3 English and 3 math
Here are 6 random questions to try. Takers earning below 75% are unlikely to receive an offer. You have 1 minute 48 seconds per question on the real exam.
Question 1 of 6
2024 Test A English, question 55Passage Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”
Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”
by Emma Marris
The author of this opinion article attended a symposium, or conference, in Missoula, Montana, at which biologists and other scientists discussed species of plants and animals that are not native to the areas in which they live.
Invasive species are scary. It was ecologist Charles Elton, back in the 1950s, who introduced the militaristic “invasion” metaphor to describe exotic plants and animals—but there’s no question some can be extremely destructive.
The brown tree snake has eaten a dozen kinds of forest birds in Guam to extinction; zebra mussels clog pipes around the Great Lakes; the common house cat turns out to be, in Australia, a mercilessly effective killer of cute, fluffy marsupials like the bilby and the numbat.
As scientists have sounded the alarm about these pests, the public has gotten the message. Citizen groups rip out non-native plants. Native gardens have become increasingly popular, both as ways to celebrate the unique flora of each region and as tiny hot spots of diversity. Native trees provide food for native bugs, which feed native birds. Food chains developed over thousands of years of co-evolution unfold in our backyards. . . .
So we’ve learned, scientists and laypeople alike, that native species are good and non-natives are bad.
Julian Olden, a biologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who co-organized the symposium, recently polled nearly 2,000 ecologists. Among his findings: a substantial number of them said they would immediately eradicate a hypothetical non-native forest plant, even if it were shown to have no effect on the forest. Olden calls this the “guilty even when proven innocent” approach.
That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.
Exotics Are Everywhere
Climate change is making it harder even to decide who the invaders are.
How, scientists at the symposium wondered, do you define “native” on a warming planet, when plants and animals are already moving toward the poles or up mountainsides in search of climate conditions they can tolerate? Should we consider them “invasive” in their new homes? Regardless of what we label them, conservationists will be reluctant to remove them from their new environs—to do so would stymie1 their chances of adapting to the warmer future we’re creating.
And then there are the non-natives that we actually like. Most domestic crops are exotic in most of the places they’re grown, but there are even wild exotics that “do good,” forming useful relationships with native species.
Edwin Grosholz of the University of California, Davis, told the recent symposium about one such relationship. On beaches in his state, non-native spartina grass has become important habitat for the endangered California clapper rail, a plump shorebird with a downward curving bill more at home on land than in the air. A project to rip out and poison the spartina—which grows in dense swaths that exclude many other shorebirds—saw clapper rail numbers go tumbling downward.
There are other examples like that. The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher nests in “invasive” tamarisk shrubs. Many native (and beautiful) Hawaiian flowers are now pollinated by the Japanese white-eye bird—because the native pollinators have been driven extinct by other non-native species.
Should we impose further risk on already endangered natives by severing these relationships? Or should we admire the resilience of nature and let such “well-behaved” exotics stay? . . .
Leave them alone, more and more conservationists are arguing, and stop focusing obsessively on categorizing species as native or non-native. Mark Davis, an ecologist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, once considered himself an “invasion biologist”—but not anymore. “I am actively trying to get the field to retire the invader narrative,” he said in Missoula.
A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing
After all, nativeness is just one environmental value, and arguably not as important as preventing extinctions and preserving biodiversity. In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.
This is the thinking behind, for example, installing the Aldabra tortoise on the islands of Mauritius. The islands lost their own large tortoises, and the fruiting plants that formerly had their seeds moved around by these fruit-loving reptiles have been on the decline. A tortoise that’s related to the island’s large tortoises—a non-native from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean that was intentionally introduced in 2004—is now handling some of that work.
Most of the time, for the time being, conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives. We can and should do that in places where it is feasible and important to us.
From “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil” by Emma Marris from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, July 24, 2014. Copyright © 2014 by National Geographic Society.
1stymie: hinder or interfere with
Question
The details in the section “A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing” convey a central idea of the excerpt by suggesting that
- Asome non-native species can replace native species that are unable to survive on their own.
- Bdecisions about whether to keep non-native species should be considered on an individual basis.
- Cthe scientists who study rapidly changing ecosystems agree that non-native species enhance biodiversity.
