The Compound/Complex Sentence

PRACTICE TEST

(4 pages, 10¢/page for print jobs in ELC)

PART I: Some of the following sentences contain errors in punctuation of joined clauses, and some are punctuated correctly. Mark as follows:

“A” if the punctuation is correct.

“B” if the punctuation is incorrect.

1. When the 1960s dawned, the United States was ready to embark on the salvation of the world; the evil of communism was spreading everywhere, and the forces of democracy had to take a stand.

1. Correct
2. Incorrect

2. President John F. Kennedy, who became the embodiment of this call to action, talked about the need to help free nations and he promised that his administration would never allow one form of colonialism to be replaced by another.

1. Correct
2. Incorrect

3. There seemed nothing that American power could not achieve: the United States had become the premier economic and military power in the world.

1. Correct
2. Incorrect

4. The conviction that the United States was unstoppable permeated American culture in the late 1940s and 1950s, this belief colored the way policymakers reacted to social and political change.

1. Correct
2. Incorrect

5. Communists were the new embodiment of evil; because America could provide the money, the leadership, and the technology to defeat the new threat she became the champion of freedom.

1. Correct
2. Incorrect

PART II: Choose the item that correctly completes the Compound/Complex sentence.

6. The administration not only accepted at face value the existence of an international communist conspiracy, but they also formulated __________ was designed to contain and eliminate that threat

1. a plan that
2. a plan, that
3. a plan; that
4. a plan—that

7. The plan seemed straight __________ United States should invest resources and apply power until the communists reached their breaking point, just as Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo had reached theirs.

1. forward the
2. forward, the
3. forward: the
4. forward and the

8. President Kennedy sent Vice President __________ was raised in the hard-biting politics of central Texas, on a fact-finding mission, but Johnson stayed in Saigon for only four days.

1. Lyndon B. Johnson who
2. Lyndon B. Johnson, who
3. Lyndon B. Johnson; who
4. Lyndon B. Johnson: who

9. At at six feet, four inches, Johnson towered over the Vietnamese, and the muggy heat turned him into a fountain of __________ the Vietnamese who met Johnson in person did not know what to make of him.

1. sweat, consequently
2. sweat, consequently,
3. sweat; consequently
4. sweat; consequently,

10. Although this big sweaty American giant behaved __________ warmed to him; they laughed when he hovered over them, dripping sweat and shaking their hands.

1. oddly the crowds
2. oddly, the crowds
3. oddly; the crowds
4. oddly: the crowds

PART III: For each of the sentences in the paragraph below, mark as follows:

“A” if the sentence is a Compound/Complex Sentence

“B” if the sentence is not a Compound/Complex Sentence

(11) Even when American policymakers began to see Vietnam for the quagmire it was, disengagement was excruciatingly difficult. (12) Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all expressed the fear of becoming the first American President to lose a war. (13) Each of them remembered the political abuse Harry Truman had taken from the Republican right wing over the “loss” of China to the Reds, and none of them wanted to be the target of similar abuse for “losing” Vietnam. (14) Domestic politics, as much as the perceived need to stop communism in Vietnam, kept the United States in the war against the better judgment of a number of prominent leaders. (15) Even in the early 1970s, when the war had become an albatross to the Nixon administration, blanket withdrawal was not an option: America needed to maintain credibility around the world.

(16) The effort that started out as a righteous crusade in the late 1940s to save Southeast Asia from communism ended up in the 1970s as a face-saving game to get out of an impossible mess without looking too bad. (17) The war was a colossal blunder born of an odd mixture of paranoia and arrogance; blind to history, the United States saw only communism, not nationalism, in Vietnam. (18) Confident about its role as the premier power on earth, the United States applied military solutions to a problem that was essentially political and cultural; consequently, some historians view Vietnam as the wrong war for the wrong reason. (19) Others hold the opposite view: though costly and unpopular, the Vietnam war held back the tide of communism, which bought time for the weaknesses of that political structure to cause its inevitable collapse. (20) If these questions about the Vietnam war could be answered, then perhaps a great wound in our nation's soul could finally begin to heal.

(All test items adapted from Where the Domino Fell, Third Edition . Olson and Roberts. St. James, NY: Brandywine Press., 1999)

Answer Key: The Compound/Complex Sentence Practice Test

Part I

1. A

2. B

3. A

4. B

5. B

Part II

6. A

7. C

8. B

9. D

10. B

Part III

11. B

12. B

13. A

14. B

15. A

16. B

17. B

18. A

19. A

20. B