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Six SHSAT Questions

3 English and 3 math

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Question 1 of 6

2026 Practice Test C English, question 24
Passage Bird Talk

Bird Talk

by Carl Sandburg

And now when the branches were beginning to be heavy,
It was the time when they once had said, “This is the
  beginning of summer.”
The shrilling of the frogs was not so shrill as in the
  first weeks after the broken winter;
The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more
  anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.
The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups
  reached across the green pastures.
Tee whee and tee whee came on the breezes, and the grackles
  chuzzled their syllables.
And it was the leaves with a strong soft wind over them
  that talked most of all and said more than any others
  though speaking the fewest words.
It was the green leaves trickling out the gaunt nowhere
  of winter, out on the gray hungry branches—
It was the leaves on the branches, beginning to be heavy,
  who said as they said one time before, “This is the be-
  ginning of summer.”

We shall never blame the birds who come
  where the river and the road make the Grand Crossing
  and talk there, sitting in circles talking bird talk.
If they ask in their circles as to who is here
  and as to who is not here and who used to be here,
Or if instead of counting up last year as against
  this year, they count up this year as against next
  year, and have their bird chatter about who is here
  this year who won’t be here next year,
We shall never blame the birds.

If I have put your face among leaf faces, child,
Or if I have put your voice among bird voices,
Blame me no more than the bluejays.

“Bird Talk” by Carl Sandburg—Public domain.

Question

Throughout the poem, the poet conveys the speaker’s point of view by

  • Agradually moving the speaker’s attention from one element of nature to another.
  • Bproviding the speaker’s motivation for describing the landscape in great detail.
  • Chighlighting the speaker’s emotional response as each season passes.
  • Dshifting the speaker’s focus from external observations to personal reflection.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

This question asks for an explanation of how the poet conveys the speaker’s point of view on the natural world and the change of seasons as presented in the poem.

A. Incorrect. Though in the first stanza the speaker describes various elements of nature such as branches, frogs, birds, flowers, and leaves, these elemental shifts are not precisely gradual and occur only in the first stanza. Further, the first stanza, though appreciative of the natural world, is primarily descriptive and does not develop the speaker’s perspective to the degree that other parts of the poem do.

B. Incorrect. While it may be inferred that the speaker describes the landscape to such a degree because it has revealed a seasonal shift, that this is indeed the speaker’s motivation is never explicitly conveyed by the poet.

C. Incorrect. Multiple seasons do not pass in the poem; only the shift to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) occurs in an endless cycle. Further, the speaker does not reveal an emotional response; it is the responses of nature that the speaker describes.

D. CORRECT. The first stanza is the speaker’s observations of the natural world embracing a new season. In the second stanza, the speaker begins to reflect on how the natural world, as embodied by the birds, calmly accepts seasonal change in its perpetual sameness. The reflection continues in the third stanza, where it is revealed that the speaker has been addressing these observations to a child.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks how the poet of “Bird Talk” conveys the speaker’s point of view throughout the poem. Students must keep in mind the long opening description of early summer and the two shorter stanzas after it, and decide which description of the poet’s method holds from the first line to the last.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 point-of-view questions often ask what a speaker thinks. This one asks how the poet conveys that view across all three stanzas of a long free-verse poem, and the choices name methods in general terms, closer to grade 8 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 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 first stanza takes up 19 of the poem’s 32 lines and moves steadily from branches to frogs, birds, flowers and leaves, so a choice that describes it alone feels right. The point of view shows only when the poem turns to “We” and then to “I” addressing a child, and that third stanza is three hard lines. Students must keep the whole poem’s course in mind and choose the method that holds from first line to last.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The answer depends on all three stanzas at once: the long catalog of the season in lines 1–19, the shift to “We shall never blame the birds,” and the closing “If I have put your face … child.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about moving from one element of nature to another and the key both describe a shift in the speaker’s attention; they differ in what shifts, nature to nature or the outside world to the speaker’s own thoughts. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how the poet conveys a point of view, a method, so a choice must describe what the speaker does across the poem, not what the speaker sees. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  4. Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question

    The last stanza is cryptic, “Blame me no more than the bluejays,” and students who miss that the speaker is now talking about putting a child into the poem lose the move to reflection. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Write one phrase for what the speaker attends to in each stanza, then keep only a choice that describes the whole sequence, not one stanza.

