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Question 1 of 6

2024 Test B English, question 47
Passage Snowy Mountains

Snowy Mountains

by John Gould Fletcher

Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.

But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.

Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.

“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain

Question

Read lines 21–22 from the poem.

Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,

How do the lines help convey the speaker’s point of view?

  • AThey suggest that the speaker wants to remove the obstacles that prevent others from experiencing the wonders of nature.
  • BThey reveal the speaker’s opinion that some people are too busy to appreciate natural beauty.
  • CThey reflect the speaker’s dismay that people destroy the natural landscape without understanding the ramifications of their actions.
  • DThey explain that the speaker is confident that nature will never be fully destroyed by people.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how lines 21–22 help convey the speaker’s point of view.

A. Incorrect. The word “barrier” (line 21) refers to the speaker’s opinion that the mountains were “spread by Gods” (line 19) and not to an obstacle that the speaker thinks should be removed.

B. Incorrect. While the lines indicate that people have lost the need to connect with nature, they do not reveal that the speaker thinks that the cause of this loss is busyness.

C. CORRECT. The words “those who do not need / The joy” in lines 21–22 reflect the speaker’s sadness that people do not realize that they are destroying something wonderful and irreplaceable.

D. Incorrect. Although the speaker does say that the stone is “time-resisting” (line 22), this belief is only a small detail of the speaker’s point of view.

Question analysis

Two lines from the final stanza of “Snowy Mountains” describe a barrier broken down by people who do not need “The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,” and students must explain how these lines convey the speaker’s point of view. The phrasing is compact and old-fashioned, with an unusual use of “need,” so working out the plain meaning comes before choosing among close descriptions of the speaker’s feelings.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students often infer a speaker’s attitude from clear statements. Here the attitude must be drawn from a compressed sentence broken across two lines, and the choices differ in fine shades of feeling and cause.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 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

Before any choice can be judged, the compressed, inverted verse has to be put into plain English: people with no use for the old stone’s joy have broken the barrier down. Once that paraphrase is in hand, the speaker’s sorrow is clear, yet two wrong choices offer nearby readings. One supplies a cause the lines never give, busyness, and the other turns the stone’s endurance into a promise that the same sentence contradicts.

  1. Complex sentences major Understanding the question

    The lines break mid-phrase, “those who do not need / The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,” inside a sentence whose subject arrives only in line 23, so who breaks what must be untangled first. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Neither dismay nor ignorance is stated; both must be inferred from describing the people as not needing “The joy” of the stone they break down. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    “Barrier” here means the mountain range as a great wall, not an obstacle, and the key turns on “ramifications,” a word many seventh graders will not know. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Read lines 21–22 with the lines just before them, restate the sentence in your own words, and then decide what the speaker thinks of the people it describes.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about point of view: what the speaker thinks and feels. Read lines 21 and 22, and decide what they show about the speaker’s attitude toward the people in them.

  2. Read the lines with the ones before

    Two lines earlier, the poem names the mountains a “Barrier spread by Gods” (line 19). A barrier is a wall, and here the wall is the mountain range itself. Line 21 says this barrier is “broken down by those who do not need” something. Line 22 says what that something is: “The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone.”

  3. Put the lines in plain words

    Time-resisting means the stone has held out against ages of time. Storm-worn means storms have rubbed it down. So this stone is very old and very tough. In plain words: the mountains are being torn down by people who have no use for the joy this ancient stone can give. The speaker sounds sad and troubled that something so lasting is wrecked by people who do not value it.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Here “Barrier” means the mountains, not something blocking the way. The speaker is sorry it was broken, not eager to remove it.
    • B does not fit. The lines never give a reason, such as being too busy. That idea comes from outside the poem.
    • C fits. Dismay is a mix of sadness and alarm. Ramifications are the effects an action leads to later on. The speaker is dismayed that people wreck the mountains with no thought for what they are losing.
    • D does not fit. The stone is “time-resisting,” but the same lines show it broken down. They express sorrow, not confidence.

  5. Choose the answer

    The lines show the mountains being broken by people who see no value in them, and the speaker is upset. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the strongest trap, because being too busy for nature sounds like a fair reason. But lines 21 and 22 never explain why these people do not need the stone’s joy. B adds a cause from outside the poem. C stays with what the lines show: damage to the mountains, done by people who do not value them, and the speaker’s distress.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 47 as printed on page 191 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 191, question 47. Open page 191 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.

