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Question 1 of 6
2026 Practice Test D English, question 5Passage A Memory Revolution
A Memory Revolution
A high school senior logs on to a computer at the library to double-check the application due date listed on a college admissions website. Nearby, a librarian helps a group of biology students use a database to search for recent studies about mammals. In the past few decades, the Internet has become an integral component of daily life for many people. The seemingly limitless power of search engines made the Internet search extremely common, and today people increasingly rely on the Internet’s vast accumulation of sources to access all types of information. Scientists are beginning to examine how this reliance is modifying the strategies people use to store and prioritize information in their mind.
A Dependable and Valuable Asset
Psychologist Benjamin Storm from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and researchers Sean Stone and Aaron Benjamin devised an experiment to study students’ tendency to depend on the Internet for facts. To begin, the scientists divided sixty participants into multiple groups, including an “Internet” group and a “memory” group, and placed them in front of computers. The Internet group was required to use the search engine Google to answer eight challenging trivia questions. In contrast, participants in the memory group were permitted to use only their personal knowledge to answer the questions. In the second round, the researchers administered notably easier questions. This time, they allowed each group the option of using Google as they answered. Their results showed that 83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round, while only 63 percent of the memory group chose to do so.
People’s growing inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information, particularly facts and figures, is called cognitive offloading. Canadian researcher Evan F. Risko and British researcher Sam Gilbert, who have written extensively about the topic, say a similar process has been taking place for centuries. In the past, people used resources like encyclopedias to assist their memories; however, today the Internet, serving as a vast extended memory, allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information. Consequently, people’s minds are free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.
Filing Information Away
The use of the Internet also appears to be modifying the strategies people use to store information in their mind. Researchers Betsy Sparrow from Columbia University, Jenny Liu from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Daniel Wegner from Harvard University conducted several studies to discover how people efficiently manage their information intake.
To begin, the researchers examined how people evaluate which information deserves their effort to remember. For this experiment, participants read forty trivia facts, such as “An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain,” and typed the statements into a computer file. Half the participants had been previously told the file would be saved, while half believed it would be erased. Next, the participants wrote down every fact they could recall. Those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.
In another experiment, the same researchers tested the ability of study participants to remember where to access information. For this trial, participants read and typed trivia statements, which they saved in folders with generic names such as “Facts” and “Items.” After spending ten minutes writing down all the facts they could recall from memory, participants were asked which folder contained a particular fact based on a keyword. For example, “Which folder has the fact about ostriches?” Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself, correctly identifying 49 percent of the folders for specific facts while remembering only 23 percent of the actual trivia. The researchers concluded that our memory is adapting to the Internet age by prioritizing where to locate information even when the specific details are forgotten. According to Sparrow, the Internet has become an important form of transactive memory, an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory.
As the Internet’s resources continue to expand our “external” memory, some question whether the process may cause people to depend too heavily on technology. However, Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, says, “Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.”
Question
How does the diagram provide additional support for the topic presented in the passage?
- AIt reveals why human brains must adapt to obtaining information from the Internet as opposed to other sources.
- BIt indicates how people can use the Internet to help improve their long-term recollection of information.
- CIt shows how study participants’ brains distinguished between important and unimportant details.
- DIt depicts the idea that repetition and rehearsal are necessary to recall information when tools such as search engines are unavailable.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the diagram provides additional support for the topic presented in the passage.
A. Incorrect. While the diagram indicates that the human brain has the ability to maintain different types of memory, the diagram does not show the need for the brain to adapt to obtaining information from the Internet rather than from other sources.
B. Incorrect. The diagram enhances the reader’s understanding of how long-term memories are formed, but it does not provide details about how the Internet can be used to improve long-term recollection of information.
C. Incorrect. The diagram provides an understanding of how details that are important to people can become stored because of an effort made to recall them. However, the diagram does not show how people decide which information is important and which is not.
D. CORRECT. The diagram depicts the connections that the human brain maintains between the different forms of memory. It also illustrates the idea that repetition and rehearsal are important steps in creating memories, as unrehearsed information will be forgotten. This supports the passage by highlighting the idea that access to search engines and other tools leads people to skip rehearsal and repetition steps that create memories, because people know that the information is readily accessible.
