Nursing Elites

1. Fill in the blank with the correct subordinating conjunction: '... the class was difficult, Allison passed with flying colors.'

• A. If
• B. Since
• C. Because
• D. Although

Correct answer: D

Rationale: The correct conjunction is 'Although.' In this sentence, there is a contrast being made between the difficulty of the class and Allison's success, indicating that despite the class being difficult, she excelled. 'If' implies a condition, 'Since' indicates a reason, and 'Because' shows causation, which do not fit the context of the sentence where a contrast is being expressed.

2. Which of the following sentences has correct subject-verb agreement?

• A. The crowd standing outside the club is getting restless.
• B. Most of the cookies we left out on the counter were eaten by the dog.
• C. The upholstered couch and rocking chair we bought together look great in the living room.
• D. Ricotta cheese and pesto taste great on pizza.

Correct answer: C

Rationale: The correct answer is C: 'The upholstered couch and rocking chair we bought together look great in the living room.' This sentence has correct subject-verb agreement with a compound subject. 'The crowd standing outside the club are getting restless' (Choice A) has incorrect agreement as 'crowd' is singular and should be paired with 'is'. 'Most of the cookies we left out on the counter was eaten by the dog' (Choice B) has incorrect agreement as 'cookies' is plural and should be paired with 'were'. 'Ricotta cheese and pesto tastes great on pizza' (Choice D) has incorrect agreement as 'cheese' and 'pesto' form a compound subject that is plural and should be paired with 'taste'.

3. Which of the following is a complex sentence?

• A. When skywriting, a pilot flies a small aircraft in specific, particular formations, creating large letters visible from the ground.
• B. The public defense attorney was able to maintain her optimism despite her dearth of courtroom wins, her lack of free time, and her growing list of clients.
• C. Because the distance between stars in the galaxy is far greater than the distance between planets, interstellar travel is expected to be an even bigger challenge than interplanetary exploration.
• D. Invented in France in the early nineteenth century, the stethoscope underwent a number of reiterations before the emergence of the modern form of the instrument in the 1850s.

Correct answer: C

Rationale: A complex sentence has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause connected by a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun. In choice C, the sentence 'Because the distance between stars in the galaxy is far greater than the distance between planets' is a dependent clause introduced by the subordinating conjunction 'Because,' while the rest of the sentence 'interstellar travel is expected to be an even bigger challenge than interplanetary exploration' forms the independent clause. This combination of an independent clause and a dependent clause makes choice C a complex sentence. Choices A, B, and D do not contain both an independent and dependent clause connected in the way that choice C does, thus they do not qualify as complex sentences.

4. In the sentence 'Singing is my favorite activity,' how does 'Singing' function in terms of parts of speech?

• A. Verb
• B. Noun
• C. Adjective
• D. Pronoun

Correct answer: B

Rationale: In the sentence provided, 'Singing' is a gerund, which is a verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun. It represents the action of singing, but in this context, it acts as the subject of the sentence. Therefore, 'Noun' is the correct answer. 'Verb' (choice A) is incorrect because while gerunds are verb forms, in this sentence, 'Singing' is not acting as a verb. 'Adjective' (choice C) is incorrect as it describes a noun, which is not the case here. 'Pronoun' (choice D) is also incorrect as 'Singing' does not replace a noun in this sentence.

5. What kind of error does the following sentence contain? Some workers use all their sick leave, other workers cash out their leave.

• A. Parallelism
• B. Comma splice
• C. Sentence fragment
• D. Subject-verb agreement

Correct answer: B

Rationale: The correct answer is B: Comma splice. A comma splice is present in the sentence, where two independent clauses are incorrectly joined by a comma. In this case, 'Some workers use all their sick leave' and 'other workers cash out their leave' are two independent clauses that should be separated by a conjunction or a stronger punctuation mark like a semicolon or period. Choice A, parallelism, is incorrect because the error in the sentence is not related to maintaining parallel structure. Choice C, sentence fragment, is incorrect as the sentence contains two independent clauses, not fragments. Choice D, subject-verb agreement, is also incorrect as the error in the sentence does not involve agreement between subjects and verbs.

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