Question 2 of 6

2018 Test B English, question 48
Passage Invention of the Telegraph

Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is credited with creating the electronic telegraph, a communication device that allows users to send messages using a system of short and long pulses that represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. In 1843 the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill, which provided Morse with the funds to build an electric telegraph system.

Invention of the Telegraph

Earlier Signal Systems

Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were visual or “semaphore” systems using flags or lights. In the eighteenth century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station. The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 for a workable proposal. The framers of this legislation1^1 had no way of knowing that when they used the word “telegraph” to refer to this visual semaphore system, they would be offered an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.

The Growth of an Idea

The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Morse during a conversation aboard ship when he was returning from Europe in 1832. Michael Faraday’s recently invented electromagnet was much discussed by the ship’s passengers, and when Morse came to understand how it worked, he speculated that it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire. While a student at Yale College years before, he had written his parents a letter about how interesting he found the lectures on electricity. Despite what he had learned at Yale, Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity, and after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague at the University of the City of New York, Leonard D. Gale.

Gale was a professor of chemistry and familiar with the electrical work of Princeton’s Joseph Henry, a true pioneer in the new field. Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit. In 1831, he had published an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. Gale’s help and his knowledge of this article proved crucial to Morse’s telegraph system because Gale not only pointed out flaws in the system but showed Morse how he could regularly boost the strength of a signal and overcome the distance problems he had encountered by using a relay system Henry had invented. Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.

Obstacles and Opportunities

By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.

However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. It was during this period that Morse visited Europe again and tried not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England. . . .

By 1843, the country was beginning to recover economically, and Morse again asked Congress for the $30,000 that would allow him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, forty miles away. The House of Representatives eventually passed the bill containing the Morse appropriation, and the Senate approved it in the final hours of that Congress’s last session. With President Tyler’s signature, Morse received the cash he needed and began to carry out plans for an underground telegraph line.

Realizing a Great Invention

Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire, and although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse’s partners, Congressman F. O. J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.

Soon, as overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast, the dots-and-dashes method2^2 that recorded messages on a long moving strip of paper was replaced by the operator’s ability to interpret the code in real time. . . . Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.

“Invention of the Telegraph”—Public Domain/Library of Congress

1^1legislation: Telegraph Bill

2^2dots-and-dashes method: the short and long pulses of Morse code that are sent and received by telegraph operators

World map titled “British All-Red Telegraph Line, 1902,” with a compass rose (N, S, E, W) and a key showing a thick black line as an electric telegraph line. The line runs from London across the Atlantic Ocean and Canada to Vancouver, then west into the Pacific Ocean off the map’s left edge; from London and from Canada’s east coast to Bermuda, then to Barbados, across the Atlantic to Cape Town, and across the Indian Ocean to Perth, which a second line links to India; and from Perth across Australia to Brisbane and Norfolk, with branches to New Zealand and east into the Pacific off the map’s right edge. Washington, D.C., in the United States, is marked with a dot but no line reaches it.

The first transatlantic electric telegraph message was sent in 1858, and by 1902 the British All-Red Line connected most of the world.

Bar graph titled “Telegraph Messages Transmitted, 1870–1920,” with the number of messages transmitted, in millions, on the vertical axis (0 to 180 in steps of 20) and the years 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 and 1920 on the horizontal axis. The bars show about 10 million messages in 1870, 30 million in 1880, 55 million in 1890, 65 million in 1900, 75 million in 1910 and 155 million in 1920.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2. Washington, D.C., 1975.

Question

Which statement describes how the author’s use of problem-solution in paragraph 2 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?

  • AMorse’s discussion on a ship about Faraday’s electromagnet reminded him of the Yale College lectures on electricity, which he had enjoyed but had not fully understood, inspiring him to learn more about electricity from his colleague Gale.
  • BMorse’s discouragement over his lack of knowledge of electricity prompted him to experiment with batteries, magnets, and wires, which led to the development of a new long-distance communication system.
  • CMorse’s difficulty in understanding how Faraday’s electromagnet worked was frustrating, and it pushed him to create a system for sending signals over wires.
  • DMorse’s longtime fascination was not enough to make up for his lack of knowledge about electricity, so he eventually sought help from Gale.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for the best explanation of how the use of problem-solution in paragraph 2 helps develop the ideas in the passage. Option D is correct because it explains that Morse realized his problem was that he was not knowledgeable enough to continue his experimentation without help, so the solution was to seek help from a colleague.

Option A is incorrect because, while the discussion on the ship fascinated Morse and reminded him of the lectures he had attended at Yale College, it was his failed attempts with electricity that caused him to reach out to Gale for help.

