Beach Park
8th Grade Language Usage
Punctuation 1
Name
Question #1:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Latvia (a country by the Baltic Sea) used to be in the
Soviet Union.
A. no
B. yes
Question #2:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Riga (the capital city of Latvia) is in the low country.
A. no
B. yes
Question #7:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Estonia (also a former USSR nation) has land that is
almost one-third forest.
A. yes
B. no
Question #8:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Dairy farming (Estonia's major industry in the
agricultural area) is important to the economy.
A. yes
B. no
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Some of the population are Letts, but most are
Russians (nearly one-third) of the population.
A. yes
B. no
Question #9:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania called (the "Baltic
States") were annexed (by the USSR in 1940).
A. no
B. yes
Question #4:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Another country (by the Baltic Sea) is Lithuania, also a
former part of the USSR.
A. yes
B. no
Question #10:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
In the 1980s, these countries (Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania) separated themselves from the USSR.
A. yes
B. no
Question #5:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
The population of Lithuania (almost 80 percent
Lithuanian) enjoys mild summers but cold winters.
A. no
B. yes
Question #11:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
The USSR--dissolved in the 1980s--was made of 15
countries.
A. yes
B. no
Question #6:
Are parentheses used correctly in this sentence?
Vilnius (a major manufacturing center) in the country
is the capital of Lithuania.
A. yes
B. no
Question #12:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
Most of the Soviet Union has severe winters, a military
advantage--in many wars in history.
A. no
B. yes
Beach Park
8th Grade Language Usage
Punctuation 1
Name
Question #13:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
Many languages--more than 100, in fact--are spoken in
the former USSR.
A. no
B. yes
Question #14:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
The Russian tsar Ivan IV was called Ivan the Terrible--a
name he earned--by being brutal.
A. no
B. yes
Question #15:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
The Russian Civil War--the Bolshevik Revolution was
fought from 1917 until 1920.
A. no
B. yes
Question #16:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
The Bolshevik Revolution was led by Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin--a Russian hero of the time.
A. yes
B. no
Question #17:
Are dashes correctly used in this sentence?
When Lenin died, Joseph Stalin, a man Lenin did not
trust--took control of the country.
A. no
B. yes
Question #18:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. forty seven-year-old
B. forty-seven year-old
C. forty seven-year old
Question #19:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. post war
B. postwar
C. post-war
Question #20:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. one hundred seventy years
B. one-hundred seventy years
C. one hundred-seventy years
Question #21:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. Self sufficient
B. self-sufficient
C. self sufficient
Question #22:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. ex-Soviet-Union
B. ex-Soviet Union
C. ex Soviet-Union
Question #23:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. semi desert subtropical
B. semi-desert subtropical
C. semi desert-subtropical
Question #24:
A. brother in-law
B. brother-in-law
C. brother-in law
Question #25:
Choose the correctly written group of words.
A. non English-speaking
B. non-English speaking
C. non-English-speaking
Beach Park
8th Grade Language Usage
Punctuation 1
Answer Key
1. B -yes
2. B -yes
3. B -no
4. B -no
5. B -yes
6. B -no
7. A -yes
8. A -yes
9. A -no
10. A -yes
11. A -yes
12. A -no
13. B -yes
14. A -no
15. A -no
16. A -yes
17. A -no
18. B -forty-seven year-old
19. C -post-war
20. A -one hundred seventy years
21. B -self-sufficient
22. B -ex-Soviet Union
23. B -semi-desert subtropical
24. B -brother-in-law
25. C -non-English-speaking