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Question 1 of 6
2026 Practice Test A English, question 33Passage Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”
Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”
by Dallas Lore Sharp
In this excerpt, published in 1914, author and professor Dallas Lore Sharp describes a summer cattle roundup in Oregon. The heat and dust had been relentless for three days. The cowboys were exhausted, and the cattle were restless. The ranch boss, Wade, had led the drive to a watering place, only to find it empty.
Along with the wagon had come the fresh horses—one of them being Peroxide Jim, a supple, powerful, clean-limbed buckskin, a horse, I think, that had as fine and intelligent an animal-face as any creature I ever saw. Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work. And why should he not have been saved fresh for just such a need as this? Are there not superior horses as well as superior men—a Peroxide Jim to complement a Wade?
The horse knew the cattle business and knew his rider perfectly; and though there was nothing like sentiment about the boss of the P Ranch riders, his faith in Peroxide Jim was complete. . . .
The desert, where the herd was camped, was one of the highest of a series of tablelands, or benches; it lay as level as a floor, rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below. The herd when overtaken by the dusk had been headed for a pass descending to the next lower bench, but was now halted within a mile of the rim rock on the east, where there was a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet. . . .
In the taut silence of the stirless desert night, with the tension of the herd at the snapping-point, any quick, unwonted sight or sound would stampede them. The sneezing of a horse, the flare of a match, would be enough to send the whole four thousand headlong—blind, frenzied, trampling—till spent and scattered over the plain.
And so, as he rode, Wade began to sing. The rider ahead of him took up the air and passed it on until, above the stepping stir of the hoofs rose the faint voices of the men, and all the herd was bound about by the slow plaintive measures of some old song. It was not to soothe their savage breasts that the riders sang to the cattle, but rather to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension, and so to prevent the shock of any sudden startling noise.
So they sang and rode and the night wore on to one o’clock, when Wade, coming up on the rim-rock side, felt a cool breeze fan his face, and caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it.
He checked his horse instantly, listening as the wind swept past him over the cattle. But they must already have smelled it, for they had ceased their milling, the whole herd standing motionless, the indistinct forms close to him in the dark showing their bald faces lifted to drink the sweet wet breath that came over the rim. Then they started on again, but faster, and with a rumbling now from their hoarse throats that tightened Wade’s grip on the reins.
The sound seemed to come out of the earth, a low, rumbling mumble, as dark as the night and as wide as the plain, a thick, inarticulate bellow that stood every rider stiff in his stirrups. . . .
Then the breeze caught the dust and carried it back from the gray-coated, ghostly shapes, and Wade saw that the animals were still moving in a circle. He must keep them going. He touched his horse to ride on with them, when across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning.
There was a snort from the steers, a quick clap of horns and hoofs from far within the herd, a tremor of the plain, a roar, a surging mass—and Wade was riding the flank of a wild stampede. Before him, behind him, beside him, pressing hard upon his horse, galloped the frenzied steers, and beyond them a multitude borne on, and bearing him on, by the heave of the galloping herd.
Wade was riding for his life. He knew it. His horse knew it. He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew. The cattle were after water—water-mad—ready to go over the precipice to get it, carrying horse and rider with them. Wade was the only rider between the herd and the rim. It was black as death. He could see nothing in the sage, could scarcely discern the pounding, panting shadows at his side. He knew that he was being borne toward the rim, how fast he could not tell, but he knew by the swish of the brush against his tapaderos and the plunging of the horse that the ground was growing stonier, that they were nearing the rocks.
To outrun the herd was his only chance for life. If he could come up with the leaders he might not only escape, but even stand a chance of heading them off upon the plain and saving the herd. There were cattle still ahead of him; how many, what part of them all, he could not make out in the dark. But the horse knew. The reins hung on his straight neck, where his rider had dropped them, as, yelling and firing over the wild herd, he had given this horse the race to win, to lose.
They were riding the rim. Close on their left bore down the flank of the herd, and on their right, under their very feet, was a precipice, so close that they felt its blackness—its three hundred feet of fall! . . .
