Practice Quiz

SAT Writing

Category - Improving Sentences

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Choose the answer which best rewords the italicized portion. If you think the original wording is best, choose option A.

There have been many famous political firsts in the history of the United States.
  1. There have been many
  2. There had been many
  3. There were many
  4. There will be many
Explanation
Answer: A - The best choice is “There have been many”

“Had been” presents the past perfect, meaning an event occurred before another action in the past. “Were,” a past tense form of “be” conveys that there will be no more political firsts. “Will be” hints at future events that do not fit within the context of the passage. “Have been” indicates the present perfect tense - that event(s) happened at an unspecified time before the present. In the passage, many political firsts occurred at unspecified periods before the present.
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