Question analysis
This question pairs “A Memory Revolution” with its flow diagram, “How Memory Works,” which follows new information from sensory memory through short-term and long-term memory, and asks how the diagram supports the topic of the passage. Students must read the diagram’s boxes, arrows and notes and relate them to an article about the Internet that never refers to the diagram, so the connection has to be worked out.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly connect a diagram to a text. This flow diagram of memory never mentions the Internet, so students must build the bridge to the article’s studies themselves, and every choice claims something the diagram alone cannot show.
- 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
- Combines ideas moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 81 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 diagram is a general model of memory, and every choice, even the right one, goes beyond it by bringing in the Internet, search engines or the study participants. The way through is to ask which choice rests on something the diagram really shows, and only one names its rehearsal loop and the forgetting of unrehearsed information. The strongest pull uses the diagram’s long-term memory and retrieval but claims the Internet improves recollection, the opposite of what paragraph 5’s experiment found.
Combines ideas moderate Working it out
The diagram never mentions the Internet and the article never mentions the diagram, so students must join its rehearsal loop to paragraph 5’s finding that people who expected the facts to be saved remembered fewer. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
Students must follow the arrows from “Attention” into short-term memory and find the “Rehearsal” loop beside “Information is maintained through repetition,” with “Unrehearsed information is forgotten” on the other side. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three choices tie the diagram to the Internet, adaptation or the study participants, and even the key mentions search engines, so each claim must be held against the boxes and arrows actually drawn. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Trace the diagram’s arrows from new information to long-term memory and say what each label shows, then ask which choice links that process to the studies without crediting the diagram with ideas it never shows.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- 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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Credits the diagram with the article’s claim that memory is “adapting to the Internet age” and adds a “must,” though its boxes and arrows show memory in general and never mention the Internet.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Joins the diagram’s long-term memory and retrieval arrow to the Internet as outside memory, though paragraph 5 found that people who expected the facts to be saved recalled fewer of them.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reads the “Attention” arrow and the forgotten unrehearsed information as a picture of paragraph 5’s experiment, though the diagram shows no participants and nothing about judging what is important.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the diagram supports the article. The diagram is the flow chart called “HOW MEMORY WORKS” at the end of the passage. It never mentions the Internet. So you must find what it shows, then link that to the article.
Follow the arrows in the diagram
Start at the top. An arrow labeled “New Information” goes into the box “Sensory Memory.” The “Attention” arrow leads to “Short-Term Memory.” From there, two things can happen. On the left, a loop labeled “Rehearsal” sits beside the note “Information is maintained through repetition.” On the right, a note says “Unrehearsed information is forgotten.” A “Storage” arrow leads down to “Long-Term Memory,” and a “Retrieval” arrow leads back up.
Explain what the diagram means
To rehearse information is to repeat it, the way you practice lines for a play. To maintain something is to keep it. So the diagram says that information you repeat stays with you. Information you don’t repeat is lost. Repeating takes effort.
Link the diagram to the passage
Paragraph 5 describes people who typed forty facts. Some thought the file would be saved. Others thought it would be erased. Those who thought it would be erased “could recall 40 percent more facts.” They knew they could not look the facts up later. So they made the effort to remember. The diagram shows that effort: rehearsal. When search engines are at hand, people may skip it.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The diagram never mentions the Internet. It does not say brains must adapt.
- B does not fit. The diagram shows nothing about using the Internet. Paragraph 5 even found that people remembered less when they expected the facts to be saved.
- C does not fit. The diagram shows memory in general. It shows no study participants and no sorting of important facts.
- D fits. The “Rehearsal” loop shows that repeating information keeps it. Without a tool to look things up, that repeating is what lets you recall.
Watch out: B is tempting because the diagram has “Long-Term Memory” and “Retrieval,” and the article calls the Internet an outside memory. But the diagram is about the brain, not the Internet.