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.
  • 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

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: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, sees things. It also asks how the poet shows that view across the whole poem. So look at what the speaker pays attention to in each of the three stanzas. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line.

  2. Follow the speaker through the stanzas

    • Stanza 1, lines 1–19: the speaker describes the world outside. There are branches, frogs, birds, flowers and leaves at the start of summer.
    • Stanza 2, lines 20–29: the speaker starts to judge and think. “We shall never blame the birds.”
    • Stanza 3, lines 30–32: the speaker says “I” and talks to a child: “If I have put your face among leaf faces, child.”

  3. Name the change in focus

    The poem starts with external observations, or things the speaker sees and hears outside. It ends with personal reflection, or the speaker’s own thoughts. In the last stanza, the speaker admits to putting a child’s face and voice into the poem. The speaker asks to be blamed “no more than the bluejays.” Since “We shall never blame the birds,” that means not at all. This move from looking outward to looking inward is how the speaker’s view comes through.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Moving from branches to frogs to birds happens only in stanza 1. It misses the turn to “We” and “I.”
    • B does not fit. The speaker never says why the landscape is described.
    • C does not fit. Only one change of season happens, the start of summer. The anxious feelings belong to the birds, not the speaker.
    • D fits. The speaker moves from describing nature to thinking about it.

    Watch out: A describes stanza 1 very well. But the question says “Throughout the poem,” so the answer must cover all three stanzas.

  5. Choose the answer

    The speaker starts by watching nature and ends by thinking aloud to a child. So the answer is D, “shifting the speaker’s focus from external observations to personal reflection.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice. Stanza 1 really does move from one part of nature to another. But that is only 19 of the 32 lines. In stanzas 2 and 3, the speaker turns to “We” and then “I,” and shares personal thoughts. Only D describes the speaker’s path from the first line to the last.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 24 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 37 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 37, question 24.
The passage “Bird Talk” as printed (page 32)The passage “Bird Talk” as printed on page 32 of the DOE handbook.

Question 2 of 6

2026 Practice Test A English, question 41
Passage Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park

Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park

During the first half of the 19th century, Lowell, Massachusetts, quickly transformed itself from a farm town to a bustling industrial city. In time, Lowell became a model of industry, gaining global recognition for its state-of-the-art technology, innovative canal and dam system, mill architecture, boardinghouses, churches, and ethnic neighborhoods. Young Yankee women, immigrant families, and European tourists all flocked to Lowell to find work at one of the many textile mills, or visit the industrious city that was becoming a popular tourist destination. As one Scottish traveler observed during his visit to America, “Niagara and Lowell are the two objects I will longest remember in my American journey, the one the glory of American scenery, the other of American industry.” Today, Lowell National Historical Park welcomes visitors to enjoy the sights of Lowell and learn about the history of one of America’s most significant industrial cities.

The Boston merchants who founded Lowell in 1821 and named it after Francis Cabot Lowell chose to locate the town along Massachusetts’s Merrimack River to take advantage of the kinetic energy offered by the Pawtucket waterfalls. Over six miles of canals powered the waterwheels of Lowell’s mills, whose massive five- and six-story brick buildings dominated the city’s landscape. . . . The most recognized of these buildings are the Lowell Manufacturing Company chartered in 1821, the Suffolk or Wannalancit Mill completed around the 1880s, the Boott Mill Company established in 1835, and the Boott Mill Boardinghouse that opened in 1838. By the 1850s, 40 textile mills employing over 10,000 workers stretched for about a mile along the river. . . .

The city’s female workforce was significant in the history of Lowell. From the early to mid-1800s, women left the constricted lifestyle of small rural towns and rural areas for independent industrial city life. Most were young single Yankee girls, who were tired of the limited opportunities offered by their domestic work. Women found that Lowell’s mills offered monthly wages for their services and provided them room and board. Although these women gained economic independence in Lowell, the mill boardinghouse keepers constantly supervised their social activities, for which they hardly had any time, considering their daily 12- to 14-hour work schedules. At the end of the day, the factory bell signaled the “mill girls” to return to their boardinghouses. They were expected to adhere to the strict code of conduct respecting curfew and attending church.

