EASY

1. Even though he does not like crowds, John still likes New York City more than Sybil.

a) John still likes New York City more than Sybil.
b) New York City is still liked more than Sybil by John.
c) John is still liking New York City more than is Sybil.
d) John still likes New York City more than Sybil does.
e) New York City is still more liked by John than Sybil.

This question tests comparison. (A) is improperly compared because it compares how much John likes New York City to how much he likes Sybil, NOT to how much Sybil likes New York City. (B) and (E) moves around the words, but still maintain improper comparisons. (C) uses ‘is liking’ which is grammatically incorrect. (D) is the only choice which compares John’s affinity for New York City to Sybil’s affinity for New York City, without adding new errors.




HARD

2. In his work, George Santayana is more reminiscent of Plato's poetic narratives and Henry David Thoreau's obsessive detailing than Bertrand Russell’s scientific precisions.

a) In his work, George Santayana is more reminiscent of
b) George Santayana writes more like
c) George Santayana reminds one more of
d) George Santayana's work is more reminiscent of
e) George Santayana’s work more resembles that of

 

This question tests comparison. Because the sentence compares the styles of several writers, it must be made clear that Santayana's work is the subject of the sentence, not Santayana himself. Choice C, omitting any mention of 'work', is therefore incorrect. Though choices A and B do mention work, they fail to do so in a manner that maintains parallelism with the non-underlined part of the sentence, which refers to Plato's narratives and Thoreau's detailing. Choice D makes incorrect use of the word 'reminiscent', which is not generally used in literary comparisons. Choice E maintains parallelism and uses the word 'resembles', which is preferable to 'reminiscent', and is therefore the best choice.

C. Comparative and Superlative Forms

7. IDIOMS