Choose the answer
The diagram shows rehearsal keeping information and unrehearsed information being forgotten. That explains why people who can’t look facts up must work to remember them. So the answer is D, “It depicts the idea that repetition and rehearsal are necessary to recall information when tools such as search engines are unavailable.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. It uses the diagram’s “Long-Term Memory” and “Retrieval” labels. But the diagram never shows the Internet improving recall. The passage says the opposite: expecting the facts to be saved made people remember fewer. D rests on what the diagram really shows, the “Rehearsal” loop and the note “Unrehearsed information is forgotten.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed (pages 3–4)
Question 2 of 6
2025 Practice Test A English, question 12Passage Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”
Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”
by Hilary Wilson
In ancient Egypt, literacy was the key to success. However, contrary to popular belief, not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs. Many relied instead on the simpler hieratic script for the multitude of everyday documents generated by the Egyptian bureaucracy.
Hieroglyphs—“the Words of God”—compose a writing system with more than 1,000 distinct characters, the meanings of which were lost for 1,500 years before they were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Including both ideograms (which convey a whole word or idea, either concrete or abstract, in a single sign) and phonograms (representing either an alphabetic sound or a group of consonants), [the writing system] was used in formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls as well as on elaborate funerary papyri. For everyday purposes, however, scribes used a shorthand version of the hieroglyphic script known as hieratic, which was quicker to write and more economical of space. The two writings existed side by side for at least 2,500 years.
Scraps of ancient hieratic writing, mostly penned by student scribes on limestone flakes called ostraca, suggest that no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything. Horemheb (d.1292 B.C.) is a good example. Born of middle-ranking parents, his scribal training led to an army career. From Scribe of Recruits, during the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 B.C.), Horemheb rose through the military ranks and, by the rule of Tutankhamun (1332–1323 B.C.), he was commander in chief of the Egyptian forces. As a close adviser of the young Pharaoh, Horemheb was appointed “Deputy of the King throughout the Two Lands,” and might have expected to succeed to the throne should the king die childless. He had to wait a few years, but eventually Horemheb achieved the pinnacle of his career by becoming the last king of the 18th Dynasty, making his mark by instituting dramatic reforms to the organisation of the army, the judiciary and administration in general. The lasting success of these changes owed much to his scribal background. . . .
But education was not available to all. Government departments and major temples supported schools, where boys commenced their training at six or seven, sometimes earlier. To these boarding establishments . . . family or household servants delivered the students’ food and drink rations daily for several years, during which time the student was not contributing to the family’s income. Boys from poorer families could only hope to be educated with support from a wealthier relative or patron, or through apprenticeship to an older scribe, perhaps the local clerk or land agent, who would teach them the basics of the scribe’s craft. This limited the scope for employment but such “on the job” training allowed apprentices to help out at home while learning. . . .
Scribal education began with the elementary principles of the hieratic script. The lowliest scribes, who trained for just five or six years, probably learned only the rudiments of the hieroglyphic script. Students were set exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting on basic-format letters, reports and contracts, while absorbing the good advice contained in the texts. Surviving examples of copy-work sometimes include tutors’ corrections added in red. Some significant Egyptian literary works survive almost exclusively from student copies.
A schoolboy “dictionary” of hieroglyphs with their hieratic equivalents shows that a knowledge of more than 450 signs was required for everyday writing purposes. Lessons in record-keeping and filing and labelling enabled any half-competent scribe to perform that most essential of all scribal functions: the making and updating of lists. For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs. Those with the best handwriting or drawing skills might follow the craft of creating beautifully illustrated copies of funerary texts, commonly called Books of the Dead. Others could become draughtsmen, artists or architects. Doctors compiled their own collections of medication recipes, treatments and associated incantations, many copied from texts found in the House of Life, the temple library. Lawyers had to be familiar with the corpus of civil and religious laws and precedents found in the official records, which were administered by archivists. Egypt’s bureaucratic society depended on the skills of an army of scribes of all ranks from filing clerk to tax assessor. For young Egyptians, “be a scribe” was the best of career advice.
From “Scribe Like an Egyptian” by Hilary Wilson from HISTORY TODAY, August 8, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by History Today Ltd. Company.
bureaucracy: an administrative staff of government officials
funerary papyri: a sheet or scroll of papyrus containing religious images and hieroglyphs meant to help the deceased be reborn in the afterlife
rudiments: basics
schoolboy: slang that refers to materials used during the course of receiving an education
draughtsmen: people who draw plans of machinery or structures
corpus: a collection of writings
Question
Which claim is best supported by the information presented in paragraphs 3 and 4?
