Every choice must be checked
This test has the first 120 of the 143 questions that match.
Question 1 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 4Passage 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
In which two ways does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?
Select the two correct answers.
Choose every answer that is correct, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- Aby describing the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
- Bby comparing the various methods humans use to control nature
- Cby criticizing the careless actions of humans that harm the natural environment
- Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
- Eby depicting the unfortunate plight of the mountains with vivid details
Show the answer
Correct answer: C and E
The question asks for the two ways in which the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14).
A. Incorrect. The speaker’s descriptions of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength mainly occur in the first and third stanzas, while in the second stanza, the speaker focuses on humanity and its negative effect on the mountains.
B. Incorrect. The wording of the second stanza—“makes war” (line 10), “Splits down their shining sides” (line 12), and “Destroys the lonely fragments” (line 14)—communicates the speaker’s position that people’s main impact on the mountains is destructive, but the stanza does not compare the various methods people use to control nature.
C. CORRECT. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the careless and destructive actions of society or “the world” (lines 8 and 10) that harm the natural environment. Humans are described as both heedless of the mountains (“heeds them not”) and harmfully warlike (“makes war on them”). The speaker cites the harm done to the mountains when people “[tunnel] their granite cliffs” (line 11) and “[split] down their shining sides” (line 12), thus “[destroying] the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14).
D. Incorrect. In the second stanza, the speaker does not describe a mutually beneficial relationship between the mountains and the people. Although people clearly derive benefits from the mountains by plastering “their cliffs with soap-advertisements” (line 13), the stanza does not demonstrate that the mountains receive any benefit from the harmful actions of the people.
E. CORRECT. In the second stanza, the speaker depicts the unfortunate plight of the mountains with vivid details. Lines 11–14 feature expressive wording that sharply illustrates the mountains’ misfortune: “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides, / Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.”
Question analysis
This select-two question on John Gould Fletcher’s poem “Snowy Mountains” asks in which two ways the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza, lines 8–14. It reworks a one-answer handbook question, now with five choices. Each choice has to be judged on its own, and a choice that fits the poem as a whole is not enough.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Typical grade 7 point-of-view questions ask for one answer about a longer text. This stanza is only seven short lines with one steady attitude, but students must find two right choices out of five and judge each one separately.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 79 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
Most students sense the anger at “the world” in lines 8–14 and find the criticism of people quickly. The point is lost on the second pick, because the other right choice names a technique, vivid details of the mountains’ suffering, and can look like plain description. The choice about comparing methods tempts students who see a list of human actions, and the awe of the first and third stanzas pulls those who drift outside the stanza, while both picks must be right to score.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the viewpoint is built, and both right choices are methods: a judgment of “the world” that “makes war,” and the vivid verbs “Tunnels,” “Splits” and “Plasters” in lines 11–13. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All five choices must be tested and both picks must be right, so finding the criticism of people is only half the work; the second right choice is about imagery, not message. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
One right choice turns on “plight,” a hard situation; a student who does not know the word cannot see that it names the damage done to the mountains in lines 11–14. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Restate in your own words what lines 8–14 say and how they say it, then test each of the five choices on its own and keep only the two that fit this stanza rather than the whole poem.
Traps
- 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.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the awe of the first and third stanzas, “Higher and still more high” and “Vaster and still more vast,” though in lines 8–14 the cliffs appear only as things being damaged.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees that lines 11–13 list several human acts, tunneling, splitting and plastering, but the stanza never weighs one against another; all are blows in one war, not methods of control.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats the soap advertisements as people getting some use from the cliffs and imagines an exchange, missing the hostility of “The world makes war on them” and “Destroys.”
E Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Left out by students who see the vivid verbs as mere description of damage rather than the way the speaker builds sympathy, or who do not know that “plight” means a bad situation.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about point of view: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about the subject. It also asks how the poet shows that feeling. Stay inside the second stanza, lines 8 to 14. You must pick two answers, so test all five choices one at a time.
Read the second stanza closely
Line 8 says “But the world heeds them not.” To heed something is to pay attention to it. Here “the world” means people in general. Line 10 says “The world makes war on them.” Lines 11 to 13 list what people do: “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides, / Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.” Line 14 ends with “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”
Name how the speaker feels
The speaker is on the mountains’ side. People ignore the mountains, yet they keep attacking them. The speaker blames people for this harm. Pointing out what someone does wrong is called criticizing. The speaker also makes you feel sorry for the mountains. Strong action words like “Tunnels,” “Splits” and “Plasters” paint a sharp picture of the damage. Sharp word pictures like these are called vivid details.
Check each of the five choices
- A does not fit. The mountains’ great size fills the first and third stanzas, as in “Higher and still more high.” In lines 8 to 14 they are only being hurt.
- B does not fit. The stanza lists several things people do, but it never compares them. They are all part of one “war.”
- C fits. The speaker criticizes people for careless acts that damage nature.
- D does not fit. The mountains get nothing good from people. The stanza shows only harm.
- E fits. A plight is a bad or sad situation. The vivid verbs in lines 11 to 13 show the mountains’ plight.
Watch out: B is tempting because the stanza names several acts. But a list is not a comparison.
Choose both answers
The speaker’s view comes through two things: blame for people, and a vivid picture of the mountains’ suffering. Select both choices on the screen. You need both to get the point. So the answers are C and E.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
E is the right answer that is easiest to miss, because it can look like plain description. But those vivid details are how the speaker makes you feel for the mountains. B is the closest wrong choice. The stanza does list several human acts, yet it never weighs one against another. Each act is just one more blow.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 2 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 8Passage The Best Laid Plans of Ravens
The Best Laid Plans of Ravens
In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” a raven visits a lonely man’s home and responds to the man’s pleading questions with only the word “nevermore.” The poem’s narrator interprets the word as a prediction of doom for his future. A talking, prophetic raven may seem to be the wild imaginings of the poet, but a new study published in the journal Science hints that one particular idea behind the poem might not be as far-fetched as it seems. For most of human history, people assumed that animals do not understand the passage of time in the same way people do. Some people believed that animals might remember events from the past and that instinct might drive them to make preparations in order to guarantee survival, but most people did not think that animals had the ability to plan. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers argue that ravens may be able to think ahead and even plan for the future.
It can be difficult to test an animal’s ability to plan because human observers must be certain they are not mistaking instinctual behavior for intentional planning. For example, many animals hoard food so that they will not run out later, but scientists who study animals would not call hoarding a decision to plan for the future. This action is merely instinctual. Cognitive scientists argue that in order for an animal’s behavior to qualify as preparing for the future, the animal must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem.
To avoid mistaking instinctual behavior for evidence of decision-making, the Lund University researchers designed two experiments to test ravens’ ability to plan. Ravens belong to the corvid family, a group of birds known for their intelligence. A study in 2007 showed that corvids have the tendency to save only certain types of food, which suggests that they are planning for the future rather than acting on instinct. In order to investigate that theory, the researchers had to design experiments that would achieve results that could not be explained by an instinctual behavior of food hoarding. Therefore, the ravens were taught two behaviors that they do not normally perform in the wild.
For the first experiment, the researchers showed the birds how to use a small stone to open a box and get treats. Once the ravens learned the behavior, the researchers presented the birds with four stones. Only one stone was the right size to open the box. The birds learned to select that stone and set it aside until the researchers presented the box. The second experiment involved bartering. A researcher would trade the ravens a large treat for a bottle cap. Later, the researchers presented the ravens with a group of items, including small treats and the bottle cap. The ravens chose the bottle cap over the treats and waited for the original researcher to trade with them again so that they could get more treats. In both experiments, the ravens waited patiently for up to seventeen hours for the researcher to return.
The results of these experiments are exciting, but more evidence needs to be gathered before scientists can fully conclude that ravens can plan for the future. Some scientists argue that the ravens might be choosing the stone and bottle cap because the ravens have been trained to do so, not necessarily because the ravens are thinking ahead. Regardless, like other recent advances in animal science, these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed, and scientists now believe that ravens do actually think about their own future.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 1.
At Lund University in Sweden, researchers argue that ravens may be able to think ahead and even plan for the future.
Which sentence from paragraph 4 provides support for this argument?
- A“Once the ravens learned the behavior, the researchers presented the birds with four stones.”
- B“A researcher would trade the ravens a large treat for a bottle cap.”
- C“Later, the researchers presented the ravens with a group of items, including small treats and the bottle cap.”
- D“The ravens chose the bottle cap over the treats and waited for the original researcher to trade with them again so that they could get more treats.”
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which sentence from paragraph 4 supports the argument presented in the sentence from paragraph 1.
A. Incorrect. This sentence from paragraph 4 refers to the ravens’ ability to adapt and learn but not to plan and think ahead.
B. Incorrect. This sentence from paragraph 4 relates the actions of the researcher rather than the actions of the ravens and does not provide evidence in support of the argument that ravens have the ability to think and plan ahead.
C. Incorrect. This sentence from paragraph 4 does not describe a behavior of the ravens that would support the argument in the sentence from paragraph 1; instead it relates the actions of the researchers without giving any information about the ravens’ responses.
D. CORRECT. This sentence from paragraph 4 shows that the ravens seem to make a decision, which involves a thought process. The ravens chose to wait for the researcher rather than take the treats, suggesting that the ravens understood that the researcher would trade a larger treat for the bottle cap.
Question analysis
This evidence question on the science article “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” quotes the claim from paragraph 1 that ravens may be able to think ahead and plan for the future. Students choose the sentence from paragraph 4, where two experiments are described, that supports it. Every choice comes from the same experiments, so each must be weighed against the claim.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing the sentence that backs a quoted claim is standard grade 7 evidence work. The claim is printed in the question and all four choices come from one paragraph, so the search is short, though each sentence must be tested against the claim.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 599 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 107 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 claim is about what ravens can do, and only one of the four sentences shows the birds deciding anything. Students who read quickly accept any sentence about the experiments, especially the one where the ravens have just learned a skill, because learning sounds like intelligence. Asking who acts in each sentence, the birds or the researchers, settles the question in seconds.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The right sentence never says “plan”; students must see that choosing the cap over the treats and waiting “so that they could get more treats” is acting now for a later reward. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four sentences come from paragraph 4’s experiments, and three of them report what the researchers did, so each must be checked for a decision made by the ravens. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Underline “think ahead” and “plan” in the quoted claim, then ask of each sentence whether it, on its own, would convince a doubter that ravens can do that.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes “Once the ravens learned the behavior” as proof of planning, but learning to open a box shows only that the birds can be taught, and the rest is the researchers’ act.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks the opening of the bartering test because it mentions the trade, yet the sentence reports only what a researcher offered, not anything the ravens decided.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Knows the bottle-cap test holds the evidence and picks its setup, the researchers laying out treats and the cap, one sentence before the ravens make their choice.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for evidence: the sentence that best supports a claim. The claim is that ravens “may be able to think ahead and even plan for the future.” To plan is to decide now what you will do later, so you get something you want. You need a sentence from paragraph 4 that shows ravens doing that.
Ask who acts in each sentence
Only something the ravens do can prove what ravens can do. So check each choice for its doer. In A, B and C, the researchers do most of the acting. They hand out stones, offer a trade and set out items. Only one sentence shows the ravens making a choice of their own.
Find the ravens’ choice
Paragraph 4 says “The ravens chose the bottle cap over the treats and waited for the original researcher to trade with them again so that they could get more treats.” The ravens could have eaten a small treat right away. Instead they took a bottle cap, which is worthless by itself. They kept it because the researcher would trade a large treat for it later.
Explain why this shows planning
The words “so that” give the reason for the choice. The ravens gave up something now to get something better later. That is exactly what planning ahead means. You do the same thing when you save your allowance for a bigger toy next month.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The ravens have only learned a skill. The rest of the sentence tells what the researchers did next.
- B does not fit. It tells what a researcher offered, not what the ravens decided.
- C does not fit. It is the setup of the test, before the ravens choose anything.
- D fits. The ravens choose now and wait for a later reward.
Watch out: A sounds smart because the ravens “learned the behavior.” But being taught a skill is not the same as thinking ahead.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence shows the ravens making a choice now for a reward later. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice, because learning a skill sounds clever. But learning to open a box shows only that the birds can be taught. It says nothing about the future. In D, the ravens pass up treats today to get more treats later. That is planning.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” as printed (page 12)
Question 3 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 12Uses the passage above: “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens”.
Question
The author conveys a point of view on the study of animal intelligence mainly by
- Asharing details about experiments that tested the ability of an animal to plan for the future.
- Bcomparing the results of different experiments that were designed to test animal intelligence.
- Ccritiquing experiments that aimed to demonstrate that certain animals are capable of planning for the future.
- Dexplaining how modern experiments show that previously held beliefs about animal intelligence are inaccurate.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the author conveys a point of view on the study of animal intelligence.
A. CORRECT. Paragraphs 3 and 4 focus on the process and details of the experiments that scientists conducted. This detailed information from the author provides a sense of how the ravens demonstrated planning abilities beyond natural instinct. The author supports the claims from the experiments, calling the findings “exciting” and stating in the conclusion that “these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed” (paragraph 5).
B. Incorrect. Although two experiments are described in the passage, the description presents the experiments as building on each other and does not compare their results. The passage states that “these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed, and scientists now believe that ravens do actually think about their own future” (paragraph 5).
C. Incorrect. The author presents information from the experiments and the results that were gathered from them; while there is an admission that “more evidence needs to be gathered before scientists can fully conclude that ravens can plan for the future” (paragraph 5), the author does not criticize the experiments that are presented.
D. Incorrect. While the author does discuss some previously held beliefs about animal intelligence in paragraph 1, the focus of the passage is that experiments indicate that there is reason to question these beliefs, since “these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed” (paragraph 5). The previously held beliefs are not considered inaccurate by the discussion in the passage because only one example—the raven—is provided. The passage does not state that beliefs about animal intelligence as a whole are inaccurate.
Question analysis
This author’s point-of-view question asks how the writer of “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” mainly conveys a view of research into animal intelligence. Students must look at the article as a whole and decide how it presents that view. The choices describe ways of writing in abstract terms, which makes them easy to blur together.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 point-of-view questions usually ask what an author thinks. This one asks how the author mainly conveys a view across the whole article, and the choices name methods that sound alike, closer to grade 8 work on how authors handle differing views.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 599 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 74 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 right choice sounds too plain to carry a point of view, which is exactly what makes this question hard. Students expect a view to be argued, so they reach for the choice that says the experiments prove old beliefs wrong, an overstatement of the author’s hedged “could be,” or for criticism, which belongs to other scientists. The article persuades by reporting the experiments in detail and calling them exciting.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks how the view comes across, not what it is, and the answer is a method: the author lets the detailed account of the experiments in paragraphs 3–4 carry a favorable view. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The author never states an opinion outright; the view must be pieced together from words such as “exciting” and “could be much smarter than first believed” in paragraph 5. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The choices name ways of writing in abstract terms, sharing, comparing, critiquing and explaining, so each must be held against what the whole article actually does. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Settle first on how the author regards the raven research, then check each choice against what the article actually does from beginning to end, not against a single paragraph.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- 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
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Notices that two experiments are described and assumes they are set side by side, but the article reports the stone test and the bartering test in turn without comparing results.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the doubt that “some scientists” raise about training for the author’s own criticism, though the author calls the results “exciting” and moves past the objection.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the point that ravens may be smarter than believed but overstates it: the author hedges with “could be,” discusses only ravens, and never calls older beliefs wrong.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the author’s point of view, what the author thinks about studying animal intelligence. It also asks how the author mainly shows that view. Think about the whole article, not one paragraph.
Find the author’s view
In paragraph 5, the author says the results “are exciting.” The author also says the experiments “show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed.” So the author is interested in this research and hopeful about it.
See how the article is built
Most of the article explains the experiments. Paragraph 3 tells why the researchers planned two of them. Paragraph 4 gives the details step by step: the stone, the box, the bottle cap, the trades and the long wait. The author lets these details show why the research matters. Then the author calls the results exciting.
Check each choice
- A fits. The author shares details of experiments that tested whether an animal can plan.
- B does not fit. The two experiments are told one after the other. Their results are never compared.
- C does not fit. The doubt comes from “some scientists,” not the author. The author answers it with “Regardless.”
- D does not fit. It goes too far. The author says ravens “could be” smarter, which means maybe. The article never calls old beliefs wrong.
Watch out: D is tempting because paragraph 1 describes old beliefs. But “could be” is not the same as “are.”
Choose the answer
The author shows a view mostly through details of the experiments. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. The author does think ravens may be smarter than people believed. But the author is careful and says they “could be.” D says experiments prove old beliefs wrong, which is too strong. What the author mostly does is share the experiments’ details. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 4 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 15Passage Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
by Grace Livingston Hill
With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.
It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.
The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her. Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.
There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her wrist.
In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get out like this.
She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train, as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and rolled down the short bank, while the train . . . ran giddily off into the night.
The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they hurried by her—one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.
Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that there was none!
The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the lonely night.
No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was heavy.
A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine’s drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.
cinders: track bed made from the residue of burnt coal
From A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS by Grace Livingston Hill—Public Domain
Question
Which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that Margaret is unaccustomed to traveling to new places by train?
- A“With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.” (paragraph 1)
- B“Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.” (paragraph 2)
- C“Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?” (paragraph 3)
- D“She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern.” (paragraph 4)
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for evidence from the excerpt that best supports the idea that Margaret is unfamiliar with traveling to new places by train.
A. Incorrect. Margaret’s actions in the sentence from paragraph 1 are decisive as she gathers her belongings to exit the train; she is familiar with rail travel.
B. Incorrect. In the sentence from paragraph 2, Margaret is using her knowledge about trains to attempt to interpret the actions of others; she is familiar with trains, even if a particular destination has not been mentioned.
C. CORRECT. If Margaret has never traveled to this region by train before, she must guess or attempt to interpret what she sees. This idea is best represented in the sentence in paragraph 3 where she questions whether the stations in the West have platforms.
D. Incorrect. While the sentence from paragraph 4 shows that Margaret is trying to better understand her situation in the darkness, her ability to identify the train’s engine and the figures carrying lanterns indicates some familiarity with her mode of travel.
Question analysis
Students choose the sentence from Grace Livingston Hill’s A Voice in the Wilderness that best supports the idea that Margaret is unaccustomed to traveling to new places by train. The four choices come from paragraphs 1–4, as she steps down from the train into the dark. Each reveals something about her, so students must test them against this one idea.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 A typical grade 7 evidence task: the four quotations come from the opening paragraphs and carry paragraph numbers. The challenge is that several show Margaret unsure of herself, so students must match the specific idea in the claim, not any sign of doubt.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 113 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
Uncertainty runs through all four quotations, so the general mood of the opening cannot pick the answer. The claim is specific, a traveler new to such places, and only one sentence ties her confusion to the region itself rather than to a delay, the darkness or her haste. Students who match feelings instead of the claim usually settle on her guess about engine trouble.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four quotations, from paragraphs 1 to 4, show Margaret unsure in the dark, so each has to be tested against the narrower idea of someone new to this kind of journey. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
No sentence says Margaret is new to the West; students must infer it from her puzzled question whether stations in “this wild Western land” lack platforms. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Restate the claim in your own words, then ask of each quotation whether it proves that idea specifically or only shows some other feeling Margaret has at that moment.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Reads her hurried exit as a nervous newcomer’s, though “hastily gathering up her belongings” shows someone who knows what to do when her stop is called.
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears doubt in “Perhaps something was the matter with the engine,” but guessing at the cause of a delay is how an experienced rider reasons, not a newcomer puzzling over a place.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Notices the guesswork in “dimly” and “evidently,” but the darkness causes it, and she still picks out the engine and the crew’s lanterns, which shows she knows trains.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for evidence: the sentence that best supports an idea. The idea is that Margaret is unaccustomed to traveling to new places by train. Unaccustomed means not used to something. So look for a sentence where a new place puzzles her.
Notice what the choices share
All four sentences come from paragraphs 1 to 4, just after Margaret steps off the train at night. In most of them she is unsure. So feeling unsure is not enough. The right sentence must tie her confusion to the strange place itself.
Look closely at paragraph 3
Paragraph 3 asks “Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?” A platform is the raised floor beside the tracks where people get on and off. Margaret wonders if stations out West even have them. She does not know how things work in this region. That shows she is not used to traveling here.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. She is “hastily gathering up her belongings,” which means in a hurry. She knows what to do when her stop comes.
- B does not fit. Guessing about engine trouble is how someone who knows trains would think.
- C fits. She does not know what stations are like in this new land.
- D does not fit. The dark makes it hard to see. Yet she still picks out the engine and the lanterns.
Watch out: B begins with “Perhaps,” so it sounds unsure. But her doubt is about the train, not the place.
Choose the answer
Only the question about platforms shows that this place is unfamiliar to her. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, since Margaret is unsure in it too. But there she reasons like an experienced rider: maybe the engine broke down. In C, she wonders what stations are like in “this wild Western land.” Only C shows a traveler who is not used to new places.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
Question 5 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 38Passage 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 from paragraph 2 best supports the idea that Lowell became “a bustling industrial city” (paragraph 1) in a short period of time?
- A“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.”
- B“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.”
- C“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.”
- D“By the 1850s, 40 textile mills employing over 10,000 workers stretched for about a mile along the river.”
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the sentence in paragraph 2 that best supports the idea that Lowell became “a bustling industrial city” (paragraph 1) in a short period of time.
A. Incorrect. While the sentence provides details on when the town of Lowell was founded and the natural features of the area, it does not support the idea that the city became “a bustling industrial city” in a short period of time.
B. Incorrect. Although this sentence indicates that the mill buildings were a noticeable feature of the city and provides details on how the mills worked, it does not specifically show that Lowell had become “a bustling industrial city” in a short period of time.
C. Incorrect. While this sentence lists some recognizable mill buildings along the river and notes when their associated businesses were established, it does not support the idea that Lowell had become “a bustling industrial city” in a short period of time.
D. CORRECT. This sentence indicates that within only a few decades of the city’s founding, it experienced massive industrial growth, with “40 textile mills employing over 10,000 workers,” supporting the idea that Lowell became “a bustling industrial city” in a short period of time.
Question analysis
Here students choose which sentence from the second paragraph of an article about Lowell, Massachusetts, best supports the claim that the town became a bustling industrial city in a short period of time. All four sentences describe Lowell's founding, mills or canals, and several carry dates, so students must weigh what each one actually shows about how fast the city grew.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Picking the sentence that best supports a claim is standard grade 7 evidence work. The claim carries a time condition as well as a description, and all four choices come from one short paragraph, so the demand is typical of grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 131 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 claim has two parts, a bustling industrial city and a short time to get there, and most sentences in paragraph 2 meet only one. The list of mills with their founding dates is the strongest pull, because its dates seem to answer the time half, yet they run into the 1880s and show four buildings, not a busy city. The question rewards pairing the 1850s figures with the 1821 founding.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The 1850s sentence shows speed only beside the founding date in the paragraph's first sentence: getting from 1821 to 40 mills and 10,000 workers took about thirty years, a span students must work out. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four sentences come from paragraph 2 and describe Lowell's mills or canals, and three carry dates, so each must be tested for both the scale and the speed of growth. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Split the claim into its two parts, a busy industrial city and a short span of time, and check each sentence for evidence of both rather than accepting one that fits only half.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Takes the founding year, 1821, as evidence about time, but the sentence only explains why the merchants built beside the Pawtucket falls and says nothing about how the city grew.
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees six miles of canals and “massive five- and six-story brick buildings” as proof of a bustling city, but the sentence gives no date, so it cannot show speed.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Treats the list of charters and openings as proof of fast growth, but it names only four buildings, and the Wannalancit Mill's 1880s date stretches the list over some sixty years.
Working it out, step by step
Split the claim into two parts
This is an evidence question. You need the sentence that best supports a claim, and the claim has two parts. First, Lowell became “a bustling industrial city,” a busy factory town. Second, it happened “in a short period of time.” The best sentence must support both parts, not just one.
Find the starting date
Paragraph 2 opens with the town’s start. The Boston merchants “founded Lowell in 1821.” That gives you a starting point. Now look for a sentence that shows how big Lowell got, and by when.
Work out how long it took
The last sentence of paragraph 2 says: “By the 1850s, 40 textile mills employing over 10,000 workers stretched for about a mile along the river.” From 1821 to the 1850s is only about 30 years. In that time, Lowell went from a new town to 40 mills and over 10,000 workers. That is fast growth, and it is clearly bustling.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It tells why the town was built by the waterfalls. It says nothing about how the city grew.
- B is wrong. Six miles of canals and “massive five- and six-story brick buildings” do sound busy. But there is no date, so it can’t show speed.
- C is wrong. It has dates, but they run from 1821 to the 1880s, about 60 years. And it names just four buildings, not a whole busy city.
- D is right. It shows a big city of mills and workers only about 30 years after Lowell began.
Watch out: C is tempting because it is full of dates. But dates alone don’t prove speed, and these are spread over decades.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence shows both a busy industrial city and a short time to get there. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, since its dates seem to answer the time part. But they stretch from 1821 to the 1880s, and they cover only four buildings. D gives the size of the whole mill city, 40 mills and over 10,000 workers, about 30 years after the founding.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park” as printed (page 50)
Question 6 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 41Uses the passage above: “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Covers only why the women came, leaving domestic work and small towns behind, and stops before their years as the workforce, the wage cuts and their leaving.
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Gets the start and the replacement by immigrants right but drops the wage cuts, protests and strikes that paragraph 4 gives as the reason the women left.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Keeps the arrival and the growing discontent, adding the minor boardinghouse rules, but leaves out the protests and the women leaving, and “soon” skips the years before the 1840s wage cuts.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 7 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 46Passage The Benefits of Indoor Plants
The Benefits of Indoor Plants
(1) In an age of endless media content, it is easy to see why people might prefer to stay inside. (2) According to a study sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spend an average of 87 percent of their time indoors. (3) Scientists say that this separation between people and nature puts people at risk for physical and psychological issues.
(4) During the process of photosynthesis, plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and remove many harmful toxins from the air. (5) Spending prolonged periods of time indoors, away from plants, deprives people of these benefits. (6) Air that is not regularly detoxified can lead to a condition known as sick building syndrome. (7) This disorder first came to light in the 1970s when many office workers in the United States began to complain of unexplained flu-like symptoms. (8) Researchers determined the cause to be volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. (9) VOCs are harmful chemicals that are emitted by everyday objects such as carpet, furniture, cleaning products, and computers. (10) The NASA Clean Air Study found a simple way to remove a significant number of VOCs within a 24-hour period: add plants to indoor spaces.
(11) Adding plants to indoor spaces has psychological benefits too. (12) Research has long linked time spent in natural environments with increased energy and feelings of contentment. (13) While being outdoors is an excellent option for improving a person’s mental health, recent research has indicated that encountering natural elements while indoors can also help. (14) To experience the maximum benefit of natural elements, experts suggest placing at least one live plant per 100 square feet of home or office space.
(15) Connecting with nature, even just by being near an indoor plant, is a significant factor in a person’s well-being. (16) Sitting in front of an electronic screen all day isn’t natural, and today’s workers need to get up and get outdoors. (17) Richard Ryan, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, puts it this way: “Nature is something within which we flourish, so having it be more a part of our lives is critical, especially when we live and work in built environments.”
Question
Which sentence presents ideas irrelevant to the topic of the passage and should be deleted?
- Asentence 11
- Bsentence 14
- Csentence 15
- Dsentence 16
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the sentence that presents ideas irrelevant to the topic of the passage and should be deleted.
A. Incorrect. Sentence 11 presents one of the key reasons why plants are so important in indoor spaces: they have a positive effect on mental health. The idea that plants provide psychological benefits is relevant to the topic of the passage, and the sentence should not be deleted.
B. Incorrect. Sentence 14 is relevant to the topic because it explains how many plants a person should add to a space in order to experience “the maximum benefit of natural elements.” This idea addresses the main topic of the passage, and the sentence should not be deleted.
C. Incorrect. Although “connecting with nature” is somewhat broader than the topic of the passage, sentence 15 is relevant and belongs in the passage because it specifically refers to using indoor plants as one way to connect with nature (“even just by being near an indoor plant”). Therefore, the sentence should not be deleted.
D. CORRECT. While the topic of the passage is the harm caused by the “separation between people and nature” (sentence 3), the reference in sentence 16 to “an electronic screen” is irrelevant to the topic of the passage. The idea that “today’s workers need to get up and get outdoors” (sentence 16) is, in fact, the opposite of what the passage argues, and the sentence should be deleted.
Question analysis
Which sentence in the last two paragraphs of the indoor-plants passage presents ideas irrelevant to its topic and should be deleted? Each of the four listed sentences mentions nature, plants or well-being in some way, so students must pin down exactly what the passage argues before deciding which one does not serve it.
- NYS standards
- 7W2b developing a topic
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Spotting a sentence that strays from a passage's topic is regular grade 7 revision work. The passage is short and plainly worded, and its topic is named in its title, so this is a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 346 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 19 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 stray sentence is camouflaged by its links to the opening: screens recall the media of sentence 1, and “isn't natural” sounds like the passage's theme. What gives it away is its advice, to leave the building, when the passage argues for bringing nature into it, along with its chatty tone. Students who cut a sentence for being general or practical have judged by style rather than by the passage's claim.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 16 echoes sentence 1's “endless media content” with its “electronic screen,” so it seems connected, yet its call to “get outdoors” pulls against a passage about bringing plants inside. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The four listed sentences span paragraphs 3 and 4, and each mentions nature, plants or well-being, so each must be read in place and tested against the passage's point. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Say in one phrase what the whole passage argues, then read each listed sentence in place and ask whether it supports that argument or steers the reader toward a different idea.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Cuts sentence 11 because it turns from air quality to the mind, though it is the topic sentence of the paragraph on psychological benefits.
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Sees the advice of one live plant per 100 square feet as a practical aside, though it tells readers how to get the benefit the passage describes.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Thinks sentence 15's “connecting with nature” strays beyond indoor plants, missing that “even just by being near an indoor plant” ties it directly to the passage's topic.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need to find the sentence that is off topic. Every sentence in a passage should support its main point. For example, in a paragraph about why dogs make good pets, My cousin has a red bike doesn’t belong. You would cut a sentence like that.
Name the passage’s topic
The title is “The Benefits of Indoor Plants.” The passage says plants inside clean the air and help the mind. Its fix for too much time indoors is to bring nature inside, with plants in homes and offices.
Read sentence 16 in place
Sentence 16 says, “Sitting in front of an electronic screen all day isn’t natural, and today’s workers need to get up and get outdoors.” It switches to screens. It tells workers to go outside. It never mentions plants. The passage doesn’t object to going outdoors. Sentence 13 even calls it “an excellent option.” But sentence 16 steers away from the topic, plants indoors, to a different fix.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Sentence 11 is the third paragraph’s topic sentence: plants indoors help the mind.
- B is wrong. Sentence 14 tells how many plants to use, one per 100 square feet. That helps readers get the benefit.
- C is wrong. “Connecting with nature” sounds broad. But it adds “even just by being near an indoor plant,” which ties it to the topic.
- D is right. Sentence 16 is about screens and going outside, not indoor plants.
Watch out: Sentence 15 is tempting because it starts with a big idea. Read the whole sentence before you cut it.
Choose the answer
Without sentence 16, sentence 15 leads straight into the professor’s words about nature in our lives. Nothing is lost. So the answer is D, sentence 16.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 15 is the closest wrong answer, because “connecting with nature” sounds wider than the topic. But it names an indoor plant, so it supports the passage. Sentence 16 names no plant at all. It sends workers outdoors, a different idea from bringing nature inside.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Benefits of Indoor Plants” as printed (page 60)
Question 8 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 49Question
Which pair of revisions is needed to correct the errors in the paragraph?
