Question
Read this paragraph.
(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.
Which sentence contains an error in its construction and should be revised?
- Asentence 1
- Bsentence 2
- Csentence 3
- Dsentence 4
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the identification of the sentence that contains an error in its construction and should be revised.
A. Incorrect. There are no errors in sentence 1. 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 additional, but not essential, detail about the blobfish.
B. Incorrect. There are no errors in sentence 2. The singular pronoun “its” matches the number of the word it refers 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.
C. Incorrect. There are no errors in sentence 3. The “it” in the sentences refers to “the blobfish” mentioned in the previous sentence. The use of singular pronouns in sentence 3 is consistent with the rest of the paragraph.
D. CORRECT. Sentence 4 contains an error because the sentence uses the plural pronoun “them” to refer to “The blobfish’s,” which is singular in number. The word “them” should be changed to “it.” The paragraph refers to the blobfish as a singular species in each of its four sentences, and sentence 4 should be revised to match.
Question analysis
A short paragraph on the blobfish, a pink, gelatinous fish that hovers near the ocean floor waiting for food to drift by, is the text of this editing question, which asks which of its four sentences has an error in construction. Its sentences hold an appositive, an opening “Because” clause and several pronouns, any of which can look suspicious, so every one needs a full grammar check.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 editing tasks often point to the faulty part of a sentence. This one names no kind of error and offers four plausible sentences, so each has to be run past several rules, though the rule at stake is taught by grade 6.
- 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, 99 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 hides in the last sentence, where a plural follows a list of three features and sounds natural to a student reading by ear. Meanwhile the correct sentences offer easy targets, above all the “Because it has” clause, whose pronoun comes before its noun, and, in this printing, a first sentence with no comma between “pink” and “gelatinous.” Asking what noun each pronoun stands for, and whether the number matches, finds the fault.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
In sentence 4, “them” comes right after the three-item list “downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring,” so it passes by ear, though what was voted ugliest is the singular blobfish. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
No kind of error is named, and each sentence offers something to suspect: the appositive and the comma-less “pink gelatinous” in sentence 1, “it” before its noun in sentence 2, the bare “It” opening sentence 3. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: With no error type given, run a fixed checklist on every sentence: a complete thought, verbs that agree with their subjects, pronouns that clearly match their nouns, and modifiers in the right place.
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)
Is put off by the long appositive before “is,” or by “pink gelatinous” printed without a comma, though neither is a fault in how the sentence is constructed.
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes a pronoun may not come before the noun it stands for, so flags “Because it has very few muscles,” though that “it” correctly points ahead to “the blobfish.”
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Expects “It” to point to the nearest noun, “the ocean floor,” and calls the sentence unclear, though only the blobfish could wait for food to float by its mouth.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option A (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 Option B (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. These are the corrections the site made to the same sentences in the 2026 printing of this question. 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 its construction. That means a mistake in how the sentence is built. The question doesn’t say what kind of mistake, so check all four sentences. Pay close attention to pronouns. A pronoun is a word like it or them that stands in for a noun.
Check sentence 1
The words “a creature that certainly resembles its name” are an appositive phrase. That is a group of words that renames the noun beside it, here the blobfish. Commas around it are correct: Rex, our neighbor’s dog, barks all night. The pronoun “its” is singular, so it matches the one blobfish. Gelatinous means jelly-like. There is no comma between “pink” and “gelatinous.” Some writers would put one there. Either way, the parts of the sentence fit together correctly.
Check sentences 2 and 3
Sentence 2 opens with a dependent clause, a group of words with a verb that can’t stand alone as a sentence: “Because it has very few muscles and its density is close to that of water.” It tells why the blobfish floats. Here “it” comes before the noun it stands for. That is fine when the noun follows soon after: Before she left, Ana locked the door. In sentence 3, “It” can only mean the blobfish. Only a fish could wait for food to float by its mouth.
Watch out: Some students think a pronoun may never come before its noun. That makes sentence 2 look wrong and leads to B.
Find the error in sentence 4
Sentence 4 says these features “caused them to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.” Ask yourself: what was voted the ugliest animal? The blobfish, one animal. A pronoun must match its noun in number. One thing is it, and more than one is them. So “them” is wrong here. Every other sentence calls the blobfish it or its.
Watch out: Right before “them” comes a list of three things: “downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring.” That makes the plural sound natural. But a mouth, skin and coloring were not voted an animal.
Show the fix
Change “them” to it. The fixed 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, just as in the rest of the paragraph.
Choose the answer
Sentences 1, 2 and 3 are built correctly. Only sentence 4 uses a pronoun that doesn’t match its noun. So the answer is D, sentence 4.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 2 is the closest wrong answer, because its “it” shows up before the word “blobfish.” That is allowed, since the noun comes right after. Sentence 4 has a real mismatch. The plural “them” stands for one blobfish, so only sentence 4 needs to be revised.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
