高等英语考试中攻克句子改错题,最全的语法详解

answer choice might solve the error, you should leave the question blank and move on to another question you can answer confidently and quickly. Every minute counts. Don’t beat yourself up over an extra tough question. Use eitherof the strategies described in step 7 and move on pronto.

常见语法错误

Common Grammar Errors

Just like Identifying Sentence Errors questions, Improving Sentences questionscover the same grammar over and over. In fact, there are five recurring errorson Improving Sentences questions. We call them the Big Five.

The Big Five

Passive voice

Run-on sentences

Misplaced modifiers

Parallelism

Wordiness

We cover all of the Big Five below in more detail. Learn to spot all five and you’llbe well on your way to beating Identifying Sentence Errors with ease.

1. Passive Voice

In sentences that use the active voice, the subject does the action. For

example, in the sentence My dog ate a bunch of grass, you immediately know who ate a bunch of grass: the dog. The passive voice, in contrast, identifies theperformer of the action late, or even never. For example, the sentence A bunchof grass was eaten leaves the reader unsure of who or what did the eating. Writers tend to avoid using the passive voice because it creates weak, wordy sentences.

So, how do you know if you are dealing with a case of “the passives”? Usually,you’ll spot these words: is, was, were, are (or any other version of the verb tobe) and the word by. If you see these words, ask yourself, What’s the action andwho’s doing it? If the person (or entity) committing the action appears only at