(1) Yalina, Michael, and Malcolm love making pancakes with their granddad on Saturday mornings. (2) Yalina’s job is to open the box and pour the pancake mix into a bowl, slowly adding water, eggs, melted butter, and blueberries. (3) Michael uses a wooden spoon to vigorously stir the mixture until it is smooth, and Malcolm helps Granddad carefully pour the batter onto a griddle one-fourth cup at a time. (4) Granddad turns each pancake when they start to bubble, while all three siblings get the table ready for a sweet delicious breakfast.
- ASentence 1: Delete the comma after Yalina, AND change their to her.
- BSentence 2: Change is to are, AND delete the comma after bowl.
- CSentence 3: Change it is to they are, AND delete the comma after smooth.
- DSentence 4: Change they start to it starts, AND insert a comma after sweet.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which two revisions are needed to correct the paragraph.
A. Incorrect. The comma is needed after “Yalina” to separate the first and second names in the series of three names (Yalina, Michael, and Malcolm). The possessive determiner “their” is also correct as written because it refers back to “Yalina, Michael, and Malcolm,” a plural group of people.
B. Incorrect. Changing “is” to “are” would introduce an error in subject-verb agreement into the sentence; the singular subject “Yalina’s job” requires the singular verb “is.” The comma after “bowl” is required because it separates the phrase “slowly adding water, eggs, melted butter, and blueberries,” which modifies how Yalina prepares the batter, from the remainder of the sentence.
C. Incorrect. “It is” refers to the singular noun “mixture,” so this singular pronoun and verb form is correct. The comma after “smooth” is necessary because this is a compound sentence where two independent clauses (“Michael uses a wooden spoon to vigorously stir the mixture until it is smooth” and “Malcolm helps Granddad carefully pour the batter onto a griddle one-fourth cup at a time”) are joined using a coordinating conjunction, which requires a comma.
D. CORRECT. The plural pronoun “they” refers incorrectly to a singular antecedent, “each pancake.” The pronoun should be changed to a singular one to match its antecedent. A comma is needed between two adjectives of equal importance that modify the noun “breakfast.” Because “sweet” and “delicious” could be written as “sweet and delicious,” they are of equal importance, and a comma is needed.
Question analysis
This editing question gives a four-sentence paragraph about three siblings making blueberry pancakes with their granddad and asks which pair of revisions corrects its errors. Eight words or commas are underlined, and each choice bundles a pronoun or verb change with a comma change in one sentence, so a choice is right only if both of its edits are needed.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Pronoun and verb agreement and comma use are grade 6 and 7 conventions. Checking eight underlined spots across four long sentences, and accepting a pair only when both edits are needed, matches typical grade 7 editing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 149 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 errors sit together in the paragraph's last sentence, and neither is heard easily, so students who judge by ear look for problems elsewhere. The strongest pull applies two familiar but wrong rules, no comma before “and” and a plural pronoun for a mixture of several ingredients, to a sentence that is already correct. The question rewards testing each pronoun against its noun and each comma against a rule before reading the pairs.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
Both real errors sound natural: “each pancake … when they start to bubble” passes because several pancakes are cooking, and “sweet delicious breakfast” seldom sounds as if it needs a comma between its adjectives. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Eight underlined spots are paired into four proposed revisions, one pair per sentence, and a pair is right only if both of its edits fix real errors, so every edit has to be tried in place. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, test each underlined spot yourself: find what each pronoun and verb refers to, and decide whether each comma is needed. Then look for the pair whose two edits both fix real errors.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
- Agreement: A verb that does not agree with its subject, or a pronoun that does not agree with the word it stands for.
- Punctuation: A comma, semicolon, colon, dash or apostrophe used where it does not belong, or missing where it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Deletes the comma after the first of three names in a series and changes “their” to “her,” though the pronoun refers to all three siblings.
B Agreement (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Counts two tasks, opening the box and pouring, and wants the plural “are,” though the subject is the singular “job,” and drops the comma before “slowly adding.”
C Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Applies the rule that a comma never comes before “and,” though this one joins two complete clauses, and makes “it” plural for the ingredients, though it means the mixture.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Eight spots are underlined. Each choice offers two changes in one sentence. A choice is right only if both of its changes fix real errors. So test each underlined spot yourself first.
Test sentence 1
Commas go between the items in a list of three or more: ham, eggs, and toast. So the comma after “Yalina” is needed. “Their” is plural, and it means all three kids, so it is correct too. Nothing needs fixing here, so A is out.
Test sentence 2
A verb must match its subject, the word the sentence is about. Here the subject is “Yalina’s job,” one job, so “is” is right. Example: My chore is easy, not My chore are easy. The comma after “bowl” is needed too. It shows that “slowly adding water” tells what Yalina does. Without it, the bowl seems to be adding the water. So B is out.
Test sentence 3
“It” means “the mixture,” one thing, so “it is” is correct. The comma after “smooth” comes before “and.” When and joins two complete sentences, put a comma before it. Example: I made the salad, and Dad grilled the fish. Here both halves are complete: Michael stirs, and Malcolm pours. So C is out.
Watch out: Some students learn that a comma never goes before and. That is not true when and joins two complete sentences. Believing it leads to C.
Fix the pronoun in sentence 4
A pronoun must match its noun in number. One thing takes it, and more than one takes they. Here the noun is “each pancake,” one at a time. So “they start” should be “it starts.” Example: Each cookie is done when it turns brown.
Watch out: Many pancakes are on the griddle, so they sounds fine. But each means you are talking about one pancake at a time.
Fix the comma in sentence 4
Two describing words of equal weight need a comma between them. Test: can you put and between them, or swap them? Sweet and delicious breakfast and delicious, sweet breakfast both work. So write sweet, delicious breakfast. Compare three small dogs. You can’t say three and small dogs, so no comma there.
Choose the answer
Both changes in sentence 4 fix real errors. Fixed, it reads: Granddad turns each pancake when it starts to bubble, while all three siblings get the table ready for a sweet, delicious breakfast. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. It relies on two wrong ideas: that a comma never comes before and, and that a mix of many ingredients needs they. But the comma joins two complete sentences, and “it” means the one mixture. Only D’s two changes both fix real errors.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 9 of 120
2026 Practice Test A English, question 50Question
Which sentence in the paragraph contains an error in construction?
(1) The blobfish, a creature that certainly resembles its name, is an unusual fish whose body is mostly composed of pink, gelatinous flesh. (2) Because it has very few muscles and its density is close to that of water, the blobfish spends its life floating slightly above the ocean floor. (3) It must wait patiently for whatever edible matter might float by its mouth. (4) The blobfish’s downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring caused them to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.
Move the answer to the box. There is only one error in construction.
Contains an error in construction
On the test you drag one of the tiles into the box; here, choose it.
- ASentence 1
- BSentence 2
- CSentence 3
- DSentence 4
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for identification of the one sentence in the paragraph that contains an error in construction.
Sentence 1: Construction is correct. The singular pronoun “its” matches the number of the word it refers to, the singular noun “blobfish.” Additionally, the appositive phrase “a creature that certainly resembles its name” is correctly set off by commas to provide an extra, but not essential, detail about the blobfish. The comma separating “pink” and “gelatinous” is correct because these are coordinate adjectives. There are no errors in sentence 1.
Sentence 2: Construction is correct. The singular pronouns “it” and “its” match the number of the word they refer to, the singular noun “blobfish.” Additionally, the structure of the sentence correctly shows that the clause “Because it has very few muscles and its density is close to that of water” explains why “the blobfish” spends its life floating. There are no errors in sentence 2.
Sentence 3: Construction is correct. The “it” and “its” in the sentence refer to “the blobfish” mentioned in the previous sentence. The use of singular pronouns in sentence 3 is consistent with the rest of the paragraph. There are no errors in sentence 3.
Sentence 4: Contains an error in construction. Sentence 4 erroneously uses the plural pronoun “them” to refer to the blobfish, when the singular “it” should have been used. Although sentence 4 starts by correctly referring to the blobfish in the singular (“the blobfish’s”), it erroneously switches to plural usage midway through: “caused them to be voted.” This is an error because the rest of the paragraph refers to the blobfish in the singular. The singular construction of the paragraph starts with “a creature” and “an unusual fish” in sentence 1 and continues throughout sentence 2 (“it has,” “its density,” “the blobfish,” and “its life”), sentence 3 (“It must” and “its mouth”), and the first half of sentence 4 (“the blobfish’s”). Proper construction requires sentence 4 to maintain the paragraph’s consistent use of singular references. To fix the construction error in sentence 4, the plural pronoun “them” should be changed to the singular pronoun “it” (i.e., “The blobfish’s downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring caused it to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.”).
Question analysis
This editing question gives a four-sentence paragraph describing the blobfish, a pink, jelly-like fish that floats just above the ocean floor, and asks which sentence contains an error in construction. On the test students move a sentence tile into a box; the kind of error is not named, so every sentence, with its commas, describing phrases and pronouns, must be checked.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 The grammar here is taught by grade 6, but the question does not say what kind of error to look for, and the correct sentences carry commas, describing phrases and pronouns of their own, which is typical of grade 7 editing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 6, 112 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- Two grammar terms in the explanation were wrong; both sentences 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
The faulty pronoun is camouflaged by the list right before it, which makes a plural sound natural, so students who read by ear pass the last sentence and flag a correct one. The likeliest victim is sentence 2, where “it” comes before the noun it stands for, which some students wrongly believe is not allowed. The question rewards asking, for each pronoun, what noun it stands for and whether the number matches.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
“Them” in sentence 4 follows the plural list “downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring,” so it sounds right, though what was voted ugliest is the singular blobfish. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The stem names no kind of error, and every sentence has a pronoun or a set-off phrase that could be suspect, from the opening appositive to the “Because it has” clause, so all four must be checked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Check each sentence in turn: the subject and verb, what every pronoun refers to, and what each describing phrase attaches to, without trusting how smoothly the sentence sounds.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Suspects the long interruption “a creature that certainly resembles its name” or the comma in “pink, gelatinous,” though both are correct and the sentence is complete.
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes a pronoun cannot come before its noun, so flags “Because it has very few muscles,” though “it” correctly looks ahead to “the blobfish” in the main clause.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Assumes “It” must point to the nearest noun, “the ocean floor,” and calls it unclear, though only the blobfish could wait for food to float by.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook's explanation of sentence 1 calls “a creature that certainly resembles its name” a clause; it is an appositive phrase, a noun phrase that renames “the blobfish”, and now says so. Its explanation of sentence 2 says the “Because…” clause “modifies the words ‘the blobfish’”; an introductory “because” clause tells why something happens, so it modifies the verb, and the sentence now says it explains why the blobfish spends its life floating. The answer, sentence 4, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the one sentence with an error in construction, a mistake in how the sentence is built. The question doesn’t say what kind of error. So check each sentence’s commas, phrases and pronouns. A pronoun is a word like it or them that stands in for a noun.
Check sentence 1
“A creature that certainly resembles its name” is an extra phrase that renames the blobfish. Commas around an extra phrase are correct: Max, my brother, plays drums. In “pink, gelatinous,” a comma sits between two describing words of equal weight. Gelatinous means jelly-like. You could say pink and gelatinous, so the comma is right.
Check sentences 2 and 3
Sentence 2 starts, “Because it has very few muscles.” This part tells why the blobfish floats. Here “it” comes before “the blobfish.” That is allowed when the noun follows soon after: Because she was tired, Maya went to bed. In sentence 3, “It” can only mean the blobfish. Only the fish could wait for food to float by its mouth. Both sentences are correct.
Watch out: Some students think a pronoun can never come before its noun. That makes sentence 2 look wrong, which leads to B.
Find the error in sentence 4
Sentence 4 says the fish’s features “caused them to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013.” What was voted the ugliest animal? The blobfish, one animal. A pronoun must match its noun in number. So it should be it, not them. The rest of the paragraph calls the blobfish it every time.
Watch out: The list just before, “downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring,” is plural. That makes them sound right. But a mouth, skin and coloring can’t be voted an animal.
Show the fix
Fixed, the sentence reads: The blobfish’s downturned mouth, slimy skin, and pale coloring caused it to be voted the World’s Ugliest Animal in 2013. Now the pronoun matches the one blobfish.
Choose the answer
Sentences 1, 2 and 3 are built correctly. Only sentence 4 has a pronoun that doesn’t match its noun. So the answer is D: move the tile “Sentence 4” into the box labeled “Contains an error in construction.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 2 is the closest wrong answer, because “it” comes before the word “blobfish.” That is allowed, since the noun follows right away. In sentence 4, though, “them” is plural but stands for one blobfish. That mismatch is the real error.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 10 of 120
2026 Practice Test A Math, question 37Question
When a student buys 4 notebooks, the total cost is $12. Each notebook costs the same amount. Select each point on the graph that best represents y, the total cost of x notebooks.
Select all the correct answers.
On the test you click the points in the figure; here, choose them below. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- A(1, 1)
- B(1, 3)
- C(2, 5)
- D(3, 7)
- E(3, 9)
- F(4, 12)
- G(5, 14)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B, E, and F
Solution:
There are three correct points: (1, 3), (3, 9), and (4, 12).
Find the cost per notebook: .
The equation of the line is , where y is the total cost of x notebooks.
Check each point by plugging the x-value into the equation . If the y-value from the equation matches the y-value of the point, then the point is on the line .
Check all seven points:
(1, 1) y-values do not match; incorrect point
(1, 3) y-values match; CORRECT point
(2, 5) y-values do not match; incorrect point
(3, 7) y-values do not match; incorrect point
(3, 9) y-values match; CORRECT point
(4, 12) y-values match; CORRECT point
(5, 14) y-values do not match; incorrect point
Question analysis
A graph titled Buying Notebooks shows seven points, and students select every point that fits the total cost of buying notebooks, given the cost of a few notebooks and that each costs the same. It tests finding a unit rate and recognizing points of a proportional relationship. Some points line up in tempting patterns, and the item does not say how many to select.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Finding a unit rate and deciding which points fit a proportional relationship are grade 7 skills, and the arithmetic here is easy. What adds demand is testing all seven points with no count given, since one miss or extra pick loses the item.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 36 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Finding the price is one division, 12 ÷ 4 = 3, so the question is really about checking: each chosen dot must fit y = 3x exactly, and the item does not say how many do. The graph punishes judging by eye, since a straight row of dots climbs from (1, 3) at $2 a notebook and two dots sit a single gridline off the true line. Multiplying each x by 3 and reading each y from the axis, not from the pattern, settles all seven.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Seven dots must each be tested against $3 a notebook, and the item never says how many fit; one missed point or one extra loses the whole item, so no dot can be skipped. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question
The graph stacks two dots above 1 notebook and two above 3, and each total cost has to be read off a grid ruled at every dollar up to 15. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
(5, 14) sits one gridline below (5, 15), where 5 notebooks at $3 would be, and (2, 5) sits one below (2, 6), so judging by the line's direction cannot rule either out. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Work out the cost of one notebook from the total given in the question, then multiply each point's x-coordinate by that price and keep only the points whose y-coordinate matches exactly.
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.
- Misreads the figure: Reads a value, label or tick spacing in a figure, table or graph wrongly.
The wrong answers, classified
A Little reason to choose it (Haladyna & Downing, 1993; Rodriguez, 2005)
No working from 4 notebooks for $12 makes one notebook cost $1, so this lowest dot mostly catches guesses, such as taking the dot nearest the origin as a start.
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Takes the straight row (1, 3), (2, 5), (3, 7) as the graph because its dots line up, though it climbs $2 a notebook and would meet the y-axis at $1, not the origin.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Prefers the lower of the two dots above 3 notebooks because it continues the evenly spaced row from (1, 3) and (2, 5), instead of checking that 3 notebooks cost $9.
G Misreads the figure (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Finds that 5 notebooks cost 5 × $3 = $15, then reads the dot above 5 as sitting on the top gridline, 15, when it is one line lower, at 14.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Unit price
- The unit price is what one item costs. Divide the total cost by the number of items bought. This works because every notebook costs the same, so the total splits into equal parts.
- A proportional relationship
- y is the total cost in dollars, and x is the number of notebooks. k is the price of one notebook, the number you always multiply by. A point fits only if its y is exactly k times its x. The graph is a straight line through (0, 0).
Sort out the question
Four notebooks cost $12, and each one costs the same. On the graph, x is the number of notebooks, and y is the total cost in dollars. The graph shows seven points. You must select every point that fits. The question does not say how many fit, so test all seven.
Find the price of one notebook
Split the $12 equally among the 4 notebooks:
Each notebook costs $3. So the total cost is 3 times the number of notebooks:
Test each point
For each point, multiply its x by 3. Keep the point only if the result equals its y.
Choice Point 3 × x Fits? A (1, 1) 3 No B (1, 3) 3 Yes C (2, 5) 6 No D (3, 7) 9 No E (3, 9) 9 Yes F (4, 12) 12 Yes G (5, 14) 15 No Watch for look-alike points
Watch out: the dots (1, 3), (2, 5) and (3, 7) sit in a neat straight row. But that row climbs $2 per notebook, not $3. Lining up is not enough: (2, 5) and (3, 7), choices C and D, do not fit.
Watch out: 5 notebooks cost dollars. The dot above 5 sits one gridline lower, at 14. Read the y-axis carefully, and you will skip choice G.
Name the points
Three points fit: (1, 3), (3, 9) and (4, 12). On the test, you click each of these dots on the graph. On this site, you check their boxes. So the answers are B, E and F.
Check your answer
All three points fit : , and . They also line up with (0, 0), since 0 notebooks cost $0. And (4, 12) is the fact the question gave you.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 11 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 11Passage A Miracle Mile
A Miracle Mile
In the 1950s people compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest and nicknamed the feat a “dream mile.” Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier. One of them was a twenty-five-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister.
Roger Bannister had tasted failure during the 1952 Olympics. There, he was favored to win the 1,500-meter competition, a distance slightly shorter than a mile, but he finished in a dismal fourth place instead. Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain. Determined to redeem himself, Bannister postponed his plans to retire from racing and focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.
Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning. The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed. For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap. In between intervals, he let his body recover for two minutes.
By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target. Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days. The rest from running permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed. When Bannister returned to the track, he completed ten quarter-mile-long intervals at fifty-nine seconds each. He finally felt prepared to attempt to break the world record.
As a member of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), Bannister joined the AAA team for a track meet against Oxford University. The event took place on a cinder track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Bannister and his two AAA teammates, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, were close friends and frequent running partners. Chataway and Brasher agreed to help Bannister accomplish his goal by being his “rabbits.”
In track and field, rabbits are runners who enter the race solely to pace a teammate for a segment of the course. Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo. Additionally, by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort. When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.
Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted “Faster!” at Brasher. Brasher, however, remained composed and maintained his current steady but grueling pace, completing the first two laps in a desirable one minute and fifty-eight seconds. Then Chataway surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half. At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway. Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.” Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. The ecstatic crowd erupted the moment the timekeeper announced the word “three.”
Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners. Over the years, the record continued to fall. However, the current record, 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, has stood unbroken since 1999. Some question whether this record represents the limits of human ability. But perhaps there is another Bannister, an athlete who, with willpower and dedication, will accomplish the miraculous.
Question
Which sentence from the passage indicates that Bannister nearly made a mistake that would have cost him the world record?
- A“By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target.” (paragraph 4)
- B“When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.” (paragraph 6)
- C“Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted ‘Faster!’ at Brasher.” (paragraph 7)
- D“At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway.” (paragraph 7)
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which sentence indicates that Bannister nearly made a mistake that would have cost him the world record.
A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 4 describes a challenge Bannister faced during his training period, when he used “intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed” (paragraph 3). Bannister ran laps on a “quarter-mile track” (paragraph 3) and was able to control his pace at this time—unlike during the actual race to break the record.
B. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 6 describes the start of the race and Brasher’s role as “first rabbit” for Bannister. Bannister was behind Brasher, following their plan for breaking the record.
C. CORRECT. If Bannister had begun running faster than the “steady but grueling pace” (paragraph 7) set by his “rabbit,” he would likely not have had enough energy to finish the race. As paragraph 6 notes, “the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort” by allowing the rabbit to set the pace. Bannister had “lost his instinctive feel for his pace” (paragraph 7) in the excitement of the race. If he had given in to his impulse to run faster and bypassed the rabbit at that point in the race, it would have cost him energy, and, in turn, the record.
D. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 7 describes how Bannister leaped ahead of Chataway, his second “rabbit,” at the appropriate time in the effort to break the record. Chataway had “surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half” (paragraph 7) before Bannister moved past him.
Question analysis
This textual evidence question asks which sentence from “A Miracle Mile” shows that Roger Bannister nearly made a mistake that could have cost him the world record. The passage never says outright that he slipped, so students must use what it explains about running a race to judge which moment was a real danger. The four choices span both his training and the race itself.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions usually match a sentence to an idea the text states. This mistake is never named as one, so students must infer which moment put the record at risk, a typical grade 7 inference within a short, clear passage.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 102 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 near mistake is easy to miss because it never happens: Brasher ignores the shout, and the race goes on at the planned pace. Students must see that losing his feel for the pace put the record at risk, using what paragraph 6 explains about rabbits. The sudden surge past Chataway sounds rash and the training plateau sounds like a near failure, so students who look for drama or for falling short land on the wrong moment.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The passage never calls the shout of “Faster!” a mistake; students must infer it from “lost his instinctive feel for his pace” and from Brasher’s refusal to change his steady pace. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
Why running faster would have cost the record is explained a paragraph earlier, in paragraph 6, where following a rabbit saves a runner about 15 percent of his or her effort. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each sentence shows a setback or a bold move, from the training plateau to the final surge, so each has to be judged against the idea of a near mistake. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: For each quoted sentence, ask whether it shows Bannister doing something that could have hurt his chances, and use what the passage explains about racing to judge how serious it was.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes the 1954 plateau, one second short of the target pace, as the near miss, but it was a setback in training that rest overcame, not a mistake.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that trailing at the start is a racing error, but paragraph 6 explains that a runner behind a rabbit saves about 15 percent of his or her effort.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “bolted” as a reckless burst, but Bannister passed Chataway only after his rabbits had paced him for three and a half laps, and the move won him the record.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for a sentence that shows a near mistake. That is something that almost went wrong. It would have cost Bannister the record. So look for a moment when he did something that could have ruined the race.
Learn how a rabbit helps
Paragraph 6 explains rabbits. They are teammates who run in front to set the speed. It says “Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo.” Tempo means speed. Also, “by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort.” Conserves means saves.
Find the moment that went wrong
Paragraph 7 begins “Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted” at Brasher to go faster. He lost his natural sense of how fast to run. If Brasher had sped up, Bannister could have used up his energy too soon. But Brasher “remained composed,” which means calm. He kept the steady pace, and that saved the race.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The training plateau was a setback, not a mistake. A rest fixed it.
- B does not fit. Following a rabbit was the plan. Paragraph 6 shows that it saves effort.
- C fits. Bannister wanted to go faster too early, which could have worn him out.
- D does not fit. Passing Chataway near the end was the right move. It won him the record.
Watch out: D is tempting because “bolted” sounds wild. But he waited until his rabbits had paced him for three and a half laps.
Choose the answer
Only C shows Bannister almost doing something that could have cost him the record. So the answer is C, “Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted ‘Faster!’ at Brasher.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, since bolting past Chataway was a bold, sudden move. But it came at the right time, and it led to the record. In C, Bannister lost his sense of pace and wanted to speed up too early. Only his rabbit’s calm saved him. That is a near mistake.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 12 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 21Passage Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown
Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown
by Robert W. Chambers
It was at that time the policy of the trustees and officers of the Zoological Gardens neither to employ collectors nor to send out expeditions in search of specimens. The society decided to depend upon voluntary contributions, and I was always busy, part of the day, in dictating answers to correspondents who wrote offering their services as hunters of big game, collectors of all sorts of fauna, trappers, snarers, and also to those who offered specimens for sale, usually at exorbitant rates.
To the proprietors of . . . mangy lynxes, moth-eaten coyotes, and dancing bears I returned courteous but uncompromising refusals—of course, first submitting all such letters, together with my replies, to Professor Farrago.
One day towards the end of May, however, just as I was leaving Bronx Park to return to town, Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, called out to me that Professor Farrago wanted to see me a moment; so I . . . retraced my steps to the temporary, wooden building occupied by Professor Farrago, general superintendent of the Zoological Gardens. The professor, who was sitting at his desk before a pile of letters and replies submitted for approval by me, pushed his glasses down and looked over them at me with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, annoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology.
“Now, here’s a letter,” he said, with a deliberate gesture towards a sheet of paper impaled on a file—“a letter that I suppose you remember.” He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me.
“Oh yes,” I replied, with a shrug; “of course the man is mistaken—or—”
“Or what?” demanded Professor Farrago, tranquilly, wiping his glasses.
“—Or a liar,” I replied.
After a silence he leaned back in his chair and bade me read the letter to him again, and I did so with a contemptuous tolerance for the writer, who must have been either a very innocent victim or a very stupid swindler. I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my surprise, he appeared to waver.
“I suppose,” he said, with his near-sighted, embarrassed smile, “that nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter aside and condemn the writer as a liar or a fool?”
“In my opinion,” said I, “he’s one or the other.”
“He isn’t—in mine,” said the professor, placidly.
“What!” I exclaimed. “Here is a man living all alone on a strip of rock and sand between the wilderness and the sea, who wants you to send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn’t exist!”
“How do you know,” asked Professor Farrago, “that the bird in question does not exist?”
“It is generally accepted,” I replied, sarcastically, “that the great auk has been extinct for years. Therefore I may be pardoned for doubting that our correspondent possesses a pair of them alive.”
“Oh, you young fellows,” said the professor, smiling wearily, “you embark on a theory for destinations that don’t exist.”
He leaned back in his chair, his amused eyes searching space for the imagery that made him smile.
“Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to—do you?”
Rather red in the face, I said: “Don’t you believe the great auk to be extinct?”
“Audubon saw the great auk.”
“Who has seen a single specimen since?”
“Nobody—except our correspondent here,” he replied, laughing.
I laughed, too, considering the interview at an end, but the professor went on, coolly:
“Whatever it is that our correspondent has—and I am daring to believe that it is the great auk itself—I want you to secure it for the society.”
When my astonishment subsided my first conscious sentiment was one of pity. Clearly, Professor Farrago was on the verge of dotage—ah, what a loss to the world!
I believe now that Professor Farrago perfectly interpreted my thoughts, but he betrayed neither resentment nor impatience. I drew a chair up beside his desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving.
Together we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized the expenses I might incur, and I set a date for my return, allowing no margin for a successful termination to the expedition.
“Never mind that,” said the professor. “What I want you to do is to get those birds here safely. Now, how many men will you take?”
“None,” I replied, bluntly; “it’s a useless expense, unless there is something to bring back. If there is I’ll wire you, you may be sure.”
“Very well,” said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, “you shall have all the assistance you may require. Can you leave to-night?”
The old gentleman was certainly prompt. I nodded, half-sulkily, aware of his amusement.
“So,” I said, picking up my hat, “I am to start north to find a place called Black Harbor, where there is a man named Halyard who possesses, among other household utensils, two extinct great auks—”
We were both laughing by this time. I asked him why on earth he credited the assertion of a man he had never before heard of.
“I suppose,” he replied, with the same half-apologetic, half-humorous smile, “it is instinct. I feel, somehow, that this man Halyard has got an auk—perhaps two. I can’t get away from the idea that we are on the eve of acquiring the rarest of living creatures. It’s odd for a scientist to talk as I do; doubtless you’re shocked—admit it, now!”
But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was conscious that the same strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite of me, to stir my pulses, too.
“If he has—” I began, then stopped.
The professor and I looked hard at each other in silence.
“Go on,” he said, encouragingly.
But I had nothing more to say, for the prospect of beholding with my own eyes a living specimen of the great auk produced a series of conflicting emotions within me which rendered speech profanely superfluous.
From IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN by Robert W. Chambers—Public Domain
Audubon: John James Audubon, an ornithologist and artist who created scientific illustrations of birds
dotage: a loss of reasoning brought about by old age
Question
Which sentence best demonstrates the professional relationship between the narrator and the professor?
- A“He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me.” (paragraph 4)
- B“Clearly, Professor Farrago was on the verge of dotage—ah, what a loss to the world!” (paragraph 24)
- C“I drew a chair up beside his desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving.” (paragraph 25)
- D“ ‘Very well,’ said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, ‘you shall have all the assistance you may require.’ ” (paragraph 29)
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which sentence best demonstrates the professional relationship between the narrator and the professor.
A. Incorrect. Although the professor’s handing of the paper to the narrator indicates that they are beginning to discuss the letter about the great auk, the sentence from paragraph 4 does not convey the relationship between a subordinate employee (the narrator) and a superior (the professor).
B. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 24 presents the narrator’s immediate internal reaction to the professor’s words. The sentence emphasizes that the professor’s belief in the great auk’s existence is so outrageous that the narrator initially thinks the professor is starting to lose touch with reality. This is a momentary reaction to the professor’s words, not a demonstration of the professional relationship between the two.
C. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 25 reveals that while the narrator disagrees with the professor (“this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving”), he obeys because he works for the professor (“there was nothing to do but to obey”).
D. Incorrect. The professor’s good-humored offer of assistance in the sentence from paragraph 29 does not best demonstrate the underlying employer-employee relationship between the professor and the narrator. The narrator has to go on the expedition because the professor, his boss, told him to.
Question analysis
This textual evidence question on In Search of the Unknown asks which sentence best demonstrates the professional relationship between the narrator, who answers letters for a zoological society, and Professor Farrago. The four quotations come from different points in their conversation about a letter. Several show the two men dealing with each other, so students must weigh which one shows the relationship most clearly.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Picking the sentence that best shows a relationship between characters is typical grade 7 evidence work. The four quotations are short and labeled, and the main step is deciding what a professional relationship would look like in this scene.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 84 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
Several quotations show the two men interacting, and the professor’s offer of “all the assistance you may require” even shows him controlling the society’s resources. The best evidence is the sentence in which the employee’s position is plain: he disagrees, yet he must obey. Students who read “professional” loosely as anything that happens at work pick the handing over of the letter, and those who look only at the professor’s authority stop at his offer of help.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Students must first decide what a professional relationship looks like here, a superior and an employee bound to carry out his orders, before they can see it in “nothing to do but to obey.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four sentences show the two men dealing with each other, from handing over a letter to granting help, so each must be weighed for what it shows about rank. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The right sentence ends “this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving,” old-fashioned wording for saying the pointless trip was not his idea, which shows the disagreement that makes his obedience telling. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Decide first what a professional relationship between these two men involves, then ask of each quotation whether it shows that relationship or only a passing moment between them.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats the handing over of a letter as a boss giving an order, though the gesture only opens their discussion and shows nothing about who must answer to whom.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Chooses the narrator’s private verdict that the professor is near “dotage,” an accurate view of his thoughts in paragraph 24 but a passing reaction, not a sign of their working roles.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees the professor granting help as a superior’s power, which is partly right, but the sentence shows his good humor more than the narrator’s duty to follow orders.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the sentence that best shows their professional relationship. That means how they relate at work: who is the boss, and who must follow orders. Paragraph 3 calls Professor Farrago the “general superintendent of the Zoological Gardens.” He is the man in charge. The narrator sends him letters for approval.
