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ACT English 5.2 Sentence Structure 238 Views


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Description:

In this ACT English drill question, figure out if the underlined section requires a correction or not.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by taxis. Taxis. TAXIS!!!

00:08

How should you change the underlined portion below, if at all?

00:11

I waited for a taxi, but each one I see was too far away for me to hail.?

00:16

Here are the potential answers...

00:21

Our speaker’s great taxi adventure happened in the past--probably not during the days

00:24

of the dinosaur, but sometime before he or she is speaking.

00:27

We know when the action took place because the verb “waited” is in the simple past tense.

00:32

We also know that the other verb in the sentence needs to be in simple past tense if we’re

00:36

going to clearly communicate the epic past tense story of how this person couldn’t catch a cab.

00:40

Therefore, choice (A) is easy to eliminate because “see” is present tense.

00:44

Unless our speaker has some kind of amazing ability to bend the space-time continuum,

00:48

it doesn’t make sense for the sentence to suddenly shift tenses.

00:51

(D) is incorrect because it sets up a comparison that doesn't exist.

00:55

“Was seeing” is in the past progressive tense, which can be used to show when a longer

00:59

action in the past was interrupted by another past action. In this sentence, the waiting

01:04

isn’t interrupting the seeing.

01:05

The one isn’t happening before the other; they’re happening at the same time… which

01:10

means that the past progressive tense doesn’t work in this sentence.

01:14

(C) doesn’t work either because “had seen” is in the past perfect tense, not the simple past.

01:18

We remember that past perfect is used to describe an action that occurred before another event in the past.

01:25

Since we’ve already established that isn’t the case here, we can send (C) packing.

01:29

Choice (B) lays the correct answer on us by using “saw.”

01:31

This is the simple past version of the verb “see,” so it matches up with the past

01:36

tense verb “waited.”

01:37

Now if the speaker could only flag down a cab all would be right with the world…

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