- AEducation was difficult for the common citizens of Egypt to obtain.
- BOnce students began studying to become scribes, their future held more possibilities.
- CIf someone wanted to become a scribe, support from outside sources such as the government or a temple was necessary.
- DBecoming a successful scribe required a student’s family to sacrifice time and money in order to ensure the best education.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the claim that is best supported by the details in paragraphs 3 and 4.
A. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 does explain that boys from poorer families had more challenges in receiving an education, the paragraph also provides examples of obtaining a patron or getting an apprenticeship as ways that these aspiring scribes could attain an education. Furthermore, the details in paragraph 3 do not provide any support for the claim that “common citizens” had difficulty getting an education because that paragraph focuses on the example of one person who was able to become a king as a result of his background as a scribe.
B. CORRECT. In paragraph 3, the author provides an example of a person who used his skills as a scribe to rise through the ranks of society by describing the achievements of Horemheb to support the idea that “no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything.” The author continues in paragraph 4 to explain that with the proper support, some young Egyptians could become educated, thereby opening more opportunities for themselves.
C. Incorrect. Paragraph 4 explains that schools were supported by the government and religious institutions, but it also explains that apprenticeships were a method of learning the craft of the scribe. As the paragraph indicates, boys could also be helped in their education by support from “a wealthier relative or patron.”
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 4, the author details the sacrifices that families made to keep their sons at the schools, while boys from poorer families could only hope for a patron or an apprenticeship. Paragraph 4 also explains that apprentices could help out at home while learning, so the sacrifice of time and money was not required of every family.
Question analysis
This inference question asks which claim is best supported by paragraphs 3 and 4 of “Scribe Like an Egyptian,” which tell the story of the scribe Horemheb and describe who could get a scribal education in ancient Egypt. Students must weigh each claim against both paragraphs together, and several claims echo a single sentence closely enough to look supported.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Choosing the claim a passage best supports is core grade 7 work. Here the claim must fit two paragraphs that do different jobs, one telling a single man’s story and one explaining access to schooling, and some choices fit only part of that.
- 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 evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 75 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misdescription of the passage in the explanation of one wrong answer 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
The trap is a claim that paragraph 4 seems to state almost word for word, which makes it feel safer than the right one. But the question asks for support from both paragraphs, and Horemheb’s story points the other way, toward what schooling made possible. The two other wrong claims harden paragraph 4’s details into rules, a necessary sponsor or a required family sacrifice, so words like “necessary” and “required” are the ones to test.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The claim must fit two paragraphs that do different work: paragraph 3 follows Horemheb from army scribe to king, and paragraph 4 explains who could pay for schooling and what the alternatives were. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The right claim restates paragraph 3’s “an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything” in new words, while the most tempting wrong one nearly copies paragraph 4’s opening, “education was not available to all.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Students must connect Horemheb’s rise with paragraph 4’s account of who got schooling to see that both paragraphs are about education opening doors, a link the author leaves implicit. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Sum up paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 in a sentence each, then test every claim against both summaries, watching for words that make a claim stronger than the text.
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)
Rests on paragraph 4’s opening, “education was not available to all,” and ignores paragraph 3, whose Horemheb shows an educated man rising from modest origins to the throne.
C Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Makes the government and temple schools of paragraph 4 “necessary,” overlooking its other routes: help from “a wealthier relative or patron,” or apprenticeship to a working scribe.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Turns the rations and lost income that some families bore in paragraph 4 into a requirement for every successful scribe, and adds “the best education,” which the paragraph never mentions.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of D said paragraph 4 details sacrifices “necessary for some poorer families,” and that paragraph 3’s Horemheb, born of middle-ranking parents, shows the sacrifice was not required of all families. In paragraph 4 the rations and lost income are those of families whose sons were at the schools; poorer boys could only hope for a patron or an apprenticeship; and paragraph 3 says nothing about what Horemheb’s family gave up. The explanation now says so: D is wrong because apprentices could help out at home while learning, so not every family made the sacrifice.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which claim is best supported by paragraphs 3 and 4 together. A claim is a statement that someone says is true. The right claim must fit both paragraphs. Watch for strong words, like “necessary,” that go further than the text.