Look for a sign of boss and worker
Paragraph 25 says “I drew a chair up beside his desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving.” To obey means to do what you are told. A fool’s errand is a pointless task. “None of my conceiving” means it was not his idea.
Put it in your own words
The narrator thinks the trip is silly. Still, he must do it, because the professor is his boss. A worker who disagrees but follows orders anyway shows a work relationship clearly. That is what this sentence does.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Handing over a letter starts their talk. It shows nothing about who is in charge.
- B does not fit. It is the narrator’s private thought that the professor is losing his reason in old age. It is a passing reaction.
- C fits. The narrator must obey even though he disagrees.
- D does not fit. It shows the professor in a good mood. It does not show the narrator’s duty to follow orders.
Watch out: D is tempting because a boss is the one who offers help. But the sentence mostly shows his good humor.
Choose the answer
Only C shows the narrator following an order he does not agree with. So the answer is C, “I drew a chair up beside his desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. The professor does have the power to offer “all the assistance you may require.” But that sentence mainly shows him being friendly. C shows the heart of the work relationship. The narrator thinks the job is foolish, yet he has “nothing to do but to obey.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed (page 21)
Question 13 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 29Passage Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy
Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy
Inside the 40,000-acre Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northern Oklahoma, herds of bison roam on the scenic land that is home to hundreds of different species of plants and animals. While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.
Fires that are started by lightning or other natural circumstances are inevitable, and the results can be disastrous. However, hundreds of years ago the American Indian people who inhabited the Great Plains area between Minnesota and Texas realized that these fires could also be helpful. The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas. The American Indian people began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on, which enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.
Today conservationists at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and farmers in the Great Plains continue to use controlled burns for land management. Intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there. The fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients. Additionally, the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil.
One common target of controlled burns at the preserve and the surrounding area is the invasive red cedar tree. A single red cedar tree can consume up to 40 gallons of water per day, taking this vital resource away from other plant life. These tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them. The fast-growing red cedar trees tend to crowd out prairie grasses, the primary food source for wild and domestic animals that make the prairie their home. An imbalance in one component of the prairie’s ecosystem affects the entire web of life. Controlled burns help maintain this ecosystem’s delicate balance.
Of course, these controlled fires are intended to burn only a portion of an area. A total burn, which is a risk with an uncontrolled wildfire, would destroy all wildlife as well as the crops farmers plant for income. The key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when. Conservation experts at the preserve employ the “patch-burn” approach, meaning they rotate which portion of land is burned each year. They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned, and then they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land. This patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate. The following year, conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve, while the land burned the previous year regrows healthier than before.
Researchers have tracked and studied the variety of plant species and animals that live on the preserve, and their studies show that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out. The patch-burn system is so successful that the conservationists at the preserve provide training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land. Burning land to make it healthy may seem counterintuitive, but strategic controlled fires have helped the prairie sustain life for hundreds of years and, with careful management, will continue to do so.
Question
According to the passage, how did fires started by natural causes prompt American Indians to begin practicing controlled burns?
- Aby drawing animals in to the area to feed on the new growth sprouting from the burned land
- Bby destroying tall trees and reducing the shade that had hindered the growth of planted crops
- Cby burning off excess vegetation and increasing the availability of nutrients for the remaining plants
- Dby causing changes to the bison’s migration habits as bison herds fled from the wildfires on the prairie
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how observing the effects of the fires started by natural causes prompted American Indians to begin practicing controlled burns.
A. CORRECT. In paragraph 2, the author states that American Indians observed bison “grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas.” These observations prompted the practice of controlled burns as a means of enticing “the herds away from the people’s crops.”
B. Incorrect. Although the author mentions in paragraph 4 that the primary targets of a controlled burn are red cedar trees and that “these tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them,” this detail supports why conservationists use controlled burns today, not what initially prompted the use of controlled burns.
C. Incorrect. While the author states in paragraph 3 that “the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil” and that “intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there,” these details do not explain the initial observations that prompted American Indians to practice controlled burning.
D. Incorrect. While paragraph 2 mentions that bison moved to a new area to graze because they preferred the “tender new grass on the recently burned land,” there is no indication in the passage that bison changed their migration habits in order to flee wildfires.
Question analysis
This key-details question about an article on controlled burns at an Oklahoma tallgrass prairie preserve asks how fires started by lightning or other natural causes led American Indians to begin burning land on purpose. Students must find the passage's account of that early practice, and since the article describes several effects of fire, each choice has to be checked against what those first observers actually saw.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Finding a stated cause in an informational text is regular grade 7 reading. The answer sits in one short paragraph, but the article describes several effects of fire, old and new, and the choices draw on them, which keeps the demand typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 86 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 stem points to one short paragraph, but the article goes on to list many more benefits of fire, and two wrong choices borrow them: shade cleared from under red cedars and nutrients returned to the soil. Both are true of controlled burns today, not of what the Great Plains peoples first noticed. Students who return to paragraph 2 and restate the bison’s taste for freshly burned grass find the answer quickly.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Two wrong choices name real benefits of burning from later paragraphs, cedar shade removed in paragraph 4 and nutrients freed in paragraph 3, so each must be tested against what the early peoples saw. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Paragraph 2 never says the bison’s grazing caused the practice; students connect “realized that these fires could also be helpful” to the preference for burned land and the deliberate burns that follow. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Go to the paragraph about the Great Plains peoples of hundreds of years ago, restate in your own words what they noticed after natural fires, and test each choice against that observation.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Borrows paragraph 4’s red cedars, whose shade blocks sunlight from the plants beneath them, and adds “planted crops,” though that shade explains modern burns, not the first deliberate ones.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
States paragraph 3’s real benefits, weedy undergrowth burned away and nitrogen added to the soil, but the article gives them as reasons for burning today, not as what the early peoples observed.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Remembers that bison moved onto burned land but turns their preference for “tender new grass” into herds fleeing wildfire, a change in migration the passage never describes.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks about a cause. Long ago, fires started by lightning gave American Indians an idea. They began to burn land on purpose. You need to find what they saw that led them to do it. A controlled burn is a fire that people set and keep inside a planned area.
Find the right paragraph
Paragraph 2 tells this part of the story. It says the people “realized that these fires could also be helpful.” Then it says what they noticed: “The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas.”
Put it in your own words
Grazing means eating grass. After a fire, soft new grass grew, and the bison liked it best. So the people began to burn land on purpose. The new grass pulled the herds to that land. That kept the bison away from the crops. The paragraph says the burning “enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.” Enticed means tempted or drew.
Check each choice
- A is right. The burned land drew animals, the bison, to eat the new grass.
- B is wrong. The shade of tall trees comes from paragraph 4. It explains why people burn red cedars today, not how burning began.
- C is wrong. Burning off weeds and adding nutrients come from paragraph 3. Nutrients are what plants need to grow. These are reasons for burning today.
- D is wrong. The bison moved toward the fresh grass. The passage never says herds fled from fires.
Watch out: C is true about controlled burns. But the question asks what first gave the people the idea. Paragraph 2 says it was the bison.
Choose the answer
The early people saw bison come to burned land to eat the new grass. So the answer is A: “by drawing animals in to the area to feed on the new growth sprouting from the burned land.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because it names real good effects of fire. But paragraph 3 gives those as reasons people burn land “today.” The question asks how burning began hundreds of years ago. Paragraph 2 says it began when people watched bison feed on burned land.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed (page 41)
Question 14 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 32Uses the passage above: “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy”.
Question
Which sentence supports the idea that farmers and people who manage land may be concerned about using fire as a way to benefit the land?
- A“While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.” (paragraph 1)
- B“The American Indian people began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on, which enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.” (paragraph 2)
- C“This patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate.” (paragraph 5)
- D“The following year, conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve, while the land burned the previous year regrows healthier than before.” (paragraph 5)
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which sentence supports the idea that farmers and people who manage land may be concerned about using fire as a way to benefit the land.
A. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 1 supports the idea that farmers and people who manage land may be concerned about using fire as a way to benefit the land because it acknowledges that “one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire.”
B. Incorrect. Although the sentence from paragraph 2 relates how American Indians “began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on” and to protect people’s crops, the sentence does not support the idea that farmers and people who manage land may be concerned about using fire as a way to benefit the land. Instead, it focuses on the cause-and-effect relationship between bison and newly burned areas.
C. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 5 provides details about how “patch burning contains the fire” and “allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate,” but it does not adequately support the idea that farmers and people who manage land may be concerned about using fire as a way to benefit the land, because it does not mention that wildfires can be a threat to the prairie.
D. Incorrect. While the sentence from paragraph 5 does explain how “conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve” in order to rotate the process year after year so that the burned land has time to regrow, the sentence does not support the idea that farmers and people who manage land may be concerned about using fire as a way to benefit the land because it does not mention the potential for total burns.
Question analysis
This evidence question asks which sentence from the article on controlled prairie burns supports the idea that farmers and others who manage land may be concerned about using fire to benefit it. The passage never states that concern directly, so students must infer it, and all four quoted sentences, taken from across the article, talk about burning land in some way.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions usually ask for support of an idea the text states. This idea, that people who manage land may worry about using fire, is never stated outright, so students must infer which sentence implies it, more than typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 123 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 idea to support is about people’s feelings, yet none of the four sentences mentions farmers worrying, so students have to decide what would justify such worry. The opening sentence does it by naming wildfire as a great threat before praising controlled fire, a concession many students read past as background. The strongest pull is the sentence on containing the fire, which implies caution but presents patch burning as the answer, not the concern.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
No sentence mentions worry; students must see that calling wildfire “one of the greatest threats to the prairie” gives landowners a reason to fear fire, and that “actually” answers that fear. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The patch-burn sentence about containing the fire “within a specific area” also hints at fire’s danger; it differs from the right one by describing the safeguard without ever naming a threat. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The four sentences come from paragraphs 1, 2 and 5, and each is about burning land, so each must be tested for a hint of risk rather than for its topic. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before rereading the choices, decide what a sentence would need to say to show that landowners have reason to be wary of fire, then test each quoted sentence for exactly that.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Links “the people’s crops” to farmers, but the sentence tells how early burns drew bison away from the crops and shows no worry about fire itself.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees caution in containing the fire “within a specific area,” but the sentence explains how patch burning keeps animals safe and never says fire threatens the land.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes the yearly rotation as a careful precaution, but the sentence describes the schedule and land that “regrows healthier than before,” which backs the benefit, not the worry.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is an evidence question. Evidence is the words in a text that back up an idea. The idea here is that farmers might worry about using fire to help land. No sentence says farmers are worried. So look for a sentence that gives them a reason to fear fire.
Decide what the evidence needs
A sentence that supports this idea must show that fire can be dangerous. If fire can harm land, people have a reason to be careful with it. So test each sentence with one question: does it say fire is a threat?
Look closely at paragraph 1
Choice A quotes paragraph 1. Its first half says “one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire.” That is a reason to fear fire. Its second half says controlled fires are “actually” helpful. The word “actually” pushes back against that fear. It means: you might expect fire to hurt the land, but here it helps.
Check each choice
- A is right. It names wildfire as a great threat. That gives farmers a reason to worry about fire.
- B is wrong. It tells how early burns drew bison away from crops. It shows no danger from fire.
- C is wrong. It tells how patch burning keeps the fire in one area. It describes a safety step but never names a threat.
- D is wrong. It describes burning a new section each year. It shows a benefit: land that “regrows healthier than before.”
Watch out: C hints that fire must be contained, or kept in, so it sounds careful. But it describes the solution, not the danger.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence names fire as a danger. So the answer is A, the sentence from paragraph 1: “While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.” Idyllic means peaceful and lovely.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because keeping fire “within a specific area” suggests caution. But C only explains how patch burning works. It never says fire can harm the prairie. A does, by calling wildfire one of the greatest threats.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 15 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 34Uses the passage above: “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy”.
Question
With which statement would the author most likely agree?
- AIt is important to explain the purposes and the risks of controlled burns to the people living near a proposed burn area.
- BIt is necessary to thoroughly examine a particular region in order to plan and execute a successful controlled burn.
- CMonitoring animals’ reactions after a controlled burn on the prairie is a minor part of scientists’ research.
- DConservationists should consider the helpful aspects of invasive species before executing a controlled burn.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks with which statement the author of the passage would most likely agree.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author states that “patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate,” and paragraph 6 states that conservationists “provide [important] training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land.” However, the author does not explicitly take a position about the importance of explaining the purposes and the risks of controlled burns to the people living near a proposed burn area. Therefore, the evidence in the passage does not strongly suggest that the author would agree with this statement.
B. CORRECT. In paragraph 5, the author points out that conservationists “study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned, and then they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land” and “rotate which portion of land is burned each year” so that animals, such as bison, can “safely relocate.” Therefore, the author would most likely agree that it is necessary to thoroughly examine a particular region in order to plan and execute a successful controlled burn.
C. Incorrect. The author of the passage would be unlikely to agree that monitoring animals’ reactions after a controlled burn on the prairie is a minor part of scientists’ research. In paragraph 5, the author explains that patch burning “allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate” and that conservationists “burn a different section of the preserve” each year to ensure that animals have an abundant area to graze while other areas are being burned.
D. Incorrect. According to the information in paragraph 4, conservationists commonly target invasive red cedar trees because they are tall trees that “crowd out prairie grasses, the primary food source for wild and domestic animals that make the prairie their home.” Since the focus is on the harm that the invasive red cedar can cause, the author would be unlikely to agree that conservationists should consider the helpful aspects of invasive species before executing a controlled burn.
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks which statement the author of the prairie-burning article would most likely agree with. Students infer the author's position from details spread through the passage, and since some choices sound like sensible advice in general, each must be traced back to what the article actually supports.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Inferring what an author would agree with is typical grade 7 work on point of view. The choices draw on different paragraphs, and the author's views are stated fairly plainly, so careful checking settles it without a long chain of inference.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 81 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The right statement is close to a paraphrase of paragraph 5, where the experts study the land before choosing where to burn, so careful readers settle this quickly. The risk is a statement that sounds wise in general: explaining a burn’s purposes and risks to its neighbors is good practice, but the article never raises it. The other two contradict the text, which values research on animals and treats red cedars only as a harm.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The statements touch different parts of the article, research in paragraph 6, invasive species in paragraph 4 and safety in general, so each must be traced to what the author says, if anything. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The author never gives an opinion on planning burns; agreement must be inferred from the report that experts “study the land” before arranging about a dozen burns. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: For each statement, find the paragraph it relates to and ask whether the author says something close to it, says the opposite, or says nothing; choose only a statement the text backs.
Traps
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Agrees with a sensible safety practice, telling neighbors about a burn’s purposes and risks, but the article discusses training farmers, never informing people who live near a burn.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Notices that the article says more about land than about animals and calls watching them minor, though paragraph 6 reports researchers tracking the preserve’s animals and finding biodiversity restored.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Imagines a balanced view in which invasive species have helpful sides, though paragraph 4 presents the red cedar only as a threat that drinks water, blocks sunlight and crowds out grasses.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks which statement the author would most likely agree with. The author doesn’t state an opinion on these ideas outright. So check each statement against what the passage says. Pick the one the passage backs up.
Find what the author stresses
Paragraph 5 says “The key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when.” Next it says the experts “study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned.” Only after that do they plan “about a dozen burns over one-third of the land.” A dozen means 12.
Put it in your own words
The author calls knowing where and when to burn “the key.” A key is the most important part. The experts study the land before they plan a single burn. So the author thinks careful study comes first. A burn works only when people know the land well.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. This sounds like good advice. But the passage never talks about warning neighbors before a burn.
- B is right. It matches paragraph 5. The experts study the land, then plan the burns.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 6 says researchers “tracked and studied” the animals. The author treats that research as important, not minor.
- D is wrong. Paragraph 4 shows the invasive red cedar only as harmful. Invasive means spreading where it doesn’t belong.
Watch out: A is tempting because it is wise in real life. But you must pick what this author would agree with, based on the passage.
Choose the answer
The author shows the experts studying the land before they plan. Execute here means carry out. So the answer is B: “It is necessary to thoroughly examine a particular region in order to plan and execute a successful controlled burn.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because explaining a burn to the neighbors is sensible. But the passage never raises it. B matches what paragraph 5 actually says: the experts “study the land” before they plan the burns.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 16 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 36Passage Letter from Brooklyn
Letter from Brooklyn
by Jacob Scheier
I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.
“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.
brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past
Question
How does the structure of the poem affect the poem’s meaning?
- AThe lack of a rhyming pattern suggests that the beauty of each passing day is unique.
- BThe lengths of the sentences represent the complexity of the thoughts being represented.
- CThe use of complete sentences implies the speaker’s appreciation for the clear beginning and ending of each season.
- DThe single long stanza reflects the continuous flow of the speaker’s thoughts.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the structure of the poem affects its meaning.
A. Incorrect. Though the poem lacks a rhyming pattern, such a structure is not related to the uniqueness of the passing days. The speaker is savoring “the early edge of fall” (line 7) and describes walks taken on “these days” (line 17), but the beauty the speaker appreciates is attributed to the fall season rather than to a unique day. Further, the poem is primarily concerned with broad seasonal shifts, not the passing of each day, and the absence of rhyme does not suggest that each day is unique in its beauty.
B. Incorrect. The poem includes both long sentences (such as the one in lines 7–12) and short sentences (such as those in lines 5 and 6). However, the sentence lengths are not connected with the complexity of the ideas expressed.
C. Incorrect. A complete sentence serves to present the beginning and the end of a single thought, but the poem is not primarily concerned with the speaker’s thoughts on the “clear beginning and ending of each season.” Though it contrasts the speaker’s feelings and experiences during different seasons, the poem does not present descriptions focused specifically on the beginnings or ends of these seasons.
D. CORRECT. Unlike poems that are broken into stanzas reflecting unified groups of thoughts, this poem is one long stanza. This structure serves to emphasize the uninterrupted flow of the speaker’s thoughts from time to time and experience to experience without a clear break between any specific thoughts.
Question analysis
This poetry question asks how the structure of Jacob Scheier's “Letter from Brooklyn,” a poem about walking through the city in early fall, affects its meaning. Students must look at how the poem is built, its sentences, line breaks, stanzas and lack of rhyme, and decide which feature really shapes what the poem says.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 standards ask how a poem's form shapes its meaning. Here each choice names a feature of form that students must first confirm in the poem and then link to its meaning, a typical grade 7 poetry task on a short poem.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 70 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
Checking whether a feature exists rules out little here, since the poem is unrhymed, its sentences vary widely and it has one stanza. The decision rests on which feature matches what the speaker does: thoughts move from future to present to memory without a break. The strongest pull ties the lack of rhyme to the uniqueness of each day, which sounds like the poem’s theme of rare moments but is not something rhyme or its absence can show.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question is about form, so students must ask what the single unbroken stanza does: it carries the speaker from the coming cold back to the present walk without a pause. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Three choices name features the poem really has, no rhyme, sentences from five words to six lines, and one stanza, so the meaning each feature is given is what separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Students must know what a stanza and a rhyming pattern are, and that a poem without stanza breaks has no white space marking separate groups of thought. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: For each choice, first check that the poem really has the feature named, then ask whether that feature fits what the speaker is doing throughout the poem, not just in one line.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Applies the habit of finding meaning in free verse, linking the missing rhyme to each day’s unique beauty, which echoes “how rare that is” but follows from nothing in the form.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Rightly sees sentences ranging from five words to six lines, but gives their length a job, matching complex thoughts, that the poem never connects to it.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Assumes complete sentences marking each season’s clear start and end, though the last four lines are a fragment and the poem follows fall’s gradual early turn.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how the poem’s structure shapes its meaning. Structure means how the poem is built: its stanzas, its sentences and its rhyme. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line. It is like a paragraph in a poem.
Look at how the poem is built
The poem has 26 lines and no blank lines, so it is one long stanza. The lines don’t rhyme. The sentences have many lengths. Line 5, “The weather will turn cold,” is short. The sentence in lines 7–12 runs six lines.
Follow the speaker’s thoughts
The speaker is the voice talking in the poem. Line 1 jumps ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” Line 6 comes back: “But that all happens later.” Then the speaker describes the fall air, then the walk, then a lonely feeling. One thought slides into the next with no stop. One unbroken stanza matches that steady flow.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The poem has no rhyme. But missing rhyme can’t show that each day’s beauty is unique, or one of a kind.
- B is wrong. The sentences do vary in length. But the poem doesn’t link long sentences to hard thoughts.
- C is wrong. The poem isn’t about each season’s clear start and end. It describes fall just starting to turn.
- D is right. The single stanza matches thoughts that flow on with no breaks.
Watch out: Three choices name real features of the poem. So don’t stop at Is this true? Ask whether that feature really creates the meaning the choice gives it.
Choose the answer
Continuous means going on without stopping. So the answer is D: “The single long stanza reflects the continuous flow of the speaker’s thoughts.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because the poem does praise a rare moment. But rhyme, or no rhyme, can’t show that each day is unique. One long stanza can show thoughts flowing without a stop. That is how the speaker thinks, from line 1 to line 26.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
Question 17 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 42Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.
Question
The speaker’s thoughts throughout the poem develop a theme by showing that
- Aalthough people may hold expectations for the future, some people long for present experiences while they are still happening.
- Bthough people come from different places, most people feel drawn to the special charm a city holds.
- Calthough people can make decisions about their life, there will always be some things beyond their control.
- Dthough general expectations exist, people have no way of knowing what a given day will actually bring.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the speaker’s thoughts throughout the poem develop a theme.
A. CORRECT. The speaker’s thoughts develop some tension because seasonal change will inevitably come: “The weather will turn cold” (line 5). However, the speaker is still able to enjoy the present experience because “that all happens later” (line 6). In lines 21–22, the speaker begins to describe experiences that create a longing for the present, even while it is still happening (“How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of”), developing a theme of the poem.
B. Incorrect. The speaker’s thoughts reveal an appreciation for the city, but this appreciation is highly personal and individual. These thoughts do not indicate that most people will feel drawn to cities.
C. Incorrect. Some things, such as seasons, are beyond human control, as the speaker concedes: “I can already see how this will end” (line 1). However, the theme of the poem is not that certain things are inevitable, but that one can live in the present moment and enjoy that experience before change occurs.
D. Incorrect. The speaker’s thoughts are not showing that people are surprised by what the days bring; the thoughts of the speaker suggest that people experience many seasons in Brooklyn and have reasonable expectations about what these days will bring.
Question analysis
This theme question asks what theme the speaker's thoughts develop across all of “Letter from Brooklyn,” from the opening line about how things will end to the closing lines about loneliness on late afternoons. Each choice is a broad statement about people in two parts, so students must check both halves against the speaker's reflections.
- NYS standards
- 7R2 theme or central idea
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Stating a theme is a grade 7 standard, often tested with one clearly fitting choice. Here every choice is a two-part general statement about people, and students must test both halves of each against a whole poem of abstract reflection, more than typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 82 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The four themes are broad statements about people, each in two halves, and every one can borrow something from the poem: the seasons are beyond control, the city has charm, the future brings surprises. The right one matches the speaker’s double vision, knowing what is coming and longing for the present while it lasts. The strongest pull is the theme about things beyond control, whose second half fits the turning seasons and whose first half the poem never raises.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The poem never states its theme; it must be built from the speaker’s forecasts in lines 1–6 and the paradox of being “nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Every choice is a two-part “although” or “though” statement about people, and three have one plausible half, so each half must be checked against the poem on its own. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The theme draws on the whole poem, from the opening “I can already see how this will end” to the lonely late afternoons of lines 23–26. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Sum up in a sentence what the speaker keeps thinking about from the first line to the last, then test both halves of each choice against the poem and reject any half it does not support.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- 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
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns one speaker’s love of Brooklyn into a claim that “most people” feel drawn to a city’s charm, though no other person’s view appears in the poem.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Accepts the half about things beyond control, since the weather will turn cold regardless, but the poem says nothing about people making decisions about their lives.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the coming season into an unknown, though the speaker opens with “I can already see how this will end” and knows exactly what the weather will bring.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks for the theme of the whole poem. A theme is a big message about life. Each choice has two halves, joined by although or though. Both halves must fit the poem. If one half doesn’t, the choice is wrong.
Trace the speaker’s thoughts
The poem opens by looking ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker expects to tire of the bridge, and “The weather will turn cold.” Then the speaker turns to now: “But that all happens later.” Most of the poem enjoys the fall walk. Lines 21–22 sum it up: “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.”
Put it in your own words
Nostalgic means longing for the past. Yet the speaker longs for the present, while it is still going on. So the speaker does two things at once. The speaker expects what the future will bring. And the speaker treasures, or deeply values, the present. That is the theme.
Check each choice
- A is right. First half: the speaker expects cold weather and boredom. Second half: the speaker longs for the walk while it is still going on.
- B is wrong. Only one person speaks in the poem. Nothing says most people feel drawn to cities.
- C is wrong. The weather is beyond anyone’s control, so its second half fits. But the poem never talks about people making decisions about their lives.
- D is wrong. The speaker knows what is coming. The future isn’t a mystery here.
Watch out: C is tempting because the speaker can’t stop the cold. But test both halves. Its first half, about making decisions, isn’t in the poem.
Choose the answer
So the answer is A: “although people may hold expectations for the future, some people long for present experiences while they are still happening.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because the seasons are beyond the speaker’s control. But the poem never mentions people making decisions about their lives. A matches both halves: the speaker expects what is coming, and longs for the present while it lasts.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 18 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 45Passage 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
Which revision of sentence 11 best maintains the formal style established in the passage?
- AHowever, in 2018, a dust storm covered the planet, bringing the rover’s progress to a standstill.
- BHowever, in 2018, a dust storm shrouded the planet, impermanently halting the rover’s progress.
- CHowever, in 2018, a dust storm enveloped the whole of the planet, arresting the rover’s progress for a time.
- DHowever, in 2018, a dust storm covered up the whole planet, which quickly brought a stop to the progress of the rover.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the revision of sentence 11 that best maintains the formal style established in the passage.
A. CORRECT. This sentence uses clear and formal writing throughout. The phrase “covered the planet” is accurate and formal without being overly poetic, and “standstill” is a precise word for putting something “on hold,” as expressed by the original sentence, while maintaining the formal style of the passage.
B. Incorrect. Although the sentence is formal in style, the word “shrouded” is overly poetic, and the phrase “impermanently halting” is too stilted and formal for the style and tone of the passage.
C. Incorrect. Although the sentence is formal in style, the words “enveloped” and “arresting” are overly poetic, especially when used in the same sentence, and the phrases “the whole of the planet” and “for a time” are needlessly wordy and imprecise, compared with the formal scientific language of the passage.
D. Incorrect. The phrases “covered up the whole planet” and “quickly brought a stop to the progress of the rover” are less formal and unnecessarily wordy, compared with the formal style established by the rest of the passage.
Question analysis
This style question asks which revision of sentence 11, about the 2018 dust storm that covered Mars and stopped the Opportunity rover, best maintains the formal style of the passage. All four versions say the same thing, so students must compare word choice and wordiness and decide which one reads like the rest of the passage.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Keeping a formal style is grade 7 writing work, usually tested by spotting slang or casual wording. Here all four revisions keep the meaning and differ in register by degrees, so students must judge the passage's own style closely, more than typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Something you must already know moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 337 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 80 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question turns on what “formal” means. Many students equate it with impressive words and choose the revision with “enveloped” and “arresting,” or the one with “shrouded,” missing that both are more poetic than a passage that reports dates and distances. The casual revision is easy to reject, so the real test is preferring the plainest formal sentence to the grandest one.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
Students must know that a formal informational style is plain and precise, so words such as “shrouded,” “enveloped” and “arresting” are too ornate for a passage that reports miles and dates. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four revisions keep the meaning of sentence 11 and differ only in register and length, so each must be heard against the passage’s voice rather than checked for errors. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Impermanently,” “shrouded” and “arresting,” in its sense of stopping, are uncommon words, and students must judge how they sound in the passage, not only what they mean. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Reread a few sentences around sentence 11 to hear the passage's voice, then check each revision for casual phrasing, needless words and words that would sound out of place in that voice.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Equates formal with elevated, so “shrouded” and “impermanently halting” seem best, though both are stilted and poetic beside the passage’s plain reporting of facts.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Avoids casual words, but “enveloped” and “arresting” are poetic, and “the whole of the planet” and “for a time” add words the plain version does without.
D Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Keeps the meaning, but the casual “covered up” and the roundabout “brought a stop to the progress of the rover” make it wordier and less formal.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks which version of sentence 11 keeps the passage’s formal style. Formal writing is serious and clear, like a textbook. It avoids slang and casual words. But formal doesn’t mean fancy. Formal writing about science uses plain, exact words. For example, The game got called off is casual. The contest was halted indefinitely is too fancy. The game was canceled is formal and plain.
Hear the passage’s voice
Sentence 9 says “the rover traveled a total of 28.06 miles across Mars’ surface.” Sentence 12 says minor storms “deposited a layer of dust onto the solar panels.” The words are exact and plain. The passage gives dates and numbers. It doesn’t paint poetic pictures.
Check each revision
- A is right. “Covered the planet” is plain and exact. A standstill is a complete stop, a clear way to say “on hold.”
- B is wrong. “Shrouded” is poetic. A shroud is a cloth wrapped around a body. “Impermanently halting” sounds stiff and odd.
- C is wrong. “Enveloped” and “arresting” are fancy words. Here arresting means stopping. “The whole of the planet” and “for a time” add extra words.
- D is wrong. “Covered up” is casual. “Brought a stop to the progress of the rover” is wordy, or longer than it needs to be.
Watch out: Many students think formal means big words, so they choose C. But a passage of dates and miles calls for plain words.
Choose the answer
Only A is both formal and plain, like the rest of the passage. So the answer is A: “However, in 2018, a dust storm covered the planet, bringing the rover’s progress to a standstill.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because it has no slang and sounds serious. But “enveloped” and “arresting” are poetic, and “the whole of the planet” is wordy. The passage reports facts in plain words. A says the same thing in the plainest formal way.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The End of an Era” as printed (page 60)
Question 19 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 47Uses the passage above: “The End of an Era”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
- Unclear pronoun: A pronoun whose reference is vague or ambiguous, or one in the wrong case.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Opens with the effect as a participial phrase, which pushes “prior to this planet-wide dust storm,” the link to sentence 11, to the end and names “the rover” twice.
B Unclear pronoun (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Packs sentence 12 into a 19-word opening phrase, so “it” follows “this planet-wide dust storm” and no longer points clearly to the rover buried inside the phrase.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Likes the clear cause word “because,” but the result now comes first, “the rover” appears twice, and “prior to this planet-wide dust storm” splits the subject from its verb.
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.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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 20 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 48Question
In September 2016 the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened as part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum is already the Smithsonian’s third most popular site. Experts say that they expect this newest Smithsonian facility to welcome nearly 4 million visitors a year. The museum features more than 30,000 objects, including Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and a dress sewn by Rosa Parks. A commemorative copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, written in 1863 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, is also on display at the museum.
Which part of the paragraph contains an error in sentence structure?
Select the one error.
On the test you click the words in the text; here, choose them below.
- AInstitution, the
- Byear. The
- Cobjects, including
- DProclamation, written
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which part of the paragraph contains an error in sentence structure.
