Standard English Conventions · Sentence Core, Verb Forms and Punctuation
Class 03 Homework · Sentence Core and Boundaries
20 questions · Class homework
Choose one answer for each question. Use the notes box to record the evidence or rule behind your choice. Time is recorded automatically for the question you are viewing; use Clear time to restart it. Submit when you are ready to see your corrections. Incorrect and unanswered questions automatically appear in your Mistake Logbook.
Reviewed in class on September 26, 2026 · Questions 9 and 10 from the Class 03 homework (19/20). Other questions are not shown.
Question 9 · Moderate
Solarpunk is an art movement that imagines renewable energy–powered technology infused complementarily into nature. In Paolo Bacigalupi’s solarpunk short story “Efficiency,” an artificial intelligence that absorbs sustainable energies, redistributing them through intricate networks of weights and generators, ______ Chicago’s energy grid.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Student answer: C · Correct answer: C · Correct
Time
Correct · Correct answer: C
Show explanation
Bracket “that absorbs sustainable energies” and “redistributing them through intricate networks of weights and generators.” The core is “an artificial intelligence powers Chicago’s energy grid.” The singular head intelligence controls the main verb; nearby plural energies, weights and generators do not.
A. Have been powering has a plural finite auxiliary that does not agree with intelligence.
B. Power is the plural/base present form and does not agree with the singular subject.
C. Powers agrees with singular intelligence.
D. Are powering has a plural finite auxiliary that does not agree with intelligence.
Question 10 · Difficult
In her 1983 book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild first explored at length her conception of a “sociology of emotions”—the idea that the various cultural and ideological frameworks a person has internalized (class, gender, political affiliation, etc.) ______ each emotional reaction that person has within a situation.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Student answer: A · Correct answer: C · Incorrect
Time
Incorrect · Correct answer: C
Show explanation
Inside the content clause beginning “that,” the core is “the various cultural and ideological frameworks underlie each emotional reaction.” The object-relative clause “a person has internalized” modifies frameworks and has omitted that. Has internalized belongs to person; the main verb in the content clause agrees with plural frameworks.
A. Underlies is singular and does not agree with frameworks.
B. Is underlying has a singular finite auxiliary.
C. Underlie agrees with plural frameworks.
D. Has been underlying has a singular finite auxiliary.