SKILL 1 : SUBJECTS AND VERBS
Some sentences in English have just one subject and verb, and it is very important for you to find the subject and verb in these sentences. In some sentences it is easy to find the subject and verb. However, certain structures, such as objects of prepositions, appositives, and participles, can cause confusion in locating the subject and verb because each of these structures can look like a subject or verb. An object of the preposition or an appositive can be mistaken for a subject, while a participle can be mistaken for a verb.
Therefore, you should be able to do the following in sentences with one subject and verb: 1) be sure the sentence has a subject and a verb, 2) be careful of objects of prepositions and appositives when you are looking for the subject, and 3) be careful of present participles and past participles when you are looking for the verb.
You know that a sentence in English should have a subject and a verb. The most common types of problems that you will encounter in the Structure section of the TOEFL test are related to subjects and verbs; perhaps the sentence is missing either the subject, or the verb, or both; perhaps the sentence has an extra subject or verb. A preposition is followed by a noun or pronoun that is called an object of the preposition. If a word is an object of a preposition, it is not the subject.
Example :
1. The book________Sent to you yesterday.
(A) It was
(B) Were
(C) Is
(D) Was
2. Engineers________ for work on the new space program.
(A) necessary
(B) are needed
(C) hopefully
(D) next month
3. Fitzgerald_______ the society of the 1920's in his novel, The Great Gatsby.
(A) reflect
(B) reflects
(C) are reflecting
(D) have reflected
4. _________ was backed up for miles on the freeway.
(A) Yesterday
(B) In the morning
(C) Traffic
(D) Cars
5. The newspapers______every morning.
(A) delivery
(B) are delivered
(C) on time
(D) regularly
6. After she had perused the material, the secratary decided that everything ___ in order.
(A) Is
(B) Are
(C) Was
(D) Were
7. A pack of wild dogs ____ frightened all the ducks away.
(A) Is
(B) Are
(C) Have
(D) Has
8. Anything _____ better than going to another movie tonight.
(A) Is
(B) Are
(C) Was
(D) Were
9. Skating _____ becoming more popular every day.
(A) Is
(B) Are
(C) Was
(D) Were
10.There ____ been too many interruptions in this class.
(A) Is
(B) Are
(C) Have
(D) Has
SKILL 3: PRESENT PARTICIPLES
Present participles can-cause confusion in the Structure section of the TOEFL test because a present participle can be either an adjective or a part of the verb. A present participle is the – ing form of the verb. It is part of the verb when it is preceded by some form of the verb be.
Example :
1. When we came home last night we saw a man ____ to get on our roof.
(A) trying
(B) tried
(C) he tries
(D) to try
2. The first school day is a frightening experience for many children. The underlined phrase means ; an experience ____ many children.
(A) that frightens
(B) it frightens
(C) who frightens
(D) which will frightens
3. The young man ____ by this Institute are all good university graduates.
(A) employ
(B) employed
(C) to employee
(D) employing
4. A few days after the interview, I received a letter ____ me a job.
(A) has offered
(B) offered
(C) being offered
(D) offering
5. ____ by mountains, the city has a cool climate.
(A) Be surrounded
(B) Surrounded
(C) Surrounding
(D) Having surrounded
6. The people ____ during the war were mostly young soldiers.
(A) killing
(B) killed
(C) were killed
(D) were killing
7. _____ her mistakes, the stewardess immediately apologized to the passenger.
(A) Realized
(B) In realizing
(C) Realizing
(D) She realized
8. The accident ____ a bus and two cars took the lives of four people and injured numerous others.
(A) to involve
(B) involving
(C) to be involved
(D) it involves
9. Being an outstanding student in our school, he has been offered a scholarship to study in Australia.
The underlined words means ____ of our school.
(A) If he is an outstanding student
(B) Although he is an outstanding student
(C) When he is an outstanding student
(D) As he is an outstanding student
10.Talking excitedly to each other, they forgot to finish the exercises.
The underlined word means ____ , they forgot to finish the exercises.
(A) Although they talked excitedly
(B) In order that they could talk excitedly
(C) Because they were talking excitedly
(D) When they had talked excitedly