. . . Then Wade found himself racing neck and neck with a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off into the swishing sage.
The steers coming on close behind followed their leader, and in, after them, swung others. The tide was turning from the rim. More and more were veering, and within a short time the whole herd, bearing off from the cliffs, was pounding over the open plains.
Whose race was it? It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade, for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run. From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit, had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock, without a false step or a tremor of fear.
From “The Spirit of the Herd” by Dallas Lore Sharp—Public Domain
tablelands: plateaus, flat areas of land sharply elevated from the surrounding area
tapaderos: leather covers for stirrups
Question
Read these sentences from the excerpt.
He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew. (paragraph 11)
It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade, for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run. (paragraph 16)
How do these sentences develop a central idea in the excerpt?
- AThey suggest that Wade would have been unable to save the herd without Peroxide Jim.
- BThey imply that Wade spent many hours training Peroxide Jim to herd cattle.
- CThey show that Peroxide Jim was able to understand a situation and take action.
- DThey indicate that Peroxide Jim was unafraid of the dangers presented by the stampede and the cliff.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the sentences from paragraph 11 and paragraph 16 develop a central idea in the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. While Peroxide Jim’s presence was critical to saving the herd, the details in paragraph 11 and paragraph 16 do not focus on this idea. The primary idea is that the horse was so intelligent and aware that he acted on his own.
B. Incorrect. The excerpt does not tell who trained Peroxide Jim. It can be inferred that Peroxide Jim had been well trained and was knowledgeable of working cattle; however, there is no indication that Wade was the person who trained Peroxide Jim, only that Wade knew of Peroxide Jim’s abilities, respected the skilled horse, and was “saving this horse for emergency work” (paragraph 1). Because the reader cannot infer from the excerpt that Wade was the trainer, this idea cannot be considered central to the excerpt.
C. CORRECT. Wade recognized that Peroxide Jim knew to turn the herd without any instruction from him. Throughout the excerpt, Wade exhibited confidence in his horse, Peroxide Jim. For example, the narrator says that Wade’s “faith in Peroxide Jim was complete” in paragraph 2. After Wade let go of the reins (paragraph 12), the horse took over, doing exactly what needed to be done to save Wade, the herd, and himself: “a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off into the swishing sage” (paragraph 14).
D. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 11 and the sentence from paragraph 16 show that Peroxide Jim acted skillfully and with the knowledge that the ride was dangerous (“Wade was riding for his life. He knew it. His horse knew it” [paragraph 11]). Neither sentence indicates whether Peroxide Jim was afraid. The excerpt does say, later in paragraph 16, that the horse turned the herd “without a false step or a tremor of fear,” but these two sentences focus on his awareness of the danger and his ability to act on his own, not on his lack of fear.
Question analysis
This question quotes two sentences from “The Spirit of the Herd,” one from the middle of the stampede and one from its end, and asks how together they develop a central idea of the excerpt. Students must see what the two sentences share and connect it to the story as a whole. Each choice sounds reasonable for this story, which makes the exact wording of the two sentences decisive.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 central-idea questions usually ask about one paragraph or the whole text. Here students must find what two sentences five paragraphs apart have in common and link it to the excerpt’s central idea, among choices that all sound believable.
