Elgin Botanic Garden

Today’s SAT question of the day is an improving sentences question about one of our favorite topics: verbs!

The given sentence says, roughly: The first public botanical garden in the United States was established to provide plant materials for studying by medical students.

Let’s think for a moment: the garden was provided for….

Our choices are that it was provided for medical students or for studying. Which one makes sense: making a garden for the people who will visit it, or making a garden for a verb?

See? The garden was made for medical students.  Our best answer choice will say that the garden was made for medical students to study – and that is just what choice B says.

Eliminating extra information from the sentence allows you to focus on its mechanics and hear the errors more easily.