Yankee “mill girls” continued to dominate the Lowell workforce until the 1840s, when the city began to find it difficult to compete with the growing industrial development in other New England communities. As profits fell, the mill industry cut wages. These wage cuts, deteriorating working conditions, and long workdays led the “mill girls” to protest and organize strikes. When their demands went unheard, the women left Lowell, and immigrant groups replaced them in the workforce. Despite the low wages and unhealthy work conditions, immigrants were eager to find work.

The immigrants replacing the Yankee “mill girls” during the 1840s were predominantly Irish Catholics, who traveled to America during the Great Potato Famine. Although Lowell received an influx of Irish families during this time, the Irish were a part of the city’s history from its birth, and before the “mill girls” arrived, they built Lowell’s historic canals, mills, and boardinghouses. Initially, Lowell’s Protestant community was slow to welcome Irish immigrants, but the hostility between Yankee Protestants and Irish Catholics eventually disappeared. Irish immigrants dominated the industrial scene until the Civil War, when other immigrant groups began to work in the city mills.

Like the Irish, the French-Canadians, Greeks, Poles, Portuguese, Russian Jews, and Armenians who came to work in Lowell’s mills faced long work hours, low wages, and poor living conditions in the city’s crowded tenements. By the time Lowell’s industry declined, the city had become an ethnic melting pot, where each group claimed its own distinct neighborhood, like the Irish immigrants’ “New Dublin” or “Acre,” and the French-Canadians’ “Little Canada.” The city officially began to close down its mills in the 1920s and ’30s after Lowell’s outdated mills could no longer compete against the state-of-the-art cotton mills in other communities and working conditions continued to decline as Lowell’s companies stopped reinvesting in their mills. . . . Despite a brief resurgence during World War II, the city shut down its last surviving mill by the mid-1950s.

From “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”—Public Domain/National Park Service

Yankee: native to New England
Niagara: a town in northwestern New York State well known as the location of Niagara Falls, a series of waterfalls on the Canadian border
domestic work: household duties like cooking and cleaning

Question

Which sentence best summarizes the mill girls’ experience as the dominant workforce in Lowell?

  • AThe mill girls were eager to leave their domestic duties and small towns behind, so they went to work in the mills of Lowell.
  • BOriginally, the mill girls were satisfied to work in Lowell, but as they left their jobs at the Lowell mills, immigrants arrived to fill the empty positions.
  • CYoung women left home to work in the Lowell mills, but the mill girls soon became dissatisfied with the working conditions and rigid boardinghouse rules.
  • DThe mill girls embraced city life when they came to work in Lowell’s mills, but when their protests about unfavorable working conditions went unanswered, they left.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for the sentence that best summarizes the mill girls’ time as the dominant workforce in Lowell.

A. Incorrect. While the passage explains that mill girls were initially eager to leave the domestic duties of life in rural areas, the summary sentence does not address the details about the mill girls’ time working in the mills or the changes that led the mill girls to leave the industry.

B. Incorrect. Mill girls initially found satisfaction in the mill work and lifestyle, and when they did leave, immigrants filled the empty jobs. This summary sentence, however, does not address the details about the mill girls’ time as the primary workforce in Lowell or the circumstances that led them to leave their jobs in the mid-1800s.

C. Incorrect. Mill girls did leave home to work in the Lowell mills, and they did grow dissatisfied over time, but this summary sentence does not include details about the mill girls’ actions to improve the working conditions.

D. CORRECT. This sentence summary best captures the mill girls’ experience as outlined in paragraphs 3 and 4. The sentence concisely summarizes both the women’s initial excitement about the opportunity to live independently (“Women found that Lowell’s mills offered monthly wages for their services and provided them room and board” [paragraph 3]) and their eventual inability to secure better working conditions (“When their demands went unheard, the women left Lowell, and immigrant groups replaced them in the workforce” [paragraph 4]).