Option B is incorrect because, while “Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity” (paragraph 2), the paragraph does not state that he was discouraged; it was his failed experimentation that resulted in him first realizing that he needed help.

Option C is incorrect because the paragraph states that “Morse came to understand how [Faraday’s electromagnet] worked,” and that understanding is what caused him to think about sending messages over a wire. Also, Morse’s difficulty was in understanding the properties of electricity in general once he began his experimentation.

Question analysis

In this text structure question about “Invention of the Telegraph,” students explain how the problem-and-solution pattern in paragraph 2 develops ideas about Samuel Morse. All four choices are long sentences built from real details about the ship, Yale and Gale, so students must check each one’s account of what led to what.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Identifying problem and solution is familiar from earlier grades, but these choices are long, detail-packed chains in which a single misplaced cause makes an option wrong, which demands closer checking than typical grade 7 items.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 16, 132 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A wrong paragraph number in the explanation was corrected.
  • A misspelled name in the explanation was corrected.
  • A punctuation slip 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

Every choice is assembled from things the paragraph really mentions, so recognition is useless and only the order of causes decides. The most tempting wrong choice ends with Gale, the right solution, but invents a reminder of the Yale lectures to get there; others turn the failed experiments into the solution or reverse what Morse understood. The question rewards reading each long choice clause by clause, which costs time.

  1. Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer

    Each choice is a chain of two or three causes built from real details, the ship, Faraday, Yale, the batteries and wires, Gale, so every link has to be checked against paragraph 2’s order of events. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The Yale-reminder choice and the key both join Morse’s enjoyment of electricity, his weak grasp of it and his turn to Gale; they part on one detail, the claim that the shipboard talk “reminded him” of Yale, which the paragraph never makes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The key turns the Yale letter and the shipboard speculation into “longtime fascination,” a phrase the passage never uses, while the wrong choices repeat its names and phrases and so look better supported. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  4. A lot to read moderate Understanding the question

    The four choices run to about 110 words, the longest 37, and paragraph 2 itself packs a voyage, a college letter, failed experiments and a colleague into four sentences. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  5. How, not what minor Working it out

    Students must name the paragraph’s problem, too little understanding of electricity, and its solution, Gale, before judging which account of the pattern is accurate. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Name the problem and the solution in paragraph 2 in a few words each, then choose the option whose sequence of events matches the paragraph exactly.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook places the sentence “Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity” in paragraph 3. It is in paragraph 2, the paragraph the question is about, so the site now says “(paragraph 2).”
  • Explanation: The handbook spells Leonard Gale’s name “Gail.” The passage spells it “Gale,” and so does the site now.
  • Explanation: The handbook capitalizes “Also” after a semicolon (“over a wire; Also, Morse’s difficulty…”). The site starts a new sentence instead: “over a wire. Also, Morse’s difficulty…”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about problem-solution in paragraph 2. Problem-solution is a way to organize writing. First you learn about a problem, then how someone solved it. Find the problem and the solution. Then pick the choice that tells them in the right order.

  2. Find the problem in paragraph 2

    Paragraph 2 starts with “The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance.” It says Morse had enjoyed the electricity lectures at Yale. But then comes the problem: “Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity.”

  3. Find the solution

    The same sentence goes on: “after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague.” “Sporadic” means now and then, not steady. A colleague is a coworker. So Morse was interested in the subject, tried on his own, and did not succeed. His interest was not enough. His solution was to ask Gale for help.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It ends with Gale, but the paragraph never says the ship talk “reminded him” of Yale. It also skips the failed tries.
    • B is wrong. It has the order backward. The experiments showed the problem. They did not build the system.
    • C is wrong. The paragraph says Morse “came to understand how it worked,” meaning the electromagnet.
    • D fits. Long interest was not enough, so he got help from Gale.

  5. Choose the answer

    The problem was Morse’s weak grasp of electricity, and the solution was Gale. So the answer is D, “Morse’s longtime fascination was not enough to make up for his lack of knowledge about electricity, so he eventually sought help from Gale.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest trap. Like D, it mentions Yale, Morse’s weak grasp of electricity and Gale. But it adds a link the paragraph never makes, that the ship talk reminded him of Yale. With long choices, check every part. One made-up link makes the whole choice wrong.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 48 as printed on page 149 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 149, question 48. Open page 149 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 146 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 147 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 148 of the DOE handbook.

Question 3 of 6

2026 Practice Test C English, question 39
Passage 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 39 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 57 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 57, question 39.
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed on page 51 of the DOE handbook.

