25. A system for use in the computerized development of sentence-based test items, the system comprising: a processor; a processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processor; and a display; wherein the processor-readable storage medium includes one or more programming instructions for causing the processor to execute steps comprising displaying a graphical user interface on the display, the graphical user interface comprising a database selection field, a sentence pattern entry field, an option pane, and an output pane; searching a database for one or more sentences having a user-specified syntax pattern entered in the sentence pattern entry field, the one or more sentences matching the user-specified syntax pattern, the one or more sentences to be used for producing one or more sentence-based test items; generating one or more responses corresponding to the one or more sentences; and producing the one or more sentence-based test items based upon the one or more sentences and the one or more responses.
25. A system for use in the computerized development of sentence-based test items, the system comprising: a processor; a processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processor; and a display; wherein the processor-readable storage medium includes one or more programming instructions for causing the processor to execute steps comprising displaying a graphical user interface on the display, the graphical user interface comprising a database selection field, a sentence pattern entry field, an option pane, and an output pane; searching a database for one or more sentences having a user-specified syntax pattern entered in the sentence pattern entry field, the one or more sentences matching the user-specified syntax pattern, the one or more sentences to be used for producing one or more sentence-based test items; generating one or more responses corresponding to the one or more sentences; and producing the one or more sentence-based test items based upon the one or more sentences and the one or more responses. 29. The system of claim 25 , wherein the output pane is used to display the one or more sentences and the one or more responses.