Question analysis

This summary question asks which sentence best sums up the experience of the Yankee mill girls during the years they were Lowell's main workforce. Students must pull together the account spread over paragraphs 3 and 4, and every choice is a two-part sentence that sounds accurate, so each must be checked for what it includes, what it leaves out and what it gets slightly wrong.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Summarizing part of a text is a grade 7 standard, usually tested with one clearly complete choice. Here all four summaries are long, two-part and largely accurate, so ranking them by completeness and precision 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 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 116 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This is a completeness question: every summary is built from true pieces of paragraphs 3 and 4, and the right one is the only one that runs from arrival to departure with the cause in between. Students who stop at dissatisfaction feel they have the whole arc, because the turn against working conditions is the story's middle. Writing a one-line summary first, with a beginning, a turning point and an end, makes the gaps in the others easy to see.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    All four summaries are two-part sentences of 24 to 27 words that sound accurate, so each has to be checked for what it leaves out: the arrival, the wage cuts and protests, or the departure. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The dissatisfaction summary shares the key's shape, women coming to the mills and then turning against their working conditions; it differs only in the ending, where the key has unanswered protests and the women leaving. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The mill girls' story runs from paragraph 3, on why they came and how they lived, to paragraph 4, on wage cuts, strikes and their departure in the 1840s. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Write your own one-sentence summary of paragraphs 3 and 4 before reading the choices, then compare each choice with it claim by claim, including its words about timing and cause.

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.

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 question asks for the best summary. A summary retells the main events in a few words. It covers the beginning, the middle and the end. Here you sum up the mill girls’ time as Lowell’s main workforce. Their story is in paragraphs 3 and 4.

  2. Find the beginning of their story

    Paragraph 3 says the women came for “independent industrial city life.” They found that the mills “offered monthly wages for their services and provided them room and board.” Room and board means a place to live and meals. So at first, they were glad to come. Their days were long, though, and the rules were strict.

  3. Find the middle and the end

    Paragraph 4 gives the turning point. In the 1840s, profits fell and the mills cut wages. “These wage cuts, deteriorating working conditions, and long workdays” led the women to protest and strike. Deteriorating means getting worse. Then comes the end: “When their demands went unheard, the women left Lowell.”

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It tells only why they came. It stops before their years at work and their leaving.
    • B is wrong. It has the start and the end. But it skips the middle: the wage cuts and protests that made them leave.
    • C is wrong. It has the start and the unhappy middle, but no protests and no leaving. Also, “soon” is off, since the trouble came years later, in the 1840s.
    • D is right. It covers all three parts: they embraced city life, protested bad conditions, and left when no one listened. Embraced means happily welcomed.

    Watch out: C feels complete because it ends with the women unhappy. But their story doesn’t end there. They protested, and then they left.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one summary runs from the mill girls’ arrival to their leaving, with the cause in between. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer. Like D, it starts with the women coming to the mills and then growing unhappy. But it stops there. It leaves out the protests and the women leaving Lowell, which is how their time as the main workforce ended. D tells the whole story.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 41 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 56 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 56, question 41.
The passage “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park” as printed (page 50)The passage “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.

Question 3 of 6

2026 Practice Test B English, question 47
Passage The End of an Era

The End of an Era

(1) In 2004, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landed a rover, or robotic vehicle, named Opportunity on the surface of Mars. (2) The rover’s mission was to search for evidence of water and life on the planet. (3) The rover was designed to gather data on Mars for about 90 days, but Opportunity’s assignment did not come to an end until nearly 15 years later in 2019.

(4) During the rover’s mission, a high-resolution camera on the rover’s robotic arm took magnified photographs of the surface of Mars. (5) The photographs revealed small round rocks scattered across the surface of the planet. (6) The scientists nicknamed these rocks “blueberries” based on the rocks’ resemblance to the fruit. (7) These rocks were important because their spherical shape suggested that liquid water may have flowed over them for a substantial amount of time.

(8) Opportunity continued to provide valuable data about craters and other surface features. (9) Throughout the mission, the rover traveled a total of 28.06 miles across Mars’ surface. (10) When Opportunity had traveled nearly the length of a marathon, scientists celebrated the accomplishment by naming the valley that the rover was in Marathon Valley. (11) However, in 2018, a dust storm spread all over the planet, putting the rover’s progress on hold.

(12) Prior to this planet-wide dust storm, minor dust storms had periodically deposited a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover. (13) These prevented it from charging its batteries. (14) Scientists then had to rely on the passing winds and dust devils to clean off the solar panels. (15) After the massive 2018 dust storm subsided, scientists expected to be able to reestablish communication with Opportunity. (16) They made repeated attempts but to no avail. (17) In 2019, NASA finally declared Opportunity’s mission complete.

