Punctuation ACT

I knew that it took about eight hours for the tides to change from high to low, sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides.

If the writer were to delete the phrase "sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides" from the preceding sentence (ending the sentence with a period), the essay would primarily lose a detail that: a. shows how the narrator's interests are different from the mother's interests. b. contradicts a point made earlier in the paragraph. c. helps establish the setting for the essay. d. displays the narrator's knowledge of tides.

Our household might have been described as uncooperative. Our meals weren't always served in the expected order of breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Which choice would most effectively introduce the rest of this paragraph? a. NO CHANGE b. There seemed to be no explanation for why Mom ran our household the way she did. c. Our household didn't run according to a typical schedule. d. Mom ran our household in a most spectacular manner.

Having studied, my mother is a marine biologist.

a. NO CHANGE b. As my mother's interest is science, she is c. My mother's occupation is that of d. My mother is

I grew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet;

a. NO CHANGE b. waiting, by the back door, c. waiting by the back door, d. waiting by the back door

tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table.

a. NO CHANGE b. would sit c. sitting d. sat

The moon being aligned with Earth and the sun when full or new,

a. NO CHANGE b. Since the moon is c. The moon is d. The moon,

At the very low tides of the full moon, when almost all the water was sucked away, we found the..

a. NO CHANGE b. away. Then we c. away. We d. away; we

Often, my brother and I, joined our mother on her adventures into tidal lands.

a. NO CHANGE b. brother, and I, c. brother, and I d. brother and I

so its gravity combines with the sun's gravity to create an even stronger gravitational pull.

a. NO CHANGE b. one's c. it's d. its'

Everything was subservient to the disposal of the tides. When the tide was low, Mom could be found down on the mudflats. When the tide was high, she would be standing on the inlet bridge with her plankton net.

a. NO CHANGE b. was defenseless in the face of c. depended on d. trusted in