- Da natural habitat that is healthy should be able to support a blend of native and non-native species.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the details in the section “A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing” convey a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. While paragraph 15 does discuss introducing non-native Aldabra tortoises to replace native tortoises that no longer exist, the real point of this section is to show that non-native species can sometimes help support native species that still exist but are struggling. In this case, the Aldabra tortoises are now moving seeds around for the fruiting plants on the islands where the tortoises have been introduced.
B. CORRECT. This section discusses situations in which non-native species should be kept (as in the example of the Aldabra tortoises in paragraph 15) but also asserts that “most of the time . . . conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives” (paragraph 16). This section makes the point that the issue of non-natives needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
C. Incorrect. This section does not claim that non-native species always or even usually enhance biodiversity; rather, it states that “in some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose” (paragraph 14), later adding that “most of the time . . . conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives” (paragraph 16).
D. Incorrect. While the section happens to give a good example of a habitat that supports both native and non-native species (the islands of Mauritius), it never suggests that being able to do so is a defining characteristic of healthy habitats.
Question analysis
This central-idea question asks how the details in the final section of an article on non-native species, titled “A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing,” convey a central idea of the excerpt. Students must sum up the section as a whole, including its example of a tortoise brought to the islands of Mauritius, and match it to the article's larger argument.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Explaining how a section conveys a central idea is grade 7 work, but this section mixes an argument, an example and a closing paragraph, and the choices differ in how far they generalize from it, which demands more than typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 82 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The section's most memorable content is an example, the Aldabra tortoise doing the work of the islands' lost tortoises, and a choice built on it is the strongest pull. The central idea sits instead in the qualifiers at the start and end of the section: some cases favor non-natives, most still call for removing them. Students who summarize all three paragraphs in a sentence, including the last, arrive at the case-by-case reading.
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The right choice's “on an individual basis” appears nowhere in the section, while the wrong choices echo it: a non-native standing in for natives, “biodiversity”, natives alongside non-natives. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The case-by-case idea comes only from joining paragraph 14's “In some cases” to paragraph 16's “Most of the time” and “where it is feasible and important to us”. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Sum up the section's three paragraphs in one sentence of your own, including its example and its final paragraph, then compare that sentence with each choice.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the Aldabra tortoise standing in for Mauritius's lost tortoises, a single example, and misses the closing point that most conservation still means removing non-natives.
C Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns “In some cases” into a consensus that non-natives enhance biodiversity, though the section limits the claim and the article shows ecologists divided over it.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Draws a rule about healthy habitats from the Mauritius example, though the section never defines a healthy habitat or says it should hold a mix of species.
Working it out, step by step
Know what the question asks
A section is a part of an article under its own heading. This one runs from paragraph 14 to paragraph 16. You need to sum up the whole section, including its last paragraph. Then match that summary to a central idea.
Read paragraph 14
It says that “in some cases” we help nature most “by leaving the non-natives alone.” We might even bring them in “on purpose.” The words “in some cases” are the key. They mean sometimes, not always.
Read the example and the ending
Paragraph 15 gives an example. A non-native tortoise was brought to Mauritius to spread the seeds of fruiting plants. Then paragraph 16 says that “most of the time,” saving species still means “planting natives and removing non-natives.” We should do that “where it is feasible and important to us.” Feasible means possible.
Put the section together
Sometimes it is best to keep a non-native species. Most of the time it is best to remove it. So each case has to be judged on its own. That is what “on an individual basis” means.
Check each choice
- B fits: deciding case by case matches both “in some cases” and “most of the time.”
- A is wrong because the tortoise is one example, and the section ends by saying removal is still the usual choice.
- C is wrong because the section never says scientists agree, and “in some cases” is far from always.
- D is wrong because the section never says what a healthy habitat should hold.
Watch out: A is built on the section’s most memorable detail. But the main idea comes from the words that limit the claim.
Choose the answer
The section says to keep non-natives in some cases and remove them in others. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A comes closest, because the Aldabra tortoise really does take over work the lost tortoises once did. But that is one case. The section ends by saying that most of the time we still remove non-natives. B covers both sides: some cases call for keeping them, and others call for removing them.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed (pages 68–70)
Question 2 of 6
2024 Test B English, question 40Passage Invention of the Telegraph
Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is credited with creating the electronic telegraph, a communication device that allows users to send messages using a system of short and long pulses that represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. In 1843 the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill, which provided Morse with the funds to build an electric telegraph system.