Choice 1: “Institution, the” contains an error in sentence structure. The comma between these two words creates a type of run-on sentence known as a comma splice because both clauses—“In September 2016 the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened as part of the Smithsonian Institution” and “the museum is already the Smithsonian’s third most popular site”—are independent clauses, and must be separated with either a period or semicolon. If a comma is used to join the clauses together, a conjunction such as and would need to be added after the comma [converting the comma splice into a correct compound sentence].
Choice 2: “year. The” is correctly constructed, with independent clauses on both sides of the period (“Experts say that they expect this newest Smithsonian facility to welcome nearly 4 million visitors a year” and “The museum features more than 30,000 objects, including Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and a dress sewn by Rosa Parks”).
Choice 3: “objects, including” is correctly constructed. The sentence is correct as written with the nonrestrictive prepositional phrase (“including Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and a dress sewn by Rosa Parks”) properly preceded by a comma.
Choice 4: “Proclamation, written” is correctly constructed. The sentence is correct, with the nonrestrictive participial phrase (“written in 1863 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln”) properly offset by a comma on either side.
Question analysis
This sentence-structure question shows a short paragraph about the 2016 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, with four short phrases underlined. On the test students click the one part that contains an error in sentence structure, and the long names and the commas in the paragraph can make every spot look suspicious.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Finding run-ons and fragments is taught before grade 7, and here students check four short underlined spots in one paragraph for a single error in sentence structure. Long institution names add reading load but no extra grammar.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 10, 107 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
Students no longer have to supply the fix, only find the faulty spot, so the question rests on recognizing a comma splice. The error sits in the first sentence behind a long museum name, while the phrases “including Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves” and “written in 1863” look more suspicious to anyone unsure about phrases set off by commas. Testing each spot for a full sentence on both sides finds it quickly.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
A comma alone joins two full clauses at “Institution, the,” and because the long museum name delays the break, the comma reads as a pause rather than a missing period. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The first clause runs 19 words, most of them the museum’s name, so by the time “the museum is already” arrives it sounds like a continuation, not a new sentence. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each of the four clickable phrases straddles a comma or a period, so students must check, at every one, whether the words on each side could stand as a sentence. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Find the subject and main verb of each sentence and count how many complete thoughts it holds, then check whether the punctuation at each underlined spot suits what comes on either side.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Suspects the break after “year” because two sentences meet there, though a period already separates two complete sentences correctly, each with its own subject and verb.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes a phrase opening with “including” after a comma is a fragment, though it correctly attaches examples to “more than 30,000 objects” within a complete sentence.
D Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Thinks “written in 1863” cannot describe the copy without “which was,” though the sentence already has its verb “is” and the participial phrase is correctly set off.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of choice 3 calls “including Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and a dress sewn by Rosa Parks” a “nonrestrictive appositive phrase.” An appositive renames a noun; this phrase gives examples of the objects, and “including” followed by a noun phrase works as a preposition, so it is a prepositional phrase. The explanation of choice 4 calls “written in 1863 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln” a “nonrestrictive clause”; it has no subject or finite verb of its own, so it is a participial phrase. The site now says “nonrestrictive prepositional phrase” and “nonrestrictive participial phrase.” Both parts are still correctly constructed, and the answer, “Institution, the,” is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks you to find the one error in sentence structure. Sentence structure is how a sentence is built. On the test, you click the part with the mistake. At each part, ask: could the words on each side stand as a sentence?
Learn the rule: no comma splice
An independent clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a sentence. You can’t join two of them with just a comma. That mistake is called a comma splice. Example: I ran home, the rain started. Fix it with a period: I ran home. The rain started. You could also add and after the comma.
Test “Institution, the”
Before the comma: “In September 2016 the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened as part of the Smithsonian Institution.” That is a full sentence. After the comma: “the museum is already the Smithsonian’s third most popular site.” That is a full sentence too. Only a comma joins them, so this is a comma splice. Fix: put a period after Institution and start The museum with a capital.
Check “year. The” and “objects, including”
- “year. The” is correct. A period already separates two full sentences.
- “objects, including” is correct. A preposition is a linking word like with or for, and “including” works like one here. A prepositional phrase is that word plus the words after it. “Including Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and a dress sewn by Rosa Parks” is a prepositional phrase. It gives examples of the objects, and a comma correctly attaches it.
Check “Proclamation, written”
“Written in 1863 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln” is a participial phrase. That is a group of words built on a verb form, here written, with no subject of its own. It tells when the Proclamation was written. Commas correctly set it off, and the sentence keeps its main verb, “is.”
Watch out: Phrases starting with “including” and “written” can’t stand alone, so they may look like errors. But each one is attached to a full sentence. That is correct.
Choose the answer
Only the first part joins two full sentences with just a comma. So the answer is A: “Institution, the” contains the error. On the test, you would click that phrase.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
“Objects, including” is the closest wrong answer, because the words after its comma can’t stand alone. But they don’t need to. That phrase only adds examples to a full sentence. At “Institution, the,” both sides are full sentences, so a comma alone is not enough.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 21 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 49Question
Read these sentences.
(1) Flyby missions near Jupiter have been happening since 1973.
(2) Flyby missions allow scientists to collect data about Jupiter and its moons.
What is the best way to combine the sentences to clarify the relationship between the ideas?
- AWhile flyby missions near Jupiter have been happening since 1973, scientists collect data about the planet and its moons.
- BAlthough there have been flyby missions near Jupiter since 1973, they have allowed scientists to collect data about the planet and its moons.
- CFlyby missions near Jupiter, which allow scientists to collect data about the planet and its moons, have been happening since 1973.
- DFlyby missions have been happening near Jupiter, but scientists have been collecting data about the planet and its moons since 1973.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the best way to combine the sentences to clarify the relationship between the ideas.
A. Incorrect. Even though the two ideas from the original sentences are incorporated into the combined sentence, the use of the conjunction “while” in the first part of the sentence suggests that there is a simultaneous but unrelated relationship between the two ideas, which is incorrect.
B. Incorrect. The combined sentence incorporates the ideas from both sentences, but the conjunction “although” suggests that scientists were allowed to collect data even though there were flyby missions, which is an inaccurate way to express the relationship between the ideas.
C. CORRECT. This sentence is the best way to combine the sentences because it accurately reflects the relationship between the ideas by using the nonrestrictive clause “which allow scientists to collect data about the planet and its moons” to describe the purpose of the flyby missions. (Nonrestrictive clauses are adjective clauses that give additional information about a word or phrase. They sometimes begin with the relative pronoun “which” and are set off by commas.) The idea that the missions “have been happening since 1973” follows the nonrestrictive clause.
D. Incorrect. The combined sentence uses the conjunction “but” to connect the ideas in the two original sentences. This suggests a contrasting relationship between ideas, which is an inaccurate way to connect the ideas expressed in the original sentences.
Question analysis
This sentence-combining question gives two short sentences about flyby missions near Jupiter, one saying they have happened since 1973 and the other that they let scientists collect data about the planet and its moons. Students choose the combination that makes the relationship between the ideas clear, weighing what each connecting word or clause says about how the facts relate.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Combining two short sentences so their relationship is clear is regular grade 7 work. Both sentences here are brief and plainly related, and the versions differ mainly in their connecting words, so this is a typical, fairly quick task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 9, 119 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A wrong word in the explanation of D was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The two sentences are short, and the work lies in naming how they relate before reading the versions. The most tempting one, beginning “While,” keeps both facts but drops the word “allow,” so the missions no longer explain the data. Students who test each connector against the relationship also catch the concession in “Although” and the contrast in “but,” which also moves the date onto the data collection.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Students must first name the relationship, that the missions make the data possible, a link only the version with “which allow” keeps, since the others recast it as time, concession or contrast. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four versions keep both facts and read smoothly, so each joining word, “While,” “Although,” “which” and “but,” has to be tested for what it claims. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, decide in a few words how the two facts are connected, then reject any version whose joining word signals a different relationship or shifts what a detail describes.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
- Changes the meaning: A revision is correct English but no longer says what the writer meant.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Keeps both facts and reads smoothly, but “While” presents the missions and the data collection as merely happening at the same time and drops “allow,” the link between them.
B Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Treats “Although” as a neutral joining word, but it makes the data collection happen in spite of the missions, when the missions are what make it possible.
D Changes the meaning (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Joins the facts with “but,” implying a contrast, and moves “since 1973” from the missions to the data collection, so the date now describes something else.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: Rejecting D, the handbook's explanation says “but” “suggests an adverse relationship between ideas”. “Adverse” means harmful; the point is that “but” signals a contrast, which the two sentences don't have. It now says “a contrasting relationship”. The answer, C, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks for the best way to join two sentences. The joined sentence must show how the ideas are related. So first decide how they connect. Then pick the version whose joining word shows that link.
Find the relationship
Sentence 1 says flyby missions near Jupiter “have been happening since 1973.” A flyby mission sends a spacecraft past a planet without landing. Sentence 2 says the missions “allow scientists to collect data about Jupiter and its moons.” Data means facts and measurements. So sentence 2 tells what the missions do for scientists. The ideas don’t contrast, or clash. They fit together.
Learn the tool: a which clause
A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. A which clause adds extra facts about a noun. Commas set it off. Example: My bike, which has red wheels, is new. The extra facts describe the bike. In C, “which allow scientists to collect data about the planet and its moons” describes the missions.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “While” makes the two facts just happen at the same time. It drops “allow,” so the missions no longer explain the data.
- B is wrong. “Although” means in spite of the fact that. It suggests scientists got data even though there were missions. That is backward.
- C is right. The which clause tells what the missions do, and the date stays with the missions.
- D is wrong. “But” signals a contrast that isn’t there. It also moves “since 1973” onto the data collecting.
Watch out: A reads smoothly and keeps both facts. But “While” loses the link: the missions are what make the data possible.
Choose the answer
So the answer is C: “Flyby missions near Jupiter, which allow scientists to collect data about the planet and its moons, have been happening since 1973.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because it keeps both facts and sounds fine. But “While” only says two things happen at once. It drops the word “allow,” which shows the missions make the data collection possible. C keeps that link with its which clause.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 22 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 50Question
Which sentence in the paragraph contains an error in construction and should be revised?
(1) On the evening of July 13, 2019, a major power outage affected the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. (2) Leaving approximately 73,000 residents without electricity for three long hours, lights did not function, refrigerators did not stay cold, and air conditioners did not work. (3) Longtime city residents were particularly confused because an eerily similar event had occurred years earlier—on the exact same day! (4) The famous New York City Blackout of 1977, which lasted for 25 hours, also happened on July 13, an odd coincidence to say the least.
Move the answer to the box. There is only one error in construction.
Contains an error in construction
On the test you drag one of the tiles into the box; here, choose it.
- ASentence 1
- BSentence 2
- CSentence 3
- DSentence 4
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which sentence in the paragraph contains an error in construction.
Sentence 1: Construction is correct. An introductory prepositional phrase is correctly punctuated in sentence 1 and describes when the power outage occurred. Similarly, the direct object, “the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City,” is presented clearly in terms of what area was “affected” by the power outage.
Sentence 2: Contains an error in construction. In sentence 2, the phrase “Leaving approximately 73,000 residents without electricity for three long hours” is a dangling modifier because it is not clearly modifying any word or words in the sentence. It actually further describes the “power outage” in sentence 1. In clear and correct construction, all modifiers should be in the same sentence as and near the words they describe in order to avoid confusion.
Sentence 3: Construction is correct. A dash is used appropriately in sentence 3 to show a break in thought and to introduce the phrase “on the exact same day.”
Sentence 4: Construction is correct. Two commas are used correctly in sentence 4 to set off the nonessential clause “which lasted for 25 hours” from the rest of the sentence. Similarly, one comma is used to set off the nonessential appositive “an odd coincidence to say the least.” Both of these elements are nonessential to the sentence’s overall meaning and are thus correctly separated from the sentence by the use of commas.
Question analysis
This editing question gives a four-sentence paragraph about the July 13, 2019, blackout on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which fell on the same date as the famous 1977 New York City blackout. On the test students move one sentence tile into a box marked as containing an error in construction, and since the error is not named, every sentence must be checked.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Finding a sentence with a construction error in a short paragraph is typical grade 7 editing. The question does not name the kind of error, and the paragraph's dash, exclamation point and added phrases all give students something to second-guess.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 122 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 dangling phrase is easy to accept because the reader already knows from sentence 1 what left the residents in the dark. Students who do not ask what the opening phrase describes look elsewhere, and sentence 4 is the likeliest victim, since its closing phrase about an odd coincidence seems to hang loose. The question rewards naming the subject of each sentence and checking that every added phrase belongs to it.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
The opening phrase of sentence 2, “Leaving approximately 73,000 residents without electricity,” has no word to modify; it sounds acceptable because sentence 1’s power outage supplies the missing subject. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The error is not named, and three sentences hold features that invite doubt: sentence 1’s date and place names, sentence 3’s dash and exclamation point, sentence 4’s two set-off phrases. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Take the sentences one at a time: name the subject and main verb, ask what each opening or added phrase describes, and check whether each mark of punctuation has a job.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Suspects the long opening date or the string of place names, though sentence 1 has a clear subject and verb and its introductory phrase is correctly punctuated.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats the dash and the exclamation point as errors because they look informal, though the dash correctly sets off “on the exact same day” and the sentence is complete.
D Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Rightly checks what each phrase describes but decides “an odd coincidence to say the least” dangles, though it correctly sums up the whole clause before it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks which sentence is built wrong. On the test, you move one sentence tile into the box. The question doesn’t name the kind of error. So check each sentence. Find its subject, who or what the sentence is about, and its verb.
Learn the rule: no dangling modifier
A modifier is a word or phrase that describes something. An opening phrase must describe the subject right after the comma. If it can’t, it is a dangling modifier. Example: Running to the bus, my backpack fell. The backpack wasn’t running! Fix: Running to the bus, I dropped my backpack.
Test sentence 2
Sentence 2 opens with “Leaving approximately 73,000 residents without electricity for three long hours.” What did the leaving? The power outage did, but the outage is back in sentence 1. After the comma, the subject is “lights.” Lights didn’t leave people without power. So the opening phrase dangles. One fix: The outage left about 73,000 residents without electricity for three long hours. Then a new sentence lists what stopped working.
Check the other sentences
- Sentence 1 is correct. Its opening phrase tells when, and a comma sets it off. Its subject is “a major power outage,” and its verb is “affected.”
- Sentence 3 is correct. The dash sets off “on the exact same day” for effect. The sentence is complete.
- Sentence 4 is correct. Commas set off “which lasted for 25 hours.” The ending, “an odd coincidence to say the least,” sums up the fact before it.
Watch out: Sentence 4 tempts many students, because its ending seems to hang loose. But it names the whole fact before it, the same date. That is allowed.
Choose the answer
Only sentence 2 has an opening phrase with nothing to describe. So the answer is B: move the tile “Sentence 2” into the box labeled “Contains an error in construction.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 4 is the closest wrong answer, because “an odd coincidence to say the least” seems loose. But it sums up the whole idea before it, which is correct. In sentence 2, the opening phrase should describe the outage. Yet the word after the comma is “lights.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 23 of 120
2026 Practice Test B English, question 51Question
How should the paragraph be revised?
(1) Danielle spent several hours preparing for an upcoming audition for a play at the community theater. (2) First she did vocal exercises to practice her diction and projection so that her words would carry clearly throughout the large auditorium. (3) Then she studies the text of the monologue to better understand the emotions, and motivations of the character she plans to portray. (4) Finally she recited her monologue in front of a mirror many times, making slight adjustments and improvements to her performance each time.
- ASentence 1: Change spent to had spent, AND insert a comma after play.
- BSentence 2: Change did to does, AND insert a comma after projection.
- CSentence 3: Change studies to studied, AND delete the comma after emotions.
- DSentence 4: Change recited to recites, AND delete the comma after times.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the paragraph should be revised.
A. Incorrect. The revisions in this option introduce new errors. The word “spent” is correct in the simple past tense because it encompasses the actions described throughout the rest of the paragraph, all of which happened during those “several hours.” Additionally, adding a comma after the word “play” would be incorrect because it would unnecessarily separate the prepositional phrase “at the community theater” from the rest of the sentence.
B. Incorrect. The revisions in this option introduce new errors. The word “did” is correct as written in the past tense because the past tense is used throughout the paragraph. There is no comma needed after the word “projection” because “so” is functioning not as a conjunction but rather as part of the conjunction phrase “so that,” which does not take a comma.
C. CORRECT. Changing the word “studies” from the present tense to the past tense “studied” is necessary to match the past tense established in the paragraph (“spent,” “recited”). Additionally, the comma after the word “emotions” needs to be removed because the words “emotions and motivations” are part of a group (series) of two elements, and when there are only two elements in a series, a comma is not used.
D. Incorrect. The revisions in this option introduce new errors. The word “recited” is correct as written in the past tense because the past tense is used throughout the paragraph. Also, removing the comma after “times” is incorrect because the comma is needed in order to separate the modifying phrase “making slight adjustments and improvements to her performance each time” from the main clause.
Question analysis
This grammar and punctuation question gives a four-sentence paragraph about Danielle preparing for an audition at the community theater, with eight spots underlined. Each answer choice pairs a verb change with a comma change in a single sentence, so students must judge verb tense and comma use together and accept a choice only if both of its edits are needed.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Keeping verb tense consistent and using commas correctly are taught before grade 7, and this paragraph is short and plain. Each choice bundles two edits, so a student who spots one real error can confirm the answer with the other.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 10, 133 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 shift to “Then she studies” stands out in a story told in the past tense with “spent,” “did” and “recited,” and finding either half of the right option is enough to choose it. That makes this one of the easiest editing questions. Students who miss it usually trust a half-remembered comma rule, such as a comma before “so,” and stop checking the verb in the same option.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong minor Working it out
Only two nouns, “emotions” and “motivations,” follow “the,” so the comma between them has no job, yet a habit of putting commas before “and” in lists hides it. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The four options each pair a tense change with a comma change, one option per sentence, and an option is right only when both of its edits repair real errors. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Find the tense of the paragraph's first verb, check every underlined verb against it, and then confirm that the comma change in the same choice is needed too.
The wrong answers, classified
A Verb tense or form (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Thinks “had spent” is needed because the preparing came before the audition, and accepts a comma after “play” that would cut off “at the community theater.”
B Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Applies the rule of a comma before “so” joining two clauses, missing that “so that” opens a purpose clause with no comma, and accepts the present-tense “does.”
D Verb tense or form (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Notices that the tenses clash but takes the present-tense “studies” as the standard, shifts “recited” to match, and drops the comma that sets off “making slight adjustments.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how to fix the paragraph. Each choice makes two changes in one sentence: a verb change and a comma change. A choice is right only if both changes fix real errors. So check both halves.
Rule 1: keep one tense
Tense is when an action happens: past, present or future. A story should stay in one tense. Example: I woke up and eat breakfast mixes tenses. It should be I woke up and ate breakfast. This paragraph is in the past: “spent,” “did,” “recited.” But sentence 3 says “Then she studies.” That is present tense. It should be “studied.”
Rule 2: no comma between two
When only two things are joined by and, don’t put a comma between them. Example: I like apples and pears. Sentence 3 says “the emotions, and motivations.” There are only two things, so the comma should go. Fixed: the emotions and motivations of the character.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “Spent” is already correct past tense. A comma after “play” would cut off “at the community theater.”
- B is wrong. “Does” is present tense, so it would create an error. And no comma goes before “so that.”
- C is right. “Studied” fixes the tense, and dropping the comma fixes the pair.
- D is wrong. “Recites” would create an error. The comma after “times” is needed to set off “making slight adjustments and improvements to her performance each time.”
Watch out: B tempts students who remember a comma before “so.” But “so that” tells a purpose, why she practiced, and takes no comma.
Choose the answer
So the answer is C: “Sentence 3: Change studies to studied, AND delete the comma after emotions.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because many students put a comma before “so.” But “so that” explains a purpose, and it takes no comma. Also, B’s change to “does” would break the past tense. Both of C’s changes fix real errors.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 24 of 120
2026 Practice Test B Math, question 3Question
At a diner, 18 dozen buns were used yesterday for 150 lunch customers. Today, there were 250 lunch customers. Assuming that the bun usage rate is the same for both days, which proportions can be used to determine how many dozen buns are needed for 250 lunch customers?
Select the three correct answers.
Choose every answer that is correct, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
Show the answer
Correct answer: A, C, and D
The three correct answers are:
Set up a proportion to compare the number of buns per customer. These are all equivalent:
To check for equivalency, solve each proportion for x.
Each of the three correct proportions simplifies to .
Then solve for x to determine how many dozen buns are needed for 250 lunch customers:
Question analysis
A diner used 18 dozen buns for 150 lunch customers yesterday, and students select the three proportions, out of five, that can find how many dozen buns 250 customers need at the same rate. It tests setting up proportions and recognizing equivalent ones. All five equations use the same numbers, so each has to be checked for which quantities it pairs.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Setting up a proportion from a rate is everyday grade 7 work. Here nothing is solved: five setups built from the same numbers must each be judged, some arranged in unfamiliar ways, and all three usable ones found.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- An answer in an unexpected form minor
- Much to keep track of minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 6, 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
Nothing needs solving here; the question is which pairings keep the usage rate fixed. Students who check only for buns over customers on both sides find exactly three such setups, two of them wrong, and pass over the two right ones written another way. The wrong pair gives 10.8 dozen, fewer buns for more customers, which a quick sense check would catch, and cross-multiplying every setup settles all five.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All five setups are built from 18, 150, 250 and x, so none can be dismissed on sight; each has to be cross-multiplied and compared with 150x = 18 × 250. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The first two setups differ only in where 150 and 250 sit, 18/150 = x/250 against 18/250 = x/150, and both show buns over customers on each side, so a units check passes both. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
An answer in an unexpected form minor Choosing the answer
One right setup puts customers over dozens of buns, and another sets today’s x over yesterday’s 18 equal to 250 customers over 150, forms that look wrong to students who learned only rate equals rate. (Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Much to keep track of minor Working it out
Three of the five must be picked and all three must be right to score, so the verdict on each setup has to be kept until the last one is tested. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Strategy: Write one proportion you trust by matching both units and days, cross-multiply it, then cross-multiply each choice and keep only those that give the same equation.
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.
- Answer in another form: The right answer is written differently from the way you worked it out.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Checks only that both fractions show dozens of buns over customers, missing that 18 sits over today’s 250 customers; cross-multiplying gives 250x = 2,700, so x = 10.8.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Left out by students who expect each fraction to compare buns with customers, not seeing that today over yesterday for buns and for customers also gives 150x = 4,500.
E Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Accepts x over 150 because it shows buns over customers like the trusted setup, but today’s buns sit over yesterday’s customers, which yields only 10.8 dozen for more people.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- A rate
- The rate is how many dozen buns are used for each customer. Yesterday it was 18 dozen over 150 customers. Today it is x dozen over 250 customers. The question says the rate is the same both days, so those two fractions are equal.
- Cross-multiplying a proportion
- A proportion says two fractions are equal. 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. This turns any proportion into a plain equation, so you can compare setups that look different.
Sort out the question
Yesterday the diner used 18 dozen buns for 150 customers. Today it has 250 customers. Let x be the number of dozen buns needed today. The bun usage rate is the same both days.
A proportion is two equal fractions. You must pick the three proportions that give the right value of x.
Write one proportion you trust
Put each day’s buns over that same day’s customers. The rates are equal, so the fractions are equal:
This is choice A. Cross-multiply it:
Any choice that leads to 150x = 4,500 is a right one.
Solve for x
Divide both sides by 150 to get x by itself:
So the diner needs 30 dozen buns today. A wrong setup gives a different number.
Test choices C and D
Cross-multiply each one.
- C: gives . That is the same equation, so C works. It is choice A with both fractions flipped.
- D: gives . The same equation again, so D works too.
D compares today with yesterday. Today’s buns over yesterday’s buns equals today’s customers over yesterday’s customers.
Watch out: D looks odd because it puts buns over buns. Do not skip it. It still keeps the rate the same.
Test choices B and E
- B: gives , so 250x = 2,700.
- E: gives , the same 250x = 2,700.
Both give . That is fewer buns for more customers, which makes no sense.
Watch out: B and E show buns over customers, so they look right. But each one mixes up the days. B puts yesterday’s 18 dozen over today’s 250 customers. E puts today’s buns over yesterday’s 150 customers.
Name the three answers
Choices A, C and D all give 150x = 4,500, so x = 30. On the test, you check the box next to each one. So the answers are A, C and D.
Check your answer
Find the buns a second way. Today has times as many customers as yesterday. So it needs 5/3 times as many buns: dozen. That matches the 30 from choices A, C and D.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 25 of 120
2026 Practice Test B Math, question 16Question
Which tables represent a proportional relationship between the number of books purchased and the total cost?
Select the two correct answers.
Choose every answer that is correct, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- A
Number of Books Purchased 10 15 20 25 Total Cost ($) 40 60 80 100 - B
Number of Books Purchased 10 15 20 25 Total Cost ($) 70 110 150 250 - C
Number of Books Purchased 10 15 20 25 Total Cost ($) 80 120 160 200 - D
Number of Books Purchased 10 15 20 25 Total Cost ($) 90 130 170 210 - E
Number of Books Purchased 10 15 20 25 Total Cost ($) 100 100 100 100
Show the answer
Correct answer: A and C
The two tables that represent a proportional relationship are tables A and C.
In table A, the total costs divided by the numbers of books for each set of quantities are:
These ratios are equivalent; therefore, these quantities are in a proportional relationship.
In table C, the total costs divided by the numbers of books for each set of quantities are:
These ratios are equivalent; therefore, these quantities are in a proportional relationship.
Question analysis
Five tables list the total cost of buying 10, 15, 20 and 25 books, and students select the two tables that show a proportional relationship between books and cost. It tests recognizing proportional relationships from a constant unit rate. A steady rise in cost is not enough on its own, so each pair of values has to be checked.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Deciding from a table whether two quantities are proportional is a core grade 7 skill, and the divisions here are easy. The demand lies in checking every column of five tables rather than judging by how the costs change.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Something you must already know minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 51 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 divisions are easy, so the question tests what proportional means. Three tables grow by the same amount for every 5 books, and the one with a $10 head start looks just as regular as the right one it copies; only its cost per book, drifting from $9 down to $8.40, gives it away. The flat $100 table and the one that jumps to $250 catch fewer students, and dividing the first and last column of each table is a quick, reliable check.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The table running $90, $130, $170, $210 is the $80-to-$200 table with $10 added to every cost; both climb $40 for each 5 books, and only the cost per book separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Five tables of four columns each have to be tested by dividing cost by books, and both right tables must be picked to score, so no table can be judged from one column. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Students must know that proportional means the same cost per book in every column, a line through zero, not merely a cost that grows by the same amount each time. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Divide the total cost by the number of books in every column of each table; a table is proportional only when that cost per book stays the same all the way across.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Sees the cost climb $40 for each 5 books across the first three columns and stops checking, though the cost per book goes $7, about $7.33, $7.50, then $10.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Takes the steady rise of $40 for every 5 books as proportional, but 90 ÷ 10 = 9 while 210 ÷ 25 = 8.4, so the cost per book is not constant.
E Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Mistakes a cost that never changes for a constant ratio, though $100 for 10 books is $10 a book and $100 for 25 books is $4 a book.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Cost per book
- This is the unit rate, the price of one book. Divide the total cost in dollars by the number of books bought. If every book has the same price, this number comes out the same in every column.
- A proportional relationship
- x is the number of books, and y is the total cost in dollars. k is the cost per book, a number that never changes. In a proportional relationship, y is always k times x. So 0 books cost $0, and twice as many books cost twice as much.
Sort out the question
Each table shows the total cost of 10, 15, 20 and 25 books. Proportional means the cost per book is the same in every column. In other words, each book has one fixed price. You must pick the two tables where that is true.
Test the first table
Divide each total cost by its number of books. For table A:
Every column gives $4 per book. So table A is proportional.
Test the other four tables
Do the same division for every table. The numbers are dollars per book:
Table 10 books 15 books 20 books 25 books Same? A 4 4 4 4 Yes B 7 about 7.33 7.50 10 No C 8 8 8 8 Yes D 9 about 8.67 8.50 8.40 No E 10 about 6.67 5 4 No Only tables A and C keep the same price all the way across.
Watch for steady growth
Watch out: table D climbs $40 for every 5 more books, just like table C. That steady climb looks proportional, but it is not enough. D starts $10 higher than C, so its price per book slides from $9 down to $8.40.
Watch out: table E never changes. But $100 for 10 books is $10 each, and $100 for 25 books is $4 each. A total that stays the same is not a price that stays the same.
Name the two answers
Table A charges $4 per book and table C charges $8 per book, in every column. On the test, you check the box next to each of those tables. So the answers are A and C.
Check your answer
In a proportional table, twice the books cost twice as much. In table A, 10 books cost $40 and 20 books cost $80, which is double. In table C, $80 doubles to $160. In table D, $90 would have to double to $180, but the table shows $170. So D fails.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 26 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 23Passage 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
Which lines from the poem best contrast with the idea of winter’s scarcity and bleakness?
- A“The shrilling of the frogs was not so shrill as in the / first weeks after the broken winter;” (lines 4–5)
- B“The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups / reached across the green pastures.” (lines 8–9)
- C“Tee whee and tee whee came on the breezes, and the grackles / chuzzled their syllables.” (lines 10–11)
- D“Or if instead of counting up last year as against / this year, they count up this year as against next” (lines 25–26)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the identification of a description that contrasts with the scarcity and bleakness of winter.
A. Incorrect. These lines indicate that the frogs are first very excited about the shift from winter to spring, which causes them to make a loud “shrilling,” yet their sounds lessen after a time and grow weaker. As such, these lines contrast two periods of spring (early vs. later) and the response of the frogs to these two periods; the lines do not contrast the bleakness of winter with the abundance of spring or summer.
B. CORRECT. During winter, there is scarcity of plant life and a bleak landscape: trees lose their leaves, snow covers the ground, and nature appears dark and shuttered. In contrast, these lines reveal the bright “yellow spreads” of flowers and the verdant “green pastures” that are signs that winter has abated.
C. Incorrect. This description contrasts the sounds of “the breezes” of warmer air and the sounds made by grackles—a type of bird—rather than the bleakness and scarcity of winter and the abundance of the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3).
D. Incorrect. These lines show the contrast between the two ways of looking at things in terms of past vs. present or present vs. future; in this instance, the lines reveal the way birds naturally expect and adapt to the passing of time and the change of seasons. The lines do not present a contrast between winter and spring.
Question analysis
This textual evidence question on Carl Sandburg’s poem “Bird Talk” asks which lines best contrast with the idea of winter’s scarcity and bleakness. Students compare four quotations about frogs, flowers, birdsong and the birds’ yearly counting, and the challenge is finding the one whose images most fully show the opposite of a bare, bleak season.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing lines that fit an idea is routine grade 7 evidence work. The twist is that students look for the opposite of an idea, winter’s scarcity and bleakness, rather than support for it, though the quoted images are concrete.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 85 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question turns the usual evidence task around: students picture a scarce, bleak winter and then look for its opposite. The line that names winter outright is a trap, since it only compares the frogs’ noise in two stretches of spring, and the grackles’ calls show life without plenty. The flowers spreading “across the green pastures” are the one image of abundance and color.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every quotation carries some sign of the season, frogs, flowers, birdsong and the birds’ yearly count, so each must be tested for images of plenty and color set against a bare winter. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The stem’s “scarcity” and “bleakness” define what to look for; a student unsure of them cannot tell that yellow and green spreading across pastures is their opposite. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: First picture what a scarce, bleak winter looks like, then read each quotation for images that show the plain opposite of that picture.