Sum up paragraph 3
Paragraph 3 tells about Horemheb. His parents were middle-ranking, not rich or powerful. His training as a scribe led to a job in the army. He rose to lead the army, then to serve the young king, and in the end he became king himself. The author uses him to show that “no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything.” Humble origins means an ordinary family background.
Sum up paragraph 4
Paragraph 4 opens by saying that not everyone could get an education. Government offices and big temples ran schools. Families sent food and drink for years, while the boy earned nothing for them. Poorer boys could hope for help from “a wealthier relative or patron.” A patron is someone who pays for another person’s training. Or they could learn on the job from a working scribe. That path led to fewer jobs.
Put the two paragraphs together
Both paragraphs are about what schooling could do for a boy. Paragraph 3 shows a man rising all the way to king because he trained as a scribe. Paragraph 4 shows that, with the right support, boys could get that schooling. It even notes that the on-the-job path led to fewer jobs. So education opened doors. That is what choice B says.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. It matches only the start of paragraph 4. Paragraph 4 also gives ways in for poorer boys, and paragraph 3 shows a man from an ordinary family rising to the top.
- B fits. Both paragraphs show schooling leading to more possibilities.
- C does not fit. A government or temple school was not “necessary.” A relative, a patron or an apprenticeship could also work.
- D does not fit. Apprentices could help out at home while they learned, so not every family gave up time and money. And the paragraphs never mention “the best education.”
Choose the answer
The claim that fits both paragraphs is that schooling gave a boy more possibilities. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice, because paragraph 4 begins by saying not everyone could get an education. But the question asks about paragraphs 3 and 4. Paragraph 3 tells of a scribe from an ordinary family who became king. Paragraph 4 shows ways around the cost. Both point to what education made possible, which is B.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the test
Question 3 of 6
2025 Practice Test B English, question 48Passage 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
The poet develops the speaker’s point of view by
- Aproviding details about the speaker’s longing to be in a different place.
- Bshowing the speaker’s sense of unease about the passing seasons.
- Cincluding details about the speaker’s hope that life will remain unchanged.
- Dshowing the speaker’s desire to treasure and appreciate the changes taking place.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view.
A. Incorrect. The speaker concedes that at some point, Brooklyn will become tiresome (lines 2–4). However, the bulk of the poem reveals the speaker’s appreciation for experiencing Brooklyn, not a desire to be in some other place.
B. Incorrect. Cold weather is inevitable, and the speaker is well aware of this future shift as well as the change in attitude it will bring. Nevertheless, the speaker does not focus on this future but rather embraces the current season, describing it in vivid detail.
C. Incorrect. The speaker is not hopeful that life will remain unchanged. Rather, the speaker accepts and appreciates the seasonal changes that occur.
D. CORRECT. The speaker’s point of view is largely positive and appreciative of the shift in seasons. This point of view is developed by language that shows a close connection between the speaker and the setting. For example, the speaker uses words such as “intimacy” (line 11) and “closeness” (line 14) and the description of the “pop-up picture book” (line 20). Finally, the conclusion emphasizes the point of view: “These late afternoons filled / with a loneliness that makes me feel / distinctly myself, and an awareness / of how rare that is” (lines 23–26).
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in “Letter from Brooklyn,” in which the speaker walks through the city at the start of fall knowing that colder, darker days lie ahead. The speaker’s thoughts move between the present and the future, so students must weigh the whole poem, and each choice names a different attitude.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 point-of-view questions focus on one passage or stanza. This one asks for the speaker’s attitude across a whole poem of shifting moods, and several choices rest on real lines, so judging the overall view takes 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
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 54 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 poem opens by predicting its own end and returns to the coming dark in lines 13–16, so a reader who weighs those lines heavily finds unease, and the speaker does feel some. But the speaker turns back to the present each time, with “But that all happens later” and “These days I am still walking,” and the closing lines call the moment rare. The point of view is a wish to savor what is passing, and only a choice that fits the whole poem, not its most anxious lines, matches it.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The point of view has to hold from line 1 to line 26 while the poem swings between the future, tiring of the bridge and darkening at 4, and the present walk under the branches. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
No line names the speaker’s attitude; it has to be drawn from “For now,” the walk “at a cathedral pace,” the nostalgia “for the moment I am walking inside of” and “how rare that is.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three wrong choices rest on real lines, tiring of the bridge’s “steep incline,” the “felt distance” of line 14 and the nostalgia of lines 21–22, so each must be weighed against the whole poem. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Sum up in one sentence how the speaker feels about the present walk and about the season ahead, then pick the choice that holds true from the first line to the last.