Invention of the Telegraph
Earlier Signal Systems
Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were visual or “semaphore” systems using flags or lights. In the eighteenth century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station. The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 for a workable proposal. The framers of this legislation had no way of knowing that when they used the word “telegraph” to refer to this visual semaphore system, they would be offered an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.
The Growth of an Idea
The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Morse during a conversation aboard ship when he was returning from Europe in 1832. Michael Faraday’s recently invented electromagnet was much discussed by the ship’s passengers, and when Morse came to understand how it worked, he speculated that it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire. While a student at Yale College years before, he had written his parents a letter about how interesting he found the lectures on electricity. Despite what he had learned at Yale, Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity, and after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague at the University of the City of New York, Leonard D. Gale.
Gale was a professor of chemistry and familiar with the electrical work of Princeton’s Joseph Henry, a true pioneer in the new field. Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit. In 1831, he had published an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. Gale’s help and his knowledge of this article proved crucial to Morse’s telegraph system because Gale not only pointed out flaws in the system but showed Morse how he could regularly boost the strength of a signal and overcome the distance problems he had encountered by using a relay system Henry had invented. Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.
Obstacles and Opportunities
By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.
However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. It was during this period that Morse visited Europe again and tried not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England. . . .
By 1843, the country was beginning to recover economically, and Morse again asked Congress for the $30,000 that would allow him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, forty miles away. The House of Representatives eventually passed the bill containing the Morse appropriation, and the Senate approved it in the final hours of that Congress’s last session. With President Tyler’s signature, Morse received the cash he needed and began to carry out plans for an underground telegraph line.
Realizing a Great Invention
Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire, and although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse’s partners, Congressman F. O. J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.
Soon, as overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast, the dots-and-dashes method that recorded messages on a long moving strip of paper was replaced by the operator’s ability to interpret the code in real time. . . . Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.
“Invention of the Telegraph”—Public Domain/Library of Congress
legislation: Telegraph Bill
dots-and-dashes method: the short and long pulses of Morse code that are sent and received by telegraph operators
The first transatlantic electric telegraph message was sent in 1858, and by 1902 the British All-Red Line connected most of the world.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2. Washington, D.C., 1975.
Question
How does the map provide additional support for a central idea of the passage?
- Aby demonstrating that Morse’s telegraph system greatly exceeded the limitations of previous long-distance communication systems
- Bby indicating that Morse was lacking foresight by seeking a patent only in North America
- Cby proving that Gale’s advice helped Morse extend the telegraph’s range much farther than first thought possible
- Dby showing that the Morse telegraph had a surprisingly immense influence across the world
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the map provides additional support for a central idea of the passage.
A. CORRECT. The map shows the telegraph line crossing continents in 1902, just forty-four years after the first transatlantic message was sent in 1858. This is a much greater distance than the first line Morse built between “the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore” (paragraph 7).
B. Incorrect. The map shows the distance the line covers; it does not indicate Morse’s lack of foresight in seeking patents only in North America.
C. Incorrect. While Gale’s advice was crucial to Morse’s success, the map shows the physical line stretching across continents many years later, after their initial work.
D. Incorrect. While it can be inferred that the telegraph had influence across the world, the amount of influence cannot be determined.