(18) Opportunity was an important asset in scientists’ study of Mars; it returned valuable data about our neighbor planet and survived powerful dust storms. (19) NASA described the mission of Opportunity as “one of the most successful and enduring feats of interplanetary exploration.” (20) Even though this rover’s journey ended, other rovers still roam the surface of Mars.

Question

What is the best way to combine sentences 12 and 13?

  • APreventing the rover from charging its batteries, minor dust storms had periodically deposited a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover prior to this planet-wide dust storm.
  • BPeriodically depositing a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover prior to this planet-wide dust storm, minor dust storms had prevented it from charging its batteries.
  • CMinor dust storms, prior to this planet-wide dust storm, prevented the rover from charging its batteries because they had periodically deposited a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover.
  • DPrior to this planet-wide dust storm, minor dust storms had periodically deposited a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover, preventing it from charging its batteries.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for the best way to combine sentences 12 and 13.

A. Incorrect. The phrase “this planet-wide dust storm” in the original sentence 12 makes a direct reference to sentence 11 and therefore acts as a transition that should be kept at the beginning. In this sentence, the transition phrase is placed at the end of the sentence, making the phrase confusing. In addition, the sentence is unnecessarily repetitive and wordy.

B. Incorrect. This combination unnecessarily turns sentence 12 into an overly long participial phrase, making the connection between “it” and its antecedent, “the rover,” unclear and distracting from the subject of the sentence, “minor dust storms.”

C. Incorrect. Not only does this combination move the reference to “this planet-wide dust storm” farther from sentence 11, but it is also unnecessarily wordy, adding “because” and repeating “the rover.”

D. CORRECT. This sentence efficiently and accurately adds sentence 13 to sentence 12 as a participial phrase by changing “These prevented” to “preventing,” while also retaining the meanings of the original sentences 12 and 13.

Question analysis

This sentence-combining question asks for the best way to join two sentences from the rover passage: one saying minor dust storms had periodically coated the rover's solar panels, the other saying this kept it from charging its batteries. The four versions keep the same facts in different orders, so students must judge which is clearest and most concise in context.

NYS standards
  • 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
  • 7L3a precise and concise language
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Combining two sentences is grade 7 work, usually with one version clearly better. These four are long, keep the same facts and differ in order and wording, so students must weigh clarity and concision across nearly identical sentences, more than typical.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 337 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 129 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • Two grammar terms in the explanation were 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

None of the versions is plainly ungrammatical, so the ear gives little help, and the version with “because” looks best to students who value a clearly stated cause. Its cost is wordiness and a weaker link: the result comes first and the reference back to sentence 11 is buried mid-sentence. The question rewards keeping the original order, cause then effect, and folding sentence 13 in as a short closing phrase.

  1. How sentences fit together moderate Working it out

    “Prior to this planet-wide dust storm” points back to sentence 11, so the best version keeps it first; three versions move it later, which loosens the link between the two sentences. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

  2. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    All four versions keep every fact of sentences 12 and 13 and run 29 to 32 words, so none can be ruled out by content; order, pronouns and repetition decide. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    Each version is one long sentence built around a participial phrase or a “because” clause, and at that length a stranded “it” or a doubled “the rover” is easy to miss. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Read sentence 11 first, then compare the versions on how smoothly each connects to it, how many words it uses, and whether every pronoun has a clear antecedent.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option B says the combination turns sentence 12 into “an overly long dependent clause,” and its explanation of Option D says Option D adds sentence 13 to sentence 12 “as a dependent clause” by changing “These prevented” to “preventing.” Neither is a clause: “Periodically depositing a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover prior to this planet-wide dust storm” (Option B) and “preventing it from charging its batteries” (Option D) have no subject or finite verb of their own. Both are participial phrases, and the site now calls them that. The reasoning and the answer, Option D, are unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks for the best way to join sentences 12 and 13 into one sentence. The best version keeps the meaning, uses few words and is clear. It should also connect smoothly to sentence 11, the sentence before.

  2. Read the sentences in order

    Sentence 11 tells about the giant 2018 dust storm. Sentence 12 begins “Prior to this planet-wide dust storm.” Prior to means before. That phrase points back to sentence 11, so it works best at the start. Sentence 12 says small storms put dust on the solar panels. Sentence 13 gives the result: “These prevented it from charging its batteries.”