- 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
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 121 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate statement 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
Each choice says something a reader could believe about this story, so the exact content of the two quoted sentences decides it. What they share is knowledge and independence: the horse knew the goal and ran the race undirected. Fearlessness is stated in the very next sentence of paragraph 16, which makes it easy to credit to these two, and the claim that Wade could not have managed alone sounds like a fair summary of the ending.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Neither sentence says the horse understood; that has to be read from “as the horse also knew” and from the race being his because he was not directed “by word or by touch.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The second sentence is an inverted negative passive, “not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed,” and the first tucks its point into a trailing clause. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The two sentences sit five paragraphs apart, and the detail that tempts students most, “without a false step or a tremor of fear,” follows the second one in paragraph 16. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Note what the two quoted sentences have in common, then pick the option that states that shared point, making sure it comes from these sentences and not from elsewhere in the excerpt.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Goes a step past the sentences: the horse clearly mattered, but they stress what he knew and did on his own, not that Wade would have failed without him.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes a rider trains his own horse, a common idea, but the excerpt never says who trained Peroxide Jim, and these sentences stress what he did undirected.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Draws on “without a false step or a tremor of fear,” which comes after the quoted sentence in paragraph 16; the two sentences show his understanding, not his courage.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option D says “There is no indication that Peroxide Jim was not afraid; in fact, it is likely the awareness of the danger and the fear associated with that knowledge contributed to the horse’s motivation to turn the herd.” Paragraph 16 says the opposite: the horse turned the herd “without a false step or a tremor of fear” (the handbook’s explanation of question 29 cites these words as his mental toughness). The site now says that neither of the two quoted sentences indicates whether Peroxide Jim was afraid, which is still why Option D is wrong: they focus on his awareness of the danger and his ability to act on his own.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what two quoted sentences have in common and how they build a central idea, the main idea of the excerpt. Focus on what these two sentences say, not on other parts of the story.
Read the first sentence
Paragraph 11 says “He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew.” To turn the herd is to make it change direction. The words “as the horse also knew” mean the horse understood the goal too.
Read the second sentence
Paragraph 16 says the race was the horse’s, “for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run.” Directed means told where to go. Riders guide a horse with their voice, their hands on the reins and their knees. Wade did none of that. The horse ran the race on his own.
Put the two together
Both sentences show the same thing. The horse understood what was happening. Then he acted on his own, with no one telling him what to do. This builds the central idea that Peroxide Jim is a smart horse who saves the herd by himself.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The sentences do not say whether Wade could have done it alone. They focus on what the horse knew and did.
- B does not fit. The excerpt never says who trained the horse.
- C fits. The horse understood the situation and took action.
- D does not fit. The horse was fearless, but neither quoted sentence says so.
Choose the answer
The two sentences show a horse that understood the danger and acted on his own. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, because the horse really was fearless. But that comes from a later sentence in paragraph 16: “without a false step or a tremor of fear.” The two quoted sentences say nothing about fear. They show that the horse knew the goal and acted with no one guiding him. That is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)
Question 2 of 6
2026 Practice Test C English, question 39Passage Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”
Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”
by Melanie Canales
The author, Melanie Canales, is a first-generation Peruvian American farmer and beekeeper based in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, on lands of the indigenous Monacan and Manahoac tribes. Her work focuses on creating healthy relationships between people and their surrounding ecosystems.
Unburdened by the constraints of gravity, red and green peppers jut out at 45-degree angles inside the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a sort of space terrarium not much larger than a microwave. Four chile pepper plants stand effortlessly upright, despite the dozens of glossy fruits weighing them down. These plants have lived entirely in space; their leaves have never been chewed on by insects or rustled by a summer breeze, [and] their stems are unfamiliar with bending toward the sun’s arc across the sky. Scissors glint under the tank’s white and blue lights as astronaut Mark Vande Hei and his team snip the stems of those that are ready for harvest. The peppers whirl around their heads until the astronauts catch them and tape them against a board to photograph.
Back on Earth, the Plant Habitat-04 team of engineers and plant scientists are observing and conferring with the astronauts. Of the 26 peppers in this batch, only the 14 finest will stay on the International Space Station [ISS] for consumption. The rest will be wrapped in foil, sealed in a Ziploc bag, then frozen at a brisk −80 degrees, until they can come roaring back to Earth in the next cargo capsule to be studied later. Now, after a 137-day growth cycle, the astronauts remove the plants from the module and trash them. Project Plant Habitat-04 is complete. It’s taco night on the ISS.
Since 2014, NASA1 has experimented with growing lettuces, brassicas,2 and zinnias3 in space, an endeavor that relies on highly specialized technology over 50 years in the making. [Fall 2021’s] two successful pepper harvests . . . will provide data on the nutritional and psychological benefits of growing vegetables on-craft, as well as a crop’s ability to reliably produce long-term in microgravity. While controlled environmental agriculture is not new, the APH experiment represents an evolution in specialized growth habitats. It doesn’t aim to re-create Earth’s conditions, but to perfect each isolated variable of plant growth in the clinical environment of a spaceship.