Question analysis
This question pairs “Invention of the Telegraph” with a map of the British All-Red Telegraph Line in 1902 and asks how the map adds support for a central idea of the passage. Students must read a world map with a key and a caption, connect what it shows to the story of Samuel Morse’s invention, and sort through four claims about the map that vary in how far they go.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Linking a graphic to a text is familiar grade 7 work. Here students must pin down a central idea of the passage and work out how a 1902 world map, made decades after Morse’s first line, bears on it, a step beyond typical demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 75 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate detail in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Lines on a map can prove how far the telegraph reached, and the question turns on how much more than that each choice claims. The key depends on a link back to paragraph 1, where a message went only as far as the next hilltop tower, read many minutes before the map. The influence choice skips that link and states the map’s message in bigger terms, so students who do not ask what a map of routes can show are drawn to it.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The influence choice, a telegraph with “a surprisingly immense influence across the world,” sounds like a fair reading of lines circling the globe; it differs from the key in claiming impact and surprise rather than reach beyond earlier systems. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The earlier systems the key measures against are in paragraph 1, towers on distant hills passing flag and light signals from station to station, far from the map at the end of the passage. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The map shows a 1902 British line from London to Canada and Vancouver, south through Bermuda and Barbados to Cape Town, and on to India, Australia and New Zealand, with Washington left unconnected. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Look at what the map and its caption actually show, sum up a central idea of the passage in your own words, and keep only a choice that both of them back up.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads the unconnected Washington dot as a patenting mistake of Morse’s, though a map of lines shows nothing about patents and paragraph 5 has him seeking protection overseas.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Remembers that Gale’s relay advice solved Morse’s “distance problems,” but a 1902 map that names no inventors cannot prove what that advice made possible decades earlier.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns the map’s reach into a claim about impact, though routes on a map show where messages could travel, not how much the world changed or that anyone was surprised.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook says the 1902 line came “forty-four years after the first message was sent in 1858.” The first telegraph message was Morse’s in 1844 (paragraph 1); 1858 is the year of the first transatlantic message, as the map’s caption says. The site now says “the first transatlantic message.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how a graphic adds to the passage. You need two things. First, what does the map really show? Second, which central idea, a main point the whole passage builds, does it back up?
Read the map and its caption
This map is a picture of one British network of telegraph wires, as it stood in 1902. In its key, a thick black line stands for an electric telegraph line. From London, a line crosses the Atlantic Ocean and Canada to Vancouver. Other lines reach Bermuda, Barbados, Cape Town, India, Australia and New Zealand. According to the caption, by 1902 this network “connected most of the world.”
Recall the older ways of signaling
Next, compare that with paragraph 1. Before electricity, people signaled with flags or lights. An observer would “decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station.” So a message could only jump as far as a person could see. Even Morse’s first line, in paragraph 6, reached Baltimore, just “forty miles away.”
Connect the map to that idea
The caption says the first message across the Atlantic was sent in 1858. Only 44 years later, in 1902, lines crossed several oceans and linked much of the globe. Paragraph 8 adds that telegraph lines “connected the continents of Europe and America” before Morse died. So the map supports a central idea: electric telegraph lines went far beyond the reach of older signal systems.
Check each choice
- A fits. Lines that span oceans go far past the limits of hilltop towers.
- B does not fit. A map of lines shows nothing about patents. Also, paragraph 5 says Morse sought patent protection in Europe, too.
- C does not fit. The map names no inventors, so it cannot prove what Gale’s advice did decades before.
- D does not fit. The map shows where lines went, not how much they changed the world, and nothing on it shows surprise.
Choose the answer
The map shows telegraph lines reaching around the globe, far past what flags and towers could do. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap, because lines around the world seem to prove a huge effect. But a map of routes shows only how far messages could travel. It cannot measure influence, and it cannot show that anyone was surprised. A sticks to what a map of lines can prove: the telegraph reached much farther than earlier systems.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)
Question 3 of 6
2026 Practice Test A English, question 17Passage Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
by Grace Livingston Hill
With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.
It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.
The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her. Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.
There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her wrist.
In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get out like this.
She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train, as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and rolled down the short bank, while the train . . . ran giddily off into the night.
The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they hurried by her—one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.
Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that there was none!
The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the lonely night.
No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was heavy.
A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine’s drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.
cinders: track bed made from the residue of burnt coal
From A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS by Grace Livingston Hill—Public Domain
Question
How do Margaret’s earlier interactions with the conductor, brakeman, and porter affect the plot?
- AThey prompt Margaret to get off the train without further assistance.
- BThey cause Margaret to think that she knows what to do once she gets off the train.
- CThey compel Margaret to wonder whether the train has not pulled all the way into the station.
- DThey lead Margaret to believe that train stations in rural areas lack platforms.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how Margaret’s earlier interactions with the conductor, brakeman, and porter affect the plot.