Traps
- 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.
- 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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the forecast that the speaker “will grow tired” of the bridge and the tourists into a present longing to be elsewhere, though the rest of the poem savors Brooklyn’s streets.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Fixes on the coming cold and the “felt distance” of lines 13–16, real notes of unease, and takes them for the whole view, though “But that all happens later” sets the future aside.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads nostalgia “for the moment I am walking inside of” as a wish that nothing change, though the speaker opens by accepting “how this will end” and treasures the moment because it passes.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about point of view: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about what is happening. The question is about the whole poem, not a few lines. So follow the speaker’s feelings from line 1 to line 26. The right choice must fit all of it.
Follow the speaker’s thoughts
The poem moves back and forth in time. Lines 1–5 look ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker will tire of the bridge, and “The weather will turn cold.” Line 6 turns back: “But that all happens later.” Lines 7–12 describe the cool air of early fall. Lines 13–16 look ahead again, to days that get dark at 4 o’clock. Line 17 returns to now: “These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace.”
See how the speaker treats now
The glossary says cathedral means “meditative,” or calm and thoughtful. The speaker walks slowly to take everything in. Brownstones look “like a pop-up picture book.” Lines 21–22 say “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” Nostalgic means “yearning for the past.” Yet the speaker longs for right now. In the last lines, even the loneliness of late afternoon is welcome. It makes the speaker feel “distinctly myself,” and aware “of how rare that is.”
Put the point of view in words
The speaker knows this season will end. That is why each moment matters. The speaker notices the first signs of fall, like the crisp air, and savors them. To treasure something is to value it highly. So the speaker wants to treasure and appreciate the changes happening now.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Lines 2–4 say the speaker will tire of the bridge someday. But the speaker enjoys Brooklyn now and never wishes to be elsewhere.
- B does not fit. Lines 13–16 show some unease about the dark days ahead. But each time, the speaker turns back to the present.
- C does not fit. The speaker knows from line 1 that this will end, and treasures the moment because it will pass.
- D fits. The speaker savors the early-fall walk while it lasts.
Watch out: B rests on real lines: the closeness the speaker feels now “will be a felt distance” (line 14). But that is one part of the poem, not the whole view.
Choose the answer
The speaker knows the season will change and holds on to each moment of it. So the answer is D, “showing the speaker’s desire to treasure and appreciate the changes taking place.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because lines 13–16 do show unease. But each time the poem looks ahead, the speaker turns back to now: “But that all happens later” and “These days I am still walking.” The poem ends by calling the moment rare. The main feeling is a wish to treasure the present, which is D.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
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
2024 Test B Math, question 41Question
A bag contains 2 green, 4 blue, and 3 yellow disks. Alana selects 4 disks from the bag at random, one at a time, without replacing them. What is the probability that she selects all 4 blue disks?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
If Alana picks 4 blue disks in a row, the number of blue disks and the total number of disks will both decrease by 1 after each selection.
For the first selection, there are 4 blue disks out of 9 total disks, so the probability of selecting the first blue disk is .
The probabilities of selecting blue for the next three selections are , , and .
Question analysis
A bag holds green, blue and yellow disks, and Alana draws four of them one at a time without putting any back. Students find the probability that all four disks are blue. It tests the probability of dependent events, and the difficulty is keeping track of how the bag changes after each draw.
- 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 lists or tree diagrams for two stages. Four dependent draws, each changing the counts, are too many to list and need the multiplication rule, which grade 7 does not formally teach.