“The Advanced Plant Habitat is the most complex plant growth system on orbit today,” says Lashelle Spencer, a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Its more than 180 sensors control and monitor temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide. The astronauts can adjust the color and intensity of the light, and how much moisture the plants’ roots are getting. It waters itself.
It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and Spencer has been at Kennedy since 5 a.m. to facilitate the peppers’ final harvest. As part of the project team, she played a crucial role in preparing the seeds that were sent hurtling into space in June and guiding the astronauts through maintaining the plants in orbit. . . . Though astronauts can spend upwards of 100 days in space, their on-mission meals come dehydrated and pre-packaged; their vitamins and minerals are isolated in supplements, which lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored. Spencer’s goal is to create the conditions necessary for cultivating healthy plants in space, so those plants can sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions. Astronaut food is great, she says—“especially the shrimp cocktail. But you’re missing that crunch. You’re missing that fresh pop of flavor, the green flavor that’s not there in that packaged food.”
The sensory experience of growing productive crops can also help mitigate4 the psychological effects of long-term space travel. . . . Spencer says the team cracked open the door of the APH every day to observe their vegetable companions with all the tenderness of home gardeners. When harvest day came, they batted their bounty around the ISS, taking selfies and delighting in watching the fruits pirouetting around the spacecraft. . . .
“We were thinking no heat, so that [the peppers] wouldn’t be dangerous, but maybe the astronauts need a little spice in their life,” says Paul Bosland, who along with his colleagues at the Chile Pepper Institute genetically engineered5 the NuMex Española Improved chile pepper seeds grown in Plant Habitat-04. . . .
Working with NASA, Bosland cultivated a variety that could accommodate both the nutritional needs of astronauts as well as the logistics of growing a plant in space. . . .
. . . The experiment is helping gather the data necessary to determine the nutritional content of crops grown in space, and therefore how many people they can feed, and for how long. Though much is still unknown, Spencer is certain of one thing that future astronauts will need to do: “I think in an optimal world, a scientist like me would say that they would be growing plants from day one. From the day they left to the day they came back, they would be growing them.”
From “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming” by Melanie Canales from WIRED, December 21, 2021. Copyright © 2021 Condé Nast. All rights reserved.
1NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
2brassicas: a large genus of herbs, such as broccoli and cabbage
3zinnias: a genus of herbs and low shrubs that have flowers at their heads
4mitigate: to make something less severe or harmful
5genetically engineered: combined parts of DNA from different plants to produce a new plant
Question
The description in paragraph 5 of Lashelle Spencer’s goal develops a central idea of the excerpt by
- Aillustrating that certain types of packaged foods available in space lack particular flavors.
- Bsupporting the notion that spending more than 100 days in space is detrimental to astronauts’ health.
- Coffering an example of how the limited selection of on-mission meals becomes less appealing over time.
- Dmaking an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the description of Lashelle Spencer’s goal in paragraph 5 develops a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Although Spencer mentions how astronauts miss certain eating experiences like the “fresh pop” and “green flavor” not found in packaged and dehydrated food, a central idea of the excerpt is that there is a need to provide fresh, healthy foods for long missions, not that food flavor should be improved.
B. Incorrect. While the excerpt focuses on how spending more than 100 days in space affects nutrition, it does not discuss specific ways in which spending long periods of time in space is detrimental to the health of astronauts.
C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 states that astronauts “can spend upwards of 100 days in space,” the excerpt does not develop a central idea that existing meals in space become less appealing over time.
D. CORRECT. The paragraph explains that astronauts currently rely on supplements for vitamins and minerals, which lose their nutritional value over time. Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” supporting a central idea that astronauts need more nutritionally valuable food to sustain them while in space for long periods of time.
