Adult Literacy Intermediate Quiz: Using Spelling Reference Tools
10 questions · exam conditions
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Using Spelling Reference ToolsQuestion 1 of 10

A report says: "The mediator remained impartal during the meeting." Spell-check offers these suggestions:

  • impartial: fair and not favoring either side
  • impassive: showing little or no emotion
  • partial: favoring one side; also incomplete
  • impart: to communicate information

Which replacement best fits the meaning of the report?

Use "impartial" because the mediator did not favor either side.
Use "impassive" because the mediator did not show strong emotion.
Use "partial" because the mediator listened to both sides equally.
Use "impart" because the mediator helped settle the disagreement.
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Adult Literacy Intermediate Quiz

Adult Literacy Intermediate Quiz: Using Spelling Reference Tools

Practice Using Spelling Reference Tools in Adult Literacy Intermediate with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Using Spelling Reference Tools, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Adult Literacy Intermediate.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

A report says: "The mediator remained impartal during the meeting." Spell-check offers these suggestions:

  • impartial: fair and not favoring either side
  • impassive: showing little or no emotion
  • partial: favoring one side; also incomplete
  • impart: to communicate information

Which replacement best fits the meaning of the report?

  1. Use "impartial" because the mediator did not favor either side. (correct answer)
  2. Use "impassive" because the mediator did not show strong emotion.
  3. Use "partial" because the mediator listened to both sides equally.
  4. Use "impart" because the mediator helped settle the disagreement.
Explanation: When a spell-checker flags a word, your job isn't just to pick any suggestion — it's to find the word that matches what the writer meant. That requires reading context carefully and comparing definitions. Here, the report is about a mediator — someone whose professional role is to guide a dispute without taking sides. The misspelled word "impartal" is clearly a near-miss for "impartial," which means fair and not favoring either side. That definition fits a mediator perfectly. Answer A is correct because it aligns the word's meaning with the role being described. Answer B is tempting if you confuse staying neutral with showing no emotion — but "impassive" describes someone's facial expression or emotional display, not their fairness. A mediator could be very expressive and still be completely neutral. Answer C is a trap because "partial" actually means favoring one side — the opposite of what you'd want in a mediator. The definition hint even tells you this, so reading those carefully protects you from this reversal error. Answer D misreads the situation entirely: "impart" means to share information, not to resolve a conflict neutrally. It doesn't describe the mediator's role here at all. A useful strategy: when spell-check offers multiple suggestions, match the definition to the job being done in the sentence. Ask yourself, "What is this person or thing actually doing?" Then eliminate any choice whose definition contradicts or ignores that role. On vocabulary questions like this, the definitions are often provided — slow down and use them.

Question 2

A dictionary gives these forms:

follow-up noun or adjective: an additional action or later contact

follow up verb: to take additional action

A supervisor writes: "I will follow-up with the customer tomorrow."

Which editing decision is supported by the dictionary entries?

  1. Keep "follow-up" because the dictionary lists it as an adjective.
  2. Change it to "follow up" because the sentence requires a verb. (correct answer)
  3. Change it to "followup" because all compound verbs are one word.
  4. Change it to "following-up" because the contact will happen later.
Explanation: When a word can function as multiple parts of speech, your job is to identify how it's being used in the sentence — not just whether it appears in the dictionary. That's exactly what this question tests. Look at the supervisor's sentence: "I will follow-up with the customer tomorrow." The word "will" is a helping verb, which means the word that follows must be the main verb — the action word. So you need the verb form. According to the dictionary, the verb form is follow up (two words, no hyphen). That makes B the correct editing decision: change "follow-up" to "follow up" because the sentence requires a verb. Choice A is a trap that ignores how the word is functioning. Yes, the dictionary lists "follow-up" as an adjective — but the sentence isn't using it to describe a noun. You'd write "a follow-up call" or "a follow-up email" when it modifies a noun. Here, it's carrying the action of the sentence, so the adjective form is wrong. Choice C invents a rule that doesn't exist. Not all compound verbs are written as one word — and "followup" isn't listed in the dictionary entry at all. Never apply a grammar "rule" you can't verify. Choice D confuses tense with spelling. "Following-up" is not a standard form in any tense, and adding "-ing" doesn't match any dictionary entry provided. Study tip: When you see a hyphenated word, always ask: What part of speech is this word doing right now? Then match that function to the correct form in the dictionary — noun/adjective forms and verb forms are often spelled differently.