- 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
- Error-prone arithmetic moderate
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 37 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
Students who know the multiplication rule for successive draws still have two adjustments to make on every draw, and each wrong choice skips at least one of them. Leaving the bag at 9 disks, or putting each disk back, both produce fractions over 6,561 that look as exact as the right one. Writing the four fractions in a row before multiplying, and cancelling as you go, keeps the arithmetic small.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
The rule for successive draws without replacement is assumed: each draw's chance is multiplied in, with both the blue count and the total lowered by one. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Error-prone arithmetic moderate Working it out
The product 4/9 × 3/8 × 2/7 × 1/6 = 24/3,024 has to be reduced to 1/126, and two wrong choices hide behind 9 to the fourth power, 6,561. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Strategy: Write the chance of blue for each of the four draws in turn, lowering both the blue count and the total by one each time, and multiply.
Traps
- Without replacement: In a second pick there is one fewer item, which changes the probability.
- 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).
The wrong answers, classified
A Without replacement (Fischbein & Schnarch, 1997)
Lowers the blue count on each draw but keeps all 9 disks in the bag, 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 over 9 × 9 × 9 × 9, which is 24/6,561 = 8/2,187.
C Without replacement (Fischbein & Schnarch, 1997)
Uses 4/9 for every draw, (4/9) to the fourth power = 256/6,561, as if each disk were put back before the next draw.
D Wrong operation (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; King et al., 2004)
Adds the first draw's 4/9 four times, or multiplies it by 4, instead of multiplying the draws' chances, and misses that a probability cannot exceed 1.
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.
Sort out the question
The bag holds 2 green, 4 blue and 3 yellow disks. That is 9 disks in all. Alana takes 4 disks, one at a time.
“Without replacing them” means a disk she takes does not go back in the bag. You need the chance that all 4 disks are blue.
Find the chance for each pick
For all 4 to be blue, each pick must be blue. After each blue pick, one blue disk is gone. One disk is gone from the total, too. So the top and the bottom each go down by 1.
Pick Blue disks left Disks left Chance of blue 1st 4 9 2nd 3 8 3rd 2 7 4th 1 6 Multiply the four chances
All four picks must go right, one after another. Use the rule for events in a row and multiply.
Simplify the fraction
Divide the top and the bottom by 24. That keeps the value the same.
Watch out: Using for every pick gives , choice C. That is right only if each disk goes back in. Keeping 9 on the bottom each time gives , choice A. Choice D is more than 1, and no chance can be more than 1.
So the answer is B, .
Check your answer
Cancel before you multiply. On top, cancels the 8 on the bottom. That leaves . Divide the top and bottom by 3 to get again.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 6 of 6
2026 Practice Test C Math, question 15Question
A grocery store sells 1-gallon containers of milk for $3.99. The store also sells orange juice in a 6-pack of 5.5-fluid-ounce bottles for $1.79. Suppose the store wants to sell its orange juice in gallon containers instead. To the nearest dollar, how much more would a gallon of orange juice cost than a gallon of milk?
Enter your answer in the space.
Fill-in question: work out the answer and type it as a number.
Show the answer
Correct answer: 3
To determine the cost of a gallon of orange juice, begin by finding the total number of ounces in the 6-pack of bottles:
So, 33 oz of orange juice costs $1.79.
There are 128 oz in 1 gallon. Set up a proportion using the $1.79 cost per 33 oz of orange juice and the unknown cost (x) per 1 gallon of orange juice:
Cross multiply to solve for x in the proportion:
So, the orange juice costs $6.94 per gallon, and the milk costs $3.99 per gallon.
Subtract the cost per gallon of milk from the cost per gallon of orange juice.
Round the difference to the nearest dollar.
$2.95 rounds to $3.
Question analysis
A store sells milk by the gallon for $3.99 and orange juice in six-packs of 5.5-fluid-ounce bottles for $1.79. Students work out what a gallon of the juice would cost at the same price per ounce and how much more that is than the milk, to the nearest dollar. The ounces in a gallon must be known, and several steps involve decimals.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Unit prices are grade 6 and 7 work, but this chains five steps with decimals and needs a fact the question does not give, the number of fluid ounces in a gallon. Typing a rounded difference, with no choices, adds risk.
- 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
- Many steps moderate
- Error-prone arithmetic minor
- An answer in an unexpected form minor
- Solution
- 5 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 60 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A rounded value in the explanation is now marked as approximate (≈ instead of =).