  3. Learn the tool: a participial phrase

    A participial phrase is a group of words built on a verb form, often an -ing word. It describes something, but it has no subject and can’t stand alone. Example: The dog ran to the door. It wagged its tail. becomes The dog ran to the door, wagging its tail. Choice D does this. It turns “These prevented” into “preventing.”

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It starts with the result. It moves “prior to this planet-wide dust storm” to the end, far from sentence 11. It also says “the rover” twice.
    • B is wrong. Its long opening phrase hides the rover. Then “it” comes after “minor dust storms,” so it is hard to tell what “it” means.
    • C is wrong. It adds “because,” puts the result first and says “the rover” twice. It is wordier than D.
    • D is right. It keeps the link to sentence 11 first, gives the cause, then adds the result as a short participial phrase.

    Watch out: C looks clear because “because” names the cause. But it is longer, and it puts an extra phrase between “Minor dust storms” and its verb.

  5. Choose the answer

    So the answer is D: “Prior to this planet-wide dust storm, minor dust storms had periodically deposited a layer of dust onto the solar panels of the rover, preventing it from charging its batteries.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because “because” makes the cause very clear. But C puts the result first and repeats “the rover.” D keeps the original order, cause then result. It also keeps the link to sentence 11 up front, in fewer words.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 47 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 65 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 65, question 47. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “The End of an Era” as printed (page 60)The passage “The End of an Era” as printed on page 60 of the DOE handbook.

Question 4 of 6

2026 Practice Test C Math, question 15

Question

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:

5.5 oz×6=33 oz5.5\text{ oz} \times 6 = 33\text{ oz}

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:

33 oz$1.79=128 ozx\frac{33\text{ oz}}{\$1.79} = \frac{128\text{ oz}}{x}

Cross multiply to solve for x in the proportion:

(33)×(x)=($1.79)×(128)(33) \times (x) = (\$1.79) \times (128)

33x=$229.1233x = \$229.12

x≈$6.94x \approx \$6.94

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.

$6.94−$3.99=$2.95\$6.94 - \$3.99 = \$2.95

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.

NYS standards
  • 7.RP.3 multistep ratio and percent problems
  • 6.RP.3d converting measurement units
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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

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.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Fluid ounces in a gallon
fluid ounces=128×gallons\text{fluid ounces} = 128 \times \text{gallons}
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
ab=cd means a×d=b×c\frac{a}{b} = \frac{c}{d} \text{ means } a \times d = b \times c
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.

  1. 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.

  2. Find the ounces in a 6-pack

    Each of the 6 bottles holds 5.5 fluid ounces:

    6×5.5=336 \times 5.5 = 33

    So $1.79 buys 33 fluid ounces of juice.

  3. 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:

    331.79=128x\frac{33}{1.79} = \frac{128}{x}

    Cross-multiply:

    33×x=1.79×128=229.1233 \times x = 1.79 \times 128 = 229.12

  4. Find the cost of a gallon

    Divide both sides by 33:

    x=229.12÷33≈6.94x = 229.12 \div 33 \approx 6.94

    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.

  5. Subtract the milk’s price

    Find how much more the juice costs:

    6.94−3.99=2.956.94 - 3.99 = 2.95

    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.

  6. 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 4×33=1324 \times 33 = 132. Four packs cost 4×1.79=7.164 \times 1.79 = 7.16 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
Question 15 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 88 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C Math, page 88, question 15. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 5 of 6

2018 Test A Math, question 48

Question

1013=0.769230\frac{10}{13}=0.\overline{769230}

In the infinitely repeating decimal above, 7 is the first digit in the repeating pattern. What is the 391st digit?

  • A0
  • B3
  • C6
  • D7
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

There are 6 digits in the repeating decimal (769230), so 7 would be the first, seventh, thirteenth digit and so on.

To find the 391st digit, divide 391 by 6.

391 ÷ 6 = 65 R1

Since the remainder is 1, that means the 391st digit is the same as the 1st digit, which is 7.

Question analysis

This repeating decimal question shows the six-digit repeating pattern of 10/13 and asks for the 391st digit after the decimal point. Students must use the length of the repeating block and division with a remainder to find the position within the cycle. Matching the remainder to the right digit is where students slip.

