标点符号与大小写Punctuat

标点符号与大小写

Punctuation and Capitalization Practice Questions

1. “She asked me whether I could attend next week?s

presentation with her?”What correction should be made to this

sentence?

the question mark to a period.

“whether” to “weather.”

“next week’s” to “next weeks.”

“I could” to “I can.”

correction is necessary.

2. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the only president who

served three terms) instituted the New Deal reforms.”

What correction should be made to this sentence?

commas before and after the parentheses.

lize the word “president.”

the initial letters of “New Deal” lowercase.

lize the word “reforms.”

correction is necessary.

3. “On the TV show, each artist receives a …crit?, or critique,

from the judges s eparately.”

What correction should be made to this sentence?

the quotation marks from around the word crit.

the spelling of separately to seperately.

the comma inside of the quotation marks.

the comma following the word crit.

correction is necessary.

Identify the appropriate error in the following sentences.

4. Many jobs today require that the applicant is a College

graduate.

r

b. Capitalization

c. Spelling

d. Punctuation

5. The applicant had some questions during our interview?

r

b. Capitalization

c. Spelling

d. Punctuation

6. The defendant was found guilty of perjury; and

obstruction of justice.

ation

b. Capitalization

c. Spelling

d. Grammar

Identify the answer choice with an error in punctuation,

usage, or grammar. If there are no errors, select answer choice D.

7.

peoples initiative for banking reform supplanted

legislation in this

instance.

was distraught over the damage to his painting; he

had worked on it for

months.

t erm “subconscious” is often popularly substituted

for “unconscious,”

which was the actual term that Freud used.

error

8.

art, the term “pentimento” refers to a sign of previous

work painted over by

the artist.

pology is often interested in the study of

Humankind and also of

Human Society.

chemistry, the natural noble gases are argon, helium,

krypton, neon, radon,

and xenon.

error

9.

committee’s report was postponed until a later date

due to delays in the

evaluation process.

some par ts of the country, the term “median strip,”

meaning a highway

divider, is referred to as a “medium strip.”

saying is that time flies when you are busy, we are

always busy so time

always flies.

error

Identify the correct choice for the following sentence:

10. Our Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has previously been

Senator Hillary Clinton, First Lady of the United States Hillary

Clinton, and First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Clinton.

secretary of state

Secretary of state

secretary of State

Secretary of State

Answers - Punctuation and Capitalization

1. A:Question marks are only used with direct questions, e.g.,

“Will you go with me?” or with sentences that are half

statement and half question, e.g., “You can go with me, can’t

you?” but not with dependent clauses introduced by

subordinating conjunctions (“whether”) as in this case.

“Whether” is spelled correctly (B); “weather” does not mean

“if” but refers to climate. “Next week’s” (C) is correct

because “week’s” is a possessive of the ob ject

“presentation.” “I can” (D) is incorrect because “asked” is

past tense and “can” is present tense.

2. E: The sentence is correct as is. The non-restrictive/non-essential information should be set off from the subject it

modifies by either the parenthe ses or commas; using both (A) is

redundant. A title like “president” is only capitalized when used

before the name, e.g., “President Roosevelt,” but when used in

place of the name as in this sentence, it is not capitalized (B).

“New Deal” is correctly capitalized (C) as the name of the

program. “Reforms”

(D) should not be capitalized as it is not part of the name but

simply a descriptor.

3. C: Sentence punctuation marks should be placed inside of

quotation marks. The quotation marks are necessary

(A) becaus e this term “crit” is identified as an insider or

slang abbreviation of the word “critique.” “Separately” is the

correct spelling; spelling it as (B) indicates is a common error. The

comma after “crit” is necessary (D) to introduce the appositive

“or critique” that defines “crit.”

4. B:The error is in capitalization: “college” is not

capitalized when used as a noun but not as a proper noun, which

is a name. Hence “Skidmore College” is capitalized, but not “a

good college.” There are no other errors in grammar, spelling,

or punctuation.

5. D: The error is in punctuation: there should not be a

question mark at the end of the sentence because the sentence

is not a question. There are no other errors in grammar,

capitalization, or spelling.

6. A: The error is in punctuation. Semicolons are used to

separate two independent clauses, or to separate clauses or

phrases containing internal punctuation. Neither is the case in

this sentence. The objects “perjury” and “obstruction of

justice” are joined by the conjunction “and”; no punctuation

is needed. There are no errors in capitalization, spelling, or

grammar.

7. A:In this sentence, “people’s” is a possessive noun

modifying “initiative,” and must have an apostrophe to indicate

possession. It was “the people’s initiative” that supplanted

legislation.

8. B:The words “humankind” and “human society”

should not be capitalized as they are not names or titles, i.e., not

proper nouns. In this sentence, “human” is an adjective in both

instances. “Society” is a noun in this se ntence.

9. C: It is incorrect to separate two independent clauses with

a comma; a semicolon should be used. Alternatively,

a period can be used, making the second independent clause

a separate sentence. A colon can also be used to introduce a

clause/sentence that illustrates or explains the preceding one.

There should also be a comma separating the second

independent clause from the dependent clause (beginning with

“so”) that follows it. The correct punctuation alternatives are:

“The saying is that time fli es when you are busy; we are always

busy, so time always flies.” OR: “The saying is that time flies

when you are busy. We are always busy, so time always flies.”

OR: “The saying is that time flies when you are busy: we are

always busy, so time always flies.”

10. D:These words are an official title and immediately

precede Hillary Clinton’s name. Both parts of the title (Secretary

and State) should be capitalized. As with all titles, function words

like the preposition “of” within a title are not capitalized.