Question analysis
Lashelle Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is described in paragraph 5 of the WIRED excerpt, and this central-idea question asks how that description develops a central idea of the whole excerpt. Students must connect a single sentence about a scientist’s aim to the article’s larger point, and every choice draws on details from that same paragraph.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace how a central idea develops, usually through a plainly stated example. Here the goal’s connection to the central idea runs through the sentences around it, and the choices are abstract restatements, which asks more than typical 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 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 75 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
Every choice draws on paragraph 5, and none mentions growing plants, which leaves students looking for the goal without finding it. The flavor quotation that follows the goal is the most memorable detail and the easiest wrong pick. The key works only through context: the goal answers the problem the previous sentence sets out, crews depending on supplements that weaken in storage, which is why it serves the article’s case for fresh food on long missions.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Spencer’s goal names healthy plants and healthy astronauts but no supplements; its link to the key runs through the sentence before it, where vitamins sit in supplements that “lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
No choice restates the goal of growing plants itself, so none can be matched at a glance; each must be tested for whether it ties the goal to the excerpt’s concern with nutrition on long missions. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
How, not what minor Working it out
The question asks how the description develops a central idea, its role in the article, so knowing what Spencer wants is only the first step toward the answer. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The central idea must come from the whole excerpt: paragraph 3’s “nutritional and psychological benefits,” paragraph 8’s “nutritional needs of astronauts” and paragraph 9’s “nutritional content of crops.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: State a central idea of the whole excerpt in your own words, reread Spencer’s goal with the sentences around it in paragraph 5, and pick the option that connects the goal to that central idea.
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.
- 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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Settles on the most quotable detail nearby, the “fresh pop of flavor” missing from packaged food, a side remark about taste rather than the nutritional need behind her goal.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Stretches “upwards of 100 days in space” and “healthy astronauts” into a claim that long missions damage health, though the excerpt describes only food and supplements that lose value.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Blends supplements that lose value “the longer they’re stored” with the missing crunch into meals that grow less appealing over time, an idea paragraph 5 never states.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A central idea is a main point the whole article keeps coming back to. This question asks how Spencer’s goal, in paragraph 5, helps build one of those main points. So first, find the goal. Then connect it to the big idea.
Find the goal and the sentence before
Paragraph 5 says: “Spencer’s goal is to create the conditions necessary for cultivating healthy plants in space, so those plants can sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions.” Cultivating means growing. The sentence just before it shows why she has this goal. Astronauts’ “vitamins and minerals are isolated in supplements, which lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.”
Connect the goal to the big idea
Today astronauts get vitamins from pills, called supplements. Those pills lose their health value as they sit. Spencer wants fresh plants grown in space to keep astronauts healthy instead. So her goal points to a problem: relying on weak pills. The article returns to food and health again and again. Paragraph 8 mentions “the nutritional needs of astronauts.” Nutritional means having to do with healthy food.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The “fresh pop of flavor” line comes after the goal. It is about taste, a side point.
- B is wrong. The article never says long trips in space harm astronauts’ health.
- C is wrong. It is the stored supplements that lose value over time, not meals that get less tasty.
- D is right. The goal answers a problem: astronauts depend on supplements that weaken in storage. That ties to the article’s idea that astronauts need healthy fresh food on long trips.
Watch out: Spencer’s flavor quote is the most memorable line nearby, so A pulls hard. But her goal is about health, not taste.
Choose the answer
Spencer wants healthy plants because pills are not enough. So the answer is D, “making an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.” Reliance means depending on something.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Spencer really does miss the crunch and flavor of fresh food. But her goal is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” which is about health. Health is the big idea the article keeps returning to. D connects the goal to that idea through the supplements that lose value.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)
Question 3 of 6
2026 Practice Test B English, question 41Passage Letter from Brooklyn
Letter from Brooklyn
by Jacob Scheier
I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.
“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.
brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past
Question
Read these lines from the poem.
I can already see how this will end. (line 1)
How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of. (lines 21–22)
The lines develop a central idea of the poem by
- Asuggesting the speaker’s desire to find a way to break free from the repetitive pattern of daily life.
- Brevealing the speaker’s feelings of disappointment over the predictable change in season.
