse to see"); refusing to listen is to turn a deaf ear. III is wrong: to blow hot and cold is to keep changing one's attitude or opinion (Oxford Learner's: "to change your opinion about something often"; Cambridge), not to lose one's temper. IV is wrong: to make a clean breast of something is to confess it fully (Oxford Learner's: "to tell the truth about something so that you no longer feel guilty"; Cambridge), the opposite of being cleared. (a) and (b) accept two or one of the wrong pairs, usually II, because a blind eye and a deaf ear both suggest ignoring; (d) rejects I, a standard meaning.