Question 3

A benefits notice says: "The new work schedule will not effect the amount of your current benefits." Spell-check accepts the sentence. A dictionary lists:

affect verb: to influence or change something

effect noun: a result; verb: to cause something to happen

Which word should replace "effect" in the notice?

  1. effects
  2. affect (correct answer)
  3. affects
  4. effected
Explanation: When you see a question involving affect and effect, your first move is to identify what part of speech the word needs to be — a verb (an action) or a noun (a thing). That grammatical role will almost always point you to the right word. In the notice, the missing word sits between "not" and "the amount" — it's doing the work of a verb, meaning "to influence or change" something. The dictionary confirms that affect (choice B) is the verb meaning "to influence or change something." That's exactly what the sentence needs: the schedule will not influence the amount of your benefits. Swapping in "affect" makes the sentence grammatically and logically correct. Choice A, effects, is a noun (plural) or a third-person verb meaning "to bring something about" — as in "the new policy effects a change." Either way, it doesn't fit here. Choice C, affects, is tempting because it's the correct verb (affect) with a third-person singular ending — but the subject is "schedule," which is singular and pairs with "will not affect," not "will not affects." Adding an -s after a helping verb like "will" is always wrong. Choice D, effected, uses effect as a past-tense verb, meaning "caused to happen" — again the wrong meaning and wrong tense for this sentence. A handy memory trick: Affect is the Action (verb); Effect is the End result (noun). Spell-check can't catch usage errors — it only sees spelling — so on this exam, always ask yourself whether you need a verb or a noun before choosing between these two words.

Question 4

A dictionary gives this entry:

permit verb; permits, permitted, permitting

permit noun; plural permits

A notice says: "The city has   the vendor to park there, but the vendor must display a  ."

Which forms correctly complete the notice?

  1. permitted; permit (correct answer)
  2. permit; permitted
  3. permitting; permit
  4. permitted; permitting
Explanation: When a word can function as both a verb and a noun, questions will test whether you can identify which grammatical role each blank requires. That's exactly what's happening here — the dictionary entry shows permit working as both a verb (an action) and a noun (a thing). Look at the first blank: "The city has   the vendor to park there." The phrase "has  " signals a present perfect verb tense, which requires a past participle. From the dictionary entry, the past participle of the verb permit is permitted. So the first blank needs permitted. Now look at the second blank: "the vendor must display a  ." The word a before the blank is your clue — articles like a, an, and the introduce nouns, not verbs. The vendor displays a thing, which means you need the noun form: permit (as in a parking permit document). That confirms A) permitted; permit as the correct answer. Choice B reverses the forms, putting the noun in the verb slot and vice versa — grammatically backwards. Choice C uses permitting, a present participle used for ongoing action (like "the city is permitting..."), which doesn't fit the "has  " structure and also places a verb where the noun belongs. Choice D puts permitting in the first blank (same problem as C) and permitting in the second blank — you can't display an action. Study tip: When you see a word that can be both a verb and a noun, scan each sentence for articles (a, an, the) — they always signal a noun is coming, which helps you assign the right form instantly.

Question 5

A dictionary lists:

crisis noun; plural crises

A housing report says: "Local agencies responded to several housing   during the winter."

Which form should complete the sentence?

  1. crisis's
  2. crisises
  3. crisis
  4. crises (correct answer)
Explanation: When a sentence calls for more than one of something, you need the plural form of the noun — and the tricky part here is that not all plurals follow the simple "add -s" rule. Some words, especially those borrowed from Latin or Greek, have irregular plurals that you simply need to recognize. The passage gives you the answer directly: the dictionary entry at the top states that the plural of crisis is crises (pronounced "KRY-seez"). The sentence refers to "several housing  ," and several signals that more than one crisis is being described. That makes D) crises the correct choice — it's the standard, accepted plural form. Here's why the other options miss the mark. A) crisis's is a possessive form, used to show ownership (as in "the crisis's impact"), not to indicate more than one crisis — wrong job entirely. B) crisises is a natural but incorrect guess; many students add -es to form plurals by habit, but this word doesn't follow that pattern. C) crisis is the singular form, which contradicts the word several in the sentence — you can't have "several crisis." A helpful study tip: when you see an unfamiliar plural form on a test, look for clues in the passage itself. Here, the question gave you the plural in the dictionary entry — always read all the information provided before answering. For irregular plurals, a few common patterns to memorize include crisis → crises, analysis → analyses, and datum → data.