- Cemphasizing the speaker’s awareness of the future significance of the present moment in the setting.
- Dshowing the speaker’s anticipation of specific emotions caused by an intimate knowledge of the setting.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how line 1 and lines 21–22 develop a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. Although these lines suggest that life is governed by repetitive patterns, such as the change of seasons, they do not suggest that the speaker wishes to break free from these natural cycles of change, and a desire for freedom is not a central idea of the poem.
B. Incorrect. Although the speaker acknowledges that colder weather will inevitably bring disappointment, the speaker does not suggest in these lines that the predictability of changing weather is itself disappointing. Rather, the speaker recognizes the value of enjoying the present moment.
C. CORRECT. These lines connect the present warmer weather with the future colder weather and develop the central idea that the present “moment I am walking inside of” must be embraced because the speaker will be “nostalgic” for it in the future.
D. Incorrect. In these lines, the speaker is aware that specific emotions will occur in the future, during cold weather, but this awareness is only part of the more complex central idea of the poem, which is that current emotions and feelings must be recognized, experienced, and appreciated.
Question analysis
This central-idea question pairs the first line of “Letter from Brooklyn” with lines 21–22, where Brooklyn makes the speaker nostalgic “for the moment I am walking inside of,” and asks how they develop a central idea of the poem. Students must link excerpts from opposite ends of the poem, untangle a paradoxical image and choose among four abstract statements.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how lines develop a central idea. Here two excerpts twenty lines apart must be read together, one of them built on a paradox, and the four choices are long and abstract, well beyond typical grade 7 work.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 99 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
This is among the hardest questions in the set because the two excerpts must be joined through a paradox and then matched to four long, abstract statements. Line 1 foresees an ending; lines 21–22 miss a moment while it is still happening, so both look at now from the future. Students who see only the foresight pick the choice about anticipated emotions, while those who hear gloom in “how this will end” settle on disappointment or a wish to escape.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
Lines 21–22 are a paradox: “nostalgic,” glossed as yearning for the past, is aimed at “the moment I am walking inside of,” so the speaker already feels the present as a future memory. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about anticipating “specific emotions” shares the key’s link between future and present; it differs by tracing those feelings to knowing the setting well, which neither excerpt says. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The excerpts are the poem’s first line and lines 21–22, twenty lines apart, and what joins them, the speaker looking ahead at the present, shows only when they are read side by side. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Paraphrase each excerpt on its own, using the glossary's meaning of “nostalgic,” then decide what the first line and the last two share and match that to a choice.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links “how this will end” and growing tired of the bridge to a dull routine and imagines a wish to escape it, which the poem never expresses.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears resignation in “I can already see how this will end” and reads it as disappointment with the seasons, missing that the speaker treasures the present walk.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees the speaker foreseeing feelings in line 1, but traces them to an “intimate knowledge of the setting,” while lines 21–22 long for the present moment itself.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question gives two pieces of the poem: line 1 and lines 21–22. You need the central idea they build together. A central idea is the main point the poem keeps working toward. Read each piece alone first, then join them.
Read line 1
Line 1 says “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker looks ahead. Lines 2–5 then list what will come: growing tired of the bridge, and the cold. So the speaker already pictures the future while living in the present.
Read lines 21–22
The lines say “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” The glossary says nostalgic means “yearning for the past.” Yearning means longing. But the speaker longs for now, a moment still happening. That is a paradox, an idea that seems impossible but makes sense. The speaker knows this walk will be a precious memory.
Join the two pieces
Both pieces look at the present from the future. In line 1, the speaker sees the end coming. In lines 21–22, the speaker already misses the walk. So the speaker knows this present moment will matter later. Significance means importance.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never wants to break free from daily routine.
- B is wrong. Line 1 can sound gloomy. But the speaker isn’t upset with the seasons. The speaker treasures the walk.
- C is right. The speaker sees that this moment in Brooklyn will be precious later.
- D is wrong. The speaker does foresee feelings. But neither piece says they come from knowing the place well.
Watch out: D gets the looking-ahead part of line 1 right. But lines 21–22 long for the moment itself, not for feelings caused by knowing the city.