A. CORRECT. Because the conductor, brakeman, and porter have all “taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station” (paragraph 2), Margaret assumes that the next time the train stops, she will have reached her station. This assumption causes Margaret to get off the train at the next stop without waiting for help or confirmation, but the stop turns out to be just “a pause to water the engine” (paragraph 15). This mistaken assumption creates the main problem that Margaret confronts in the passage.
B. Incorrect. Although Margaret’s earlier interactions with the three railroad employees cause her to think that she knows when to get off the train, it is clear from paragraph 4 that Margaret is deeply confused and does not know what to do once she has exited the train car. She muses uneasily, “Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait” (paragraph 4).
C. Incorrect. Margaret wonders in paragraph 3 whether the train is “so long that her car had stopped before reaching [the station]” and speculates in paragraph 4 that “the train had not pulled into the station yet.” These thoughts reflect her assumption (based on her interactions with the three railroad employees) that the next stop is her station. However, Margaret’s speculation that the train has not fully pulled into the station does not significantly affect the plot.
D. Incorrect. Margaret wonders in paragraph 3 whether they “have platforms in this wild Western land” and is expecting to see a platform because her interactions with the three railroad employees have led her to believe that she has reached a station. However, it is unclear whether Margaret really believes that rural stations all lack platforms, and her speculation on this point is not further developed in the passage and does not affect the plot.
Question analysis
This plot question on A Voice in the Wilderness asks how Margaret’s earlier dealings with the conductor, brakeman and porter, mentioned only in passing in paragraph 2, affect what happens to her. Students must connect that brief remark to later events in the excerpt. Several choices describe things that do happen, so students must judge which one those conversations truly cause.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 plot questions ask how story elements affect one another, usually through an event and its result. Here the cause is a clause inside a long sentence of century-old prose, and students must trace its effect across the excerpt rather than within one paragraph.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 72 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The talks with the trainmen are mentioned once, in the middle of a long sentence, and the question asks students to see them as the start of the whole plot. Several choices describe thoughts Margaret really has right after she steps down, which makes them feel connected, but those thoughts change nothing. The point goes to students who trace cause to consequence: told her stop was next, she gets off alone at a water tank.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The cause sits in paragraph 2, where all three men had told her “hers was the next station,” and the effect shows only in paragraph 15, when the stop proves to be a water tank. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The excerpt never says the men’s words made her step off; students must infer that their assurance is why she left the train at the first stop without waiting for anyone. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The interactions appear in a 66-word sentence in paragraph 2, tucked into a “when” clause after a run of commas, so they read as a passing detail rather than a cause. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Reread paragraph 2 to find what the three men told Margaret, then trace how that information shapes the events that follow, and choose the effect that matters most to the plot.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly links the men’s words to her confidence about when to get off, but stretches it to knowing what to do afterward, when paragraph 4 shows her at a loss.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Names a real result of the men’s words, her guess in paragraphs 3 and 4 that the train has not yet reached the station, but that passing worry changes nothing in the plot.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Turns her puzzled question about platforms in “this wild Western land” into a firm belief about rural stations, an idea the excerpt never develops.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how something from earlier affects the plot. The plot is the chain of events in a story. What did the three train workers tell Margaret, and what did that cause?
Find what the workers told her
Paragraph 2 says it was strange that “neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station.” A conductor, a brakeman and a porter are all people who work on a train.
Trace what happened because of it
Three workers told her that her stop was next. So when the train stopped, she was sure she had arrived. She got off alone, without waiting for anyone to help. But in paragraph 15 she learns it was only “a pause to water the engine.” Their words set off the whole problem: she is left alone in the dark.
Check each choice
- A fits. Their words led her to get off by herself.
- B does not fit. They told her when to get off, not what to do next. In paragraph 4 she is lost: “Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.”
- C does not fit. She does wonder this, but the thought changes nothing in the story.
- D does not fit. She only asks a question about platforms. She never decides anything about country stations.
