Study on the fly›ACT›English › Redundancy and wordiness (concision)
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On the ACT English test, Redundancy and wordiness (concision) covers phrases that repeat an idea already stated, stack synonyms, or pad a sentence with empty wording. A student has to spot the extra language, keep every detail that actually matters, and choose a tighter wording that does not change the meaning. The exam typically presents an underlined stretch of prose and asks for the most concise revision that still includes relevant information. Answer choices usually offer the original phrasing alongside shorter alternatives, and a common trap is selecting a cut that drops a needed fact or a brief option that sounds clean but slightly alters the sense.
Each winter, a small team of volunteers gathers at Hollow Ridge Cave to keep a record of the air inside. The cave is a hibernation site for several bat species, and even slight shifts in temperature or humidity can disturb the animals' rest1. They come from nearby towns, carrying notebooks, a hygrometer, and a map. Their work is quiet, methodical, and deliberately slow.
At the entrance they pause to let their eyes adjust, then follow a narrow passage into a hall of hanging draperies, thin soda straws, and still pools. Along a route marked with numbered tags, they stop at each station, read the instruments, and enter the figures in a log2. After a flood, the entrance trail was rebuilt, and a steel gate was fitted to the cave's mouth.
One January, a volunteer at Station 7 was unexpectedly surprised and startled3 by a humidity reading that did not match the week before. Later, the team learned that a cold snap outside does not always mean a matching drop within; the cave's air can lag, hold, or even reverse. Dripwater on the formations, they noted, leaves a thin mineral film.4 A closed gate, an open crack, and a cluster of bats can each change a station's numbers.
The project now delivers5 its logs to a regional wildlife office. The office times gate repairs so hibernating bats are not disturbed. Local schools schedule spring field trips once the bats have left. The volunteers first initially began6 the surveys after a researcher asked whether the cave's winter air was stable enough for a nursery colony.
In late autumn they walk the stations in reverse, checking that the hanging draperies remain undamaged.7 The office files dated handwritten8 copies of each season's log, alongside later typed summaries. A new volunteer learns to wait for the hygrometer's needle to settle. By March the bats begin to stir, and the team packs the instruments away until the annual yearly repeating9 return of cold. The logs, stacked in a metal cabinet in town, now cover more than a decade.10
Question 1
Which choice is most concise without omitting relevant information?
Answer: C — surprised
Unexpectedly, surprised, and startled all name one reaction. C keeps that reaction in a single word. B still stacks unexpected with surprised. D drops the surprise and says only that the reading conveyed information.
Question 2
Which choice is most concise without omitting relevant information?
Answer: C — began
First, initially, and began all mark the start of the surveys. C says that once. B still pairs first with began. D replaces the start of the work with a mere proposal and omits that the surveys actually began.
Question 3
Which choice is most concise without omitting relevant information?
Answer: C — annual
Annual and yearly both mean occurring every year, so using both is redundant. Repeating adds no information to annual return. C preserves the yearly frequency concisely; D replaces that frequency with uncertainty.
Practice 90 Redundancy and wordiness (concision) questions in the app
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