Traps
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
The wrong answers, classified
A Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Is drawn by “the broken winter,” the only mention of winter among the choices, but the lines compare the frogs’ shrilling early and later in spring, not winter’s bareness with plenty.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Picks the birdsong, which does show life returning after a silent season, but the calls say nothing about scarcity giving way to plenty, as the spreading flowers in lines 8–9 do.
D Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Takes “as against” for the contrast the question asks about, though these lines set one year against another in the birds’ talk and hold no image of winter or of growth.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks you to find lines that show the opposite of winter. Scarcity means not having enough of something. Bleakness means looking bare, cold and gloomy. So picture winter: bare branches, no flowers, gray and brown fields. Then look for the lines that show plenty and bright color instead.
Read lines 8–9
Lines 8–9 say “The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups / reached across the green pastures.” Dandelions and buttercups are small yellow flowers. Pastures are grassy fields. A spread is a wide area covered with something. Here, yellow flowers stretch across green fields. That is a picture of color everywhere and plenty of growth. It is the exact opposite of a bare, gray winter.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. It mentions “the broken winter,” but it only compares how shrill, or sharp and high, the frogs sounded at two times. Nothing in it shows plenty.
- B fits. Yellow flowers spread over green fields, full of color and life.
- C does not fit. The birdsong shows that life is back. But it gives no picture of plenty or color to set against a bare winter.
- D does not fit. These lines compare one year with another in the birds’ talk. There is no winter and no growth in them.
Watch out: A is the only choice that names winter, so it can seem to fit. But mentioning winter is not the same as contrasting with it.
Choose the answer
Only lines 8–9 show plenty and bright color, the opposite of a scarce, bleak winter. So the answer is B, lines 8–9: “The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups / reached across the green pastures.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is a close wrong choice, since birdsong is a sign that life is back. But the question asks for a contrast with scarcity, or not having enough. Sounds alone do not show plenty. Lines 8–9 show flowers spreading wide across green fields. That picture of color and plenty is the clearest opposite of a bare, gray winter.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Bird Talk” as printed (page 32)
Question 27 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 27Passage Serpent Mound
Serpent Mound
The Great Serpent Mound, located in Adams County, Ohio, is a human-made mound of earth that researchers believe was created between 300 B.C. and A.D. 1100 by an indigenous culture.
Ohio, 1846
Brush Creek stood low when the museum men came
with their measuring tapes and sketchbooks.
It was winter. Fringed with ice,
the creek doubled back on itself
as if it had forgotten something.
Pa was in Cincinnati, or else on his way home,
so Ma told me to lead the men
into the marshy low grounds. It being winter,
there was little underbrush to speak of—
in the summer there would have been
briars, poison ivy, biting flies. I listened
for the swish of a beaver’s heavy tail,
the chitter of a chickadee, or the cry of a hawk,
but the winter silence of the creek pressed
down on all of us like a weight.
The humps in the ground were all but
invisible until you were right up on them. The figure
was even less obvious: the sinuous body,
the tail coiled three times around,
and at the other end, the mouth wide open.
In the summer the creek bottom was crowded
with so much life that you could trip over
the ridges of earth before you saw
anything at all. In winter you could climb
a tree and get some idea of the whole thing:
the serpent’s body undulating, slithering
silently across the ancient
earth. At the mouth end, there was an oval mound
as if the snake were about to swallow an egg—
as snakes sometimes did in our rickety
henhouse—my Pa always said, or
as if swallowing the sun, one of the museum
men suggested, taking notes with his quill pen,
an old-style inkhorn slung at his side.
I liked that: swallowing the sun,
just the sort of thing a snake might do,
might want to do. When, later, I told my sister Ruth,
she disagreed. It is singing to the sun,
she insisted. That is why its mouth
is wide open. She said, “Sometimes I think
I hear it on summer nights. Not swallowing, singing.”
Question
Which lines reveal how the setting affects the speaker and the men from the museum?
- A“It being winter, / there was little underbrush to speak of—” (lines 8–9)
- B“but the winter silence of the creek pressed / down on all of us like a weight.” (lines 14–15)
- C“The humps in the ground were all but / invisible until you were right up on them.” (lines 16–17)
- D“In the summer the creek bottom was crowded / with so much life that you could trip” (lines 21–22)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which lines reveal how the setting affects the speaker and the men from the museum.
A. Incorrect. The words “being winter” (line 8) work to establish the setting, but lines 8 and 9 do not describe the effect the winter setting has on the speaker and the men.
B. CORRECT. The imagery in lines 14 and 15 describes how the winter silence makes the speaker and the men feel emotional heaviness: it “pressed / down on all of us like a weight.”
C. Incorrect. Although the words “the humps in the ground were all but / invisible” describe how the setting appears to the speaker and the men, lines 16 and 17 do not describe how the setting affects them.
D. Incorrect. Although lines 21 and 22 do describe the setting, the lines do not describe how the setting affects the speaker and the men. The lines describe the setting in the summer, which is before the men from the museum show up.
Question analysis
This evidence question on the poem “Serpent Mound” asks which lines reveal how the setting, a creek in the Ohio winter of 1846, affects the young speaker and the museum men. All four quotations come from the poem’s description of the creek and the land around the mound, in winter and in summer, so the four choices look much alike at first glance.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 A routine grade 7 evidence task: the four quotations are short, numbered and in plain modern language. What takes care is that all of them describe the setting, while the question asks about its effect on particular people.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 77 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 quotation describes the setting, so a student who checks only for setting can defend almost any of them. The question turns on the people: only one quotation says what the place does to them, in the words “on all of us.” The summer lines tempt with someone tripping over the ridges, but they describe another season, not the winter day of the visit.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four quotations describe the creek and the land, so each must be asked whether it shows the place acting on the speaker and the men or only tells what the place is like. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The answer is a simile, silence that “pressed / down on all of us like a weight,” and students must read the weight as a mood the winter quiet puts on the group. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Paraphrase each quotation, then ask whether it shows the setting acting on the speaker and the museum men or only tells what the place is like.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Treats the thin winter underbrush as an effect because it would make the walk easier, but lines 8–9 only describe the ground and say nothing of how anyone feels or acts.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees that the humps are hard to spot until “you were right up on them,” which involves a viewer, but the lines report how the land looks, not what it does to the group.
D True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Matches “you could trip” to the word “affects,” but the lines describe the creek bottom in summer, not the winter day when the speaker leads the museum men.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for evidence about setting. Setting is where and when a story or poem takes place. Here it is a creek in Ohio, in winter. You need the lines that show how this place affects the speaker and the museum men. In other words, what does the place do to them or make them feel?
Read the lines that mention people
Lines 14–15 say “but the winter silence of the creek pressed / down on all of us like a weight.” The words “all of us” mean the speaker and the museum men together. This is a simile, a comparison using “like.” The quiet felt like something heavy pressing down on them. So the silent winter creek made the whole group feel heavy and gloomy.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Lines 8–9 say there was little underbrush, or low bushes. That describes the ground, not how anyone felt.
- B fits. The silence “pressed / down on all of us,” so the place acts on the whole group.
- C does not fit. Lines 16–17 tell how hard the humps are to see. They describe the land, not its effect on the group.
- D does not fit. Lines 21–22 describe the creek in summer. The museum men came in winter.
Watch out: D says “you could trip,” which sounds like an effect on people. But it describes another season, not the day of the visit.
Choose the answer
Only lines 14–15 show the winter creek acting on the speaker and the men. So the answer is B, lines 14–15: “but the winter silence of the creek pressed / down on all of us like a weight.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is a close wrong choice, because it has a person in it: the humps stay hidden “until you were right up on them.” But it only reports what the land looks like. B is different. The silence “pressed / down on all of us like a weight.” Only B shows the place changing how the speaker and the men feel.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Serpent Mound” as printed (page 40)
Question 28 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 36Passage 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
Which statement best explains why Lashelle Spencer is a relevant source of information for the excerpt?
- AShe works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
- BShe is part of the APH project team.
- CShe is sensitive to the astronauts’ need for healthy food in space.
- DShe witnessed how astronauts aboard the APH responded when harvesting their food.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which statement best explains why Lashelle Spencer is a relevant source of information for the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. While paragraphs 4 and 5 do mention that Lashelle Spencer works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, that fact does not explain her direct expertise on growing plants in space.
B. CORRECT. In paragraph 4, Spencer is identified as a “plant scientist” at NASA, and paragraph 5 states that she is directly involved with the Advanced Plant Habitat as “part of the project team,” making her a relevant source of information for the excerpt’s discussion of growing plants in space.
C. Incorrect. Although the details in paragraph 5 do indicate that Spencer is interested in providing better food choices to astronauts, her empathy toward the astronauts’ needs does not make her a relevant source of information for the excerpt.
D. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does mention that Spencer helped facilitate the harvest from the Kennedy Space Center, so she likely did witness the astronauts’ reactions as they harvested the peppers; however, this inference does not explain Spencer’s relevance as a source of information for the excerpt.
Question analysis
Why is Lashelle Spencer, the NASA plant scientist quoted throughout the article on growing peppers in space, a relevant source of information? This question asks students to judge what qualifies a person quoted in an informational text to speak on its subject. Several choices state facts about her, so students must decide which one actually explains her value as a source.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 readers often judge whether evidence is relevant, though asking why a quoted expert deserves trust is a less common form of the task. The facts about Spencer sit in two neighboring paragraphs, so the reading demand itself is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 55 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A wrong paragraph number 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
The pull of this question is that the first thing the excerpt says about Spencer, her job at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, sounds like a credential. Paragraph 5 gives the stronger one: she helped prepare the seeds and guided the crew, so she knows this experiment firsthand. Students lose the point by stopping at the job title, or by treating her sympathy for the astronauts or a harvest she supposedly watched as expertise.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Her Kennedy workplace, her concern for well-fed astronauts and her role on the project all come from paragraphs 4 and 5, so truth rules out little; each must be weighed as a qualification. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The excerpt never says why Spencer is quoted; a reader must connect “part of the project team” and “guiding the astronauts” to her firsthand knowledge of this particular experiment. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
Spencer is introduced in paragraph 4 as a NASA plant scientist, but her place on the pepper project appears only in paragraph 5, after a sentence about Thanksgiving. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Find every detail paragraphs 4 and 5 give about Spencer, then ask of each choice whether it explains why her statements about this experiment deserve a reader’s trust.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Takes her workplace, named when paragraph 4 introduces her, as the credential, though many people work at Kennedy; her role on the pepper project is what gives her firsthand knowledge.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Notices her goal of plants that “sustain healthy astronauts” and treats that caring attitude as expertise, though concern for the crew says nothing about what she knows of growing plants.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes that facilitating the harvest from Kennedy, on Earth, means she watched the crew’s reactions, which the excerpt never says, and watching would not make her an expert anyway.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option A says “paragraphs 5 and 8 do mention that Lashelle Spencer works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.” Spencer is introduced in paragraph 4 as “a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center,” and paragraph 5 says she “has been at Kennedy since 5 a.m.” Paragraph 8 is about Paul Bosland and does not mention her. The site now says “paragraphs 4 and 5.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A source is a person whose words an article uses. A relevant source is one who really knows the topic. This question asks why Lashelle Spencer is worth quoting in an article about growing peppers in space. Several choices are true facts about her. You need the one that shows why she knows this subject.
Find what the article says about her
Paragraph 4 introduces her as “a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.” Paragraph 5 says she “has been at Kennedy since 5 a.m. to facilitate the peppers’ final harvest.” To facilitate means to help make something happen. Then comes the key sentence: “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.”
Explain what that tells you
Spencer didn’t just watch this project from far away. She helped run it. She got the seeds ready. She coached the astronauts as they cared for the plants. So she has firsthand knowledge, meaning she learned it by doing it herself. That is what makes her a good source for this article.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It is true, and paragraphs 4 and 5 both say it. But many people work at Kennedy. A job there doesn’t make someone an expert on growing plants in space.
- B is right. Being on the project team means she helped plan and guide this exact experiment.
- C is wrong. She does care about healthy food for astronauts. But caring is not the same as knowing.
- D is wrong. The article never says she watched how the crew reacted. Even if she did, watching a harvest wouldn’t make her an expert.
Watch out: A is the first fact you learn about her, so it feels like her main qualification. Paragraph 5 gives a stronger one.
Choose the answer
Spencer helped prepare and guide the pepper experiment herself. So the answer is B, “She is part of the APH project team.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sounds impressive, and it is true. But a job at a big space center doesn’t prove she knows this experiment. B does. Being on the project team means she prepared the seeds and guided the crew.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)
Question 29 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 38Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.
Question
Which two sentences in paragraphs 5–9 best support the idea that the astronauts working in space enjoyed participating in the food-growing experiment?
Select the two correct answers.
On the test you click the words in the text; here, choose them below. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- ABut you’re missing that crunch. You’re missing that fresh pop of flavor, the green flavor that’s not there in that packaged food.”
- BSpencer says the team cracked open the door of the APH every day to observe their vegetable companions with all the tenderness of home gardeners.
- CWhen harvest day came, they batted their bounty around the ISS, taking selfies and delighting in watching the fruits pirouetting around the spacecraft.
- D“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
- E“I think in an optimal world, a scientist like me would say that they would be growing plants from day one.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B and C
The question asks which two sentences in paragraphs 5–9 best support the idea that the astronauts working in space enjoyed participating in the food-growing experiment.
Incorrect. Choice 1. “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” is incorrect because it illustrates an opinion on fresh foods of Lashelle Spencer, a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Although astronauts are likely to enjoy fresh food, the statement does not describe the enjoyment of the astronauts participating in the experiment.
CORRECT. Choice 2. “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” is a correct response. The details about the attitude of the astronauts toward the plants and their desire to observe them every day support the idea that they enjoyed participating in the experiment.
CORRECT. Choice 3. “When harvest day came, they batted their bounty around the ISS, taking selfies and delighting in watching the fruits pirouetting around the spacecraft” is a correct response. That the astronauts were taking selfies with the peppers and “delighting in watching the fruits pirouetting around the spacecraft” suggests that the astronauts enjoyed being part of the experiment.
Incorrect. Choice 4. “ ‘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” is incorrect because the quotation only gives information about the variables taken into account in the selection of peppers by a scientist at the Chile Pepper Institute. Although the observation suggests that the spicy heat of peppers might be enjoyed by astronauts in space, the sentence does not address the attitude of the astronauts toward the experiment.
Incorrect. Choice 5. “ ‘I think in an optimal world, a scientist like me would say that they would be growing plants from day one’ ” is incorrect because it emphasizes the opinion of Lashelle Spencer, a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, regarding the growth of plants in space. Although she suggests growing plants is a good idea, the quotation does not support the idea that the astronauts enjoyed participating in the experiment.
Question analysis
This select-two evidence question asks which two sentences in paragraphs 5–9 of the space-farming excerpt best show that the astronauts enjoyed taking part in the pepper-growing experiment. On the test students click two of five sentences highlighted in the passage, and credit comes only when both picks are right. Each sentence mentions food, peppers or plants, so each must be checked against the idea itself.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing evidence for an idea is everyday grade 7 work. This item asks for two sentences out of five and gives credit only for a fully right pair, but the sentences come from a few neighboring paragraphs and the idea to support is concrete.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 143 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 harvest-day sentence, with its selfies and delight, is the easy pick. The second takes more care, because “the team” that opened the habitat every day seems at first to be Spencer’s team on Earth, and both picks must be right for credit. Students who look for the word “astronauts” or a cheerful phrase are pulled to Bosland’s “a little spice in their life” or to Spencer’s longing for crunch, which report the views of the scientists.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The second right sentence says “the team” opened the habitat’s door, right after paragraph 5 called Spencer “part of the project team,” so students must see that only the crew aboard could do it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All five sentences mention food, peppers or plants, and credit needs both picks, so each must be traced to its speaker: Spencer, the crew or Bosland. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The enjoyment is shown in images rather than stated: “vegetable companions,” “the tenderness of home gardeners” and fruits “pirouetting around the spacecraft.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read each of the five sentences in its paragraph and work out whose actions or opinions it reports, then keep the two that show both parts of the idea: astronauts in space, and their enjoyment.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears a love of fresh food in “missing that crunch,” but these are Spencer’s words about packaged meals, a related point rather than a sign the crew enjoyed the experiment.
D Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Is drawn by “a little spice in their life,” which sounds like fun and names the astronauts, though it is Bosland explaining a choice about the peppers’ heat.
E Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reasons that Spencer would not urge growing plants “from day one” unless crews loved it, though she gives her own view as a scientist and says nothing about their feelings.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Left out by students who take “the team” to be Spencer’s project team on Earth, though only the crew aboard the station could open the habitat’s door every day.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need two sentences from paragraphs 5–9 that show the astronauts enjoyed the experiment. Each one must do two things. It must be about the astronauts in space, not the scientists on Earth. And it must show they liked the work. On the test you click two sentences in the passage. Here, you choose two of the five choices. Both must be right.
Find who each sentence is about
- A is Spencer, a scientist on Earth, talking about packaged food.
- B says “the team” opened the habitat every day.
- C says “they” played with the peppers on harvest day.
- D is Paul Bosland, the scientist who made the seeds, talking about spice.
- E is Spencer again, giving her own opinion.
So only B and C could be about the astronauts. But who is “the team” in B?
Work out who the team is
Paragraph 5 calls Spencer “part of the project team,” and she works on Earth. So the team in paragraph 6 might seem to be the scientists. But look at what the team did. They “cracked open the door of the APH every day.” The APH is a plant box on the space station, so only the crew could open it. The next sentence says they batted the peppers “around the ISS,” so they were on board. Paragraph 1 also calls the crew Mark Vande Hei’s “team.” “Spencer says” only means she is telling us what they did.
See how they show enjoyment
In B, the team checked on “their vegetable companions with all the tenderness of home gardeners.” Companions are friends. Tenderness is gentle, loving care. They treated the plants almost like pets. In C, the same team “batted their bounty around the ISS, taking selfies.” Bounty means a big harvest. They were “delighting,” or taking great joy, in watching the peppers spin like dancers.
Rule out the other three
- A is wrong. Spencer is saying packaged food lacks crunch. That is her view of the food, not the crew enjoying the work.
- D is wrong. “A little spice in their life” sounds fun. But it is Bosland explaining why the peppers have some heat.
- E is wrong. Spencer says crews should grow plants “from day one.” That is a scientist’s advice, not the crew’s feelings.
Watch out: D names the astronauts and sounds cheerful. But the speaker is a scientist on Earth.
Choose the answers
Both sentences show the crew in space caring for and playing with their plants. So the answers are B and C: B, “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.” And C, “When harvest day came, they batted their bounty around the ISS, taking selfies and delighting in watching the fruits pirouetting around the spacecraft.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
The hard part is B. It says “the team,” and Spencer was on a team too. But only the crew on the station could open the habitat every day, so B is about the astronauts. D sounds fun, but Bosland is a scientist explaining spice. It says nothing about how the crew felt.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 30 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 39Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.
Question
The description in paragraph 5 of Lashelle Spencer’s goal develops a central idea of the excerpt by
- Aillustrating that certain types of packaged foods available in space lack particular flavors.
- Bsupporting the notion that spending more than 100 days in space is detrimental to astronauts’ health.
- Coffering an example of how the limited selection of on-mission meals becomes less appealing over time.
- Dmaking an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the description of Lashelle Spencer’s goal in paragraph 5 develops a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Although Spencer mentions how astronauts miss certain eating experiences like the “fresh pop” and “green flavor” not found in packaged and dehydrated food, a central idea of the excerpt is that there is a need to provide fresh, healthy foods for long missions, not that food flavor should be improved.
B. Incorrect. While the excerpt focuses on how spending more than 100 days in space affects nutrition, it does not discuss specific ways in which spending long periods of time in space is detrimental to the health of astronauts.
C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 states that astronauts “can spend upwards of 100 days in space,” the excerpt does not develop a central idea that existing meals in space become less appealing over time.
D. CORRECT. The paragraph explains that astronauts currently rely on supplements for vitamins and minerals, which lose their nutritional value over time. Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” supporting a central idea that astronauts need more nutritionally valuable food to sustain them while in space for long periods of time.
Question analysis
Lashelle Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is described in paragraph 5 of the WIRED excerpt, and this central-idea question asks how that description develops a central idea of the whole excerpt. Students must connect a single sentence about a scientist’s aim to the article’s larger point, and every choice draws on details from that same paragraph.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace how a central idea develops, usually through a plainly stated example. Here the goal’s connection to the central idea runs through the sentences around it, and the choices are abstract restatements, which asks more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 75 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Every choice draws on paragraph 5, and none mentions growing plants, which leaves students looking for the goal without finding it. The flavor quotation that follows the goal is the most memorable detail and the easiest wrong pick. The key works only through context: the goal answers the problem the previous sentence sets out, crews depending on supplements that weaken in storage, which is why it serves the article’s case for fresh food on long missions.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Spencer’s goal names healthy plants and healthy astronauts but no supplements; its link to the key runs through the sentence before it, where vitamins sit in supplements that “lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
No choice restates the goal of growing plants itself, so none can be matched at a glance; each must be tested for whether it ties the goal to the excerpt’s concern with nutrition on long missions. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
How, not what minor Working it out
The question asks how the description develops a central idea, its role in the article, so knowing what Spencer wants is only the first step toward the answer. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The central idea must come from the whole excerpt: paragraph 3’s “nutritional and psychological benefits,” paragraph 8’s “nutritional needs of astronauts” and paragraph 9’s “nutritional content of crops.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: State a central idea of the whole excerpt in your own words, reread Spencer’s goal with the sentences around it in paragraph 5, and pick the option that connects the goal to that central idea.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Settles on the most quotable detail nearby, the “fresh pop of flavor” missing from packaged food, a side remark about taste rather than the nutritional need behind her goal.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Stretches “upwards of 100 days in space” and “healthy astronauts” into a claim that long missions damage health, though the excerpt describes only food and supplements that lose value.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Blends supplements that lose value “the longer they’re stored” with the missing crunch into meals that grow less appealing over time, an idea paragraph 5 never states.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A central idea is a main point the whole article keeps coming back to. This question asks how Spencer’s goal, in paragraph 5, helps build one of those main points. So first, find the goal. Then connect it to the big idea.
Find the goal and the sentence before
Paragraph 5 says: “Spencer’s goal is to create the conditions necessary for cultivating healthy plants in space, so those plants can sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions.” Cultivating means growing. The sentence just before it shows why she has this goal. Astronauts’ “vitamins and minerals are isolated in supplements, which lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.”
Connect the goal to the big idea
Today astronauts get vitamins from pills, called supplements. Those pills lose their health value as they sit. Spencer wants fresh plants grown in space to keep astronauts healthy instead. So her goal points to a problem: relying on weak pills. The article returns to food and health again and again. Paragraph 8 mentions “the nutritional needs of astronauts.” Nutritional means having to do with healthy food.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The “fresh pop of flavor” line comes after the goal. It is about taste, a side point.
- B is wrong. The article never says long trips in space harm astronauts’ health.
- C is wrong. It is the stored supplements that lose value over time, not meals that get less tasty.
- D is right. The goal answers a problem: astronauts depend on supplements that weaken in storage. That ties to the article’s idea that astronauts need healthy fresh food on long trips.
Watch out: Spencer’s flavor quote is the most memorable line nearby, so A pulls hard. But her goal is about health, not taste.
Choose the answer
Spencer wants healthy plants because pills are not enough. So the answer is D, “making an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.” Reliance means depending on something.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Spencer really does miss the crunch and flavor of fresh food. But her goal is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” which is about health. Health is the big idea the article keeps returning to. D connects the goal to that idea through the supplements that lose value.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 31 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 44Passage New York City and the Hudson Valley Brickmaking Industry
New York City and the Hudson Valley Brickmaking Industry
(1) Residents of New York City cannot help but notice that the buildings they are surrounded by are predominantly made of brick. (2) Indeed, one author described the bricks that make up some of New York City’s most recognizable landmarks, including the Empire State Building and the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge, as “an inescapable presence.” (3) Nearly 65 million people visit New York City every year to see these and other attractions. (4) Why was so much brick used in buildings constructed during the century before World War II? (5) The answer involves an explosion in New York City’s population that caused an increase in demand for bricks starting in the mid-1800s and lasting into the 1940s that affected the area more than 100 miles up the Hudson River Valley toward Albany. (6) When demand later declined, the industry would entirely disappear.
(7) New York City’s appetite for brick was fueled by surging population and demand for safer building materials. (8) The city’s population ballooned from about 313,000 people in 1840 to more than 7 million a century later. (9) Following large, destructive fires in the 1830s, the city had enacted laws requiring the use of fire-resistant materials. (10) Bricks turned out to be an inexpensive way for builders to quickly throw together a lot of structures while keeping building owners and safety inspectors happy.
(11) The brickmaking industry in the Hudson Valley skyrocketed. (12) At the industry’s peak, approximately 130 brick factories crammed themselves into a 120-mile stretch along the Hudson River. (13) These factories employed much of the region’s population. (14) Population growth in the Hudson River Valley after the mid-1800s was substantial, though percentage increases were smaller than those in New York City. (15) Even though the factories operated only during the summers, their production was immense. (16) Hudson Valley factories shipped over a billion bricks on barges down the river to New York City annually. (17) In fact, The New York Times declared, “It’s fairly safe to assume that any brick building constructed between 1800 and 1950 includes some form of sediment from the banks of the Hudson River.”
(18) History has proven, however, that boom times eventually end. (19) Shifting architectural trends halted not only the Hudson Valley’s brickmaking boom, but its entire industry. (20) Starting early in the twentieth century, architects and builders increasingly favored steel, glass, and concrete instead of brick. (21) By 1979, reduced demand for brick had driven every Hudson Valley brick factory out of business.
(22) The Hudson Valley’s brickmaking legacy lives on in the architecture of New York City. (23) Throughout the city, famous and ordinary buildings stand as evidence of the remarkable productivity achieved by the Valley’s brickmakers. (24) The brick buildings surrounding New Yorkers today serve as a reminder that, as one amateur brick historian put it, “The skyline of New York City used to be the landscape of the Hudson River Valley.”
Question
Which revision of sentence 10 would best maintain the style established in the passage?
- ABuilders turned to brick, which was an affordable material that met safety standards while satisfying the city’s large demand for buildings.
- BFiguring out that bricks were inexpensive, builders used tons of them to satisfy inspectors and the city’s desperate construction needs.
- CBuilders favored brick as a pleasingly economical way to meet significant construction demand while following municipal regulations.
- DOnce builders realized that low-cost brick was a law-abiding way to meet the city’s building needs, they hardly ever used any other materials.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the revision of sentence 10 that would best maintain the style established in the passage.
A. CORRECT. This sentence maintains the style established in the passage because it uses clear, precise, and formal language. The phrases “affordable material” and “met safety standards” are accurate and appropriate to the historical and technical context. The word “satisfying” is a precise replacement for “keeping building owners . . . happy” from the original sentence, preserving both the meaning and the formal tone of the passage.
B. Incorrect. Although the sentence conveys the same basic ideas as the passage, the phrases “Figuring out” and “tons of them” are informal and inconsistent with the passage’s formal style. In addition, the word “desperate” introduces a subjective and emotional tone, whereas the passage maintains an objective, fact-based style.
C. Incorrect. Although this sentence incorporates some formal vocabulary, the phrase “pleasingly economical” introduces an opinion that is inconsistent with formal historical writing. The passage’s style avoids subjective language and focuses on precise, factual descriptions of events and conditions. The phrase “municipal regulations” is also more technical and at the same time less clear and precise than the style established in the passage.
D. Incorrect. This sentence does not maintain the passage’s formal style because the phrase “law-abiding way” is awkward and informal for a historical description, and the expression “hardly ever” is conversational. The passage uses precise, objective language when describing building practices and material choices, avoiding casual or conversational phrasing.
Question analysis
This style question asks which revision of sentence 10 of the passage “New York City and the Hudson Valley Brickmaking Industry” best keeps the passage’s style. The original says bricks let builders “quickly throw together a lot of structures” while keeping owners and inspectors “happy.” Students compare four rewrites for wording that sounds casual, emotional or out of place.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing wording that fits a passage’s formal style is regular grade 7 writing work. The four rewrites are single sentences on a familiar subject, but they differ in small word choices that must each be weighed, a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Something you must already know minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 465 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 94 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misquotation of the passage 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
Sentence 10 is the passage’s most casual sentence, so the task is to raise its register without overshooting. Students who equate formality with long words fall for the rewrite with “pleasingly economical” and “municipal regulations,” which sounds official but adds an opinion. Others overlook the chatty “tons of them,” or miss that “hardly ever used any other materials” claims more than the original does. The plain, accurate key can look too ordinary to be best.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The “pleasingly economical” rewrite carries the same three ideas as the key, low cost, heavy demand and the rules, in grander words; only its opinion word and the stiffer “municipal regulations” set it apart. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each rewrite hides its off-key words among neutral ones, “tons of them” and “desperate,” “pleasingly,” “hardly ever,” so every phrase must be checked, not the overall sound. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Students must already know what counts as formal written English, and the passage’s own lively verbs, “ballooned,” “skyrocketed” and “crammed themselves,” make its style harder to pin down. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Spot what makes sentence 10 sound casual, then check every phrase of each rewrite, not just its overall sound, for chatty, emotional or opinionated wording, and make sure the facts stay the same.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
- Changes the meaning: A revision is correct English but no longer says what the writer meant.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Keeps the meaning but slips into casual talk, “Figuring out” and “tons of them,” and adds the emotional “desperate,” none of which fits the passage’s factual voice.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Mistakes elevated words for good style: “municipal regulations” sounds official, but “pleasingly economical” injects an opinion and the wording is less clear than the passage’s plain statements.
D Changes the meaning (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Overlooks the conversational “hardly ever” and claims builders almost never used other materials, far more than sentence 10, which says only that brick was cheap, quick and acceptable to inspectors.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option A calls “satisfying” a replacement for “keeping owners happy” from the original sentence. Sentence 10 ends “while keeping building owners and safety inspectors happy,” so the site now quotes “keeping building owners . . . happy.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about style, the way a passage sounds. You need a new version of sentence 10 that sounds like the rest of the passage. The passage is an informational article. It uses clear, serious, factual language. It has no slang or chatty phrases, and the writer doesn’t share feelings.
Spot the casual words in sentence 10
Sentence 10 says: “Bricks turned out to be an inexpensive way for builders to quickly throw together a lot of structures while keeping building owners and safety inspectors happy.” Three phrases sound like everyday talk: “throw together,” “a lot of,” and “keeping … happy.” Here is the rule with a made-up example. Casual: The kids threw together a ton of posters. Formal: The students quickly made many posters.
See how A keeps the meaning
Choice A says the same things in formal words. “Inexpensive” becomes “affordable material.” Keeping the safety inspectors happy becomes “met safety standards.” The word “satisfying” takes the place of keeping the building owners happy. And the many buildings become the city’s “large demand for buildings.” Nothing is added, and no feelings slip in.
Check each choice
- A is right. It is clear, exact and serious, like the rest of the passage.
- B is wrong. “Figuring out” and “tons of them” are chatty. “Desperate” adds strong feeling.
- C is wrong. “Pleasingly” gives the writer’s opinion. “Municipal regulations” is stiff and less clear than plain words like city rules.
- D is wrong. “Hardly ever” is chatty, and “law-abiding way” is awkward. It also claims builders almost never used other materials. Sentence 10 never says that.
Watch out: C uses long, official-sounding words, so it can seem the most formal. But formal writing still avoids opinions.