Choose the answer
The workers’ words made Margaret step off the train on her own at the wrong stop. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice. The workers’ words do make her guess that the train has not reached the station yet. But that guess goes nowhere. What changes the story is that she gets off alone at a stop that is not a station. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
Question 4 of 6
2024 Test B Math, question 52Question
Five numbered balls are placed in two boxes as shown in the figure above. Davina picks one ball at random from Box B and places it in Box A. Then Yusuf picks one ball from Box A without looking. What is the probability that Yusuf will pick a ball with an odd number?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The probability of Davina picking an odd-numbered ball from Box B is . If Davina places an odd-numbered ball in Box A, then the probability of Yusuf picking an odd-numbered ball from Box A is . The probability of both of these events happening is the product of the two probabilities.
Question analysis
Two boxes hold five numbered balls, and Davina moves one ball at random from Box B into Box A before Yusuf draws one from Box A. Students find the probability that Yusuf's ball shows an odd number. It tests two-stage probability, and the tricky part is that the second draw depends on which ball was moved.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 compound probability lists outcomes for independent stages such as coins or spinners. Here the first random move changes what is in the second box, so students must follow two linked stages, a dependence typical grade 7 work does not include.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 4, 57 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two chance events are hidden in what reads like a question about a single draw. Every listed wrong answer is a reasonable single-stage answer, either one of the two factors on its own or a count of odd balls across both boxes. Listing the nine equally likely pairs, Davina's ball and then Yusuf's, shows that only two of them end with an odd ball and makes the structure visible without any formula.
No obvious method major Working it out
The stem asks one question about Yusuf's draw, but the answer depends on Davina's earlier random pick; the key is that Box A starts with only even balls, so Yusuf can draw odd only by drawing the ball she moved. (Schoenfeld, 1985)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Multiplying the chances of the two stages, 2/3 for an odd ball moving and 1/3 for Yusuf then drawing it, is a rule students must bring themselves. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question
The numbers appear only in the figure, Box A holding 2 and 6 and Box B holding 3, 4 and 5, so the odd balls have to be spotted there. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: List every equally likely pair of a ball moved by Davina and a ball picked by Yusuf, and count the pairs that end with an odd ball.
Traps
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
- Numbers taken from the question: Combines the numbers in the question without a model of the situation, or is simply a number that appears in the question.
The wrong answers, classified
B Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Finds Yusuf's chance of drawing the odd ball once one is in Box A, 1 out of 3, leaving out the chance that Davina moves an odd ball at all.
C Numbers taken from the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Counts the odd balls in the figure, 3 and 5, over all five balls, 2/5, ignoring that Yusuf draws only from Box A.
D Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Gives the chance that Davina moves an odd ball, 2 out of 3, the first stage only, without multiplying by Yusuf's 1/3 chance of drawing it.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Probability
- P is the probability, the chance that something happens. It is a number from 0 to 1. The top counts the results you want. The bottom counts all the results that can happen. It works when every result is equally likely.
- Chance of events in a row
- A and B are two events that happen one after the other. P(A) is the chance of the first. P(B after A) is the chance of the second, counting only what is left after the first. You multiply because the second must also happen inside the share of times the first did.
Read the figure
Box A holds balls numbered 2 and 6. Box B holds balls numbered 3, 4 and 5.
An odd number does not divide evenly by 2. So the only odd balls are 3 and 5, and both start in Box B. Box A starts with no odd balls at all.
Spot the two chance events
Two things happen by chance, one after the other:
- Davina picks one of the 3 balls in Box B and moves it to Box A.
- Then Yusuf picks one of the 3 balls now in Box A.
Yusuf gets an odd ball only if both go right. Davina must move an odd ball. Then Yusuf must pick that very ball.
The question asks only about Yusuf. But his chance depends on Davina’s pick, which comes first.
Find the chance for Davina’s pick
Box B has 3 balls, and 2 of them, the 3 and the 5, are odd.
If she moves the 4 instead, Box A holds only even balls. Then Yusuf can’t get an odd ball at all.
Find the chance for Yusuf’s pick
Say Davina moved an odd ball. Box A now holds 3 balls: the 2, the 6 and that one odd ball.
Watch out: alone is choice B. It forgets that Davina might move the 4.
Multiply the two chances
Both events must happen, so use the rule for events in a row.
Watch out: alone, choice D, stops after Davina’s pick. , choice C, counts 2 odd balls out of all 5. But Yusuf picks only from Box A.
