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Advanced Grammar for College Entrance Exams

This guide covers advanced grammar concepts crucial for excelling in college entrance exams. It emphasizes common pitfalls, efficient problem-solving, and time-saving strategies.

1. Tense and Aspect

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  Beyond Simple Tenses: Master perfect (have + past participle) and progressive (be + present participle) aspects in all tenses.

  
  
  
  
  • Perfect Tenses: Indicate completed actions relevant to a point in time. Crucial for showing order of events.
    
    
    
    • Example: "Only after she had recovered from a severe illness did she realise the importance of good health." (Past Perfect implies recovery happened before realization).
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Progressive Tenses: Indicate ongoing or habitual actions. Watch out for stative verbs (e.g., know, believe, seem) which generally don't use progressive tenses.
  
  
  
  


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  Tense Consistency: Maintain consistent tense within a sentence and paragraph unless a change in tense is logically required to reflect a change in time frame.

  
  


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  Subjunctive Mood: Expresses wishes, hypothetical situations, or demands. Commonly used after verbs like suggest, demand, recommend, and insist.

  
  
  
  
  • Form: Base form of the verb (no matter the subject).
    
    
    
    • Example: "Our father suggested going to Da Nang for this summer holiday." (Incorrect to use 'that we should go' - while grammatically correct is less concise and preferred in conversational English, NOT on the test).
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Example: "It is advisable that the apprentice should be eager to learn the ins and outs of the new job."
  
  
  
  

2. Verb Agreement & Pronoun Reference

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  Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Phrases: Identify the true subject, ignoring intervening phrases. Tricky questions often insert long phrases between the subject and verb.

  
  
  
  
  • Example: "The patients treated with the new drug showed better signs of recovery than those receiving conventional medicine." (Treat modifies patients, not the main verb).
  
  
  
  


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  Collective Nouns: Can be singular or plural depending on whether they act as a unit or as individuals.

  
  
  
  
  • Examples: The team is (acting as a unit) vs. The team are (expressing individual opinions).
  
  
  
  


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  Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: Ensure pronouns agree in number, gender, and person with their antecedents. Pay attention to indefinite pronouns (e.g., each, everyone, anyone).

  
  


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  Clear Pronoun Reference: Avoid ambiguous pronoun references. The pronoun should clearly refer to one specific noun.

  
  

3. Articles and Determiners

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  Definite vs. Indefinite Articles: Use the when referring to a specific or previously mentioned noun; use a/an when referring to a general or unspecified noun. Tricky when combined with uncountable nouns.

  
  


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  Zero Article: No article is needed with plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns when making general statements.

  
  

4. Modifiers

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  Adjective Order: When using multiple adjectives, follow the general order: Quantity, Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose.

  
  


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  Misplaced Modifiers: Place modifiers as close as possible to the words they modify to avoid ambiguity.

  
  


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  Dangling Modifiers: Make sure the introductory phrase clearly modifies the subject of the sentence.

  
  
  
  
  • Example: "Concerned about rising crime rates, the community formed a neighborhood watch group." (NOT "Concerned about rising crime rates, a neighborhood watch group was formed.")
  
  
  
  

5. Parallelism

• Consistent Structure: Elements joined by coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) should have the same grammatical structure (e.g., nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs, phrases with phrases).

6. Conjunctions and Transitions

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  Coordinating Conjunctions: (FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) Join grammatically equal elements.

  
  


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  Subordinating Conjunctions: (e.g., although, because, if, since, when, while) Introduce subordinate clauses.

  
  


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  Correlative Conjunctions: (e.g., both...and, either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also) Join grammatically equal elements and must be used in pairs.

  
  


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  Transitions: Use transitions to create logical connections between sentences and paragraphs. Common transition words indicate addition (furthermore), contrast (however), cause and effect (therefore), or emphasis (indeed).

  
  

7. Common Errors and Traps

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  Incorrect Word Choice: Pay attention to words that sound alike but have different meanings (e.g., affect/effect, its/it's, there/their/they're).