Choose the answer
Only one version sounds like the rest of the passage and keeps the meaning. So the answer is A, “Builders turned to brick, which was an affordable material that met safety standards while satisfying the city’s large demand for buildings.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. It carries the same three ideas as A: low cost, high demand and the rules. But “pleasingly economical” tells you how the writer feels about brick. The passage reports facts and doesn’t judge. A says the same things plainly and without an opinion.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “New York City and the Hudson Valley Brickmaking Industry” as printed (page 64)
Question 32 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 47Uses the passage above: “New York City and the Hudson Valley Brickmaking Industry”.
Question
Which sentence would best follow sentence 20 to support ideas in the fourth paragraph (sentences 18–21)?
- AAt first many people thought the new materials did not look as strong as brick, but eventually the public embraced the trend.
- BIncreasingly expensive shipping and labor costs also drove up the costs for brickmaking factories.
- CThe Flatiron building, completed in 1902, is a notable example of an early steel-framed building.
- DThe more that New York City builders chose to use these materials, the fewer bricks they bought.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which sentence would best follow sentence 20 to support ideas in the fourth paragraph (sentences 18–21).
A. Incorrect. Although the information in the sentence that consumers eventually “embraced the trend” of building with steel, glass, and concrete suggests that demand for those building materials likely increased, this detail does not clearly link increased use of steel, glass, and concrete to lower demand for brick. Therefore, this sentence would not be the best choice to follow sentence 20 to support the ideas in the fourth paragraph.
B. Incorrect. This sentence introduces a different cause of the decline of brickmaking—economic costs—rather than providing support or explanation for the idea that the shift to steel, glass, and concrete caused lower demand for brick. Thus, this sentence is not the best one to follow sentence 20.
C. Incorrect. Although this sentence adds detail related to sentence 20 by giving an example of steel use, it shifts focus toward a specific building rather than the overall trend in material preference. It does not help explain the link between a growing preference for steel, glass, and concrete and declining demand for brick. Therefore, this sentence would not best follow sentence 20 to support the ideas in the fourth paragraph.
D. CORRECT. This sentence supports the ideas in the fourth paragraph. It would best follow sentence 20 because it directly states the cause-and-effect relationship between builders’ preference for steel, glass, and concrete described in sentence 20 and the resulting decline in brick use detailed in sentence 21. It also supports the idea in sentence 19 that shifting architectural trends ended the entire Hudson Valley brickmaking industry.
Question analysis
This supporting-details question asks which sentence would best follow sentence 20 of the brickmaking passage. Sentence 20 sits in the fourth paragraph, which tells how a turn toward steel, glass and concrete ended the Hudson Valley brick industry. Each option is plausible and about building, so students must judge which one best supports the paragraph’s point at that spot.
- NYS standards
- 7W2b developing a topic
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing a sentence that supports a paragraph’s point is regular grade 7 writing work. The paragraph is only four sentences long and the options are short, but each one relates to the topic, so the choice rests on a close judgment of relevance.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 465 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 81 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate statement in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The paragraph’s logic has a gap between a change in taste and the closing of the factories, and only one option fills it. The Flatiron example is the strongest lure because it follows naturally from steel in sentence 20, and the shipping-costs option tempts students who see that the paragraph explains a decline. Both are reasonable sentences; they fail because they do not link the new materials to fewer bricks.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 20 says builders favored steel, glass and concrete; sentence 21 says reduced demand closed every factory. The missing step, that the new materials cut brick purchases, is what the added sentence must supply. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four options concern building materials or brickmaking, and three would be true and on topic somewhere in the passage, so each must be judged at this exact spot. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Restate the point of sentences 18–21 in one sentence, then ask of each option whether it would help a reader see how that point follows from sentence 20, not just whether it is true and related.
Traps
- Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
The wrong answers, classified
A Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Follows the new materials into public taste, whether they looked as strong as brick, but never connects that shift to fewer bricks, the link the paragraph needs.
B Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Offers a believable second reason for the decline, rising shipping and labor costs, but the paragraph blames shifting architectural trends, and this sentence does nothing to explain them.
C Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Gives the Flatiron Building as an early steel-framed example, which suits sentence 20 alone, but turns to one landmark instead of showing how the new materials cut demand for brick.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option D ends “It also supports, with a detail about the closing of the last factory, the idea in sentence 18 that the entire Hudson Valley brickmaking industry was ended.” Option D (“The more that New York City builders chose to use these materials, the fewer bricks they bought.”) contains no detail about a factory closing; the closing of every factory is sentence 21, already in the passage. The idea that the entire industry ended is in sentence 19 (“Shifting architectural trends halted not only the Hudson Valley’s brickmaking boom, but its entire industry”); sentence 18 says only that “boom times eventually end.” The site now says “It also supports the idea in sentence 19 that shifting architectural trends ended the entire Hudson Valley brickmaking industry.” Option D is still the answer.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need a sentence to add right after sentence 20. It must support the main idea of the fourth paragraph, sentences 18–21. To support means to help explain or prove. So first find that main idea. Then find the gap after sentence 20.
Read sentences 19 to 21
Sentence 19 gives the main idea: “Shifting architectural trends halted not only the Hudson Valley’s brickmaking boom, but its entire industry.” Architectural trends are changes in how buildings are designed. Sentence 20 says builders “increasingly favored steel, glass, and concrete instead of brick.” Sentence 21 says “reduced demand for brick had driven every Hudson Valley brick factory out of business.”
Find the missing step
Sentence 20 is about builders liking new materials. Sentence 21 is about factories closing. A step is missing in between. Builders who used new materials bought fewer bricks. That is the link from sentence 20 to sentence 21. The new sentence should spell it out.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It is about what people thought of the new materials. It never says fewer bricks were bought.
- B is wrong. It adds a different cause, rising costs. The paragraph blames changing building styles.
- C is wrong. The Flatiron Building is one example of steel. It doesn’t show how steel cut the demand for brick.
- D is right. “These materials” points back to steel, glass and concrete in sentence 20. It says that more of them meant fewer bricks, which leads straight into sentence 21.
Watch out: C fits sentence 20 nicely, since both are about steel. But one building doesn’t explain why the factories closed.
Choose the answer
D links the new building styles to fewer bricks, which explains why every factory closed. It also supports the idea in sentence 19 that changing trends ended the whole industry. So the answer is D, “The more that New York City builders chose to use these materials, the fewer bricks they bought.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. It follows sentence 20 smoothly, because the Flatiron Building is a steel building. But the paragraph needs to explain why the brick factories closed. Only D says that using more steel, glass and concrete meant buying fewer bricks. That is the missing link.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 33 of 120
2026 Practice Test C English, question 49Question
Read these sentences.
(1) Jordan rehearsed his role for weeks.
(2) He delivered his lines with ease.
(3) His performance was met with a burst of applause from the audience.
What is the best way to combine the sentences to clarify the relationship between ideas?
- AThough Jordan had rehearsed his role for weeks, when he delivered his lines with ease, his performance was met with a burst of applause from the audience.
- BJordan had rehearsed his role for weeks, yet he delivered his lines with ease, so his performance was met with a burst of applause from the audience.
- CBecause Jordan had rehearsed his role for weeks, he delivered his lines with ease, and his performance was met with a burst of applause from the audience.
- DJordan had rehearsed his role for weeks, so he delivered his lines with ease, but his performance was met with a burst of applause from the audience.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the best way to combine the sentences to clarify the relationship between ideas.
A. Incorrect. The conjunction “though” does not make sense with the rest of the sentence since Jordan likely received applause for his performance because he rehearsed, not in spite of rehearsing.
B. Incorrect. The conjunction “yet” is incongruous with the rest of the sentence because Jordan was successful at delivering his lines likely because he rehearsed, not in spite of rehearsing.
C. CORRECT. This combination of sentences clarifies the relationship among the ideas in a way that is logical. Jordan was able to deliver his lines with ease and receive applause from the audience because he had rehearsed. “Because” is the best choice for conveying the cause-and-effect relationship between rehearsing and a successful performance.
D. Incorrect. This combination of sentences correctly expresses the relationship between rehearsing and delivering lines with ease by linking the ideas with the word “so”; however, the word “but” incorrectly links the delivery of lines with applause, suggesting that the burst of applause from the audience was unexpected.
Question analysis
This sentence-combining question gives three short sentences about Jordan, who rehearsed his role for weeks, delivered his lines with ease and drew a burst of applause, and asks for the best way to join them. Every version keeps the same facts, so students must judge which connecting words show how rehearsing, performing and the audience’s response relate.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Combining sentences with connecting words that show how ideas relate is a grade 7 language skill. The three sentences are short and describe an everyday event, and the versions differ only in their connecting words, so the demand is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- How sentences fit together minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 150 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 three facts form a simple chain of causes, and most students see that rehearsal explains the easy delivery. Points are lost by checking only the first connector: one version starts with a correct “so” and then joins the applause with “but,” as if it were a surprise. Versions opening with “Though” or using “yet” fail on the first link, so they are easier to rule out.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Every version runs 27 words and keeps the same three facts, differing only in its two connecting words, so a wrong one can hide at the end, as “but” does after a correct “so.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
How sentences fit together minor Working it out
Students must first see the chain the sentences imply, weeks of rehearsal causing an easy delivery and the easy delivery earning applause, before any connector can be judged. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, decide how each sentence leads to the next, then check every connecting word in each version, since one wrong word anywhere makes the whole combined sentence wrong.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Opens with “Though,” which treats weeks of rehearsal as something that should have worked against Jordan, when practice is the reason his lines came easily.
B Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Gets the second link right with “so” but joins rehearsing and easy delivery with “yet,” as if delivering lines smoothly were surprising after weeks of practice.
D Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Joins rehearsal and easy delivery correctly with “so,” then adds the applause with “but,” as if a burst of applause after a smooth performance were unexpected.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the best way to join three short sentences into one. The joined sentence must show how the ideas connect. All four choices keep the same facts. They differ only in their connecting words. So check every connecting word in each choice.
See how the three ideas connect
Sentence 1: “Jordan rehearsed his role for weeks.” To rehearse means to practice. Sentence 2: “He delivered his lines with ease.” With ease means easily. Sentence 3: the audience burst into applause. These ideas form a chain. Practice made his lines easy. A strong performance then earned the applause. Nothing here is surprising.
Learn what each connecting word signals
- Because and so show cause and effect: I studied, so I passed.
- Though, yet and but show a contrast, something surprising: I studied, but I still failed.
- And simply adds the next idea: I studied, and I passed.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “Though” makes the practice sound like it should have hurt him.
- B is wrong. “Yet” makes his easy delivery sound surprising after weeks of practice.
- C is right. “Because” shows that practice caused his easy delivery. “And” adds the applause that followed.
- D is wrong. “So” is right, but “but” makes the applause sound unexpected.
Watch out: D starts well with “so.” The mistake hides in its second connecting word.
Choose the answer
Only one version shows that practice led to success, with no false surprise. So the answer is C, “Because Jordan had rehearsed his role for weeks, he delivered his lines with ease, and his performance was met with a burst of applause from the audience.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, since its first half uses “so” correctly. But “but” tells the reader the applause was a surprise. A smooth performance after weeks of practice should earn applause. C uses “because” and “and,” which show the real chain of events.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 34 of 120
2026 Practice Test C Math, question 8Question
Jordan is helping plan snacks for a school dance. He knows that 0.75 of the students voted for pizza, and he wants to record the same amount using a fraction.
Which fractions are equivalent to the decimal 0.75?
Select the four correct answers.
Choose every answer that is correct, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
Show the answer
Correct answer: A, B, C, and E
Check each fraction to determine whether it is equal to 0.75 when simplified or converted to a decimal.
This is the most common fraction equal to 0.75.
Simplifies to 3/4, because 15 and 20 can both be divided by 5.
This is a direct match to 0.75 when written as a decimal.
, which is less than 0.75.
Simplifies to because both 6 and 8 can be divided by 2.
, which is more than 0.75.
Question analysis
Jordan wants to record 0.75 of the students' pizza votes as a fraction, and students select the four fractions, out of six, that equal 0.75. It tests converting between decimals and fractions and recognizing equivalent fractions. Each choice has to be checked by its value, not by how its numbers look.
- NYS standards
- 7.NS.2d fractions to decimals by long division
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Matching fractions to a decimal such as 0.75 builds on grade 4 to 6 work, and the denominators here divide easily. The added demand is the format: four of the six must be chosen, and one wrong or missing pick loses the item.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Much to keep track of minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 47 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
Three of the four right fractions, 3/4, 75/100 and 6/8, are familiar forms of 0.75, so the item comes down to the fourth. Students who stop after the familiar ones must decide between 15/20, which needs dividing by 5 to recognize, and 8/10, which sits close to 0.75 on a number line. Dividing each numerator by its denominator, or scaling 3/4 up by 5, settles it.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Six fractions with six different denominators have to be tested one by one, by dividing or by simplifying, since 15/20 and 8/10 cannot be judged by how they look. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
8/10 is 0.8, only 0.05 above 0.75, and it follows 6/8 by adding 2 to the top and the bottom, so it looks like one more member of the family. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Much to keep track of minor Working it out
Four of the six must be chosen and all four must be right for the item to count, so each verdict has to be kept while the remaining fractions are tested. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Strategy: Turn each choice into a decimal by dividing its numerator by its denominator, or reduce it to lowest terms, and keep only the ones whose value is exactly the decimal given.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
D Little reason to choose it (Haladyna & Downing, 1993; Rodriguez, 2005)
No usual working links 2/5 to 0.75, since 2 ÷ 5 = 0.4, so it mostly catches students filling the fourth slot by guessing.
F Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Builds 8/10 from 6/8 by adding 2 to the top and the bottom, as if equal additions kept a fraction's value, or accepts 0.8 as close enough.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Changing a fraction to a decimal
- a is the numerator, the top. b is the denominator, the bottom. A fraction bar means divide. So dividing the top by the bottom gives the fraction’s value as a decimal.
- Equivalent fractions
- a is the top and b is the bottom. n is a number that goes evenly into both. Dividing the top and the bottom by the same number gives an equal fraction. Equivalent fractions name the same amount in different ways.
Sort out the question
Six fractions are given, A to F. You need the four that equal the decimal 0.75. Equivalent means equal in value. Test every choice, because some fractions look alike but are not equal.
Write 0.75 as a fraction
0.75 means 75 hundredths:
So choice C works. Now simplify it. 25 goes into both 75 and 100:
So choice A, 3/4, works too.
Test choices B and E
Simplify each one to see if it becomes 3/4:
- B: 5 goes into 15 and 20. . It works.
- E: 2 goes into 6 and 8. . It works.
Test choices D and F
Divide the top by the bottom:
- D: . That is less than 0.75.
- F: . That is more than 0.75.
Watch out: F looks like 6/8 with 2 added to the top and the bottom. Adding the same number to both changes the value. Only multiplying or dividing both keeps it.
Name the four answers
A, B, C and E all equal 0.75. On the test, you check the box beside each of them. On this site, you choose all four, then check your answer.
So the answers are A, B, C and E.
Check your answer
Turn each answer into a decimal. , , and all give 0.75. Exactly four choices passed, and the question asks for four. So none were missed.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 35 of 120
2026 Practice Test C Math, question 18Question
I.
II.
III.
If s is a positive integer and t is a negative integer, which of the above expressions must be a positive number?
- AII only
- BI and II only
- CII and III only
- DI, II, and III
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
Each of the three expressions must be considered:
Expression I: , where s is a positive integer and t is a negative integer:
Subtracting a negative integer is the equivalent of adding a positive integer, so is equivalent to finding the value of , which must result in a positive number.
Expression II: , where s is a positive integer and t is a negative integer:
Squaring a negative integer results in a positive integer, so is equivalent to finding the value of , which must result in a positive number.
Expression III: , where s is a positive integer and t is a negative integer:
A negative exponent results in the reciprocal of the same exponential expression, so is equivalent to finding the value of , which must result in a positive number.
Therefore, Expressions I, II, and III must all result in a positive number.
Question analysis
Three expressions, s − t, s times t squared, and s to the power t, are listed, and students decide which must be positive when s is a positive integer and t is a negative integer. It tests sign rules for subtraction and multiplication and the meaning of a negative exponent. Each expression has to be judged for every possible pair, not just one example.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 8 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students learn sign rules for subtracting and multiplying signed numbers. Here they reason about letters rather than numbers, decide what must always hold, and handle a negative exponent, a grade 8 idea.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- Something you must already know moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 42 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- Two steps of the explanation that treated t as a positive number were corrected.
- A punctuation error 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
The three expressions test three different sign facts: subtracting a negative, squaring a negative, and raising to a negative power. The last is the trap, since a negative exponent seems to promise a negative result when it really gives a fraction, and that belief alone leads to a listed choice. Trying s = 2 and t = −3 gives 5, 18 and 1/8, all positive, and the rules show why no other pair can change that.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
No values are given for s and t, only their signs, and must means each expression has to be positive for every such pair, not just for one example. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
Expression III needs the meaning of a negative exponent, s to the power t equals 1 over s to the power −t, a grade 8 rule the question does not state. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each of the three expressions is judged on its own and the choices combine the verdicts, so one wrong judgment anywhere points to a wrong combination. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Try a pair such as s = 2 and t = −3 in each expression, then explain why its sign could or could not change for any other positive s and negative t.
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.
- 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.)
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Trusts only the squared expression, believing that subtracting t must make s smaller and that a negative exponent makes a negative number.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Handles the subtraction and the square correctly but believes a negative exponent makes the result negative, though s to the power t is a positive fraction such as 1/8.
C Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Reads s − t as taking a number away from s, so thinks it could be negative, missing that subtracting the negative t adds to s.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The question makes t the negative integer, but two steps of the DOE’s explanation write the negative integer as −t, as if t were positive. For Expression I it says “s − (−t) is equivalent to finding the value of s + t, which must result in a positive number”: s − (−t) is not Expression I, and with the question’s t, s + t need not be positive (s = 1 and t = −2 give −1). For Expression III it says “s^(−t) is equivalent to finding the value of 1/s^t”, about s^(−t) rather than Expression III. The site now says that s − t is equivalent to s + (−t), and that s^t is equivalent to 1/s^(−t). Since t is negative, −t is a positive integer, so s + (−t) is the sum of two positive integers and 1/s^(−t) is the reciprocal of a positive integer: both positive, and the answer, I, II and III, is unchanged. The step for Expression II, s(−t)² = st², is true for any t and is unchanged.
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation introduces Expression III as “s^t. where s is a positive integer and t is a negative integer”, with a period where Expressions I and II (and the 2022–23 guide, which first printed this explanation) have a comma. The site has the comma.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Subtracting a number
- s and t are integers, and −t is the opposite of t. Subtracting a number is the same as adding its opposite. When t is negative, −t is positive. So subtracting t adds a positive amount.
- A negative exponent
- s is the base and t is the exponent. When t is negative, −t is positive. So a negative exponent means 1 over the base to a positive exponent. For example, 2 to the power −3 is 1 over 2³, which is 1/8.
Sort out the question
An integer is a whole number or its opposite, such as −2, 0 or 5. Here s is a positive integer, like 1, 2 or 3. And t is a negative integer, like −1, −2 or −3. Must means always. An expression counts only if it is positive for every such pair.
Try one pair of numbers
Try s = 2 and t = −3 in each expression:
- I:
- II:
- III:
All three are positive this time. Now see why that always happens.
Explain expression I
Use the rule for subtracting:
t is negative, so its opposite, −t, is positive. So s − t is a positive plus a positive. That is always positive.
Watch out: subtracting does not always make a number smaller. Subtracting a negative makes it bigger. Missing this leads to choice C.
Explain expression II
means t × t. A negative times a negative is positive, so is always positive. Then is a positive times a positive. That is always positive too.
Explain expression III
Use the rule for a negative exponent:
−t is a positive integer, so is a positive integer. So is 1 over a positive number. That is a positive fraction.
Watch out: a negative exponent does not make the answer negative. It makes a fraction. Thinking it does leads to choice B, I and II only.
Choose the answer
Each of the three expressions is positive for every positive s and negative t. None of them can ever be zero or negative.
So the answer is D, I, II, and III.
Check your answer
Try the values closest to 0: s = 1 and t = −1. I gives . II gives . III gives . All three are still positive.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 36 of 120
2026 Practice Test C Math, question 27Question
Some friends are buying bags of ice for a picnic. The graph shows the cost of the ice, in dollars, in relation to the weight, in pounds. Which statement about a point on the graph is true?
- AThe point (20, 3) means that 3 lbs of ice costs $20.00.
- BThe point (1, 0.15) means that 1 bag of ice costs $0.15.
- CThe point (10, 1.5) means that 10 lbs of ice costs $1.50.
- DThe point (0, 0) means that 0 lbs of ice will be needed if 0 people go to the picnic.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The x-axis represents the weight, in pounds (lbs), of ice purchased, and the y-axis represents the cost of the ice, in dollars.
The x-value in the point (10, 1.5) represents 10 lbs of ice, and the y-value represents 1.5 dollars, or $1.50. Therefore, the cost of 10 lbs of ice is $1.50.
Question analysis
Some friends buying ice for a picnic use a graph of the ice's cost in dollars against its weight in pounds, a straight line from the origin. Students pick the statement that correctly explains what a point on the graph means. Each statement names a point that really is on the line, so the units and the order of the coordinates decide.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what a point on a proportional graph means in its situation is a named grade 7 skill. The graph is clear and starts at the origin, but each statement has to be read closely against the axis labels.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 2, 77 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
Nothing needs computing, but each statement attaches words to two numbers, and three of them attach the wrong words. The point (1, 0.15) is the unit rate students are trained to look for, and the “bags” in the stem’s story make its statement sound right, though the graph measures pounds. Saying each point aloud as so many pounds for so many dollars exposes the swapped coordinates and the extra people as well.
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
Each statement must be checked against the axis labels: x is the weight of ice in pounds and y the cost in dollars, on a grid ruled every 2 pounds and every $0.30. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four statements name a point that really lies on the line, (1, 0.15) included, so being on the graph rules nothing out; only the meaning given to each coordinate does. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Read both axis labels and their units first, then for each choice say in words what its x-coordinate and its y-coordinate stand for, and compare that with the statement.
Traps
- Misreads the figure: Reads a value, label or tick spacing in a figure, table or graph wrongly.
- Units or scale: The answer is wanted in other units, or a rate or scale must be converted first.
- 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
A Misreads the figure (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reads the point (20, 3) backward, taking 20 as the price and 3 as the weight, though x counts pounds of ice and y counts dollars.
B Units or scale (King et al., 2004)
Confirms that (1, 0.15) is on the line, the cost of 1 pound, but accepts “1 bag” because the friends buy bags, though the x-axis measures pounds.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Knows (0, 0) is on every proportional graph and accepts a true-sounding story about people, though the graph never counts people; the point means 0 pounds cost $0.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Unit rate
- The cost is in dollars, and the weight is in pounds. The unit rate is the cost of just 1 pound. On a straight line through the origin, it is the same at every point. So you can find it from any point you can read.
Sort out the question
The graph is called ICE COSTS. Read both axes first:
- The x-axis, across the bottom, is the weight of the ice in pounds (lb).
- The y-axis, up the side, is the cost in dollars.
A point is written (x, y), weight first and cost second. So a point means: x pounds of ice cost y dollars. You need the statement that says this correctly.
Find the cost of one pound
The line reaches $3.00 at 20 pounds. Use the unit rate formula:
So 1 pound of ice costs $0.15. This helps you test each point.
Test the point in choice C
Find 10 on the weight axis and go straight up to the line. The line crosses there at 1.5 on the cost axis. The unit rate agrees:
So the point (10, 1.5) means 10 pounds of ice cost $1.50. That is exactly what choice C says.
Check the other statements
Each one names a real point on the line. The problem is the meaning it gives the numbers.
Watch out: choice A reads (20, 3) backward. It means 20 pounds cost $3, not 3 pounds cost $20.
Watch out: choice B is tricky. The point (1, 0.15) is on the line, but the x-axis counts pounds, not bags. So it means 1 pound costs $0.15.
Choice D talks about people, but the graph never counts people. The point (0, 0) means 0 pounds cost $0.
Give the answer
Only choice C gives the right meaning to both numbers.
So the answer is C, 10 lbs of ice costs $1.50.
Check your answer
Use halves. The point (20, 3) says 20 pounds cost $3.00. Half as much ice, 10 pounds, should cost half as much. Half of $3.00 is $1.50. That matches choice C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 37 of 120
2026 Practice Test C Math, question 48Question
Which table shows a proportional relationship?
- A
x y 0 0 4 8 3 - B
x y 0 1 4 8 6 - C
x y 0 −1 4 8 0 - D
x y 0 0 4 12 8 16
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The first table is the only one with a constant of proportionality, .
In each ordered pair, .
Question analysis
Four tables each give y for x = 0, 4 and 8, with some values written as fractions or negatives. Students choose the table that shows a proportional relationship. It tests recognizing proportional relationships from a table, which means checking every row against one rule rather than judging by the pattern.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Deciding from a table whether a relationship is proportional is a core grade 7 skill. The fractions and negative values in the tables make each ratio a careful check rather than a glance.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Error-prone arithmetic minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 9, 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
Two quick tests decide proportionality, and the tables are built so that each test alone lets a wrong table through. The last table starts at (0, 0) like the right one, while the middle two grow by equal steps like the right one. Only checking that y ÷ x is the same in every row with x not 0 separates the one table whose ratio stays at 3/8.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each table has to be tested row by row, and two of them start at (0, 0), so the opening row settles nothing; only y ÷ x in the other rows separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Error-prone arithmetic minor Working it out
The y-values include 3/2, 7/2 and −1/2, so the ratios mean dividing fractions by 4, such as (3/2) ÷ 4 = 3/8, and comparing them with 3 ÷ 8. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Strategy: For each table, divide y by x in every row where x is not zero, and check that the quotient never changes and that y is 0 when x is 0.
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.
- Checks only one number: Tries one value in each choice and takes the first that works, when that value happens to work for a wrong choice too; a second value would rule it out.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Sees y rise by the same 5/2 each time x rises by 4 and takes the steady change as proportional, missing that y is 1 when x is 0.
C Misreads the figure (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Spots a 0 in the y column and a steady rise of 1/2, but that 0 belongs to x = 8, while at x = 0 the table gives −1.
D Checks only one number (Schoenfeld, 1985)
Checks only the row (0, 0), which every proportional table has, or only 12 ÷ 4 = 3, without testing 16 ÷ 8 = 2 in the last row.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Proportional relationship
- y and x are the two amounts in each row. k is the constant of proportionality, the same number in every row. Two tests follow from it. When x is 0, y must be 0. And y ÷ x must equal k in every row where x is not 0.
Sort out the question
Each table gives y for x = 0, 4 and 8. You need the one that shows a proportional relationship. That means y is always the same number times x.
Use two tests. First, y must be 0 when x is 0. Second, y ÷ x must be the same in the other rows.
Test the row where x is 0
Look at the top row of each table:
- Table A: y = 0. It passes.
- Table B: y = 1. It fails.
- Table C: y = −1. It fails.
- Table D: y = 0. It passes.
Watch out: tables B and C go up by equal steps. Steady steps are not enough, because they do not start at 0. Table C does have a 0, but it is next to x = 8.
Test the ratio in table A
Divide y by x. Dividing by 4 is the same as multiplying by :
Both rows give . Table A passes both tests.
Test the ratio in table D
Divide y by x in the same way:
The ratios are different, so table D is not proportional.
Watch out: table D starts at (0, 0) like a proportional table. If you check only that row, or only the row with 4, you will pick choice D.
Give the answer
Only table A starts at (0, 0) and keeps y ÷ x the same.
So the answer is A, the table with y = 0, and 3.
Check your answer
Use the rule for table A, . When x = 4, . When x = 8, . Both match. Doubling x from 4 to 8 also doubles y.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 38 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 5Passage A Memory Revolution
A Memory Revolution
A high school senior logs on to a computer at the library to double-check the application due date listed on a college admissions website. Nearby, a librarian helps a group of biology students use a database to search for recent studies about mammals. In the past few decades, the Internet has become an integral component of daily life for many people. The seemingly limitless power of search engines made the Internet search extremely common, and today people increasingly rely on the Internet’s vast accumulation of sources to access all types of information. Scientists are beginning to examine how this reliance is modifying the strategies people use to store and prioritize information in their mind.
A Dependable and Valuable Asset
Psychologist Benjamin Storm from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and researchers Sean Stone and Aaron Benjamin devised an experiment to study students’ tendency to depend on the Internet for facts. To begin, the scientists divided sixty participants into multiple groups, including an “Internet” group and a “memory” group, and placed them in front of computers. The Internet group was required to use the search engine Google to answer eight challenging trivia questions. In contrast, participants in the memory group were permitted to use only their personal knowledge to answer the questions. In the second round, the researchers administered notably easier questions. This time, they allowed each group the option of using Google as they answered. Their results showed that 83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round, while only 63 percent of the memory group chose to do so.
People’s growing inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information, particularly facts and figures, is called cognitive offloading. Canadian researcher Evan F. Risko and British researcher Sam Gilbert, who have written extensively about the topic, say a similar process has been taking place for centuries. In the past, people used resources like encyclopedias to assist their memories; however, today the Internet, serving as a vast extended memory, allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information. Consequently, people’s minds are free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.
Filing Information Away
The use of the Internet also appears to be modifying the strategies people use to store information in their mind. Researchers Betsy Sparrow from Columbia University, Jenny Liu from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Daniel Wegner from Harvard University conducted several studies to discover how people efficiently manage their information intake.
To begin, the researchers examined how people evaluate which information deserves their effort to remember. For this experiment, participants read forty trivia facts, such as “An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain,” and typed the statements into a computer file. Half the participants had been previously told the file would be saved, while half believed it would be erased. Next, the participants wrote down every fact they could recall. Those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.
In another experiment, the same researchers tested the ability of study participants to remember where to access information. For this trial, participants read and typed trivia statements, which they saved in folders with generic names such as “Facts” and “Items.” After spending ten minutes writing down all the facts they could recall from memory, participants were asked which folder contained a particular fact based on a keyword. For example, “Which folder has the fact about ostriches?” Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself, correctly identifying 49 percent of the folders for specific facts while remembering only 23 percent of the actual trivia. The researchers concluded that our memory is adapting to the Internet age by prioritizing where to locate information even when the specific details are forgotten. According to Sparrow, the Internet has become an important form of transactive memory, an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory.
As the Internet’s resources continue to expand our “external” memory, some question whether the process may cause people to depend too heavily on technology. However, Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, says, “Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.”
Question
How does the diagram provide additional support for the topic presented in the passage?
- AIt reveals why human brains must adapt to obtaining information from the Internet as opposed to other sources.
- BIt indicates how people can use the Internet to help improve their long-term recollection of information.
- CIt shows how study participants’ brains distinguished between important and unimportant details.
- DIt depicts the idea that repetition and rehearsal are necessary to recall information when tools such as search engines are unavailable.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the diagram provides additional support for the topic presented in the passage.
A. Incorrect. While the diagram indicates that the human brain has the ability to maintain different types of memory, the diagram does not show the need for the brain to adapt to obtaining information from the Internet rather than from other sources.
B. Incorrect. The diagram enhances the reader’s understanding of how long-term memories are formed, but it does not provide details about how the Internet can be used to improve long-term recollection of information.
C. Incorrect. The diagram provides an understanding of how details that are important to people can become stored because of an effort made to recall them. However, the diagram does not show how people decide which information is important and which is not.
