Direction:- Each passage below is accompanied by a number of questions. For some questions, you will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas. For other questions, you will consider how the passage might be edited to correct errors in sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. A passage or a question may be accompanied by one or more graphics (such as a table or graph) that you will consider as you make revising and editing decisions.
Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of a passage. Other questions will direct you to a location in a passage or ask you to think about the passage as a whole.
After reading each passage, choose the answer to each question that most effectively improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a “NO CHANGE” option. Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the passage as it is.
You Are Where You Say
Research on regional variations in English-language use has not only yielded answers to such Q1 life-altering questions as how people in different parts of the United States refer to carbonated beverages (“soda”? “pop”? “coke”?) Q2 it also illustrates how technology can change the very nature of research. While traditional, human-intensive data collection Q3 has all but disappeared in language studies, the explosion of social media has opened new avenues for investigation.
[1] Perhaps the epitome of traditional methodology is the Dictionary of American Regional English, colloquially known as DARE. [2] Its fifth and final alphabetical volume—ending with “zydeco”—released in 2012, the dictionary represents decades of arduous work. [3] Over a six-year period from 1965 to 1970, university graduate students conducted interviews in more than a thousand communities across the nation. [4] Their goal was to determine what names people used for such everyday objects and concepts as a submarine sandwich (a “hero” in New York City but a “dagwood” in many parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado) and a heavy rainstorm (variously a “gully washer,” “pour-down,” or “stump mover”). [5] The work that dictionary founder Frederic G. Cassidy had expected to be finished by 1976 was not, in fact, completed in his lifetime. [6] The wait did not dampen enthusiasm among Q4 scholars. Scholars consider the work a signal achievement in linguistics. Q5
Not all research into regional English varieties Q6 requires such time, effort, and resources, however. Today’s researchers have found that the veritable army of trained volunteers traveling the country conducting face-to-face interviews can sometimes be Q7 replaced by another army the vast array of individuals volunteering details about their lives—and, inadvertently, their language—through social media. Brice Russ of Ohio State University, for example, has employed software to sort through postings on one social media Q8 cite in search of particular words and phrases of interest as well as the location from which users are posting. From these data, he was able, among other things, to confirm regional variations in people’s terms for soft drinks. As the map shows, “soda” is commonly heard in the middle and western portions of the United States; “pop” is frequently used in many southern states; and “coke” is predominant in the northeastern and southwest regions but used elsewhere as well. Q9 As interesting as Russ’s findings are, though, Q10 they’re true value lies in their reminder that the Internet is not merely a sophisticated tool for collecting data but is also Q11 itself a rich source of data.