Question 6

A dictionary gives this entry:

carry verb; carries, carried, carrying

A policy statement says: "The policy   unused vacation hours last year, and it will   them again this year."

Which word forms correctly complete the statement?

  1. carry; carried
  2. carries; carry
  3. carrying; carries
  4. carried; carry (correct answer)
Explanation: When a sentence has two blanks, your job is to match the verb form to the time frame each part of the sentence describes. Look for clue words like "last year" (past) and "this year" paired with "will" (future). In this sentence, the first blank refers to what the policy did "last year" — that's past tense, so you need carried. The second blank follows "will," which already signals the future, meaning the main verb should appear in its base (infinitive) form: carry. Together: "The policy carried unused vacation hours last year, and it will carry them again this year." That's answer D. Here's why the other choices fall short. Choice A (carry; carried) reverses the tenses — it puts a base form where past tense belongs and past tense after "will," which is grammatically wrong. Choice B (carries; carry) uses the third-person singular present tense "carries" for the first blank, ignoring that "last year" demands past tense. Choice C (carrying; carries) uses a present participle and present tense — neither matches the past or future context the sentence requires. A helpful strategy: before filling in any blank, underline the time clues in the sentence. Words like "yesterday," "last year," or "ago" signal past tense. Words like "will," "tomorrow," or "next year" signal future — and with "will," the verb that follows is always the base form, never carries or carried. Training yourself to spot these clues first will help you on any verb-tense question.

Question 7

A shipping note says: "Place the signed delivery forms over their, beside the front desk." The spell-check tool reports no errors.

What is the most reliable way to correct the sentence?

  1. Keep "their" because the spell-check tool accepted the word.
  2. Change "their" to "they're" because the words sound alike.
  3. Compare the dictionary meanings and change "their" to "there." (correct answer)
  4. Add "their" to the custom dictionary and check the sentence again.
Explanation: When a word sounds correct but means something different, spell-check won't catch the mistake — and that's exactly what this question tests. Words like their, there, and they're are called homophones: they sound identical but have completely different meanings and uses. Spell-check only flags words that don't exist in its dictionary, so it happily accepts the wrong homophone every time. The sentence needs a word indicating a location — "beside the front desk" is a place, so you need there, which signals a place or position. That makes C the correct approach: looking up the actual dictionary definitions and choosing the word whose meaning fits the sentence. Once you understand that their means "belonging to them" and there refers to a location, the right swap becomes obvious. Choice A is a classic trap. Trusting spell-check for homophones is unreliable because the tool has no way of knowing which meaning you intended — it only checks spelling, not context. Choice B is tempting because they're also sounds the same, but they're is a contraction of "they are," which makes no sense in this sentence ("place the forms they are beside the desk" is meaningless). Choice D avoids the problem entirely — adding a word to a custom dictionary doesn't fix the meaning error, it just teaches the tool to ignore both words permanently. Your study tip: whenever you spot a word that sounds right but the sentence feels slightly off, ask yourself what does this word actually mean? For homophones, always check meaning, not just spelling.

Question 8

An organization uses a style sheet that says: "When the dictionary lists two spelling variants, use the first-listed form in all general documents." Its dictionary lists center; also centre. A flyer says: "Classes are held at the downtown training centre." Spell-check accepts the sentence.

How should the writer apply both reference tools?