  
  


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  Redundancy: Avoid unnecessary repetition of words or ideas.

  
  


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  Double Negatives: Avoid using two negative words in the same clause unless intended to express a positive meaning.

  
  


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  Idioms: Learn common idioms and their correct usage.

  
  

8. Advanced Sentence Structure

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  Inversion: Changing the normal word order for emphasis or stylistic effect (e.g., "Only after extensive research did they discover the truth.").

  
  


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  Ellipsis: Omitting words that are understood from the context (e.g., "He likes apples, and she likes oranges.").

  
  

9. Punctuation Mastery

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  Commas: Understand comma usage in lists, compound sentences, introductory phrases, and nonessential clauses.

  
  


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  Semicolons: Connect two independent clauses that are closely related or to separate items in a list when those items contain commas.

  
  


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  Colons: Introduce lists, explanations, or quotations.

  
  


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  Apostrophes: Use apostrophes to indicate possession or contractions. Be careful with its vs. it's.

  
  

10. Problem-Solving Strategies

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  Process of Elimination: Eliminate obviously incorrect answer choices first.

  
  


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  Focus on the Error: Identify the specific grammatical error being tested.

  
  


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  Read the Entire Sentence: Don't focus on just the underlined portion; read the entire sentence for context.

  
  


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  Simplify Complex Sentences: Break down long, complex sentences into smaller, more manageable parts.

  
  


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  Substitute and Check: If unsure, substitute the answer choices into the sentence and see which one sounds best and is grammatically correct.

  
  

11. Time-Saving Techniques

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  Prioritize Questions: Answer easier questions first and save more challenging questions for later.

  
  


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  Skim and Scan: Quickly skim the passage for key information and errors.

  
  


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  Recognize Common Patterns: Learn to recognize common grammatical errors and patterns.

  
  

Practice Problems with Explanations (Answers at the end):

1. The money raised in the appeal will use to help those in need in remote areas.


2. Our father suggested ______ to Da Nang for this summer holiday.
   a) to go b) going c) that we should go d) go


3. The patients ______ with the new drug showed better signs of recovery than those receiving conventional medicine.
   a) treated b) were treated c) treating d) had been treated


4. Only after she ______ from a severe illness did she realise the importance of good health.
   a) recovered b) had recovered c) was recovering d) recovers


5. Several measures have been proposed to ______ the problem of unemployment among university graduates.
   a) address b) redress c) adjust d) redressal


6. There is no excuse for your late submission! You ______ the report by last Friday.
   a) should submit b) must submit c) should have submitted d) must have submit


7. The presenter started his speech with a few ______ jokes to build rapport with the audience.
   a) humerus b) humorous c) humour d) humeric


8. It is advisable that the apprentice should be ______ to learn the ins and outs of the new job.
   a) eager b) eagerly c) an eager d) eagerness


9. Mary rarely uses social networks, ______?
   a) does she b) doesn't she c) is she d) isn't she


10. Candidates are advised to dress formally to make a good ______ on job interviewers.
    a) affect b) effect c) impact d) impression


11. If Martin were here now, he ______ us to solve this difficult problem.
    a) will help b) would help c) helps d) helped


12. You shouldn't lose heart; success often comes to those who are not ______ by failures.
    a) daunted b) taunted c) flaunted d) haunted


13. It concerns many sociologists that inadequate parents skills may lead to an increase in the number of incidents of juvenile delinquency.

14. At the beginning of the ceremony, there was a respectable one-minute silence in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake.


15. My mother gets up usually early to prepare breakfast for the whole family.

Answer Key:

1. used


2. b) going


3. a) treated


4. b) had recovered


5. a) address


6. c) should have submitted


7. b) humorous


8. a) eager


9. a) does she


10. d) impression


11. b) would help


12. a) daunted


13. parent


14. Correct


15. My mother usually gets up early to prepare breakfast for the whole family.