NYS standards
  • 7.NS.2d fractions to decimals by long division
  • 6.NS.2 multi-digit division
Grade level
Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Seventh graders learn that fractions have repeating decimals. Using the length of the repeating block and a remainder to find a digit hundreds of places away is a pattern-reasoning step beyond typical seventh-grade classwork.
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 8, 20 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Once the cycle length is used, the arithmetic is a single division, 391 ÷ 6 = 65 remainder 1. The difficulty is turning the remainder into a position: remainder 1 is the first digit of a new block, not the last digit of the previous one or the second of the new one. Checking the rule on small positions, the 1st and 7th digits are both 7, removes the doubt.

  1. No obvious method moderate Working it out

    Nothing in the stem mentions division; students must see that the six-digit block 769230 repeats, so position 391 depends only on the remainder of 391 divided by 6. (Schoenfeld, 1985)

Strategy: Divide 391 by the length of the repeating block and look only at the remainder; a remainder of r points to the r-th digit of the block.

Traps

  • Counting the ends: Inclusive or exclusive ends, fence posts, consecutive numbers: an answer that is one too many or too few, or an endpoint drawn open where it belongs closed (or the reverse).

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Division with a remainder
n=d×q+rn = d \times q + r
n is the number you divide. d is what you divide by. q is the quotient, the number of whole groups. r is the remainder, what is left over. Here it tells how many full blocks of digits fit, and where you land after them.

  1. Sort out what you know

    The bar over 769230 means those six digits repeat forever: 769230769230 and so on. The 7 is digit number 1. You need digit number 391.

  2. Spot the pattern

    The block 769230 has 6 digits, so the pattern starts over every 6 digits. Digit 1 is 7, and so are digits 7, 13, 19 and so on. Each full block ends with a 0, at digits 6, 12, 18 and so on.

  3. Divide 391 by 6

    Find how many full blocks fit into 391 digits, and what is left:

    391=6×65+1391 = 6 \times 65 + 1

    So 65 full blocks use up 6 × 65 = 390 digits. The remainder is 1. That means digit 391 is the 1st digit of the next block.

  4. Read the digit

    The 1st digit of the block is 7. Watch out: digit 390 is the last digit of a full block, which is 0. That is choice A. Digit 391 is one step past it, so it starts a new block.

    So the answer is D, 7.

Check your answer

Test the idea on a small number. Digit 7: 7 = 6 × 1 + 1, so the remainder is 1 and the digit should be 7. Write it out: 7692307. The 7th digit is indeed 7. The rule works.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 105 as printed on page 90 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 90, question 105. Open page 90 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 6 of 6

2024 Test B Math, question 25

Question

Which number line represents the values of x that satisfy the inequality −5≤1−3x≤4-5\leq 1-3x\leq 4?

  • ANumber line from −3 to 3 with a tick at every integer. Open circles at −1 and 2, with the segment between them shaded.
  • BNumber line from −3 to 3 with a tick at every integer. Closed circles at −1 and 2, with the segment between them shaded.
  • CNumber line from −3 to 3 with a tick at every integer. Open circles at −1 and 2, with the line shaded from −1 to the left and from 2 to the right.
  • DNumber line from −3 to 3 with a tick at every integer. A closed circle at −1 and an open circle at 2, with the line shaded from −1 to the left and from 2 to the right.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

Split the compound inequality into two inequalities.

−5≤1−3x-5\leq 1-3x and 1−3x≤41-3x\leq 4

For each inequality, subtract 1 from each side.

−6≤−3x-6\leq -3x and −3x≤3-3x\leq 3

For each inequality, divide both sides by −3. Note that dividing each side of an inequality by a negative number changes the direction of the inequality.

2≥x2\geq x and x≥−1x\geq -1

Combining the pieces gives the compound inequality −1≤x≤2-1\leq x\leq 2.

The solution is that x is greater than or equal to −1 and less than or equal to 2, so choose the number line with filled circles at −1 and 2, with the filled segment between the circles.

Question analysis

An inequality question: choose the number line that shows the solutions of the compound inequality −5 ≤ 1 − 3x ≤ 4. Students solve an inequality whose x term has a negative coefficient, then match the endpoints, open or closed circles, and shading to one of four graphs.