D. CORRECT. The diagram depicts the connections that the human brain maintains between the different forms of memory. It also illustrates the idea that repetition and rehearsal are important steps in creating memories, as unrehearsed information will be forgotten. This supports the passage by highlighting the idea that access to search engines and other tools leads people to skip rehearsal and repetition steps that create memories, because people know that the information is readily accessible.
Question analysis
This question pairs “A Memory Revolution” with its flow diagram, “How Memory Works,” which follows new information from sensory memory through short-term and long-term memory, and asks how the diagram supports the topic of the passage. Students must read the diagram’s boxes, arrows and notes and relate them to an article about the Internet that never refers to the diagram, so the connection has to be worked out.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly connect a diagram to a text. This flow diagram of memory never mentions the Internet, so students must build the bridge to the article’s studies themselves, and every choice claims something the diagram alone cannot show.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Combines ideas moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 81 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The diagram is a general model of memory, and every choice, even the right one, goes beyond it by bringing in the Internet, search engines or the study participants. The way through is to ask which choice rests on something the diagram really shows, and only one names its rehearsal loop and the forgetting of unrehearsed information. The strongest pull uses the diagram’s long-term memory and retrieval but claims the Internet improves recollection, the opposite of what paragraph 5’s experiment found.
Combines ideas moderate Working it out
The diagram never mentions the Internet and the article never mentions the diagram, so students must join its rehearsal loop to paragraph 5’s finding that people who expected the facts to be saved remembered fewer. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
Students must follow the arrows from “Attention” into short-term memory and find the “Rehearsal” loop beside “Information is maintained through repetition,” with “Unrehearsed information is forgotten” on the other side. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three choices tie the diagram to the Internet, adaptation or the study participants, and even the key mentions search engines, so each claim must be held against the boxes and arrows actually drawn. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Trace the diagram’s arrows from new information to long-term memory and say what each label shows, then ask which choice links that process to the studies without crediting the diagram with ideas it never shows.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Credits the diagram with the article’s claim that memory is “adapting to the Internet age” and adds a “must,” though its boxes and arrows show memory in general and never mention the Internet.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Joins the diagram’s long-term memory and retrieval arrow to the Internet as outside memory, though paragraph 5 found that people who expected the facts to be saved recalled fewer of them.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reads the “Attention” arrow and the forgotten unrehearsed information as a picture of paragraph 5’s experiment, though the diagram shows no participants and nothing about judging what is important.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the diagram supports the article. The diagram is the flow chart called “HOW MEMORY WORKS” at the end of the passage. It never mentions the Internet. So you must find what it shows, then link that to the article.
Follow the arrows in the diagram
Start at the top. An arrow labeled “New Information” goes into the box “Sensory Memory.” The “Attention” arrow leads to “Short-Term Memory.” From there, two things can happen. On the left, a loop labeled “Rehearsal” sits beside the note “Information is maintained through repetition.” On the right, a note says “Unrehearsed information is forgotten.” A “Storage” arrow leads down to “Long-Term Memory,” and a “Retrieval” arrow leads back up.
Explain what the diagram means
To rehearse information is to repeat it, the way you practice lines for a play. To maintain something is to keep it. So the diagram says that information you repeat stays with you. Information you don’t repeat is lost. Repeating takes effort.
Link the diagram to the passage
Paragraph 5 describes people who typed forty facts. Some thought the file would be saved. Others thought it would be erased. Those who thought it would be erased “could recall 40 percent more facts.” They knew they could not look the facts up later. So they made the effort to remember. The diagram shows that effort: rehearsal. When search engines are at hand, people may skip it.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The diagram never mentions the Internet. It does not say brains must adapt.
- B does not fit. The diagram shows nothing about using the Internet. Paragraph 5 even found that people remembered less when they expected the facts to be saved.
- C does not fit. The diagram shows memory in general. It shows no study participants and no sorting of important facts.
- D fits. The “Rehearsal” loop shows that repeating information keeps it. Without a tool to look things up, that repeating is what lets you recall.
Watch out: B is tempting because the diagram has “Long-Term Memory” and “Retrieval,” and the article calls the Internet an outside memory. But the diagram is about the brain, not the Internet.
Choose the answer
The diagram shows rehearsal keeping information and unrehearsed information being forgotten. That explains why people who can’t look facts up must work to remember them. So the answer is D, “It depicts the idea that repetition and rehearsal are necessary to recall information when tools such as search engines are unavailable.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. It uses the diagram’s “Long-Term Memory” and “Retrieval” labels. But the diagram never shows the Internet improving recall. The passage says the opposite: expecting the facts to be saved made people remember fewer. D rests on what the diagram really shows, the “Rehearsal” loop and the note “Unrehearsed information is forgotten.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed (pages 3–4)
Question 39 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 7Uses the passage above: “A Memory Revolution”.
Question
The effect of the Internet on a person’s memory is illustrated in the passage through the presentation of studies that
- Aexamine how the use of search engines changes the way people evaluate and store information for future access.
- Bhighlight the difference between the capacity of the Internet and the ability of the human brain to locate information.
- Ccompare the type of information that can be obtained from the Internet with the type of information that is stored in the human brain.
- Demphasize the ease of obtaining information through search engines rather than remembering it without assistance.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the studies presented in the passage are used to illustrate the effect of the Internet on a person’s memory.
A. CORRECT. The study described in paragraph 5 examined the effect of computer use on the way people evaluate information, specifically “which information deserves their effort to remember,” and determined that “those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.” The study described in paragraph 2 established that the use of Internet search engines increases the “inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information” (paragraph 3), and the study in paragraph 6 examined how this reliance on technology affects the way people store information: “Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself.”
B. Incorrect. Although a difference in the ability of the human brain and the capacity of the Internet to locate information might seem evident, the studies cited in the passage did not examine the ability or the capacity of either. The studies did not measure what the human brain is capable of but rather how memory is affected by the use of the Internet.
C. Incorrect. While the studies explored the Internet’s effect on the way information is stored in human memory, the type of information was not described or compared. Instead, the studies indicated that location is the main difference between the information stored in the Internet and the information stored in human memory, noting that the Internet has become “an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory” (paragraph 6).
D. Incorrect. Although it is increasingly common to use the Internet to obtain information (paragraph 2) rather than try to memorize information (paragraph 5), the studies did not examine the difficulty or ease of obtaining/recalling information using either method.
Question analysis
This evidence question asks how the studies described in “A Memory Revolution” illustrate the Internet’s effect on a person’s memory. Students must recall three experiments, one with trivia questions and Google, one with trivia typed into a computer file, and one with named folders, and decide what they examine together. Each choice sounds like a fair claim about the Internet and the brain.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Summing up what a text’s evidence shows is everyday grade 7 work. Here the evidence is three studies spread over paragraphs 2, 5 and 6, which adds recall, but each one is described in plain terms.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 96 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 asks what the article’s studies show together, so a student needs a one-line summary of three experiments before reading the choices. The key is slightly loose, since only the first study uses a search engine, which can make a careful reader hesitate. The strongest pull comes from paragraph 2, where most people turned to Google even for easy questions; it sounds like proof that searching is easier, but no study weighed the effort of looking up against remembering.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The three studies sit in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6, and the key gathers them: turning to Google even for easy questions, recalling less from a saved file, and remembering folders better than facts. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
No sentence says what the studies share; students must abstract it, that expecting later access changes what people bother to store, from experiments built on Google, a computer file and named folders. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each wrong choice names something the studies might plausibly have measured, the Internet’s capacity, kinds of information or ease of searching, and only a check of the three experiments shows that none did. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Sum up in a phrase what the studies in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6 each tested, then pick the option that describes what they examined rather than a point made elsewhere in the article.
Traps
- 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.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Borrows paragraph 3’s “much larger volumes of information” and Pinker’s remark about “human brainpower,” points made outside the studies, which never measured what the Internet or the brain can hold.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns paragraph 6’s gap between recalling where a fact was kept and recalling the fact itself into a comparison of kinds of information, though no study sorted facts by type.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads paragraph 2’s finding that 83 percent of the Internet group kept using Google as proof that searching is easier, though no study compared the effort of searching with remembering.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the studies in the article have in common. How do they show the Internet’s effect on memory? There are three studies, in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6. Sum up each one in a few words. Then find the choice that fits all three.
Sum up the three studies
- Paragraph 2: People who had used Google kept using it, even for easy questions. In fact, “83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round.”
- Paragraph 5: People who thought a file of facts would be erased remembered more. They decided which facts deserved “their effort to remember.”
- Paragraph 6: People remembered where facts were kept better than the facts themselves.
Find what the studies share
Each study looks at how people treat information when a computer or search engine can hold it for them. People decide what is worth the effort to remember. Judging the value of something like this is called evaluating. People also change what they store in their minds, such as where a fact is instead of the fact. That is the effect on memory.
Check each choice
- A fits. The studies show people judging what to remember and storing where to find it.
- B does not fit. No study measured how much the Internet can hold or what the brain can do.
- C does not fit. No study sorted information into types.
- D does not fit. No study compared how easy it is to search and to remember.
Watch out: D is tempting because most people in paragraph 2 kept using Google. That might seem to show searching is easier. But the study never measured ease. It only counted who used Google.
Choose the answer
Only one choice describes what the studies actually tested. So the answer is A, “examine how the use of search engines changes the way people evaluate and store information for future access.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. It sounds like a fair reason people use Google. But none of the studies timed or rated the effort of searching or remembering. They tested what people chose to remember and what they stored. A describes that. Only the first study used a search engine, but the other two show the same pattern with a computer file and folders.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 40 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 8Passage Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”
Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”
by Orville Wright
In 1903 brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted experiments related to flying machines. These experiments would eventually lead to air travel becoming a reliable form of transportation.
During the night of December 16, 1903, a strong cold wind blew from the north. When we arose on the morning of the 17th, the puddles of water, which had been standing about camp since the recent rains, were covered with ice. The wind had a velocity of 10 to 12 meters per second (22 to 27 miles an hour). We thought it would die down before long, and so remained indoors the early part of the morning. But when ten o’clock arrived, and the wind was as brisk as ever, we decided that we had better get the machine out and attempt a flight. We hung out the signal for the men of the Life Saving Station.1 We thought that by facing the flyer into a strong wind, there ought to be no trouble in launching it from the level ground about camp. We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing.
Final Preparations
We laid the track on a smooth stretch of ground about one hundred feet north of the new building. The biting cold wind made work difficult, and we had to warm up frequently in our living room, where we had a good fire in an improvised stove made of a large carbide2 can. By the time all was ready, J. T. Daniels, W. S. Dough and A. D. Etheridge, members of the Kill Devil3 Life Saving Station; W. C. Brinkley of Manteo, and Johnny Moore, a boy from Nags Head,4 had arrived.
We had a “Richard” hand anemometer with which we measured the velocity of the wind. Measurements made just before starting the first flight showed velocities of 11 to 12 meters per second, or 24 to 27 miles per hour. . . .
Audacity—and Calculation
Wilbur having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th, the right to the first trial now belonged to me. After running the motor a few minutes to heat it up, I released the wire that held the machine to the track, and the machine started forward in the wind. Wilbur ran at the side of the machine, holding the wing to balance it on the track. Unlike the start on the 14th, made in a calm, the machine, facing a 27-mile wind, started very slowly. Wilbur was able to stay with it till it lifted from the track after a forty-foot run. One of the Life Saving men snapped the camera for us, taking a picture just as the machine had reached the end of the track and had risen to a height of about two feet. The slow forward speed of the machine over the ground is clearly shown in the picture by Wilbur’s attitude. He stayed along beside the machine without any effort.
Flight
The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center. This gave it a tendency to turn itself when started; so that it turned too far on one side and then too far on the other. As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet, and then as suddenly dart for the ground. A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight. As the velocity of the wind was over 35 feet per second and the speed of the machine over the ground against this wind ten feet per second, the speed of the machine relative to the air was over 45 feet per second, and the length of the flight was equivalent to a flight of 540 feet made in calm air. This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.
From “How We Made the First Flight” by Orville Wright—Public Domain/Federal Aviation Administration
1Life Saving Station: one of the rescue stations along the Atlantic coastline that provided assistance to mariners in distress
2carbide: a very hard material composed of carbon and other heavy metals
3Kill Devil: the town of Kill Devil Hills in eastern North Carolina
4Nags Head: a town in eastern North Carolina
Question
How does paragraph 1 introduce the idea that the Wright brothers knew that their flight attempt was risky?
- Athrough the mention of a signal to notify lifesaving experts that the flight attempt was about to begin
- Bby providing specific details about the speed of the wind and the Wright brothers’ response to the windy conditions
- Cby suggesting that a slower landing would be necessary at the end of the flight in order to maintain safety
- Dthrough the indication that the Wright brothers waited indoors for most of the morning because of the poor weather
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 1 introduces the idea that the Wright brothers knew that their flight attempt was risky.
A. CORRECT. Paragraph 1 describes the Wright brothers hanging out “the signal” to notify the lifesaving crew to stand by as they attempted flight; the need for lifesaving experts to be available in case of an accident introduces the idea that the attempted flight might crash.
B. Incorrect. The specifics on the speed of the wind by themselves do not emphasize the danger of the flight. While the brothers admitted that the strong wind posed certain risks, they also noted that the windy conditions might make landing safer (“estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing” [paragraph 1]).
C. Incorrect. A slower landing was expected as a result of the windy conditions, but it was not part of a plan to increase the safety of the flight.
D. Incorrect. While the Wright brothers’ initial decision to wait to see whether the wind would die down does suggest they were concerned about the safety of the flight, the explanation of their decision to proceed with the flight shows that they expected one benefit from the poor weather: “the slower speed in landing” (paragraph 1).
Question analysis
This question on Orville Wright’s account “How We Made the First Flight” asks how the opening paragraph, which describes a cold, windy December morning at the brothers’ camp, introduces the idea that the Wright brothers knew their flight attempt was risky. Students must judge which of four details from the paragraph does that work, and the paragraph mentions both dangers and reasons for confidence.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Finding how a paragraph introduces an idea is grade 7 work, but this paragraph is long and old-fashioned, every choice points to something it mentions, and students must decide which detail most clearly signals that the brothers saw a risk.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 7, 816 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 93 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
Paragraph 1 states the danger outright only in its last sentence, and that sentence then weighs it against a gentler landing, so the choice built on the brothers’ response to the wind is the strongest pull. The key rests on a quieter detail whose meaning comes from a footnote: men from a rescue station were signaled before the attempt. Students must decide which detail shows the brothers preparing for trouble, not just noticing the weather, and that test is narrower than most expect.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The key never says danger: students must connect “the signal for the men of the Life Saving Station” to footnote 1, rescue stations for “mariners in distress,” and see that summoning rescuers means expecting trouble. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four details come from paragraph 1, and its plainest admission of danger, “We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind,” sits inside a wrong choice, so each detail must be weighed for what it shows. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The paragraph’s last sentence sets danger against benefit, “the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing,” and students must untangle it to see the brothers playing the risk down. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Locate each of the four details in paragraph 1, reread the sentence it sits in, and ask what that detail on its own reveals about what the brothers feared could go wrong.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- 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
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Seizes on the wind speeds and “We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind,” but the response the paragraph describes is a calculation that a slower landing would offset the danger.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the slower landing, a side effect of facing a strong wind, into a safety step the brothers needed, when the paragraph counts it as a partial offset to the added danger.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the wait for calmer air as fear and stretches “the early part of the morning” into most of it, though at ten o’clock they decided to fly in the same brisk wind.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraph 1 first shows that the Wright brothers knew their flight was risky. Risky means it could end badly. All four choices name details from paragraph 1. Your job is to find the detail that shows them getting ready for trouble.
Find the signal in paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 says “We hung out the signal for the men of the Life Saving Station.” The small number 1 after “Station” points to footnote 1 at the end of the excerpt. Read it. A Life Saving Station was “one of the rescue stations along the Atlantic coastline that provided assistance to mariners in distress.” Mariners are sailors. Distress means danger or trouble.
Work out what the signal means
The brothers called rescue workers before they tried to fly. People call rescuers only when someone might get hurt. So the signal shows the brothers knew the flight could go wrong. They wanted help close by in case of a crash.
Check each choice
- A fits. Signaling rescuers shows the brothers planned for trouble.
- B does not fit. The wind speeds are only numbers. The brothers’ response was to fly anyway, thinking “there ought to be no trouble in launching.”
- C does not fit. The slower landing was a side effect of the wind. They counted it as a plus, not as a safety step they needed.
- D does not fit. They stayed inside only “the early part of the morning,” hoping the wind would die down. Then they went out in the same wind.
Watch out: B is tempting because the paragraph says “We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind.” But that same sentence weighs those dangers against a slower landing. It plays the risk down.
Choose the answer
The call to the rescue station is the detail that shows the brothers preparing for danger. So the answer is A, “through the mention of a signal to notify lifesaving experts that the flight attempt was about to begin.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. The paragraph does admit the wind made flying harder. But the brothers then argue the danger down: a slower landing would partly make up for it. A shows them acting on the risk. They called in rescuers before they flew. You only do that if you think something could go wrong.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”” as printed (pages 13–14)
Question 41 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 13Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight””.
Question
Which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that the Wright brothers had to adapt their plans for the flight in order to accommodate the weather conditions?
- A“When we arose on the morning of the 17th, the puddles of water, which had been standing about camp since the recent rains, were covered with ice.” (paragraph 1)
- B“We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing.” (paragraph 1)
- C“After running the motor a few minutes to heat it up, I released the wire that held the machine to the track, and the machine started forward in the wind.” (paragraph 4)
- D“The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine.” (paragraph 5)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that the Wright brothers had to adapt their plans for the flight in order to accommodate weather conditions.
A. Incorrect. Although the sentence from paragraph 1 mentions the rainy weather and frozen puddles, it does not specifically explain how these weather conditions forced the brothers to adapt their plans for the flight.
B. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 1 reveals that the Wright brothers adapted by making a risk calculation, based on the wind speed, before the flight. The high speed of the wind could cause difficulties in flight while simultaneously allowing for a slower, more controlled landing.
C. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 4 does mention wind, but it describes what Orville was doing during the attempted flight, not the factors he considered before the flight in order to adapt the plan.
D. Incorrect. Although the sentence from paragraph 5 mentions the “irregularity of the air” during the flight, the sentence does not describe how the brothers adapted their plans for the flight based on the weather.
Question analysis
This evidence question on Orville Wright’s account of the first flight asks which sentence best supports the idea that the Wright brothers had to adapt their plans for the flight to the weather conditions. The four quotations come from paragraphs 1, 4 and 5 and all mention ice, wind or air, so students must look past the weather words to what each sentence shows the brothers doing.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing the sentence that best supports an idea is core grade 7 evidence work. The four quotations are printed in full with their paragraph numbers, and the idea has two parts, weather and a change of plans, so the check is careful but typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 7, 816 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 148 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 idea has two parts, the weather and a change in the brothers’ plans, and every quotation carries the first. Students who look only for weather words can be drawn to the erratic flight or the launch into the wind. Only one sentence shows the brothers thinking about the wind before they flew and deciding how to proceed, and once the second half of the idea is in view the choice is quick.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four quotations mention ice, wind or air, so the weather half of the idea rules nothing out; each must be checked for the other half, a decision the brothers made because of it. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The key never says plan or adapt; students must see that weighing “the added dangers in flight” against “the slower speed in landing” is the brothers fitting their decision to the wind. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Split the idea into its two parts, the weather and a change in the brothers’ plans, and keep only a quotation that shows both, not one that shows the weather alone.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks the frozen puddles as proof of harsh weather, which they are, but the sentence only sets the scene and shows nothing the brothers did or decided because of it.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes running the motor “to heat it up” and starting “in the wind” as adjustments to the cold, but the sentence narrates the launch and never says a plan changed.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Notices “the irregularity of the air” linking the weather to the flight, but this sentence explains why the course was erratic once the machine was up, not how the brothers prepared.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the sentence that best supports an idea. The idea has two parts. First, there was bad weather. Second, the brothers had to adapt, or change, their plans because of it. All four choices mention ice, wind or air. So look for the one that also shows a decision.
Check each sentence for both parts
- A shows the weather: icy puddles. But no one decides anything.
- B shows the wind and the brothers’ thinking about it before the flight.
- C describes the launch. It tells what Orville did, not a change of plans.
- D explains why the flight was bumpy once it was in the air. It shows no plan.
Read the sentence that fits
Paragraph 1 says “We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing.” To estimate is to make a careful guess. Compensated for means “made up for.” The brothers knew the strong wind made flying harder. They weighed that against a good effect: a slower landing. Then they decided to fly anyway.
Explain how this shows adapting
The brothers did not just notice the wind. They thought about how it would change the flight, the bad and the good. They also planned on “facing the flyer into a strong wind.” Making plans that fit the weather is what adapting means.
Watch out: D is tempting because it links “the irregularity of the air” to the flight. But it tells what happened during the flight, not how the brothers planned for it.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence shows the brothers fitting their decision to the wind before they flew. So the answer is B, “We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. It does connect the weather to the flight. But it describes what happened in the air, after the plans were made. The idea needs the brothers changing plans because of the weather. Only B shows them thinking through the wind’s dangers and benefits before they decided to fly.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 42 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 19Passage Wolves of the Sea
Wolves of the Sea
The cool and misty landscape of the Great Bear Rainforest can be found along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, and its nearby islands, from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. Within this protected area, wolves roam the forests, islands, and beaches. When biologist Chris Darimont began to study these wolves, he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves. He spoke with Chester Starr, an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation that has occupied the Great Bear Rainforest for thousands of years. What Starr had to say about the wolves changed Darimont’s perception of the animals.
Starr asked Darimont which wolves he and his team were going to study—the timber wolves (mainland wolves) or the coastal wolves on the islands. The question took Darimont by surprise. Biologists had always believed that the wolves that are sometimes spotted swimming between islands and eating salmon are the same wolves that live on the mainland. Darimont was intrigued by Starr’s classification of the wolves as two different groups. At first, he was hesitant to accept the idea. The distances between the mainland and the islands are small, less than a mile. Why would the wolves on the islands be any different from the wolves on the mainland? To find out, Darimont and his research team studied the wolves on the islands and in the densely forested territory of the Great Bear Rainforest for ten years.
Throughout the study, Darimont recorded several significant, observable differences between the “sea wolves,” as they are nicknamed, and the mainland wolves. Compared with the mainland wolves, the sea wolves are smaller in size and are strong swimmers. In 1996 sea wolves were spotted on an island nearly eight miles from any other land formation. While mainland wolves almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals, sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish. Sea wolves regularly swim between islands and have been known to sneak up on a seal sunning itself on a rock and make a leaping attack from the water. Some salmon-eating mainland wolves come and go from the islands with the fish-spawning season, but the sea wolves are full-time island residents. Darimont suspects that some sea wolves live their entire life on the islands.
The sea wolves displayed not only physical and behavioral differences but also genetic variations from the mainland wolves. After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves. A genetic marker is a variation in a DNA sequence that can be used to identify individuals or a species because it is passed down to offspring. Darimont hypothesizes that a change in habitat led to the eventual genetic differences between sea wolves and mainland wolves. Many years ago, loss of habitat and food sources forced some mainland wolves out to the islands. They learned to eat everything from kelp and fish eggs to the remains of sea creatures that washed up on the beach. Wolves living on the islands and mainland wolves became more isolated and rarely mated with each other. Over time the two types of wolves became more distinct.
It turned out that Chester Starr was right all along. “It sounded totally bizarre at first,” admits Darimont, “that there could be two versions of the species.” But he now realizes that this skepticism “definitely reflected my ignorance of indigenous knowledge at the time.” Learning to trust the wisdom of the Heiltsuk people opened Darimont up to knowledge accumulated over millennia and positioned him so that he could gather new scientific evidence about one of British Columbia’s most elusive species, the sea wolf.
Question
Which sentence from the passage best supports the idea that sea wolves had successfully adapted to living on the islands?
- A“While mainland wolves almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals, sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish.” (paragraph 3)
- B“Sea wolves regularly swim between islands and have been known to sneak up on a seal sunning itself on a rock and make a leaping attack from the water.” (paragraph 3)
- C“Darimont suspects that some sea wolves live their entire life on the islands.” (paragraph 3)
- D“Darimont hypothesizes that a change in habitat led to the eventual genetic differences between sea wolves and mainland wolves.” (paragraph 4)
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the sentence from the passage that best supports the idea that sea wolves had successfully adapted to living on the islands.
A. CORRECT. This sentence from paragraph 3 describes a significant difference in the diets of the mainland and sea wolves: the mainland wolves “almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals,” whereas the sea wolves had adapted to the point where they derive “as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish.” This sentence emphasizes the dietary difference between the two groups of wolves and best supports the idea that sea wolves had successfully adapted to living on the islands.
B. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 3 describes one technique that the sea wolves used to hunt, it does not offer evidence as strong as that provided by the preceding sentence, which explains that sea wolves were able to derive “as much as 90 percent” (paragraph 3) of their sustenance from the sea alone (versus the mainland wolves, which “almost exclusively eat meat” from land animals [paragraph 3]).
C. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 3 states that “some sea wolves live their entire life on the islands,” it does not provide strong evidence of the necessary adaptations—namely, how these wolves were able to successfully live their whole lives on the islands. Living on the islands was not necessarily an adaptation in and of itself; the adaptation was the sea-based diet that enabled the sea wolves to live on the islands without access to land animals.
D. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 4 presents Darimont’s hypothesis that “a change in habitat led to the eventual genetic differences” between the wolves, the sentence does not describe any of the sea wolves’ adaptations nor best support the idea that the sea wolves successfully adapted to living on the islands.
Question analysis
This evidence question on “Wolves of the Sea” asks which sentence best supports the idea that sea wolves had successfully adapted to living on the islands. Three choices come from paragraph 3’s list of differences between sea wolves and mainland wolves and one from paragraph 4, so students must rank closely related sentences by how directly each shows the wolves thriving there.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions often have one clearly relevant sentence. Here three neighboring sentences all describe the sea wolves’ island life, so students must decide what counts as successful adaptation and rank strong evidence against nearly as strong.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 131 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
All four sentences are about sea wolves, and three describe their island lives, so the question turns on ranking evidence rather than spotting it. The seal attack is one of the passage’s most vivid images and shows a real island skill, which makes it hard to give up for a sentence about diet. The key wins because it shows a whole way of life changing, most food from the sea and the young taught to fish, while the other sentences offer one habit, a hedged guess or a cause.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The seal-hunting sentence sits right after the key in paragraph 3 and also shows sea wolves living off the sea; it differs in showing one hunting trick instead of up to 90 percent of their food. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
No sentence uses the word “adapted,” so students must first decide what would prove an animal thrives in a new place, such as getting its food there and teaching that skill to its young. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three of the four sentences come from paragraph 3’s list of island habits, and all four mention sea wolves or their habitat, so none can be dismissed at a glance. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, decide what would prove that an animal has adapted well to a new place, then rank the four sentences by how fully each one shows that, not merely whether it fits.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Is impressed by the leaping attack on a seal, a real island skill, but one hunting technique shows less than wolves getting up to 90 percent of their food from the sea.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Matches “live their entire life on the islands” to the claim’s “living on the islands,” but it is Darimont’s guess about where the wolves stay, not how they manage there.
D True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Sees “change in habitat” and thinks of adaptation, but the sentence gives Darimont’s theory of what caused the genetic differences, not evidence that the wolves thrive.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for evidence: the sentence that best supports a claim. The claim is that sea wolves “had successfully adapted to living on the islands.” To adapt is to change so you can live well in a new place.
Decide what strong proof looks like
Before you read the choices, ask what would prove an animal is doing well somewhere new. It can find its food there. It can also teach its young to live there. One clever trick is weaker proof. A guess is weaker still. So look for a sentence that shows a whole way of life built around the new home.
Test the diet sentence
Choice A comes from paragraph 3. It says “sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish.” Nutrition is the food a body needs. So almost all their food comes from the sea. They also pass those skills on to their pups. Mainland wolves, by contrast, “almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk.” Exclusively means only.
Check the other choices
- B shows one hunting trick, a leap at a seal. It is a real island skill. But it shows less than a diet that is up to 90 percent from the sea.
- C uses the word “suspects,” so it is only Darimont’s guess. It also tells where some wolves live, not how they manage there.
- D gives Darimont’s idea about what caused the genetic differences. It does not show the wolves doing well.
Watch out: The seal attack in B is the most exciting picture. But one exciting hunt is weaker proof than a whole new diet.
Choose the answer
Sentence A shows sea wolves getting most of their food from the sea and training their young to do the same. So the answer is A, the sentence “While mainland wolves almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals, sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. It comes right after A in paragraph 3 and also shows sea wolves living off the sea. But B shows one way of hunting. A shows where nearly all their food comes from, and that they teach it to their young. That is stronger proof that they adapted well.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed (pages 23–24)
Question 43 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 35Passage Martial Arts for the Mind and Body
Martial Arts for the Mind and Body
(1) The martial arts blend a series of physical movements with strategic mental discipline so that practitioners can defend themselves, physically defeat an opponent, or both. (2) Historians are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used. (3) Martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries. (4) Martial arts such as karate, kung fu, tae kwon do, and judo are still taught and practiced as methods of self-defense, but they offer students more than that. (5) The study of martial arts can provide students with a way to enhance their mental discipline as well as their physical fitness.
(6) Discipline, focus, and respect are important qualities for everyone to have. (7) However, for most people these qualities are not innate; they must be learned and practiced. (8) The study of martial arts can provide an opportunity to develop these skills. (9) Students are rewarded for their dedication by passing tests and advancing to higher ranks or levels. (10) For example, in a typical tae kwon do class, students learn discipline by diligently practicing moves, improve focus by listening carefully, and demonstrate respect by bowing to the instructor and following directions.
(11) For teenagers, martial arts classes provide a safe and structured environment for gaining physical skills, building confidence, and enjoying a sense of community. (12) A lot of teens go through hard situations as they try to do well in school and in life. (13) A martial arts class can provide teens with a physical outlet for stress while also challenging them mentally. (14) Participating in a martial arts program also helps children and teens focus on self-improvement rather than on competition. (15) Progressing through levels of achievement involves mastering more physically demanding techniques. (16) It requires students to take responsibility and be accountable for achieving set goals. (17) Students gain confidence and experience companionship with other students who are progressing through the ranks.
(18) Adults who practice martial arts can experience many of the same benefits that younger people do, but perhaps the greatest of these is health and fitness. (19) Adult martial arts students often see changes in their body within weeks of beginning a program.
(20) For people interested in studying a martial art, there are many ways to learn and practice. (21) In addition to private studios, community recreation centers often offer low-cost or free martial arts classes. (22) There are even online videos that introduce students to the basic concepts. (23) People should study martial arts.
Question
What is the best way to combine sentences 2 and 3?
- AHistorians, who are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used, know that martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries.
- BWhile historians are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used, they do know that martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries.
- CBecause historians know that martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries, they are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used.
- DMartial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries, and historians are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the best way to combine sentences 2 and 3.
A. Incorrect. This way of combining sentences 2 and 3 places unnecessary emphasis on characterizing historians, and it does not clearly show the contrasting relationship between the idea from sentence 2 that historians do not know the exact origins of martial arts and the idea in sentence 3 that historians know that martial arts have a long history.
