Question

1. choose the best combined sentence using the two sentences.

thomas took his little brother to the movies. he bought him popcorn.
thomas took his little brother to the movies and bought him popcorn.
thomas took popcorn and a movie to his brother.
thomas bought his little brother popcorn and then went to the movies.
thomas bought his brother and popcorn at the movies.

1. choose the correct placement of the parentheses and commas in the sentence.

science was his favorite subject except for problems using mechanical advantage and he made good grades in it.
science, was his favorite subject, except for problems using mechanical advantage (and he made good grades in it).
science was his favorite subject, except for problems (using mechanical advantage), and he made good grades in it.
science was his favorite subject (except for problems using mechanical advantage), and he made good grades in it.
science was his favorite subject (except for problems), using mechanical advantage, and he made good grades in it.

Explanation:

Question 7

To combine the two sentences ("Thomas took his little brother to the movies. He bought him popcorn."), we need to maintain the correct sequence of events and logical meaning. The first option combines the two actions (taking to movies and buying popcorn) with "and" correctly, preserving the original order and meaning. The other options either misorder the events (like buying popcorn before going to movies) or have illogical phrasing (like "bought his brother and popcorn" or "took popcorn and a movie").

We need to place parentheses and commas to clarify the meaning. The phrase "except for problems using mechanical advantage" is a parenthetical that modifies "Science was his favorite subject". The correct placement is to enclose "except for problems using mechanical advantage" in parentheses to show it's an aside, and use a comma after the parenthetical to separate it from the rest of the sentence. Option C does this: "Science was his favorite subject (except for problems using mechanical advantage), and he made good grades in it." Option A misplaces the parenthetical, B incorrectly splits "problems using mechanical advantage", and D misinterprets the parenthetical content.

Answer:

Thomas took his little brother to the movies and bought him popcorn.

Question 8