- 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 calculation is long, and its key fact is missing from the page. Students who know the 128 fluid ounces still face a division by 33 that does not come out evenly, which tempts them to round the price per ounce to 5 cents and lose about 50 cents a gallon. Keeping the exact quotient to the end, or scaling 33 ounces up by about 3.9, keeps the difference near $2.95, which rounds to 3.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
The question never says that a gallon holds 128 fluid ounces, yet the whole comparison depends on it; the 6-pack holds only 6 × 5.5 = 33 ounces. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Many steps moderate Working it out
Five moves follow one another: the ounces in a pack, the scale-up to 128 ounces, the division by 33, the subtraction of $3.99 and the rounding to a whole dollar. (Daniel & Embretson, 2010; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Error-prone arithmetic minor Working it out
1.79 × 128 = 229.12 and 229.12 ÷ 33 are long decimal calculations without a calculator, and a slip in either moves the price of a gallon. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
An answer in an unexpected form minor Choosing the answer
The rounded difference is typed with no choices, so an unrounded $2.95, or a figure rounded too soon, looks just as finished as the whole-dollar answer. (Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Strategy: Find the ounces in one six-pack, scale its price up to the 128 fluid ounces in a gallon, subtract the milk's price, and round only at the end.
Traps
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
- Rounds too early: Rounds a value partway through, or rounds the wrong way, so the final answer drifts from the exact one.
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
The wrong answers, classified
7 Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Finds the juice's cost per gallon, about $6.94, rounds it to $7, and enters that without subtracting the $3.99 price of the milk.
2 Rounds too early (King et al., 2004)
Rounds the price per ounce, 1.79 ÷ 33 ≈ 0.054, to $0.05, so a gallon costs $6.40 and the difference, $2.41, rounds to 2.
2.95 Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Works out the difference of $2.95 correctly but enters it as it stands, though the question asks for it to the nearest dollar.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation goes from 33x = $229.12 to “x = $6.94”. But 229.12 ÷ 33 = 6.9430…, so $6.94 is the cost per gallon rounded to the cent. The site writes x ≈ $6.94. Nothing else changes: $6.94 − $3.99 = $2.95, which rounds to $3, and the unrounded cost gives the same answer.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Fluid ounces in a gallon
- A gallon holds 128 fluid ounces. This is a fact you must know, because the question does not give it. A fluid ounce measures an amount of liquid. Multiply gallons by 128 to change them into fluid ounces.
- Cross-multiplying a proportion
- A proportion says two ratios are equal. Here each ratio is ounces over dollars. a and c are the tops, and b and d are the bottoms. Multiply each top by the other bottom, and the two products are equal. That turns the proportion into an equation.
Sort out the question
Milk costs $3.99 for 1 gallon. Orange juice comes in a 6-pack of 5.5-fluid-ounce bottles for $1.79. You need how much more a gallon of juice would cost than a gallon of milk. Round to the nearest dollar.
The question doesn’t say how big a gallon is. You must know this fact: 1 gallon is 128 fluid ounces.
Find the ounces in a 6-pack
Each of the 6 bottles holds 5.5 fluid ounces:
So $1.79 buys 33 fluid ounces of juice.
Set up a proportion
Let x be the cost in dollars of a gallon, 128 fluid ounces, of juice. The price per ounce stays the same. So ounces over dollars is the same for the pack and the gallon:
Cross-multiply:
Find the cost of a gallon
Divide both sides by 33:
The sign ≈ means about equal. The exact value is 6.943…, so a gallon of juice costs about $6.94.
Watch out: don’t round too early. One ounce costs about $0.054. Rounding that to $0.05 makes a gallon $6.40, and your answer becomes 2.
Subtract the milk’s price
Find how much more the juice costs:
A gallon of juice costs $2.95 more than a gallon of milk.
Watch out: entering 7, the juice’s price, forgets to subtract the milk.
Round and enter it
The question asks for the nearest dollar. $2.95 is between $2 and $3. Its cents, 95, are 50 or more, so it rounds up to $3. Do not enter 2.95.
Type only the number in the box. So you would enter 3.
Check your answer
Estimate. 128 ounces is almost 4 packs, since . Four packs cost dollars, so a gallon costs a bit less than that. Milk costs about $4. About $7 minus $4 is $3, which matches.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