Question 4 of 6

2024 Test A Math, question 5

Question

RESULTS FROM SURVEY OF 110 FAMILIES

Number of Children in the Family Number of Families
0 45
1 32
2 19
3 8
4 6

The table above shows the number of children in each of 110 families. What is the median number of children in these families?

Grid-in question: work out the answer and enter it as a number.

Show the answer

Correct answer: 1

Since 110 families were surveyed, the median will have 55 values less than or equal to it, and 55 values greater than or equal to it.

If the values in the table were listed in order, they would look like this:

0,…,0⏞45,1,…,1⏞32,2,…,2⏞19,3,…,3⏞8,4,…,4⏞6\overbrace{0,\ldots,0}^{45},\overbrace{1,\ldots,1}^{32},\overbrace{2,\ldots,2}^{19},\overbrace{3,\ldots,3}^{8},\overbrace{4,\ldots,4}^{6}

The first row of the table indicates that 45 families had 0 children.

The second row of the table indicates that 32 families had 1 child.

So 77 families had either 0 children or 1 child, and 45 families had 0 children.

Since 55 is between 45 and 77, the median must be a value in the second row of the table.

So the median is 1.

Question analysis

This statistics grid-in gives a frequency table from a survey of 110 families, showing how many families have each number of children from none to four. Students find the median number of children per family. The table lists counts rather than the 110 data values themselves, so locating the middle value takes a running total of the families.

NYS standards
  • 6.SP.5c range, center, and overall pattern
  • 6.SP.5a number of observations
Grade level
Grade 6 content, by NYS standard
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 median problems usually list a dozen or so values. Here 110 values are hidden in a frequency table, so students must reason about positions with a running count, a less familiar and more error-prone task.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Solution
3 steps
Reading level
Question and choices: about grade 7, 35 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 know a median as the middle of a list, but here the list is never written out. Treating the table's columns as the data gives quick, confident answers, 2 from the middle of the children column or 19 from the middle of the family counts, and neither can be checked against choices. The question rewards counting positions: 45 families have no children, so the 55th and 56th families both fall among the 32 with one child.

  1. Reading a figure, table or graph major Understanding the question

    The table hides 110 data values in five rows: the 0 to 4 column lists the possible values, and 45, 32, 19, 8 and 6 say how many families have each. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. No obvious method moderate Working it out

    The median of 110 values lies between the 55th and 56th; finding them takes a running count of families, 45 and then 77, a method seldom practiced with tables. (Schoenfeld, 1985)

  3. An answer in an unexpected form minor Choosing the answer

    As a grid-in there are no choices to compare, so a student who takes the middle row's 2 has nothing on the page to suggest it is wrong. (Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)

Strategy: With 110 values the median sits between the 55th and 56th; add the family counts row by row until the running total passes 55, and read that row's number of children.

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.
  • Answers a different question: A choice is right for another quantity: the other unknown, the rest instead of the part, the part instead of the whole.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Spot of the median
middle spot=n+12\text{middle spot} = \frac{n + 1}{2}
The median is the middle value when all the values are put in order. n is how many values there are. This gives the spot of the middle value, with the same number of values before and after it. If it ends in a half, the median is halfway between the two values on either side.

  1. Sort out the table

    The table covers 110 families. The left column is a number of children. The right column says how many families have that many children. For example, 45 families have 0 children. You need the median number of children. The median is the middle value when all the values are in order.

  2. Picture the values in order

    Think of a list with one number for each family: how many children it has. The list has 45 zeros, then 32 ones, then 19 twos, then 8 threes, then 6 fours. It is already in order, from least to most.

    45+32+19+8+6=11045 + 32 + 19 + 8 + 6 = 110

    There are 110 values. Watch out: the median is not the middle row, 2. Each row stands for a different number of families.

  3. Find the middle spot

    Use the median rule with n = 110.

    middle spot=n+12\text{middle spot} = \frac{n + 1}{2}

    110+12=55.5\frac{110 + 1}{2} = 55.5

    The middle is halfway between the 55th and 56th values. So you need those two values in the list.

  4. Count down the list

    Keep a running total of families, row by row. The zeros fill spots 1 to 45. Now add the 32 families with 1 child.

    45+32=7745 + 32 = 77

    So the ones fill spots 46 to 77. Spot 55 and spot 56 are both in that range. So both values are 1.

