TOEFL Structure Questions, 191-200
TOEFL Structure Questions, 191-200
Time: 7 minutes
1. It is the lack of gravity on the moon that makes ______ leaps of 30 feet or more.
possible
it possible
to be possible
it to be possible
2. Money [donated] by [philanthropist] H. R. Brandenberg
[was earmark] for AIDS research in [developing countries].
donated
philanthropist
was earmark
developing countries
3. In ancient [times] banking transactions often [were taken]
place in [common areas], for example, a [town square].
times
were taken
common areas
town square
4. From the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, technology ______ people are beginning to imagine there are no limits to what we can achieve.
progressed to the point that
has to progress to a point
has progressed to the point that
progressed a point that
5. It is believed that the modern bird ______ the pterodactyls that existed millions of years ago.
was evolved from
evolved from
evolved
was evolving from
6. A trap ______ disguise is what has come to be called a Trojan Horse, from the ancient story of the gift of the wooden horse from the Greeks.
offered a gift of
offers a gift in
offering a gift to
offered as a gift in
7. The log cabin, [among others], was a commonplace
[dwelling] for the early settlers in North because of the ease
[which] it was able to be constructed and the [relatively ready] availability of its building material, wood.
among others
dwelling
which
relatively ready
8. The Great Fire of 1906 in San Francisco [was happened] [primarily] as [a result of] the great earthquake preceding [it].
was happened
primarily
a result of
it
9. The development of the light bulb ______ partly as a result of the widespread availability of electricity and the need for cheap, clean light.
occurring
was occurring
was occurred
occurred
10. Telecommuting is a new form of work ______ to work, such as fathers with children, the chance to work while remaining at home.
affording those previously unable
affords those who were previously unable
that affording those unable previously
afforded those previously unable
source:test magic
Answer
1. It is the lack of gravity on the moon that makes ______ leaps of 30 feet or more.
possible
We need to understand a few things to answer this question correctly.
First, TOEFL likes to test these grammar patterns:
* make it possible (for somebody/something) TO DO something
* make something possible
In this question, we have the second pattern. Of course, TOEFL will typically mix up the two patterns in the incorrect answer choices, so we have to make sure we follow the pattern exactly.
Second, this question is a little trickier because the adjective possible comes before the noun leaps instead of after it, which we sometimes do in English.
Want to know why we put the noun after the adjective here? Yeah, of course you do. It's really quite simple. In English, we generally put the shorter part FIRST. In class, TestMagic calls this the "Short One First" rule. So, possible is shorter than leaps of thirty feet or more, so possible comes first. Got it??
it possible
to be possible
it to be possible
2. Money [donated] by [philanthropist] H. R. Brandenberg [was earmark] for AIDS research in [developing countries].
donated
philanthropist
was earmark
Correction: was earmarked
We need a past participle here since earmark is a verb. to earmark means to designate for a specific use.
developing countries
3. In ancient [times] banking transactions often [were taken] place in [common areas], for example, a [town square].
times
were taken
Correction: took place
take place is an intransitive verb and therefore can NEVER be used in the passive voice; we need active voice here.
common areas
town square
4. From the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, technology ______ people are beginning to imagine there are no limits to what we can achieve.
progressed to the point that
has to progress to a point
has progressed to the point that
This one's tricky. First, we should notice that we need a main verb, right? The main subject of this sentence is technology, but we don't have a verb for it. The second thing is that we need to think about the verb tense. Since the sentence says From the beginning of the twentieth century (a point in the past) to the present (now), we MUST use the present perfect. In fact, TestMagic wrote this question to fit the definition of the present perfect tense.
If you missed it, you probably chose (A). This is wrong because progressed is in the simple past, not the present perfect.
progressed a point that
5. It is believed that the modern bird ______ the pterodactyls that existed millions of years ago.
was evolved from
evolve is an intransitive verb and therefore can NEVER be used in the passive voice; we need active voice here.
evolved from
We need to memorize this preposition combination:
x evolved from y
evolved
was evolving from
6. A trap ______ disguise is what has come to be called a Trojan Horse, from the ancient story of the gift of the wooden horse from the Greeks.
offered a gift of
This answer would give us a double verb: offered and is. Furthermore, this answer choice would result in an illogical meaning--that the trap was offering the gift.
offers a gift in
This answer would give us a double verb: offers and is. Furthermore, this answer choice would result in an illogical meaning--that the trap was offering the gift.
offering a gift to
This answer choice would result in an illogical meaning--that the trap was offering the gift.
offered as a gift in
First, we should notice that we have a reduced adjective clause here. In other words:
offered as a gift in disguise = which is offered as a gift in disguise
7. The log cabin, [among others], was a commonplace [dwelling] for the early settlers in North because of the ease [which] it was able to be constructed and the [relatively ready] availability of its building material, wood.
among others
dwelling
which
Corrction: with which
This one's tricky! A lot of people miss this question.
