Standard English

Botanists recognize over fifty different species of sunflower, and variance exists even in those species. One species, the silverleaf sunflower, ______ both an early-flowering ecotype that tends to grow in coastal areas and a late-flowering ecotype that grows inland.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. encompassing

• B. to encompass

• C. encompasses

• D. having encompassed

Antarctic pearlwort, a low-growing shrub with characteristic yellow flowers, is one of only two native flowering plants which ______ in Antarctica.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. were occurring

• B. occur

• C. are occurring

• D. will have occurred

Before the museum closed permanently, it faced financial challenges that ______ a large deficit and declining ticket sale revenues.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. include

• B. will include

• C. would include

• D. included

Rabinal Achí is a precolonial Maya dance drama performed annually in Rabinal, a town in the Guatemalan highlands. Based on events that occurred when Rabinal was a city-state ruled by a king, ______ had once been an ally of the king but was later captured while leading an invading force against him.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. Rabinal Achí tells the story of K’iche’ Achí, a military leader who

• B. K’iche’ Achí, the military leader in the story of Rabinal Achí,

• C. there was a military leader, K’iche’ Achí, who in Rabinal Achí

• D. the military leader whose story is told in Rabinal Achí, K’iche’ Achí,

Having returned from the ocean to the stream where it was born, an adult salmon's life cycle ends when it spawns and dies, after which its offspring start the cycle anew.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. an adult salmon's life cycle ends when it spawns and dies,

• B. an adult salmon spawns and dies, completing its life cycle,

• C. the spawning and death of an adult salmon complete its life cycle,

• D. the life cycle of an adult salmon is complete when it spawns and die,

While popular depiction might characterize surfing as a summer sport, the reality is that winter conditions are considered better for surfing. Generated by seasonal storms far off the coast, ______

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. surfers highly prize the large, predictable sets of waves that are created by winter swells.

• B. winter swells reach the shore as large, predictable sets of waves that are highly prized by surfers.

• C. the shore causes large winter swells to break in predictable sets of waves highly prized by surfers.

• D. winter is highly prized by surfers for large swells that break in large, predictable sets of waves.

Slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel The Poet X, winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, is composed of ______ protagonist, fifteen-year-old Xiomara Batista.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. poem's putatively written by the novel's

• B. poem's putatively written by the novels'

• C. poems putatively written by the novels'

• D. poems putatively written by the novel's

Labor unions are formed in order to protect ______ through collective bargaining, which gives employees greater leverage while ensuring they are treated equally by management.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. workers' rights

• B. worker's rights

• C. workers rights'

• D. workers' rights'

The striated ______ walls are the result of erosion and frost weathering having exposed layers of multicolored sedimentary rock.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. patterns' of a canyons

• B. patterns of a canyons'

• C. pattern's of a canyon's

• D. patterns of a canyon's

The field of geological oceanography owes much to American ______ Marie Tharp, a pioneering oceanographic cartographer whose detailed topographical maps of the ocean floor and its multiple rift valleys helped garner acceptance for the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A. geologist

• B. geologist:

• C. geologist;

• D. geologist,