  5. Give the median

    The 55th and 56th values are both 1. Halfway between 1 and 1 is 1. So the median is 1 child. Watch out: the median is a number of children, not of families. Gridding 19, from the families column, is wrong. So is the mean, or average, which is about 1.07. So you would grid 1.

Check your answer

Half of 110 is 55. Families with 0 children: 45, which is less than half. So the median is not 0. Families with 0 or 1 child: 77, which is more than half. So the median is not more than 1. It must be 1.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 62 as printed on page 76 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 76, question 62. Open page 76 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 5 of 6

2024 Test A Math, question 6

Question

Mr. Jones has 550 goats, which is 10% more than Mr. King has. How many more goats does Mr. Jones have than Mr. King?

  • A50
  • B55
  • C495
  • D500
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

First, set up a proportion to determine x, the number of goats Mr. King has.

KingJones=x550\frac{\text{King}}{\text{Jones}} = \frac{x}{550}

x550=100%100%+10%\frac{x}{550} = \frac{100\%}{100\% + 10\%}

Then solve the proportion for x.

x550=100%100%+10%\frac{x}{550} = \frac{100\%}{100\% + 10\%}

550(100%)=x(100%+10%)550(100\%) = x(100\% + 10\%)

550(100%)=x(110%)550(100\%) = x(110\%)

550(1)=x(1.10)550(1) = x(1.10)

550=1.10x550 = 1.10x

550÷1.10=(1.10÷1.10)x550 \div 1.10 = (1.10 \div 1.10)x

500=x500 = x

Finally, determine the difference between the number of goats Mr. Jones has, 550, and the number of goats Mr. King has, 500.

550−500=50550 - 500 = 50

Mr. Jones has 50 more goats than Mr. King.

Question analysis

A percent word problem: Mr. Jones has 550 goats, which is 10% more than Mr. King has, and students find how many more goats Mr. Jones has. It asks students to work with a percent increase when only the larger amount is known. The tricky part is deciding which amount the 10% is taken of.

NYS standards
  • 7.RP.3 multistep ratio and percent problems
  • 6.RP.3c percent as a rate per 100
Grade level
Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students usually find a percent increase from a known original amount. This runs the task backward: the increased amount is given, and the original must be recovered before the difference can be found, a step many do not expect.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Solution
2 steps
Reading level
Question and choices: about grade 1, 22 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 arithmetic is one division and one subtraction, so the question is really about the base of a percent. The sentence gives the bigger number and calls it 10% more, and the reflex is to take 10% of the number on the page. That shortcut lands on a listed choice five goats from the answer. Students who find King's herd first, 550 ÷ 1.1, still have to remember that the question wants the difference, not the herd.

  1. Turning words into math major Understanding the question

    The clause "which is 10% more than" makes King's unknown herd the base of the 10%, so 550 is 110% of his number rather than the amount the 10% is taken of. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choices 50 and 55 are only 5 goats apart, and both are 10% of a herd; only taking the percent of King's 500 rather than of 550 separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

Strategy: Mr. Jones's 550 is 110% of Mr. King's number, so divide 550 by 1.10 to find Mr. King's goats, then subtract that from 550.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Percent increase
new=original×(1+p100)\text{new} = \text{original} \times \left(1 + \frac{p}{100}\right)
The original is the amount you start from, the one the percent is taken of. p is the percent of increase. The new amount is all of the original, which is 100%, plus p% more. For 10% more, you multiply by 1.10.

  1. Sort out the question

    Mr. Jones has 550 goats. That is “10% more than Mr. King has”. You need how many more goats Mr. Jones has than Mr. King. That is the difference between the two herds, not the size of a herd.

  2. Decide what the 10% is of

    The words “10% more than Mr. King” mean the 10% is a part of Mr. King’s herd. So Mr. King’s herd is the original. Mr. Jones has all of Mr. King’s goats, 100%, plus 10% more. That is 110% of Mr. King’s herd. Watch out: do not take 10% of 550. That gives 55, choice B. It uses the wrong herd. Taking those 55 away from 550 gives 495, choice C, which is also wrong.

  3. Find Mr. King’s herd

    Call Mr. King’s number of goats K. Use the percent increase formula with p = 10. The new amount is 550.

    new=original×(1+p100)\text{new} = \text{original} \times \left(1 + \frac{p}{100}\right)

    550=K×1.10550 = K \times 1.10

    K=550÷1.10=500K = 550 \div 1.10 = 500

    Mr. King has 500 goats. Watch out: 500 is Mr. King’s herd, choice D. It is not the difference.

  4. Find the difference

    550−500=50550 - 500 = 50

    Mr. Jones has 50 more goats than Mr. King. So the answer is A, 50.

