For each question, choose the alternative you consider best and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer document. Read the passage through once before you begin to answer the questions that accompany it. For many of the questions, you must read several sentences beyond the question to determine the answer. Be sure that you have read far enough ahead each time you choose an alternative.
The Joy of Running
[1]
several times a week. There are many advantages to
I never have to reserve a court or find teammates;
running is, however, rather boring, so I've made it
[2]
F. Runners as a group take their hobby very seriously.G. For fun, I've divided runners into groups, and I assign each runner I see to a group.H. Running is excellent exercise and many people really have fun doing it.J. Some people run by themselves and others like to run in marathons.
gracefully, easily passing the rest of us. Their
clothing looks comfortable and functional. I see
them doing stretching exercises to warm up and
cooling-down exercises after they run.
[3]
F. They like the discipline and are very serious about their running.G. They run with a single-minded intensity that is admirable but intimidating.H. When they run, they run with both discipline and great seriousness.J. Running is for them a very serious discipline and they are intensely devoted to it.
outfits, perfectly fit and sleek, always new-looking.
A. Some runners run for health reasons.B. Some runners run to be admired.C. Runners come in a wide range of ages.D. Some people like money and the things money can buy.
sweaty or messy. One young man ran for two hours,
and his sweatband was dry, his hair in place, and his
shoes unscuffed. Such runners don't so much exercise
as perform.
[4]
Then there are the middle-aged people, some
older and in worse shape than I. Many of them are
functionally dressed in old shorts and T-shirts. Like
though they were once athletes, most seem to be
grimly performing to their doctor's prescription.
[5]
Some runners, of all ages, are there to lose
play, and still others seem to see the track as a social
club, a place to meet friends.
[6]
My favorite social runners are a pair of young
A. They labor determinedly.B. They know running helps you lose weight.C. Running is at least as good for weight loss as tennis or swimming.D. Losing weight is what it's all about for them.
young men. They listen to a Walkman radio, not
unusual among runners, but they have one
between them with two sets of earphones.
between them.
[7]
sport, but the other runners, an interesting selection
1. The best answer is D, which concisely introduces the list of advantages to running as a sport. All the other choices detract from clarity and style by their wordiness. Choice A adds needless and repetitious words, and "the top two advantages" misleads the reader because the sentence goes on to list more than two advantages. Choice B is clumsy in stringing together prepositional phrases and adds needless words that are even more repetitious than those in Choice A (repeating both many and advantages). Choice C adds a pointless clause; there is no reason for the writer to intrude here with the announcement that a list will follow. The idea that a list will follow is more clearly and economically conveyed simply by placing the colon after the word sport.
2. The best answer is J, which provides a clause that is parallel in construction to the other clauses in this series and which presents a relevant example of an advantage of running. Choice F not only doesn't provide a phrase parallel to the other clauses in the sentence, it doesn't provide an example of an advantage of running. Similarly, Choice G fails to ensure parallel construction and offers instead an irrelevant idea, since tennis is not being discussed in this sentence or in the essay as a whole. Choice H is not parallel to the sentence's other clauses, and this phrase brings up a disadvantage of running, which is out of place in a sentence listing its advantages.
3. The best answer is C, which uses a semicolon to separate these last two in a series of independent clauses. The semicolon ensures a clear separation of the clauses so that the reader can easily distinguish the elements of the series. In addition, Choice C correctly places the semicolon before the coordinating conjunction and. Choice A does not provide the punctuation necessary to ensure clarity in this long and complex sentence. Choice B wrongly places the semicolon after the coordinating conjunction and inserts a serial comma inconsistent with the use of the semicolon elsewhere. Choice D proposes a comma instead of a semicolon and then wrongly places it.
4. The best answer is G, which introduces the substance of the rest of the essay: the concept of categorizing runners into defined groups. Although Choice F introduces the concept of grouping runners, it mentions only one kind of runner, the serious runner, and does not prepare the reader for the other types of runners to be mentioned later in the essay. Also, using this sentence as the last sentence of Paragraph 1 makes the information in the very next sentence redundant. Choice H doesn't fulfill the purpose described in the question; that is, it doesn't introduce the variety of runners discussed in the rest of the essay. Although Choice J does mention two groups of runners, it does not mention the other types of runners discussed in the essay, nor does it introduce the concept of grouping runners that is so essential to the organization of the essay.
5. The best answer is A, which effectively punctuates and coordinates these two independent clauses. The phrase "as to them" in Choice B creates a redundancy in the sentence. Choice C is mispunctuated (no need for a semicolon between two clauses joined by a conjunction such as since), and the compound sentence it creates is illogically linked. Choice D is incorrect because commas go before, not after, coordinating conjunctions when they join independent clauses.
