Language - MAP 8th Grade Reading

Answer: Running. Here running is used as a gerund, a verb form that serves as a noun. You’re looking for a thing - a way to stay in shape - and of the options “running” is the only gerund that can perform the role of a noun.

The phrases “he eats like a pig,” “he eats like a bird,” and “he eats like a horse” are all common figures of speech. “He eats like a bull” is not.

The figure of speech “larger than life” refers to someone who attracts a lot of attention and therefore is very important. It does not directly refer to actual size.

The figure of speech “sharp as a knife” (or “sharp as a tack,” a similar usage) is used to refer to mental sharpness, describing someone who is highly intelligent and generally quick to have answers to challenging questions.

Answer: Chronological

Answer: Obsolete

Answer: Prevalent

Answer: Cease

Answer: Resilient

Answer: Consecutive

Answer: Depict

Answer: Conjecture

Answer: Indulgence

Answer: “painting” Here you’re looking for a noun that can pair with “sculpture” as a hobby for someone who likes art. “Painting” is a gerund, a verb form used as a noun (other -ing gerunds that make good hobbies are swimming, running, dancing, eating…), and fits perfectly: painting is a hobby. “Using paint” could also be considered a gerund but note that the structure “using paint and sculpture” seems to suggest that she’s using both paint and sculpture, when really the hobby is creating sculpture. So that is incorrect. The same goes for “to paint and sculpture” making it sound like “to sculpture” is the hobby. Finally “paint” is a noun, but it’s not a hobby - it’s something you might use while pursuing your hobby.

Answer: Excessive

Here you’re looking for a noun that can pair with “sculpture” as a hobby for someone who likes art. “Painting” is a gerund, a verb form used as a noun (other -ing gerunds that make good hobbies are swimming, running, dancing, eating…), and fits perfectly: painting is a hobby. “Using paint” could also be considered a gerund but note that the structure “using paint and sculpture” seems to suggest that she’s using both paint and sculpture, when really the hobby is creating sculpture. So that is incorrect. The same goes for “to paint and sculpture” making it sound like “to sculpture” is the hobby. Finally “paint” is a noun, but it’s not a hobby - it’s something you might use while pursuing your hobby.

The word “frightened” is a verb used as an adjective in this case, describing that Joshua was frightened by the scary movie. Because the phrase beginning with “frightened” appears next to a comma and then a complete thought (“Joshua hid behind the couch” could be its own sentence) you must use “frightened” as a modifier here, meaning that it should not get its own subject (e.g. “he was frightened”). You cannot connect two complete clauses with merely a comma (you need to have a coordinating conjunction like “and” or “but” after the comma to connect two clauses), so here you must simply have a verb used as an adjective, and “frightened” is the correct answer.

This sentence employs two -ing verbs as participial modifiers, a verb form used to describe. Notice that the sentence could end where the comma is: “Laura spent most of last summer at Lake Geneva” would be a perfectly grammatical and informative sentence. After the comma, “swimming...and enjoying” tells us more about how she spent that summer at the lake - it adds extra description and therefore fits a common type of verbal, an -ing participial modifier following a comma at the end of a complete clause. With the other answer choices, if you were to select NO CHANGE the verbs “swimming” and “she enjoyed” are not in the same tense even though they took place during the same time frame, and that is a mistake. The same mismatched tense mistake is inherent in the other wrong choices, and also note that the answer beginning with “she swam” leads the after-comma portion with a noun + verb - an independent clause - which cannot be separated by merely a comma (it requires a coordinating conjunction such as “and” or “so” to follow the comma).

Here the word “was” is used as a past-tense verb and “startled” is used as a description (a participle is a verb used to describe). Note that, when used as an active verb, “startled” requires a predicate: Joanna could have startled someone else or a dog, but you can’t say that she just “startled” without an object. The same goes for “startles” or “is startling” - neither has a recipient of the phrase “Joanna startles _____” so neither can be correct. And “she became startled” is a redundant phrase since the word “Joanna” immediately precedes the blank, so you don’t need “she” as a subject - you already have the subject “Joanna.”

Answer: Annoyed. The word “annoyed” here is used as a participle, a verb used as an adjective. Often the -ed form of a verb - looking like past tense - is used in a modifying phrase to begin a sentence; look for a phrase beginning with -ed, then a comma, then a person’s name and you’ll generally have that structure of a description of a person, then that person as the subject of the sentence.

Annoying could also be used as a participle, but it doesn’t fit in this instance because it doesn’t describe the subject, Melissa - she’s not the one annoying someone, she’s the one who has become annoyed by Pankaj.