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Revising/Editing — Passage-BasedFree
Combining sentences within a passage — SHSAT practice questions
Combining sentences within a passage on the SHSAT asks a student to take two numbered sentences from a passage-based Revising/Editing item and turn them into one sentence that is grammatically correct and faithful to the original meaning. The student must see how the ideas connect and choose a joining method such as a coordinating conjunction, a relative clause, or a participial phrase. Questions typically ask for the best way to combine a pair of sentences, and the answer choices are complete rewritten sentences. Traps include run-ons, comma splices, lost details, and combinations that sound smooth but shift the author's emphasis.
Section: Revising/Editing — Passage-Based 5 questions on the paper
119 practice questions in the app
Sample questions
Staggered Lunch Periods
(1) In many large middle and high schools, a single shared lunch period sends every grade into the cafeteria at once. (2) Lines stall at the serving counters, the noise level rises, and students lose time they need to eat. (3) Crowding at lunch is an important issue for schools to address. (4) The district printed the revised lunch schedule after the committee compared the trial results with the original plan. (5) Last spring, a student-faculty committee gathered evidence from three ordinary school days.
(6) Volunteers timed the hot-lunch line and counted how many students still had unfinished food when the dismissal bell rang. (7) On the busiest day, the wait at the hot-lunch counter reached twelve minutes, and nearly a third of the students threw away uneaten food. (8) The committee also found that ninth graders often joined the wrong line because posted signs named the food stations but not where each line began. (9) Afternoon teachers reported that classes started late because so many students returned still eating. (10) The committee recommended staggering lunch by grade so that only two grades would be in the cafeteria at a time.
(11) Under that plan, each group would have a full twenty-five minutes in the room instead of competing for the same seats and the same counters. (12) Members tested the idea on paper by splitting one day's attendance counts into two waves. (13) Both waves still filled the serving lines, but the modeled peak wait dropped from twelve minutes to about six. (14) The first draft of the committee summary said that the staggered plan was a really good and successful way to make the lunch period better for students in a helpful manner. (15) Not everyone on the committee agreed that a schedule change was the right first step.
(16) Some staff members argued that clearer signs and a redesigned serving path could keep one lunch period and still shorten the lines. (17) Others worried that a split lunch would make it harder for siblings in different grades to sit together and for lunchtime clubs to meet. (18) The principal asked the committee to weigh those social costs against the minutes students might gain to eat. (19) After a two-week trial of staggered lunch, the average wait at the hot-lunch line fell by almost half.
(20) Teachers also reported fewer students arriving late to afternoon classes. (21) A smaller group of students still had trouble finding friends across the grade-level waves, and two clubs had to move their meetings. (22) Those drawbacks did not erase the time students gained, but they showed that a schedule change is not a simple fix. (23) Managing cafeteria crowding will take a plan that shortens lines without ignoring the other ways students use lunch.
Question 1
What is the best way to combine sentences 2 and 3?
AAlthough lines stall at the serving counters, the noise level rises, and students lose time they need to eat, crowding at lunch is an important issue for schools to address.
BLines stall at the serving counters, the noise level rises, and students lose time they need to eat, so crowding at lunch is an important issue for schools to address.
CBecause crowding at lunch is an important issue for schools to address, lines stall at the serving counters, the noise level rises, and students lose time they need to eat.
DLines stall at the serving counters, the noise level rises, and students lose time they need to eat; crowding at lunch is an important issue for schools to address.
Show answer
Answer: B — Lines stall at the serving counters, the noise level rises, and students lose time they need to eat, so crowding at lunch is an important issue for schools to address.
Choice B keeps the crowding details from sentence 2 and uses so to show that those problems are the reason crowding needs to be addressed. Choice A keeps both facts but uses although, which incorrectly presents the claim as a contrast with the delays, noise, and lost time. Choice C reverses the relationship by treating the importance of crowding as the cause of the lines and lost eating time. Choice D joins the two sentences without showing that the delays, noise, and lost time support the claim in sentence 3.
Question 2
What is the best way to combine sentences 19 and 20?
AAfter a two-week trial of staggered lunch, the average wait at the hot-lunch line fell by almost half; therefore, teachers reported fewer students arriving late to afternoon classes.
BAlthough the average wait at the hot-lunch line fell by almost half during the two-week trial, teachers also reported fewer students arriving late to afternoon classes.
CAfter a two-week trial of staggered lunch, the average wait at the hot-lunch line fell by almost half, and teachers also reported fewer students arriving late to afternoon classes.
DTeachers reported fewer students arriving late to afternoon classes because the average wait at the hot-lunch line fell by almost half during the two-week trial.
Show answer
Answer: C — After a two-week trial of staggered lunch, the average wait at the hot-lunch line fell by almost half, and teachers also reported fewer students arriving late to afternoon classes.
Choice C coordinates the two related trial results clearly and preserves both facts without asserting an unsupported relationship. Choice A illogically suggests that the shorter wait caused teachers to make their report. Choice B uses Although even though the two results do not contrast. Choice D presents the shorter wait as a proven cause of the decline in lateness, a relationship the passage does not establish.
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