PSAT Sample Questions

Writing Skills Section : PSAT Sample Improving Paragraph Questions

PSAT Sample Improving Paragraphs questions require you to make choices about improving the logic, coherence, or organization in a flawed passage.

Passage 1:

(1) Every year we hear more and more people complaining about the extended commercialism of the winter holiday season. (2) Every year stores put out decorations and holiday merchandise earlier and earlier. (3) Yet every year retailers complain that sales are not what they should be. (4) When will retailers learn? (5) The public knows how to keep its own schedule. (6) When we do not buy holiday gifts far in advance, shoppers are saying that they do not want to think about the winter holidays too early.

Question: which of the following is the best version of the underlined portion of sentence 6 (reproduced below) ?

When we do not buy holiday gifts far in advance, shoppers are saying that they do not want to think about the winter holidays too early.

1. When we do not buy holiday gifts far in advance, shoppers
2. When shoppers do not buy holiday gifts far in advance, they
3. In fact, shoppers' holiday gifts are not bought far in advance; they
4. Consequently, by our not buying these far in advance, shoppers
5. In contrast, when we do not do so, it is because shoppers

Answer: B

Explanation: In sentence 6 the subject improperly shifts from "we" to "shoppers"; choice B corrects that error by substituting "shoppers" for "we," and the pronoun "they" for "shoppers," thereby avoiding the repetition of that term. The correct sentence reads: When shoppers do not buy holiday gifts far in advance, they are saying that they do not want to think about the winter holidays too early.