Choose the answer
So the answer is C: “emphasizing the speaker’s awareness of the future significance of the present moment in the setting.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because line 1 does show the speaker foreseeing feelings. But D says they come from an “intimate knowledge of the setting.” Neither piece says that. Lines 21–22 miss the moment while it is still happening. C captures that: the present will matter in the future.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
Question 4 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 5 of 6
2026 Practice Test D Math, question 48Question
The perimeter of square W is twice the perimeter of equilateral triangle X. What is the ratio of the length of one side of square W to the length of one side of equilateral triangle X?
- A3:8
- B2:3
- C3:2
- D2:1
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
First, set up the ratio of the perimeter of the square to the triangle as 2:1 because the question states that the perimeter of the square is twice the perimeter of the triangle.
Recognizing that the square has 4 equal sides and that an equilateral triangle has 3 sides, use division to find the ratio of the sides.
Perimeter:
Sides:
Question analysis
The perimeter of square W is twice the perimeter of equilateral triangle X, and students find the ratio of a side of the square to a side of the triangle. This ratio question uses perimeters of regular shapes with no lengths given. Turning a comparison of perimeters into one of sides, and keeping the ratio in the order asked, are the tricky parts.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 ratio problems usually supply numbers to work with. This one gives only a relationship between two perimeters, so students must bring in the number of sides of each shape themselves and keep the ratio in the order asked.
- 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
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 9, 36 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 question turns a statement about perimeters into a ratio of sides, and the natural guess, that the sides keep the perimeters’ 2 to 1, ignores that the square shares its perimeter among 4 sides and the triangle among 3. Choosing a triangle perimeter such as 12 makes the comparison concrete. The order of the ratio still has to be checked at the end, because its reverse is listed too.
Turning words into math moderate Understanding the question
“The perimeter of square W is twice the perimeter of equilateral triangle X” must become 4s = 2 × 3t, with the 2 on the triangle’s side; written backward, it gives the triangle the larger perimeter. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
No side length is given, so students must either work with letters for the two sides or choose a convenient perimeter themselves, such as 12 for the triangle. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The ratios 3:2 and 2:3 use the same two numbers, so only keeping the square’s side first, as the question orders it, separates the answer from its reverse. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Pick an easy side length for the triangle, find its perimeter, double that for the square, divide by the square's number of sides, and write square to triangle.
Traps
- 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.
- Wrong operation: Adds instead of multiplying, divides the wrong way round, turns a ratio or rate upside down, or undoes a step in the wrong direction (subtracts what should be added back).
- Equation written backwards: Writes a comparison the wrong way round, word for word: "six times as many students as professors" as 6S = P. The bigger quantity gets the bigger number.
The wrong answers, classified
A Equation written backwards (Clement, Lochhead & Monk, 1981)
Writes the comparison backward, 2 × 4s = 3t, giving the triangle the larger perimeter, so the ratio of the sides comes out 3:8.
B Wrong operation (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; King et al., 2004)
Finds the right relationship but turns the ratio upside down, giving the triangle’s side to the square’s instead of the square’s side first.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Assumes the sides are in the same ratio as the perimeters, 2:1, ignoring that the square has 4 sides and the triangle only 3.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Perimeter of a square
- P is the perimeter, the distance around the shape. s is the length of one side. A square has 4 equal sides, so its perimeter is 4 times one side.
- Perimeter of an equilateral triangle
- An equilateral triangle has 3 equal sides. t is the length of one side. So its perimeter is 3 times one side.
- Ratio
- A ratio compares two amounts in order. a : b means a compared with b. The order matters, so write the amounts in the order the question names them.
Sort out the question
Square W has a perimeter twice as long as the perimeter of triangle X. Equilateral means all 3 sides of X are equal.
You need the ratio of one side of the square to one side of the triangle, in that order. No lengths are given, so you can pick a size to try.
Pick a size for the triangle
Choose an easy side length for the triangle, such as 2 units. All 3 sides are 2, so its perimeter is:
Find the square’s side
The square’s perimeter is twice the triangle’s:
The square has 4 equal sides, so divide by 4:
Each side of the square is 3 units.