  1. Keep "centre" because any spelling accepted by spell-check follows the style sheet.
  2. Change "centre" to "center" because that is the dictionary's first-listed form. (correct answer)
  3. Change "centre" to "central" because the flyer describes a downtown location.
  4. Add "centre" to the custom dictionary because it is the required local spelling.
Explanation: When workplace documents give you two reference tools — a style sheet and a dictionary — your job is to apply both correctly. The key is understanding which tool does what: the dictionary shows acceptable spellings, while the style sheet sets the house rule for which spelling to choose. Here, the dictionary entry reads center; also centre, meaning "center" is the preferred (first-listed) form and "centre" is an acceptable variant. The style sheet is unambiguous: use the first-listed form in all general documents. That rule points directly to "center," making B the right move — the writer should change "centre" to "center" to comply with both tools together. Choice A is tempting but wrong because it confuses spell-check's job with the style sheet's job. Spell-check only confirms that a word exists in its database; it cannot enforce workplace style preferences. "Centre" is a real word, so of course spell-check accepts it — but that tells you nothing about whether it follows the organization's rule. Choice C invents a rule that doesn't exist. "Central" is a different word with a different meaning, and neither the dictionary nor the style sheet suggests changing a word based on geographic descriptions in the text. Choice D misreads the situation entirely. The style sheet doesn't call for using "centre" — quite the opposite — so adding it to a custom dictionary would actively work against the organization's stated preference. Strategy tip: When a question involves multiple reference tools, treat them as a team. Ask what each one actually says, then apply the rule that is most specific to the situation — here, the style sheet's direct instruction overrides the mere availability of a variant.

Question 9

An email says: "Please ask Marisol to recieve the updated schedule." Spell-check marks both "Marisol" and "recieve" as possible errors. The official staff roster lists an employee named Marisol.

What should the writer do before sending the email?

  1. Change Marisol to "marital" and recieve to "receive" without checking any records.
  2. Ignore both markings because a spell-check warning does not prove an error.
  3. Confirm Marisol in the staff roster and change recieve to "receive" using a dictionary. (correct answer)
  4. Add both marked items to the custom dictionary so neither appears again.
Explanation: When editing a document, you need to treat each flagged item individually — a spell-check warning is a prompt to investigate, not an automatic command to change. The key skill here is knowing which tool resolves which problem. "Recieve" is a genuine spelling error. The correct spelling is "receive," following the classic rule: i before e, except after c. A dictionary or style guide confirms this fix. "Marisol," however, is a proper name — a person's name — and spell-check flags names simply because they aren't in its standard word list. That doesn't mean the name is wrong. The right move is to verify it against a reliable source, which the staff roster provides. Once confirmed, the spelling stays exactly as listed. Option C captures both steps correctly: verify the proper name against the roster, and correct the misspelled common word using a reference. Option A is dangerous because it changes both items without verification — "marital" isn't even a close substitute for a person's name, and making blind substitutions can introduce new errors. Option B goes too far in the opposite direction: ignoring spell-check entirely is irresponsible, since "recieve" genuinely needs correction. Option D sidesteps the problem rather than solving it — adding words to a custom dictionary skips the verification step entirely and could permanently mask real errors in the future. A useful strategy: when spell-check flags something, ask yourself what kind of word is this? Common words → check a dictionary. Proper names → check an official record. Different problems require different tools.

Question 10

A worker types "priviledge," and spell-check suggests privilege. The worker wants to confirm the correction in a printed dictionary.

Which pair of guide words identifies the page where "privilege" would appear?

  1. prevent–primary
  2. pride–print
  3. private–probable (correct answer)
  4. proceed–promise
Explanation: When using a printed dictionary, you navigate by guide words — the two words printed at the top of each page that show the first and last entry on that page. Any word that falls alphabetically between those two guide words will be found on that page. Your job is to slot "privilege" into the correct alphabetical range. Start by scanning the first few letters of "privilege": p-r-i-v. Now compare that to each option. Choice A offers prevent–primary (p-r-e and p-r-i-m), which covers words beginning with "pre" through "prim." Since "priv" comes after "prim" alphabetically, "privilege" has already passed this page. Choice B, pride–print (p-r-i-d through p-r-i-n), covers words starting with "prid" to "prin." The letters "priv" come after "prin," so "privilege" isn't here either. Choice D, proceed–promise (p-r-o), has already moved past the "pri" section entirely — "pro" comes after "pri," so "privilege" won't appear there. That leaves Choice C, private–probable. "Private" begins p-r-i-v-a, and "probable" begins p-r-o-b. The word "privilege" starts p-r-i-v-i, which falls after "private" (i comes after a) and before "probable" (pri comes before pro). So "privilege" lands squarely on this page, confirming C is correct. A reliable strategy: always compare letter by letter, left to right. Don't just glance at the first two letters — "preview," "pride," "private," and "proceed" all start with "pr," but the third and fourth letters determine the order. Slow down and go character by character.