Check your answer

Check the 10%. 10% of 500 is 0.10×500=500.10 \times 500 = 50, and 500+50=550500 + 50 = 550, Mr. Jones’s herd. So 550 really is 10% more than 500. If King had 495, then 10% more would be about 545, not 550.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 63 as printed on page 77 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 77, question 63. Open page 77 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 6 of 6

2024 Test B Math, question 49

Question

Suppose that w, x, y, and z are integers, none of which are zero. Under which set of conditions would the product x2yz3|w|x^{2}yz^{3}|w| always be positive?

  • Ax is positive and w is positive.
  • Bx is negative and w is negative.
  • Cy is negative and z is negative.
  • Dx and y are negative, and z and w are positive.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

First, analyze the role of each variable in the expression x2yz3|w|x^{2}yz^{3}|w|.

x2x^{2} will always be a positive number.

y can be a positive or a negative number.

z3z^{3} can be a positive or a negative number.

|w||w| will always be a positive number.

The expressions x2x^{2} and |w||w| will always be positive. Therefore, making the values of y and z negative would result in the expression yz3yz^{3} being positive, since a negative multiplied by a negative is positive. Thus the given product would always be positive.

Question analysis

Four nonzero integers appear in a product that includes a square, a cube and an absolute value. Students choose the set of conditions that makes the product positive every time. It tests the sign rules for multiplication together with exponents and absolute value, and the trap is judging the sign by counting negative variables without looking at what is done to each.

NYS standards
  • 7.NS.2a rational number multiplication
  • 6.EE.1 whole-number exponent expressions
  • 6.NS.7c absolute value as distance
Grade level
Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students learn sign rules for products of signed numbers. Here they must reason about four unknown integers under an even power, an odd power and an absolute value, and decide what is always true, which is more abstract than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Solution
3 steps
Reading level
Question and choices: about grade 6, 58 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

One insight decides the question: x² and |w| are positive whatever x and w are, so only the signs of y and z³ matter. Students who count negative letters instead of negative factors pick conditions that look balanced but leave y as the only negative factor. Students who test a single set of values can be fooled by a choice that leaves y and z unspecified.

  1. Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question

    There are four variables and no numbers, and always positive must hold for every allowed value, so one test case can rule a choice out but never confirm it. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)

  2. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    Each set of conditions has to be checked against all four factors; the first two fix only x and w and leave y and z free to make the product negative. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. Something you must already know minor Working it out

    Students must know that a nonzero square and an absolute value are always positive, while an odd power such as z³ keeps the sign of z. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Work out, factor by factor, which signs each part of the product can take, then test each set of conditions against every factor rather than counting negatives.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Signs in multiplication
(−a)×(−b)=a×b(-a) \times (-b) = a \times b
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.

  1. Sort out the question

    w, x, y and z are integers, meaning whole numbers or their negatives. None of them is 0. The product x2yz3|w|x^2 y z^3 |w| means x2×y×z3×|w|x^2 \times y \times z^3 \times |w|.

    You need the conditions that make the product positive every time, for every number that fits them.

  2. Look at x squared and |w|

    x2x^2 means x × x. Two positives or two negatives multiply to a positive. So x2x^2 is always positive.

    |w||w| is the absolute value of w, its distance from 0. It is always positive, since w is not 0.

    So x and w never change the sign of the product. Their signs do not matter.

  3. Look at y and z cubed

    y can be positive or negative. z3z^3 means z × z × z, and it has the same sign as z. For example, (−2)3=−8(-2)^3 = -8.

    So the sign of the whole product is the sign of y×z3y \times z^3. It depends only on y and z.

  4. Test each choice

    • A and B say nothing about y and z. If y = −1 and z = 1, the product is negative. So they do not always work.
    • C: y is negative, and z3z^3 is negative. A negative times a negative is positive. This always works.
    • D: y is negative and z is positive. So the product is always negative.

    Watch out: D has two negative letters, x and y. But x2x^2 is positive anyway, so y is the only negative factor.

    So the answer is C, y is negative and z is negative.

Check your answer

Try numbers for C. Let x = −2, y = −3, z = −1 and w = −5. Then x2×y×z3×|w|=4×(−3)×(−1)×5=60x^2 \times y \times z^3 \times |w| = 4 \times (-3) \times (-1) \times 5 = 60, which is positive. Even with x and w negative, the product stays positive.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 106 as printed on page 213 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 213, question 106. Open page 213 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Sample #762947