Write the ratio in order
The square comes first, then the triangle. Their sides are 3 and 2, so the ratio is 3 : 2.
Watch out: 2 : 1, choice D, compares the perimeters, not the sides. The square splits its perimeter into 4 sides, the triangle into only 3. Choice B, 2 : 3, puts the triangle first. Choice A, 3 : 8, comes from giving the triangle the bigger perimeter.
So the answer is C, 3:2.
Check your answer
Try a different size. Give the triangle sides of 4. Its perimeter is 12, so the square’s is 24. Each side of the square is . The ratio 6 : 4 simplifies to 3 : 2. The size does not change the ratio.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 6 of 6
2024 Test B Math, question 57Question
If x and y are both negative integers with , which expression has the least value?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
Since x and y are both negative integers, both and are positive.
Therefore, both and are negative, and both and are positive.
Because and both x and y are negative, and . So .
Since and x and y are integers, .
So .
Therefore, .
Question analysis
Two negative integers x and y, with x less than y, appear in four expressions built from squares and minus signs. Students find the expression with the least value. It tests multiplying negative numbers and comparing their sizes, and the difficulty is tracking how each minus sign and each square changes both the sign and the size of the result.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students multiply negative numbers, but this asks them to compare four variable expressions for any pair of negative integers. Deciding how the squares compare when x is less than y goes beyond typical grade 7 sign practice.
- 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 20 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 facts settle the question: squares of negatives are positive, and the more negative number has the larger square. Students who track the minus signs carelessly think a leading minus makes an expression negative, and students who assume the larger y has the larger square choose the wrong negative expression. Substituting x = −3 and y = −2 gives −18, −12, 18 and 12, which orders all four at once.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
No values are given, only that x and y are negative integers with x < y, so students must reason about signs or invent a pair such as −3 and −2. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
x²y and xy² use the same letters with the exponent moved; both are negative, and only comparing x² with y² separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four expressions have to be placed in order, because the minus signs in front of the last two turn those expressions positive. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Pick two negative integers with x less than y, such as −3 and −2, evaluate all four expressions, and confirm the order with a second pair.
Traps
- Negatives and direction: Arithmetic with negative numbers, the order of a subtraction, or direction on a number line. (Moving a term across the equals sign without changing its sign is a faulty procedure.)
- 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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Knows x²y and xy² are both negative but takes y² as the larger square because y > x, though the more negative x has the bigger square.
C Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Reads the leading minus as making −x²y negative, missing that y is negative, so −x²y is in fact positive.
D Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Assumes the leading minus makes −xy² negative, missing that x is negative, so −xy² is in fact positive.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Signs in multiplication
- a and b are positive numbers, so −a and −b are negative. A negative times a negative is positive. A negative times a positive is negative. So a product is positive when it has an even number of negative factors.
- Squaring a number
- x is any number. x² (x squared) means x times itself. The square of a number other than 0 is always positive, because two negatives or two positives multiply to a positive.
Sort out the question
x and y are negative integers, such as −3 and −2. Since x < y, x is to the left of y on the number line. So x is more negative, farther from 0.
You need the expression with the least value. That is the most negative one.
Find the sign of each expression
Squares are positive, so and are positive.
- is a positive times a negative, so it is negative.
- is a negative times a positive, so it is negative.
- and are the opposites of these, so they are positive.
So the least value must be A or B. Watch out: The minus sign in front of C and D does not make them negative. It turns a negative into a positive.
Compare A and B with numbers
Try x = −3 and y = −2, since −3 < −2.
Since −18 < −12, A is smaller.
See why it always works
Both expressions contain x × y, which is positive. and . Multiplying the same positive number by the more negative x gives the more negative result.
Watch out: y is bigger than x, but is smaller than : 4 is less than 9. Thinking y² is bigger leads to choice B.
So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
Try another pair, x = −5 and y = −1. Then A is , B is , C is 25 and D is 5. A is still the least.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