So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
List all 9 equally likely outcomes. Davina can move 3, 4 or 5. Then Yusuf picks one of 3 balls.
| Ball moved | Box A then | Odd picks |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2, 6, 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 2, 6, 4 | 0 |
| 5 | 2, 6, 5 | 1 |
That is 2 odd picks out of 9, or .
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 5 of 6
2026 Practice Test D Math, question 19Question
A store manager purchases a piece of furniture for $456.00. To determine the selling price, the manager increases the purchase cost by 125%. A customer buys the furniture and pays an additional 8% sales tax. How much does the customer pay for the furniture?
- A$615.60
- B$627.48
- C$1,108.08
- D$1,846.80
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
Given a purchase price of $456.00, the 125% increase in price is calculated as:
The selling price equals the purchase price plus the increase, or:
The sales tax on the selling price is:
The customer pays the selling price plus the sales tax:
Question analysis
A store manager buys a piece of furniture for $456.00 and raises the price by 125% to set the selling price, and the customer also pays 8% sales tax. Students find the total the customer pays. It tests percent increase and sales tax in sequence, and reading an increase of more than 100% correctly is the main challenge.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students find markups and sales tax, usually with increases under 100%. An increase of more than 100% is unusual and easy to misread, and two percent changes must be applied in order, which goes beyond routine grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Turning words into math moderate
- Many steps moderate
- Error-prone arithmetic minor
- Solution
- 4 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 41 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
A percent above 100 is unusual in grade 7 work, and it is the center of the question: the markup more than doubles the price. Students who treat “by 125%” as “125% of” still find a listed answer after adding tax, and so do students who add $125. A rough check helps: the selling price must be more than twice $456, about $1,000, and the tax adds less than a tenth of that.
Turning words into math moderate Understanding the question
“Increases the purchase cost by 125%” adds 125% of $456 to the $456 itself, a multiplier of 2.25; reading it as 125% of the cost leaves the original price out. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)
Many steps moderate Working it out
Four steps in a row, the increase, the selling price, the tax and the total, each depend on the one before, and two of them are easy to merge or skip. (Daniel & Embretson, 2010; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Error-prone arithmetic minor Working it out
Taking 8% of $1,026 means multiplying by 0.08, and a decimal point one place off, 0.8, makes the tax ten times too large. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Strategy: Turn each percent change into a multiplier, remembering that an increase by a percent is added to the original amount, apply the markup and then the tax, and estimate to check the size.
Traps
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
- An arithmetic slip: The right method with a plausible arithmetic error: a digit, a place value or a times-table fact.
The wrong answers, classified
A Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Finds the increase, 125% of $456 = $570, and uses it as the selling price without adding back the $456 cost, then adds 8% tax.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Reads the 125% increase as $125, a fixed amount, so the selling price is $581, and then adds 8% tax correctly to reach $627.48.
D An arithmetic slip (Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Finds the $1,026 selling price correctly but writes 8% as 0.8, adding $820.80 in tax instead of $82.08.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Percent of a number
- n is the starting amount, and p is the percent. Percent means out of 100, so 125% is 125/100 = 1.25 and 8% is 8/100 = 0.08. Multiply n by that decimal to find the part.
- Price after an increase
- The old price is what you start with. The increase is the amount added on. To increase by a percent, find that percent of the old price, then add it to the old price. Sales tax is added the same way.
Sort out the question
The manager pays $456.00 for the furniture. The selling price is that cost increased by 125%. The customer then pays 8% sales tax on top. Sales tax is an extra charge, a percent of the price. You need the total the customer pays.
Find the increase
Find 125% of $456. As a decimal, 125% is 1.25, which is 1 and a quarter. A quarter of 456 is 114:
The increase is $570.
Find the selling price
Increases by means the increase is added to the cost:
The selling price is $1,026.
Watch out: $570 is only the increase. Using it as the price gives $615.60, choice A. And 125% is a percent, not $125. Adding $125 leads to $627.48, choice B.
Find the sales tax
As a decimal, 8% is 0.08. Find 8% of the selling price:
The tax is $82.08.
Watch out: 8% is 0.08, not 0.8. Using 0.8 makes the tax ten times too big and gives $1,846.80, choice D.
Add the tax to the price
The customer pays the selling price plus the tax:
So the answer is C, $1,108.08.