First, we need to realize that we have an adjective clause here. Next, we need to understand that the word which is a pronoun and replaces ease. Finally, we should remember that we say with ease (which means easily), and we can answer the question!
Here's a trick that TestMagic teaches:
PREPOSITION + which + SENTENCE
In adjective clauses, if you see a sentence after which or that, then you need a preposition.
relatively ready
8. The Great Fire of 1906 in San Francisco [was happened] [primarily] as [a result of] the great earthquake preceding [it].
was happened
Correction: happened
happen is an intransitive verb and therefore can NEVER be used in the passive voice; we need active voice here.
primarily
a result of
it
9. The development of the light bulb ______ partly as a result of the widespread availability of electricity and the need for cheap, clean light.
occurring
This is not a verb.
was occurring
We need simple past here; we cannot use the past progressive when we are talking about development.
was occurred
occur is an intransitive verb and therefore can NEVER be used in the passive voice; we need active voice here.
occurred
Yep! This is the one--it's in the simple past and active voice.
10. Telecommuting is a new form of work ______ to work, such as fathers with children, the chance to work while remaining at home.
affording those previously unable
First, we should notice that we have a reduced adjective clause here:
affording those previously unable to work = that affords those previously unable to work
Second, if we understand the meaning, this question is probably easier to answer correctly. affording basically means giving. those essentially means people. previously unable to work is also a reduced adjective clause.
So, to simplify this sentence so that we can more easily understand the meaning, we would have:
Telecommuting is a new form work work that gives people (who were previously unable to work) the chance to work at home.
affords those who were previously unable
This would give us a double verb, is and affords.
that affording those unable previously
We are missing a verb.
afforded those previously unable
We need a present participle here, not a past participle.
Linking Verbs
My sister is a doctor.
The verb in this sentence, is, is a different from the other two that we've just looked at. Like the transitive verbs, this verb has a noun, doctor, after it. But the noun (doctor) after it isn't receiving the action of is because is doesn't have an action, right?
In fact, the noun doctor and the noun sister are actually the same thing. So, we say that the verb in the middle is serving to link the subject and the noun that comes after the verb. In this case, doctor is the noun that comes after the verb, and we call this noun a complement (which essentially means complete) because it adds information to the subject.
So, is is what we call a linking verb. You should also know that grammarians consider linking verbs intransitive verbs; i.e., if you look up be in the dictionary, the dictionary will probably say that be is vi, or intransitive.
Actually, any word or phrase that comes after a linking verb can be a complement of the subject:
My sister is happy.
My sister is at home.
Notice that happy and at home modify, or give more information about, sister.
There are many linking verbs in English, but by far the most common ones are the ones are all the forms of to be -- is, are, was, were, have been, may have been, will have been, etc. We call all of these word be-verbs. Check out the TestMagic Glossary for more information about this and other grammatical terms.
Some linking verbs include all of the words relating to the five (or six??) senses:
look, sound, feel, taste, smell
A few more examples:
grow, remain, prove, become, etc.
A good test to figure out whether a verb is a linking verb is to see whether it fits into the following sentence:
I ______ happy.
If a verb fits in that blank (and makes sense, of course!), it's probably a linking verb.
Here are some more examples of linking verbs with their complements:
I am a teacher.
I feel happy today.
Try to remain calm.
My little brother acts crazy sometimes.
The test proved more difficult than we had imagined.
We should notice two things -- that in each case, the complement modifies the subject and that verb serves to link the subject and the complement.
Switch Hitters
So far we've discussed the verbs in question as if they were always transitive or intransitive, but that's really not the case. English, like all natural human languages, is full of quirks and what some may call illogicalities, and in English, it's quite common for a verb to be transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another.
But please remember that there's (usually) a reason! Let's look at some examples:
The dog smells. (this means that the dog stinks, or has a bad odor)
The dog smelled the food. (this means that the dog did the action of smelling to the food)
The dog smells nice. (this means that the dog has a nice smell)
In the first sentence, the verb smell has an intransitive meaning -- to give off a bad odor. So, one of the meanings of smell -- to give off a bad odor -- is used in this sentence. Notice that this meaning of smell is intransitive -- the dog is doing an action (giving off a bad smell), but there's no noun to receive the action.
The second sentence is using another meaning of smell, the transitive meaning. Notice that with this meaning, the action of smell has an object, food. I.e., food is receiving the action, and the dog is doing the action.
Finally, in the third sentence, smell is performing the function of linking dog and nice. In other words, nice modifies or describes the dog.