NYS standards
Grade level
Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students solve and graph two-step inequalities one at a time. This compound inequality needs two solved together and a division by a negative number, which reverses the signs, a step many grade 7 classes only touch on.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Solution
4 steps
Reading level
Question and choices: about grade 12, 13 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question stacks two classic traps: reversing the inequality signs when dividing by −3, and matching filled or open circles to ≤. All four graphs use the endpoints −1 and 2, so finding those numbers proves little; the choice turns on the circles and the direction of the shading. Testing x = 0, x = 3 and the endpoint x = 2 in the original inequality checks both decisions in under a minute.

  1. Error-prone arithmetic moderate Working it out

    Dividing all three parts of −6 ≤ −3x ≤ 3 by −3 reverses both signs and the order, giving 2 ≥ x ≥ −1, which must be rewritten as −1 ≤ x ≤ 2. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    Two graphs share the endpoints −1 and 2 and the shading between them; only the circles, filled for ≤ and open for <, separate them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question

    Each graph must be read for three things at once: the endpoints, the fill of each circle, and whether the shading runs between them or outward. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Subtract 1 from all three parts, divide all three by −3 while reversing both inequality signs, then rewrite the result from smallest to largest before matching circles and shading.

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.)
  • Counting the ends: Inclusive or exclusive ends, fence posts, consecutive numbers: an answer that is one too many or too few, or an endpoint drawn open where it belongs closed (or the reverse).

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Subtracting from every part
if a≤b, then a−c≤b−c\text{if } a \leq b \text{, then } a - c \leq b - c
a and b are the two sides of an inequality, and c is any number. Subtracting the same number from every part keeps the inequality true. The sign does not change.
Dividing by a negative number
if a≤b, then a÷(−c)≥b÷(−c)\text{if } a \leq b \text{, then } a \div (-c) \geq b \div (-c)
a and b are numbers, and c is a positive number, so −c is negative. When you divide both sides by a negative number, the inequality sign flips. For example, 2 is less than 3, but −2 is greater than −3.

  1. Sort out the question

    The inequality −5≤1−3x≤4-5 \leq 1 - 3x \leq 4 says that 1−3x1 - 3x is between −5 and 4. The sign ≤ means less than or equal to. So −5 and 4 themselves are allowed. You need the number line that shows every x that works. To find them, get x alone in the middle.

  2. Subtract 1 from every part

    First take away the 1 in the middle. Subtract 1 from all three parts.

    if a≤b, then a−c≤b−c\text{if } a \leq b \text{, then } a - c \leq b - c

    −5−1≤1−3x−1≤4−1-5 - 1 \leq 1 - 3x - 1 \leq 4 - 1

    −6≤−3x≤3-6 \leq -3x \leq 3

  3. Divide by −3 and flip

    Now x is multiplied by −3. Divide all three parts by −3. Dividing by a negative number flips each sign.

    if a≤b, then a÷(−c)≥b÷(−c)\text{if } a \leq b \text{, then } a \div (-c) \geq b \div (-c)

    −6−3≥−3x−3≥3−3\frac{-6}{-3} \geq \frac{-3x}{-3} \geq \frac{3}{-3}

    2≥x≥−12 \geq x \geq -1

    Watch out: if you forget to flip, x seems to lie outside −1 and 2. That leads to choices C and D, which are shaded outward.

  4. Read the result

    Turn it around so the smaller number is on the left. It means the same thing.

    −1≤x≤2-1 \leq x \leq 2

    So x can be any number from −1 to 2. The ends, −1 and 2, are included, because the signs are ≤.

  5. Pick the number line

    On a number line, a closed (filled-in) circle means the end number is included. An open circle means it is not. So you need closed circles at −1 and 2, with the part between them shaded. Watch out: choice A has the right shading but open circles, which leave out −1 and 2.

    So the answer is B.

Check your answer

Test a few numbers in 1−3x1 - 3x. For x = 0 you get 1, which is between −5 and 4, and 0 is shaded. For x = 2 you get −5, which is allowed, so the circle at 2 is filled in. For x = 3 you get −8, which is too small, so 3 is not shaded.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 82 as printed on page 206 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 206, question 82. Open page 206 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 #922572