TOEFL Grammar review

Questions from 1- 15. Complete a correct sentence.

A) A clause ( a correct subject with a conjugate verb/ a verb form like “to play”, “to do” or
any infinitve alone it’s not a conjugated verb).
B) Agreement: subject and verb must match. Specially in simple present: “Tony has a car”
NOT “Tony have a car”
C) A clause Contains S-V (complement is optional)
D) This structures are incorrect: S-V,V, // S,S- V
E) Prepositions: an, in at, on, of, up, down, about, to for, etc… always need a complement. A
preposition alone is not the subject of the sentence (it can be part of the subject, or not).
Prepositions provide the context of the message.
F) Commas have the following usages: separate extra information, make pauses,
appossitives. As appossitives, they work as a parenthesis. The information between a
parenthesys can be omitted, so please, be sure that the appossitives don’t affect the
structure of a clause.
G) ING forms are tricky. With verb to be, they are verbs in progressive. Am, is, are + playing//
was, were+ playing// has, has + been + playing// had + been playing// having been
playing// will be playing/ is going to be playing// can be playing.
Alone, are adjectives. Active meaning. It measn that the thing they describe performs the
action. The crying bay (el bebé que llora).
H) PAST PARTICIPLES. Are verbs with any form of have: has, has, having, had + past participle
is a verb (perfect tenses). With any form of verb to be: am, is, are, be, been, can be, etc. +
past participle = verb (Passive voice).
When they are alone, be careful because some are really similar to verbs in simple past. If
they are alone can be verbs in simple past or adjectives. As adjectives they have a passive
meaning. The thing that you describe DOESN’T Perform the action. The bought car. (el
auto compreado, el auto no compra).

Structures:

Multiple clauses

A) Coordinate connectors: and, or, so, but, yet. Structure: S-V, Coordinate conjunction S-V
 B) Adjective clauses: Relative pronoun (who, whom, which, that, whose) + S + V // Relative
pronoun (who, whom which, that, whose) + verb. Structure.

C) Reduction of adjective clause (Relative pronoun + verb). Eliminate verb to be// No Be,
change into ING. At the end, you will have and adjective in active (ING) or passive (past
participle).

D) Adverb clauses. Expressions of time, reasons, contrast: after, before, until when, while,
because, since, as long as, although, even though…+Subject + Verb + Another complete
clause.

Structure:
S +V+ C +ADVERB + S+ V+ C
ADVERB S+ V+ C, S +V

E) Noun clauses: Wh words / that : who, where, when, what, that, which… + subject + Verb +
complete clause.
No question form

F) Inversion

Error recognition

16. Light can travels from the Sun to the Earth in eight minutes and twenty seconds.

17. Every human typically have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in most cells.

18. Most sedimentary rocks start forming when grains of clay, silt, or sandy settle in river valleys or
on the bottoms of lakes and oceans.

19. The total thickness of the ventricular walls of the heart are about three times that of the atria.

20. The type of jazz known as “swing” was introduced by Duke Ellington when he wrote and
records “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.”

21. The bones of mammals, not alike those of other vertebrates, show a high degree of
differentiation.

22. The neocortex has evolved more recently then other layers of the brain.

23. The United States receives a large amount of revenue from taxation of a tobacco products.
24. Much fats are composed of one molecule of glycerin combined with three molecules of fatty
acids.

25.The capital of the Confederacy was originally in Mobile, but they were moved to Richmond.

26. A pearl develops when a tiny grain of sand or stone or some another irritant accidentally
enters into the shell of a pearl oyster.

27. The English horn is an alto oboe with a pitch one-fifth lower than the soprano oboe.

28. In the Milky Way galaxy, the most recent observed supernova appeared in 1604.

29. Never in the history of humanity has there been more people living on this relatively small
planet.

30. Because of the mobility of Americans today, it is difficult for they to put down real roots.

31. For five years after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee served to president of Washington College,
which was later called Washington and Lee.

32. The number of wild horses on Assateague is increasing lately, resulting in overgrazed marsh
and dune grasses.

33. Hypnoses was successfully used during World War II to treat battle fatigue.

34. The lobster, like many crustaceans, can cast off a damaging appendage and regenerate a new
appendage to nearly normal size.

35. Humans develop normally twenty primary, or deciduous, teeth and thirty-two permanent
ones.

36. The curricula of American public schools are set in individual states; they do not determine by
the federal government.

37. The fact that the sophisticated technology has become part of revolution in travel delivery
systems has not made travel schedules less hectic.

38. Balanchine’s plotless ballets, such Jewels and The Four Temperaments, present dance purely as
a celebration of the movement of the human body.

39. In a solar battery, a photosensitive semiconducting substance such as silicon crystal is the
source of electrician.

40. In early days, hydrochloric acid was done by heating a mixture of sodium chloride with iron
sulfate.