Also in 2025 Practice Test A English, question 57.
Question
Which sentence in the paragraph contains an error in construction?
(1) The blobfish, a creature that certainly resembles its name, is an unusual fish whose body is mostly composed of pink, gelatinous flesh. (2) Because it has very few muscles and its density is close to that of water, the blobfish spends its life floating slightly above the ocean floor. (3) It must wait patiently for whatever edible matter might float by its mouth. (4) The blobfish’s downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring caused them to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.
Move the answer to the box. There is only one error in construction.
Contains an error in construction
On the test you drag one of the tiles into the box; here, choose it.
- ASentence 1
- BSentence 2
- CSentence 3
- DSentence 4
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for identification of the one sentence in the paragraph that contains an error in construction.
Sentence 1: Construction is correct. The singular pronoun “its” matches the number of the word it refers to, the singular noun “blobfish.” Additionally, the appositive phrase “a creature that certainly resembles its name” is correctly set off by commas to provide an extra, but not essential, detail about the blobfish. The comma separating “pink” and “gelatinous” is correct because these are coordinate adjectives. There are no errors in sentence 1.
Sentence 2: Construction is correct. The singular pronouns “it” and “its” match the number of the word they refer to, the singular noun “blobfish.” Additionally, the structure of the sentence correctly shows that the clause “Because it has very few muscles and its density is close to that of water” explains why “the blobfish” spends its life floating. There are no errors in sentence 2.
Sentence 3: Construction is correct. The “it” and “its” in the sentence refer to “the blobfish” mentioned in the previous sentence. The use of singular pronouns in sentence 3 is consistent with the rest of the paragraph. There are no errors in sentence 3.
Sentence 4: Contains an error in construction. Sentence 4 erroneously uses the plural pronoun “them” to refer to the blobfish, when the singular “it” should have been used. Although sentence 4 starts by correctly referring to the blobfish in the singular (“the blobfish’s”), it erroneously switches to plural usage midway through: “caused them to be voted.” This is an error because the rest of the paragraph refers to the blobfish in the singular. The singular construction of the paragraph starts with “a creature” and “an unusual fish” in sentence 1 and continues throughout sentence 2 (“it has,” “its density,” “the blobfish,” and “its life”), sentence 3 (“It must” and “its mouth”), and the first half of sentence 4 (“the blobfish’s”). Proper construction requires sentence 4 to maintain the paragraph’s consistent use of singular references. To fix the construction error in sentence 4, the plural pronoun “them” should be changed to the singular pronoun “it” (i.e., “The blobfish’s downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring caused it to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.”).
Question analysis
This editing question gives a four-sentence paragraph describing the blobfish, a pink, jelly-like fish that floats just above the ocean floor, and asks which sentence contains an error in construction. On the test students move a sentence tile into a box; the kind of error is not named, so every sentence, with its commas, describing phrases and pronouns, must be checked.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 The grammar here is taught by grade 6, but the question does not say what kind of error to look for, and the correct sentences carry commas, describing phrases and pronouns of their own, which is typical of grade 7 editing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 6, 112 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- Two grammar terms in the explanation were wrong; both sentences were corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The faulty pronoun is camouflaged by the list right before it, which makes a plural sound natural, so students who read by ear pass the last sentence and flag a correct one. The likeliest victim is sentence 2, where “it” comes before the noun it stands for, which some students wrongly believe is not allowed. The question rewards asking, for each pronoun, what noun it stands for and whether the number matches.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
“Them” in sentence 4 follows the plural list “downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring,” so it sounds right, though what was voted ugliest is the singular blobfish. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The stem names no kind of error, and every sentence has a pronoun or a set-off phrase that could be suspect, from the opening appositive to the “Because it has” clause, so all four must be checked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Check each sentence in turn: the subject and verb, what every pronoun refers to, and what each describing phrase attaches to, without trusting how smoothly the sentence sounds.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Suspects the long interruption “a creature that certainly resembles its name” or the comma in “pink, gelatinous,” though both are correct and the sentence is complete.
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes a pronoun cannot come before its noun, so flags “Because it has very few muscles,” though “it” correctly looks ahead to “the blobfish” in the main clause.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Assumes “It” must point to the nearest noun, “the ocean floor,” and calls it unclear, though only the blobfish could wait for food to float by.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook's explanation of sentence 1 calls “a creature that certainly resembles its name” a clause; it is an appositive phrase, a noun phrase that renames “the blobfish”, and now says so. Its explanation of sentence 2 says the “Because…” clause “modifies the words ‘the blobfish’”; an introductory “because” clause tells why something happens, so it modifies the verb, and the sentence now says it explains why the blobfish spends its life floating. The answer, sentence 4, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the one sentence with an error in construction, a mistake in how the sentence is built. The question doesn’t say what kind of error. So check each sentence’s commas, phrases and pronouns. A pronoun is a word like it or them that stands in for a noun.
Check sentence 1
“A creature that certainly resembles its name” is an extra phrase that renames the blobfish. Commas around an extra phrase are correct: Max, my brother, plays drums. In “pink, gelatinous,” a comma sits between two describing words of equal weight. Gelatinous means jelly-like. You could say pink and gelatinous, so the comma is right.
Check sentences 2 and 3
Sentence 2 starts, “Because it has very few muscles.” This part tells why the blobfish floats. Here “it” comes before “the blobfish.” That is allowed when the noun follows soon after: Because she was tired, Maya went to bed. In sentence 3, “It” can only mean the blobfish. Only the fish could wait for food to float by its mouth. Both sentences are correct.
Watch out: Some students think a pronoun can never come before its noun. That makes sentence 2 look wrong, which leads to B.
Find the error in sentence 4
Sentence 4 says the fish’s features “caused them to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.” What was voted the ugliest animal? The blobfish, one animal. A pronoun must match its noun in number. So it should be it, not them. The rest of the paragraph calls the blobfish it every time.
Watch out: The list just before, “downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring,” is plural. That makes them sound right. But a mouth, skin and coloring can’t be voted an animal.
Show the fix
Fixed, the sentence reads: The blobfish’s downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring caused it to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013. Now the pronoun matches the one blobfish.
Choose the answer
Sentences 1, 2 and 3 are built correctly. Only sentence 4 has a pronoun that doesn’t match its noun. So the answer is D: move the tile “Sentence 4” into the box labeled “Contains an error in construction.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 2 is the closest wrong answer, because “it” comes before the word “blobfish.” That is allowed, since the noun follows right away. In sentence 4, though, “them” is plural but stands for one blobfish. That mismatch is the real error.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