6. The best answer is G, because this sentence's description of the runners' intensity supports the sense of their seriousness. The narrator's reaction to that seriousness effectively emphasizes the point that, for this group, running is more than just exercise, it is a discipline. Choice F is primarily a restatement of the preceding sentence; it adds only the idea that these serious runners enjoy the discipline. Choice H, again, restates the preceding sentence, using the same words arranged in a different order. The sentence provided in Choice H is also somewhat wordy and redundant. Similarly, Choice J simply repeats the information provided in the first sentence of Paragraph 2, and does so with unnecessary wordiness. Only Choice G goes beyond repeating the statement made in the preceding sentence in the essay by explaining and elaborating on the information already provided.
7. The best answer is B. Paragraph 3's detailed description of the clothes these kinds of runners wear, the image of the young man's unruffled hair and unscuffed shoes, and especially the statement that these runners are performing more than exercising all point to the idea that these people run in order to be looked at or admired. Adding the sentence provided by Choice B sharpens the focus of the paragraph. The sentence proposed by Choice A is at odds with the reason why the people discussed in the paragraph are running: There is nothing about health in the four following sentences. Choice C is incorrect because Paragraph 3 makes no mention of people of different ages running. Although the people described in the rest of this paragraph do seem to like to dress in fancy (and probably expensive) clothes, Choice D draws the reader away from the main focus of the essay, which is the different kinds of people who enjoy running.
8. The best answer is J, which adds neither unnecessary words nor unnecessary punctuation to the sentence. In Choice F, a comma inappropriately separates the compound subject from its predicate verb. In Choice H, a dash creates this same incorrect break in the sentence. Choice G adds words that unnecessarily repeat the subject of the sentence.
9. The best answer is D, which ensures consistency of verb tense in this sentence. Choice A creates a confusing tense shift by proposing the past tense modal auxiliary would following the present tense auxiliary don't, which appears earlier in the sentence. Choice B inappropriately introduces both the past tense modal auxiliary would and the subordinate conjunction if at this point in the sentence. Similarly, Choice C proposes the past tense verb phrase "used to walk," which is inconsistent with the verb phrase "don't run" in the preceding clause in this sentence.
10. The best answer is F, because unlike the other choices, it creates no redundancy. Choice G is the most redundant of all the choices, introducing the idea that some runners look like "retired athletes," a point that is stated again later in the sentence with "as though they were once athletes." Choice H proposes a redundancy by repeating the meaning of seemingly with the phrase "as though." And Choice J proposes a phrase ("some look to be as though they were") that may be less redundant than the other choices but is nonetheless clumsy and unnecessarily wordy.
11. The best answer is A, which fulfills the writer's goal, as defined in the question, to describe the way this particular type of runner runs. Besides repeating what has already been said in the preceding sentence, Choice B simply describes what this kind of runner knows, not how this kind of runner runs. Although Choice C continues the idea expressed in the preceding sentence that running helps people lose weight, it does not provide any sense of what people who are running to lose weight look like. Similarly, Choice D does not give readers a visual sense of this type of runner. Choice D is also redundant, merely repeating the idea expressed in the preceding sentence that these runners are exercising to lose weight.
12. The best answer is G, because it creates a complete and grammatical sentence. Choice F is incorrect because the second "sentence" created by the punctuation consists of a pair of adjective phrases, which should be modifying the predicate nominative that is now part of the preceding sentence. Choice H proposes a semicolon at this juncture. Although not quite as severe a stop as a period, the semicolon should separate complete sentence clauses, which this one does not. Choice J proposes the coordinating conjunction and, which serves no sensible purpose in linking these adjective phrases to the main clause of the sentence.
13. The best answer is D, because it provides the most effective and most logical arrangement of main clause and modifying element. Choices A and C create misplaced modifiers because introducing the sentence with the gerund phrase "Blithely running along," followed by the subject "the earphone cord," creates a nonsensical reading that "the earphone cord is blithely running along." Choice B is similarly problematic because opening the sentence with the gerund Dangling, immediately followed by the subject pronoun they, creates a reading that these people are dangling as they run blithely along, which is likewise nonsensical. Choice D provides the most satisfactory arrangement of the information: the main clause states that "They run blithely along" and the gerund phrase following it adds the descriptive information "the earphone cord dangling between them."
14. The best answer is H, because no transitional adverb is needed at this point in the essay. Choice F is illogical because the adverb Similarly suggests a comparison to something previously stated, but there has been no mention of any other boring sport or of running as a boring sport. Choice G is illogical because the conjunctive adverb However suggests that this sentence will express opposition to what has been stated previously, but there's nothing in the essay that supports this opposition. Choice J is illogical because the conjunctive adverb Furthermore suggests a continuance or addition to a point previously presented, but the idea of running as a boring sport is new to the essay. Thus, all of the incorrect choices propose adverbs that are at odds with the meaning and logic of the essay.
15. The best answer is A, which properly sets off the noun phrase "an interesting selection of humanity" that stands in apposition to the noun runners. Choice B misuses the semicolon by placing it where a comma is required to set off the appositive. Choice C creates a sentence fragment after the period. Choice D, by failing to set off the appositive, creates confusing prose.
