Test Prep HSPT Test Exam Actual Questions

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a spelling error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a spelling error.

Correct Answer: A 🗳️
The sentence that contains the spelling error is "It's a good thing that Fred recieved the package before he left on his trip." The misspelled word is "received." It should be spelled "received." Remembering the phrase "'I' before 'E' except after 'C'" can help you avoid errors like this in the future!

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a spelling error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a spelling error.

Correct Answer: ג€" C 🗳️
The sentence that contains a spelling error is "To avoid bad breathe, one should always brush one's teeth before meeting an important person." This is a tricky spelling error
"breathe" should be "breath." "Breathe" isn't a typo in every sentence; it is a verb that means to inhale and exhale regularly. That doesn't make any sense in this sentence, though! We need a word that acts as a noun and means the air that you exhale. That word is "breath." The corrected sentence would read,
"To avoid bad breath, one should always brush one's teeth before meeting an important person."

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a capitalization error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a capitalization error.

Correct Answer: C 🗳️
The sentence that contains the capitalization error is shown below.
I started my paper with the sentence, "flightless birds are fascinating."
The quoted sentence should begin with a capital letter. The corrected sentence would read, I started my paper with the sentence, "Flightless birds are fascinating."

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a capitalization error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a capitalization error.

Correct Answer: A 🗳️
Each of these sentences uses correct capitalization. In "Big Ben and the London Bridge are two major landmarks in London, England," "Big Ben" is a proper noun because it is the name of a landmark, and "London" and "England" are capitalized because they are the name of a city and a country, respectively. In "The Great
Wall of China stretches for thousands of miles across China," "The Great Wall of China" is capitalized because it is a landmark and "China" is capitalized because it is the name of a country. In "The Eiffel Tower forms one of the most famous silhouettes on the Parisian skyline," "Eiffel Tower" is capitalized because it is a landmark and "Parisian" is capitalized because it is an adjective formed from the name of a city, Paris.

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a punctuation error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a punctuation error.

Correct Answer: B 🗳️
The sentence that contains the incorrect punctuation is shown below.
The teacher told me ג€to go work on my homeworkג€ until recess.
In this sentence, double quotation marks are incorrectly used to convey indirect speech. Indirect speech is any instance where what someone said is conveyed without being directly quoted. Consider the following correctly-punctuated sentence: Samantha told me that she would be getting a kitten this weekend. We do not need to use any quotation marks because we are not being told exactly what Samantha said to the speaker. She could have said "I'm getting a kitten this weekend!" or "I'm so excited that this weekend I'm going to be getting a kitten!", etc. The exact words that someone told someone else are conveyed using direct quotation, which requires double quotation marks, as demonstrated in the following sentence: Samantha told me, "I can't concentrate today because I'm so
ג€"
excited
my family is adopting a kitten this weekend!" In this sentence, the speaker is conveying Samantha's exact words, so we need to surround them with double quotation marks to set them apart from the rest of the sentence. The correctly punctuated version of the correct answer choice sentence is as follows: The teacher told me to go work on my homework until recess.

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a punctuation error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a punctuation error.

Correct Answer: A 🗳️
The sentence that contains the punctuation error is "In order to identify the source of the noise Jenna stood up on the ladder to peer over the fence." This sentence begins with a prepositional phrase, "In order to identify the source of the noise." A comma is needed to separate this phrase from the rest of the sentence. Note that this rule is specific to prepositional phrases that start sentences; if a prepositional phrase is used in the middle of a sentence or at the end of a sentence, it does not need to be separated from the sentence by commas unless the commas are required by some other grammatical rule. You can see that this is true in the sentence we're working with. The prepositional phrase "on the ladder," which appears in the middle of the sentence, is not set apart by commas. The prepositional phrase "over the fence," which ends the sentence, isn't preceded by a comma. Adding in the necessary comma to this sentence, the corrected version would read, "In order to identify the source of the noise, Jenna stood up on the ladder to peer over the fence."

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a grammatical error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a grammatical error.

Correct Answer: C 🗳️
The sentence that contains the grammatical error is shown below.
Which one of these cookies over there in the bakery case looks most delicious to you?
The error occurs in the sentence's use of the word "these." Later in the sentence, the phrase "over there" is used; this tells us that the cookies are located at some relatively distant position from the speaker and the addressee. Because of this distance, we need to use the demonstrative pronoun "those," which is used for relatively distant people and things, as opposed to "these," which is used for people and things located relatively close by. The corrected sentence would read:
Which one of those cookies over there in the bakery case looks most delicious to you?

Identify which one of the following sentences contains a grammatical error. Select `No Errors` if none of the sentences contains a grammatical error.

Correct Answer: D 🗳️
The answer choice that contains the grammatical error is "Robins are one of the first bird to show up at the beginning of spring." The phrase "one of the first bird" does not make grammatical sense. Here, "one" does not need to agree with "bird." "Bird" needs to be changed to "birds." This is because the sentence is specifying that robins are one out of a group of birds (all birds that show up in spring). Thus, to convey that the speaker is specifying robins as one bird out of a group of birds, the singular "bird" needs to be changed to the plural "birds." The corrected sentence would read, "Robins are one of the first birds to show up at the beginning of spring."

Choose the word that best and most logically connects the two parts of the sentence.
Francine can be forgetful and needed to remember to get many specific ingredients for a recipe she wanted to try; __________, she wrote a grocery list before going to the store.

Correct Answer: B 🗳️
Conjunctions are like grammatical hinges between two ideas. To choose the correct conjunction, we need to analyze how the meanings of the two parts of the sentence connect. In the first part of the sentence, we're told that Francine is forgetful and has something she needs to remember. How might this connect to the idea of writing a grocery list? The first part of the sentence is a cause or impetus for Francine to write a grocery list. So, we need to pick out a conjunction that conveys cause and effect. The two parts of the sentence do not oppose one another or conflict, so "but," "however," or "nevertheless" cannot be correct. The correct answer is "therefore." This is the only conjunction listed in the answer choices that conveys the cause-and-effect that we logically need for this sentence.

Choose the word that best and most logically connects the two parts of the sentence.
Yesterday, I wanted to go directly to the beach after stopping in town, __________ I brought my beach towel and umbrella to town with me.

Correct Answer: C 🗳️
The most logical conjunction for this sentence is "so". The first part of the sentence explains the motivation behind the action that takes place in the second part of the sentence. Conjunctions like "so" and "therefore" convey cause-and-effect relationships like the one in the sentence, so either could work well in the blank. Only
"so" is listed amongst the answer choices, so it is the correct answer. "And" is used to connect two sentences when they are not being contrasted or a cause-and- effect relationship between the two parts of the sentence is not at work. "Despite the fact that" is similar to "but" in that one of the parts of the sentence must be working against the other part: "Despite A, B happened." The best answer in this case is "so."