PSAT Writing and Language Question 272: Answer and Explanation

Question: 272

• A. NO CHANGE
• B. special cleaning solvents and computerized, analysis equipment.
• C. special cleaning solvents, and computerized analysis equipment.
• D. special cleaning solvents and computerized analysis equipment.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

Difficulty: Medium

Getting to the Answer: This underline contains two nouns ("solvents" and "equipment") and their descriptive adjectives. When more than one adjective modifies a noun, there should be commas between the adjectives only if you could change the order of the adjectives without changing the meaning. For the first noun here, "solvents," the word "cleaning" specifies the type of solvents. Thus, "special" is actually modifying "cleaning solvents." You cannot change the order of the adjectives without changing the meaning—"cleaning special solvents" does not make sense. Therefore, eliminate (A), which adds a comma between "special" and "cleaning." Perform the same analysis on "equipment." Switching the order of the adjectives would result in an illogical phrase ("analysis computerized equipment"), so "analysis" specifies the type of "equipment," and no comma is necessary. Eliminate (B). There is no reason to separate the nouns "solvents" and "equipment" with a comma as in choice (C), so (D) is correct.