Check your answer
Estimate. The price more than doubles: $456 plus $570 is about $1,000. Tax of 8% adds about $80. So the total should be a bit over $1,080, and only $1,108.08 is close. Or multiply in one go: 456 × 2.25 × 1.08 = 1,108.08.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 6 of 6
2018 Test A Math, question 21Question
In a sample of 10 cards, 4 are red and 6 are blue. If 2 cards are selected at random from the sample, one at a time without replacement, what is the probability that both cards are not blue?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The probability that both cards are not blue is the same as the probability that both cards are red. There are 4 red cards out of the 10, so the probability of the first card being red is
Now there are 9 cards left, and 3 of those are red, so the probability of the second card being red is
Multiply the two probabilities to find the probability that both cards are red (not blue):
Question analysis
This probability question draws 2 cards, one at a time and without replacement, from 10 cards: 4 red and 6 blue. Students find the chance that neither card drawn is blue. The second draw has one fewer card, and the word not changes which color to count.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 compound probability is usually found with a list or tree of equally likely outcomes. Dependent draws without replacement, plus a negative phrasing to translate, go beyond that typical work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Something you must already know moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Turning words into math minor
- An answer in an unexpected form minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 39 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two ideas stack here: restating not blue as red, and changing the second draw's numbers after a card is removed. Students who know to multiply but forget the removal reach a listed choice, and so do students who compute both blue. Writing the second fraction explicitly as 3 red out of 9 cards, before multiplying, is what separates right from nearly right.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
Multiplying the first draw's chance by the second draw's, with the second adjusted for the card already taken, is a rule the test assumes and does not give. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
2/15 and 4/25 are about 0.13 and 0.16, too close to tell apart by estimate; only the second draw's fraction, 3 red of 9 cards rather than 4 of 10, separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Turning words into math minor Understanding the question
"Both cards are not blue" has to be restated as both cards red, and the bold not also invites computing the chance that both are blue. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)
An answer in an unexpected form minor Choosing the answer
The product comes out as 12/90, and it has to be reduced to lowest terms before it matches any of the listed fractions. (Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Strategy: Restate not blue as red, then multiply the chance of red on the first draw by the chance of red on the second, with one card fewer.
Traps
- Without replacement: In a second pick there is one fewer item, which changes the probability.
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
The wrong answers, classified
B Without replacement (Fischbein & Schnarch, 1997)
Multiplies 4/10 × 4/10 = 16/100 = 4/25, as if the first red card were put back before the second draw.
C Little reason to choose it (Haladyna & Downing, 1993; Rodriguez, 2005)
No standard working gives 3/10: it is not the chance of red or of blue on one draw or on two, so it mostly catches guesses.
D Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Computes the chance that both cards are blue, 6/10 × 5/9 = 30/90 = 1/3, missing the bold word not.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Probability
- P is the probability, the chance that something happens. Favorable is the number of ways to get what you want, here a red card. Total is the number of all possible picks, here all the cards you can pick from. It works when every pick is equally likely.
- Two events in a row
- A is the first event and B is the second. P( ) means the probability of what is inside. The chance that both happen is the first chance times the second. For the second chance, count only what is left after the first event.
Sort out the question
There are 10 cards: 4 red and 6 blue. You pick 2 cards “one at a time without replacement”. That means the first card is not put back. “Both cards are not blue” means both are red, since red is the only other color. You need the probability, or chance, of that.
Find the chance the first card is red
4 of the 10 cards are red. Each card is equally likely to be picked. Use the probability formula.
Find the chance the second card is red
One red card is gone now, and it is not put back. So 9 cards are left, and 3 of them are red.
Watch out: using 4/10 again acts as if the card went back. That gives 4/25, choice B.
Multiply the two chances
Both cards must be red. So multiply the first chance by the second. To multiply fractions, multiply the tops, then multiply the bottoms.
Simplify the fraction
None of the choices is 12/90, so simplify it. Divide the top and the bottom by 6, the biggest number that goes into both.
Watch out: the chance that both are blue is , choice D. The question says not blue. So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
Count the ways. There are ways to pick two cards in order. Red then red has ways. That gives 12/90, or 2/15. The answer is small, which makes sense, because there are fewer red cards than blue ones.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