B. CORRECT. This option is correct because the word “while” at the beginning of the sentence best indicates the contrast between the ideas in sentences 2 and 3. Sentence 2 states that historians do not know the exact origins of martial arts (“unsure of exactly when and where”). Sentence 3 describes what historians do know about these origins (“practiced by several different societies for many centuries”). This combination indicates that historians have a general understanding about the origins of martial arts even though they cannot confirm the exact details.
C. Incorrect. Starting this sentence with the word “because” indicates a cause-and-effect relationship that does not exist between the ideas in the original sentences. The idea from sentence 3, that historians know that martial arts have been practiced for many years, did not cause the idea in sentence 2, that historians do not know exact details about the origins of martial arts.
D. Incorrect. The conjunction (connecting word) “and” does not clearly show how the ideas in sentences 2 and 3 are related. While “and” can be used to combine related sentences, it does not demonstrate the contrast between the idea in sentence 2, that historians do not know the exact origins of martial arts, and the idea in sentence 3, that historians know that martial arts have a long history.
Question analysis
This sentence-combining question uses sentences 2 and 3 of a passage on the benefits of martial arts: historians are unsure when and where martial arts were first used, and the arts have been practiced by many societies for centuries. Students must choose the combination whose connecting word shows how the two facts relate, among four grammatical versions.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Joining two sentences with a word that shows how their ideas relate is routine grade 7 work. Both sentences are short and plain, and the four versions differ mainly in one connecting word or structure, so the task is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 402 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 122 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 two sentences are short and plain, and the only real decision is the relationship between them: uncertainty about origins set against knowledge of a long history. The relative-clause version tempts most because it sounds polished and keeps everything, yet it turns the uncertainty into a description of historians and drops the contrast. The versions with “Because” and “and” are easier to rule out once the contrast is named, since one invents a cause and the other only adds.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 2 says what historians do not know and sentence 3 what they do, so the combined sentence needs a word that marks that contrast, which students should name before reading the choices. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four versions keep both facts and are grammatical, so each must be read through to see whether its opening word or structure shows contrast, addition, cause or mere description. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, decide how sentence 3 relates to sentence 2: an added fact, a cause, or a contrast. Then pick the version whose opening word or structure signals that relationship.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
- Changes the meaning: A revision is correct English but no longer says what the writer meant.
The wrong answers, classified
A Changes the meaning (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Keeps both facts in one polished sentence, but tucking sentence 2 into a “who” clause makes it a description of historians and hides the contrast between unknown and known.
C Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Opens with “Because,” making the long history the cause of historians’ uncertainty about origins, a cause-and-effect link the two facts do not have.
D Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Joins the sentences with “and,” which simply adds one fact to the other in reverse order, so nothing signals that what historians know contrasts with what they don’t.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how to join two sentences into one. The best way shows how the two ideas are related. So first figure out how they relate.
Read sentences 2 and 3
Sentence 2: “Historians are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used.” Sentence 3: “Martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries.” A historian studies the past. Sentence 2 tells what historians don’t know. Sentence 3 tells what they do know. That is a contrast: two ideas that pull different ways.
Name the rule
When two ideas contrast, join them with a contrast word, such as while, although or but. Here “while” means although. For example: Sam forgot the exact date. He knew it was in May. Joined: While Sam forgot the exact date, he knew it was in May.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The part that starts with “who” just describes the historians. The contrast between not knowing and knowing gets lost.
- B is right. “While” shows the contrast. The words “do know” make it even clearer.
- C is wrong. “Because” means one thing causes the other. A long history does not cause historians to be unsure.
- D is wrong. “And” just adds one fact to another. It does not show the contrast.
Watch out: A sounds smooth and keeps every fact, so it is tempting. But a good combined sentence must also show how the ideas relate.
Choose the answer
B joins the two facts and shows the contrast. So the answer is B, “While historians are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used, they do know that martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It keeps both facts in one smooth sentence. But tucking sentence 2 into a “who” part turns it into a description of historians. Nothing marks the turn from what they don’t know to what they do. B’s “While” and “do know” make that contrast plain.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Martial Arts for the Mind and Body” as printed (page 52)
Question 44 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 37Uses the passage above: “Martial Arts for the Mind and Body”.
Question
Which revision of sentence 12 best maintains the formal style established in the passage?
- AA lot of teens have to put up with difficult things while trying to do well in school and in life.
- BMany teenagers deal with tough situations as they try to stay on top of their studies and do well in life.
- CMany teenagers encounter challenges as they work to succeed both academically and personally.
- DA lot of teens face problems as they work to keep up with their schoolwork and find personal success.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the revision of sentence 12 that best maintains the formal style established in the passage.
A. Incorrect. The phrases “A lot,” “put up with,” “difficult things,” and “do well in school” are worded informally; therefore, this sentence does not consistently maintain the formal style established in the passage.
B. Incorrect. The phrases “deal with,” “tough situations,” “stay on top of,” and “do well in life” are worded informally; therefore, this sentence does not consistently maintain the formal style established in the passage.
C. CORRECT. This option is correct because it uses clear and scholarly wording throughout the whole sentence. The phrases “many teenagers,” “encounter challenges,” and “succeed both academically and personally” make the sentence’s style more consistently formal than the other options.
D. Incorrect. The phrases “A lot,” “face problems,” and “keep up with” are worded informally; therefore, this sentence does not consistently maintain the formal style established in the passage.
Question analysis
This style question asks which revision of sentence 12, “A lot of teens go through hard situations as they try to do well in school and in life,” best keeps the formal style of the martial arts passage. Students compare four rewrites phrase by phrase, listening for casual expressions in each one.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Keeping a formal style is practiced from grade 6, and here it is tested in one sentence with familiar casual phrases. Typical grade 7 style work asks for subtler choices of precise, content-specific words across a passage.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 402 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 87 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
Most students hear the casual phrases at once, and only one version avoids all of them, so this is one of the easier revising questions. The risk is stopping at a formal start: one version opens with “Many teenagers” and then slides into “tough situations,” and another sounds serious with “face problems” but begins with “A lot of teens.” Checking every phrase, not the first few words, is all the question asks.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each rewrite mixes formal and casual wording, “Many teenagers” beside “deal with” and “stay on top of,” so every phrase of every version has to be checked, not just the opening words. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Students must recognize idioms such as “put up with” and “keep up with” as spoken English, a sense of register that the question expects them to bring. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Underline every casual phrase in each rewrite, such as everyday idioms or vague words, and keep only the version with none; one formal phrase is not enough.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Trades “go through hard situations” for “put up with difficult things” and keeps “A lot of teens,” swapping one set of casual phrases for another.
B Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Is reassured by the formal opening “Many teenagers,” but the rest, “deal with,” “tough situations” and “stay on top of,” is everyday speech.
D Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Likes the more serious “face problems” and “personal success,” but keeps the casual “A lot of teens” and “keep up with their schoolwork.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which rewrite of sentence 12 matches the passage’s formal style. Formal style is the careful, serious way of writing you use in a school report. It skips the casual words you might use with friends.
Spot the casual words
Sentence 12 says, “A lot of teens go through hard situations as they try to do well in school and in life.” “A lot of,” “teens” and “go through” sound like talking with a friend. Compare sentence 11, which speaks of “a safe and structured environment.” The rest of the passage uses careful words like those.
Name the rule
Formal writing uses exact, serious words and skips everyday sayings. For example, Kids have a ton of homework is casual. Students have a large amount of homework is formal. Check every phrase in each choice, not just the first few words.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “A lot of teens,” “put up with” and “difficult things” are casual.
- B is wrong. It starts well with “Many teenagers.” But “deal with,” “tough situations” and “stay on top of” are casual.
- C is right. Every phrase is formal. To encounter challenges is to meet hard problems. Academically means in school. Personally means in your own life.
- D is wrong. “Face problems” sounds serious. But “A lot of teens” and “keep up with” are casual.
Watch out: B and D each have a formal phrase or two. One formal phrase is not enough.
Choose the answer
Only C is formal from start to finish. So the answer is C, “Many teenagers encounter challenges as they work to succeed both academically and personally.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because it opens with the formal “Many teenagers.” But it then slides into everyday phrases like “deal with” and “stay on top of.” C keeps the same meaning and stays formal from start to end. Words like “encounter challenges” and “academically” match the careful style of the passage.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 45 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 48Question
Read this sentence.
In the Whispering Gallery of Grand Central Terminal, people whispering a message in one corner can be clearly heard in the opposite corner, regardless of surrounding noise, because the tiled archways send the sound through the environment.
Which revision to the words send the sound through the environment uses the most precise language?
Drag the correct phrase into the box.
In the Whispering Gallery of Grand Central Terminal, people whispering a message in one corner can be clearly heard in the opposite corner, regardless of surrounding noise, because the tiled archways ____.
On the test you drag one of the tiles into the box; here, choose it.
- Aguide the sound waves in a specific direction
- Bfocus the sound waves to travel through the space
- Cdirect the sound waves to move along the curves of the arches
- Dtransfer the sound waves to a variety of different locations
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the revision to the words send the sound through the environment that uses the most precise language.
Incorrect. The phrase “guide the sound waves in a specific direction” is not the most precise revision. “A specific direction” does not explain precisely where the sound waves travel.
Incorrect. The phrase “focus the sound waves to travel through the space” is not the most precise revision, because it does not precisely describe where the waves move. The phrase “through the space” does not provide the reader with more specific information as to where in the space the sound waves travel.
CORRECT. The phrase “direct the sound waves to move along the curves of the arches” uses precise language to explain how the waves travel. The wording “direct the sound waves” is more specific than “send the sound” as in the original sentence, and the action “move along the curves” conveys more detail than the phrase “through the environment.”
Incorrect. The phrase “transfer the sound waves to a variety of different locations” is not the most precise revision, because it does not precisely convey where the waves move to. The phrase “variety of different locations” is vague and does not add clarity.
Question analysis
This precise-language question gives a sentence about the Whispering Gallery in Grand Central Terminal, where a whisper in one corner is heard in the opposite corner, and asks which revision of “send the sound through the environment” is most precise. On the test students drag one of four phrase tiles into the box, and every tile sounds more technical than the original.
- NYS standards
- 7L3a precise and concise language
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Replacing vague wording with exact wording is taught by grade 6. Here it is one sentence about a familiar place and four phrase tiles, a single judgment, which is lighter than typical grade 7 revision of a whole paragraph.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 133 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misquotation of the sentence 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
All four tiles upgrade “send the sound” to “the sound waves” with a sharper verb, so the original’s vagueness survives only in the endings. The tile that promises “a specific direction” sounds precise because of that word, yet it never names the direction; the key is the only tile that says where the sound travels. Dragging a tile into the box adds nothing to the task beyond picking one choice.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The “specific direction” tile is built like the key, a precise verb and “the sound waves”; the two differ only in the ending, a direction never named versus “along the curves of the arches.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every tile sounds more exact than the original, so students must ask of each one whether a reader could tell how the sound gets from one corner to the opposite one. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Reread the whole sentence, then ask of each tile whether a reader could picture exactly how the sound gets from one corner of the gallery to the other.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
- Changes the meaning: A revision is correct English but no longer says what the writer meant.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Trusts the word “specific,” which sounds exact, but “a specific direction” never says which direction, so the phrase stays as vague as the original.
B Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Is drawn by the technical “focus the sound waves,” but “through the space” just restates “through the environment” and says nothing about the archways.
D Changes the meaning (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Picks the scientific-sounding “transfer,” but sending sound to “a variety of different locations” contradicts a whisper heard in the one opposite corner, and the phrase repeats itself.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of the correct phrase says that “move along the curves” conveys more detail than “the phrase ‘moving through the environment.’” The sentence in the question says the archways “send the sound through the environment”; the word “moving” is not in it. The site now quotes the sentence’s own words: “the phrase ‘through the environment.’”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which phrase is most precise. Precise language is exact. It tells the reader just what happens, so they can picture it. The phrase you pick replaces the underlined words.
See what the sentence needs
The sentence says a whisper in one corner “can be clearly heard in the opposite corner.” Why? “because the tiled archways send the sound through the environment.” That ending is vague, or unclear. “Through the environment” could mean anywhere. A better phrase would say how the sound gets from one corner to the other.
Name the rule
Precise writing swaps general words for exact ones. For example, The dog went over there is vague. The dog ran under the porch is precise. Now you know just where the dog went.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “A specific direction” sounds exact. But it never says which direction.
- B is wrong. “Through the space” is just another way to say “through the environment.”
- C is right. “Along the curves of the arches” tells exactly where the sound travels. It follows the curved arches to the far corner.
- D is wrong. “A variety of different locations” is vague. It also clashes with a whisper heard in one corner. And “variety” and “different” say the same thing twice.
Watch out: The word “specific” makes A sound precise. Ask whether you can picture the path. With A, you can’t.
Choose the answer
With the tile in place, the sentence ends because the tiled archways direct the sound waves to move along the curves of the arches. So the answer is C. On the test, you drag the tile “direct the sound waves to move along the curves of the arches” into the box.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It has a strong verb, “guide,” and the word “specific.” But it never names the direction, so the reader still can’t picture the path. C says exactly where the sound goes: along the curves of the arches. That explains how a whisper reaches the opposite corner.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 46 of 120
2026 Practice Test D English, question 50Question
What is the best way to combine the sentences?
(1) Scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons.
(2) One of Jupiter’s moons is named Io.
(3) Io has the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system.
- AIo, which is one of Jupiter’s moons, has the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system, and scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons.
- BScientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons, and one of them is named Io, which has the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system.
- CScientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons, including one named Io, which has the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system.
- DIo, a moon with the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system, is one of Jupiter’s moons, and scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the best way to combine the sentences.
A. Incorrect. Although the sentence incorporates the ideas presented in the three original sentences, it is incorrect because the combination suggests an incorrect relationship between the ideas. By beginning with “Io,” the sentence places emphasis on the moon and the detail about the number of active volcanoes rather than the key idea that “scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons.” Since Io is an example of one of Jupiter’s moons, the details about Io should follow and be subordinate to the main clause, which provides new information about the number of Jupiter’s moons in general.
B. Incorrect. Although the sentence incorporates all three ideas from the original sentences and correctly places the detail about the number of active volcanoes on Io in a dependent clause, this option is incorrect because it presents an imprecise relationship between the ideas. By using the conjunction (connecting word) “and,” the sentence construction suggests that scientists “now believe” that “Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons” and that “one of them is named Io,” instead of presenting Io as an example of one of Jupiter’s moons.
C. CORRECT. This sentence is the best way to combine the original sentences because it uses a complex sentence to present ideas clearly and precisely, and it shows the relationship between the ideas in the original sentences. The sentence starts by stating the number of moons scientists now believe Jupiter may have and then specifies that one of those moons is named Io. The dependent clause “which has the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system” immediately follows the word “Io” to provide additional information about the moon. A dependent clause contains a subject (“which,” referring to Io) and a verb (“has”) but is not a complete sentence on its own.
D. Incorrect. The sentence incorporates the key ideas from the original sentences, but its structure does not accurately present the relationship between these ideas. The beginning of the sentence includes the detail about Io having “the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system” before specifying that Io is one of the seventy-nine moons of Jupiter. The presentation of the details about Io at the beginning lessens the emphasis of the key idea that “scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons.”
Question analysis
This sentence-combining question gives three short sentences: scientists believe Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons, one moon is named Io, and Io has the most active volcanoes in the solar system. Students must choose the single sentence that joins all three facts while showing how they relate, and the four versions differ only in order and connecting structure.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Combining sentences so the ideas relate clearly is grade 7 language work. The three sentences are short, but every version keeps all the facts, so the choice rests on which idea leads and which is tucked into a clause, a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 10, 162 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
Because every version keeps all three facts and is grammatical, the question is about emphasis and connection, which students rarely check for. Two versions open with Io and its volcanoes and leave the seventy-nine moons trailing after “and,” and one of them also calls Io a moon twice. The strongest pull is the version with the right order that still joins Io with “and,” so Io’s name reads as a second piece of news rather than an example of the moons just counted.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The “and one of them is named Io” version matches the key in its order and in its which-clause about volcanoes; only its connector differs from the key’s “including one named Io.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Students must see that sentence 1 is the main news and that sentences 2 and 3 narrow to one example, so Io belongs inside the sentence about Jupiter’s seventy-nine moons. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every version is grammatical and keeps all three facts, so none can be ruled out by an error; each is judged on which idea leads and how the others attach. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Decide which of the three sentences states the main idea and which ones add detail, then check whether each version’s order and structure show that relationship.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
- Changes the meaning: A revision is correct English but no longer says what the writer meant.
The wrong answers, classified
A Changes the meaning (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Opens with Io and its volcanoes and adds the moon count with “and,” so the main news about Jupiter trails behind its own example as an afterthought.
B Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Keeps the right order and the which-clause, but “and one of them is named Io” adds Io as a second piece of news instead of an example of those moons.
D Changes the meaning (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Leads with Io’s volcanoes, then says Io “is one of Jupiter’s moons” right after calling it “a moon,” and leaves the main news about Jupiter for the end.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the best way to join three sentences into one. All four choices keep every fact. So the best one shows how the facts relate. Decide which fact is the main idea and which ones add detail.
Find the main idea
Sentence 1 is the big news: “Scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons.” Sentences 2 and 3 zoom in on one of those moons, Io. Io is an example of the moons, and its volcanoes are a detail about Io. So the main idea should come first, and Io should fit inside it.
Name the rule
Put the main idea in the main part of the sentence. Tuck the details in with words like including and which. For example: My school has thirty clubs. One is chess. The chess club meets on Fridays. Joined: My school has thirty clubs, including a chess club, which meets on Fridays.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It starts with Io and its volcanoes. The main news about Jupiter trails at the end after “and.”
- B is wrong. The order is right. But “and one of them is named Io” adds Io as a second piece of news, not as an example.
- C is right. “Including one named Io” shows Io is one of the moons. Then “which” adds the fact about its volcanoes.
- D is wrong. It calls Io “a moon,” then says again that it “is one of Jupiter’s moons.” The main news comes last.
Watch out: B is very close to C. The only change is “and one of them is named Io” in place of “including one named Io.” The word “including” shows that Io belongs to the group.
Choose the answer
C leads with the main news and tucks in Io as an example. So the answer is C, “Scientists now believe that Jupiter may have as many as seventy-nine moons, including one named Io, which has the greatest number of active volcanoes in the solar system.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. It has the right order and the same “which” clause. But “and” tacks Io’s name on as a separate fact, as if it were more news. “Including” shows that Io is one of the seventy-nine moons. That ties the three facts together most clearly.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 47 of 120
2026 Practice Test D Math, question 9Question
Let m be a negative integer and k be a positive integer.
Which of the expressions below must result in a positive value?
Select the three correct answers.
Choose every answer that is correct, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
Show the answer
Correct answer: A, B, and D
Each of the expressions must be considered:
, where m is a negative integer and k is a positive integer: Correct
The “−” in front of m acts like a multiplier that flips the sign of m, so is positive when m is negative and k is positive.
, where m is a negative integer and k is a positive integer: Correct
The “−” in front of m acts like a multiplier that flips the sign of m, so is positive when m is negative and k is positive.
, where m is a negative integer and k is a positive integer:
A negative number minus a positive number gives a negative number.
, where m is a negative integer and k is a positive integer: Correct
A positive times a negative is a negative. Then, taking the opposite of that makes it positive.
, where m is a negative integer and k is a positive integer:
A negative divided by a positive remains negative.
Therefore, , , and must all result in a positive number.
Question analysis
Given that m is a negative integer and k a positive integer, students select the three expressions, out of five, that must have a positive value. It tests the sign rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing integers. Minus signs in front of letters, and letters in place of numbers, make each sign easy to misjudge, and all three must be found.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Sign rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing integers are core grade 7 content. Here they are applied to letters with known signs instead of numbers, across five expressions, and all three right ones must be chosen with no wrong one.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Much to keep track of minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 33 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
Each expression needs only one sign rule, but the minus signs are placed to mislead. In −k · m the leading minus seems to make the result negative until the sign of m is counted, and in m − k two negatives seem to cancel, though subtracting makes the result more negative. Substituting one negative and one positive value into all five gives three positive results and two negative ones, the count the item asks for.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
Only the signs of m and k are known, so the sign of each expression must be reasoned from the rules or tested with values such as m = −2 and k = 3. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All five expressions mix the same two letters with minus signs, so none can be dismissed at a glance; each is judged on its own and exactly three must be picked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Much to keep track of minor Working it out
The item scores only when all three positive expressions are chosen and both negative ones left out, so five separate verdicts must be kept and combined. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Strategy: Substitute sample values, such as m = −2 and k = 3, into all five expressions and note each sign, then confirm with the sign rules that no other values could change it.
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
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Sees two negatives, m and the minus before k, and applies “two negatives make a positive” to subtraction, though a negative minus a positive moves further below zero.
D Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Left out by students who read the leading minus in −k · m as making the product negative, missing that m is negative too, so the product is positive.
E Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Sees no minus sign in m/k and takes it as positive, forgetting that m itself is negative, so the quotient of a negative and a positive is negative.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- The opposite of a number
- a is any positive number, so −a is negative. A minus sign in front of a number or letter means its opposite: the same distance from 0, on the other side. The opposite of a negative number is positive. So if m is negative, −m is positive.
- Signs when you multiply or divide
- a and b are positive numbers, so −a and −b are negative. Two negatives multiply to a positive. A negative and a positive multiply or divide to a negative. These rules tell you the sign of an answer without knowing the numbers.
Sort out the question
m is a negative integer, a whole number below 0, such as −2. k is a positive integer, such as 3. You must pick the three expressions that are always positive. Check all five, and test m = −2 and k = 3 as you go.
Understand the minus in front
A minus sign in front of a letter means the opposite of that number. Since m is negative, −m is positive. Since k is positive, −k is negative. With the test values, −m = 2 and −k = −3.
Check choices A and B
A: is a positive plus a positive, so it is always positive. Test: 2 + 3 = 5.
B: is a positive times a positive, so it is always positive. The dot · means times. Test: 2 × 3 = 6.
Check choices C and E
C: starts below 0 and moves further down, so it is always negative. Test: −2 − 3 = −5.
E: is a negative divided by a positive, so it is always negative. Test: −2 ÷ 3 = −2/3.
Watch out: two negatives make a positive only when you multiply or divide them. Choice C subtracts, so it stays negative. Choice E shows no minus sign, but m itself is negative.
Check choice D
D: is a negative times a negative, so it is always positive. Test: −3 × (−2) = 6.
Watch out: the minus sign in front makes D look negative. But m is negative too, and the two negatives make a positive. Skipping D leaves you one answer short.
Choose the three answers
Choices C and E are always negative, so leave them out. The three positive ones are A, B and D. On the test, you check the box next to each one.
So the answers are A, B and D.
Check your answer
Try different values, such as m = −10 and k = 1. A: 10 + 1 = 11. B: 10 × 1 = 10. D: −1 × (−10) = 10. All three are positive again. C gives −11 and E gives −10, both negative.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 48 of 120
2026 Practice Test D Math, question 23Question
Which situation involves quantities that combine to equal zero?
- Areceiving $5 as a gift and then giving $5 to a friend
- Bbuying a book for $10 and then buying lunch for $10
- Cgetting on an elevator at the ground floor, rising 3 floors, and then rising 3 more floors
- Dstarting in a cave 20 feet below the ground, climbing up 20 feet, and then climbing up 20 feet more
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
When looking for a situation where quantities combine to make zero, find two values with the same absolute value where one value is positive and one value is negative.
In the situation in option A, receiving a gift of $5 is represented by , and giving a friend $5 is represented by . These values combine to equal zero because .
Question analysis
This question gives four everyday situations involving money, an elevator and a cave, and asks which one involves quantities that combine to make zero. It tests representing gains and losses, or ups and downs, with positive and negative numbers. Equal numbers alone do not make zero, so the direction of each amount must be read carefully.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Describing situations where opposite quantities make zero is named in the grade 7 standards, and this is its most direct form: one reading of four everyday situations, easier than typical grade 7 work with signed numbers.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 1 step
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 60 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 idea that a quantity and its opposite add to zero is familiar, and the right situation states it plainly. The wrong choices are built from equal amounts: two of them repeat a number but move in one direction, and the cave climb reaches zero partway before going 20 feet past it. Writing each situation as a sum of signed numbers takes a few seconds and settles it.
Turning words into math minor Understanding the question
Each situation must be turned into signed numbers, receiving or rising as plus and giving or buying as minus, before its total can be judged. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every choice repeats one amount, $5, $10, 3 floors or 20 feet, so equal numbers alone do not identify the answer; the direction of each move has to be checked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Write each situation as signed numbers, using + for gains or upward moves and − for losses or downward moves, add them, and see which total is zero.
Traps
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Treats the two equal $10 amounts as opposites that cancel, though buying a book and buying lunch both take money away, for a total of −$20.
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Pairs the two 3s as amounts that cancel, missing that rising and then rising again both go up, ending 6 floors above the ground floor.
D Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Sees that starting 20 feet below ground and climbing 20 feet reaches zero, then overlooks the last 20 feet climbed, which ends 20 feet above ground.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Opposites add to zero
- a is any number, and −a is its opposite: the same size, but the other sign. A number and its opposite always add to 0. On a number line, they sit the same distance from 0 on opposite sides. Equal moves in opposite directions cancel out.
Sort out the question
You need the situation whose amounts add up to zero. Give each amount a sign. Use + for getting money or going up. Use − for spending money or going down. Then add the amounts in each choice. The direction matters, not just the numbers.
Write each choice with signs
Turn each situation into signed numbers and add them up:
Choice Amounts Total A +5, then −5 0 B −10, then −10 −20 C +3, then +3 +6 D start at −20, then +20, then +20 +20 Look at the tricky choices
In B, buying a book and buying lunch both take money away. Equal amounts cancel only when they go in opposite directions. In C, rising and rising again both go up, so you end 6 floors up.
Watch out: in D, starting at −20 and climbing 20 feet does reach 0, ground level. But then you climb 20 feet more. You end at +20, 20 feet above the ground, so D is wrong.
Choose the zero total
Only choice A has two opposite amounts of the same size. Getting $5 is +5, and giving $5 away is −5:
So the answer is A: receiving $5 as a gift and then giving $5 to a friend.
Check your answer
Think about where you end up. In A, you end with exactly the money you started with, so the total change is zero. In every other choice, you end with less money, higher up, or above the ground.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 49 of 120
2025 Practice Test A English, question 9Passage Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”
Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”
by Hilary Wilson
In ancient Egypt, literacy was the key to success. However, contrary to popular belief, not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs. Many relied instead on the simpler hieratic script for the multitude of everyday documents generated by the Egyptian bureaucracy.
Hieroglyphs—“the Words of God”—compose a writing system with more than 1,000 distinct characters, the meanings of which were lost for 1,500 years before they were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Including both ideograms (which convey a whole word or idea, either concrete or abstract, in a single sign) and phonograms (representing either an alphabetic sound or a group of consonants), [the writing system] was used in formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls as well as on elaborate funerary papyri. For everyday purposes, however, scribes used a shorthand version of the hieroglyphic script known as hieratic, which was quicker to write and more economical of space. The two writings existed side by side for at least 2,500 years.
Scraps of ancient hieratic writing, mostly penned by student scribes on limestone flakes called ostraca, suggest that no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything. Horemheb (d.1292 B.C.) is a good example. Born of middle-ranking parents, his scribal training led to an army career. From Scribe of Recruits, during the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 B.C.), Horemheb rose through the military ranks and, by the rule of Tutankhamun (1332–1323 B.C.), he was commander in chief of the Egyptian forces. As a close adviser of the young Pharaoh, Horemheb was appointed “Deputy of the King throughout the Two Lands,” and might have expected to succeed to the throne should the king die childless. He had to wait a few years, but eventually Horemheb achieved the pinnacle of his career by becoming the last king of the 18th Dynasty, making his mark by instituting dramatic reforms to the organisation of the army, the judiciary and administration in general. The lasting success of these changes owed much to his scribal background. . . .
But education was not available to all. Government departments and major temples supported schools, where boys commenced their training at six or seven, sometimes earlier. To these boarding establishments . . . family or household servants delivered the students’ food and drink rations daily for several years, during which time the student was not contributing to the family’s income. Boys from poorer families could only hope to be educated with support from a wealthier relative or patron, or through apprenticeship to an older scribe, perhaps the local clerk or land agent, who would teach them the basics of the scribe’s craft. This limited the scope for employment but such “on the job” training allowed apprentices to help out at home while learning. . . .
Scribal education began with the elementary principles of the hieratic script. The lowliest scribes, who trained for just five or six years, probably learned only the rudiments of the hieroglyphic script. Students were set exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting on basic-format letters, reports and contracts, while absorbing the good advice contained in the texts. Surviving examples of copy-work sometimes include tutors’ corrections added in red. Some significant Egyptian literary works survive almost exclusively from student copies.
A schoolboy “dictionary” of hieroglyphs with their hieratic equivalents shows that a knowledge of more than 450 signs was required for everyday writing purposes. Lessons in record-keeping and filing and labelling enabled any half-competent scribe to perform that most essential of all scribal functions: the making and updating of lists. For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs. Those with the best handwriting or drawing skills might follow the craft of creating beautifully illustrated copies of funerary texts, commonly called Books of the Dead. Others could become draughtsmen, artists or architects. Doctors compiled their own collections of medication recipes, treatments and associated incantations, many copied from texts found in the House of Life, the temple library. Lawyers had to be familiar with the corpus of civil and religious laws and precedents found in the official records, which were administered by archivists. Egypt’s bureaucratic society depended on the skills of an army of scribes of all ranks from filing clerk to tax assessor. For young Egyptians, “be a scribe” was the best of career advice.
From “Scribe Like an Egyptian” by Hilary Wilson from HISTORY TODAY, August 8, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by History Today Ltd. Company.
bureaucracy: an administrative staff of government officials
funerary papyri: a sheet or scroll of papyrus containing religious images and hieroglyphs meant to help the deceased be reborn in the afterlife
rudiments: basics
schoolboy: slang that refers to materials used during the course of receiving an education
draughtsmen: people who draw plans of machinery or structures
corpus: a collection of writings
Question
Which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that there were different levels of education for a scribe?
- A“However, contrary to popular belief, not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs.” (paragraph 1)
- B“For everyday purposes, however, scribes used a shorthand version of the hieroglyphic script known as hieratic, which was quicker to write and more economical of space.” (paragraph 2)
- C“This limited the scope for employment but such ‘on the job’ training allowed apprentices to help out at home while learning.” (paragraph 4)
- D“For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs.” (paragraph 6)
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for a sentence from the excerpt that best supports the idea that different levels of education were available to scribes.
A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 1 provides evidence that Egyptian scribes used two different forms of writing, but it does not address the topic of education or the different levels of education that were available to scribes.
B. Incorrect. The advantages and purposes of hieratic script are described in this sentence from paragraph 2, but this explanation of the advantages and purposes does not suggest that there were different levels of education for scribes.
C. Incorrect. The fact that scribes could learn their trade through apprenticeships as discussed in this sentence from paragraph 4 does provide evidence that another method of learning to be a scribe was possible, but this process was for a limited entry into becoming a scribe, not the continued education scribes would need in order to work in specific areas.
D. CORRECT. By explaining that certain professions required additional years of training, this sentence from paragraph 6 supports the idea that different levels of education existed for scribes.
Question analysis
This evidence question on Hilary Wilson’s “Scribe Like an Egyptian,” a magazine article about how ancient Egyptian scribes learned their trade, asks which quoted sentence best supports the idea that scribes received different levels of education. The four sentences come from paragraphs 1, 2, 4 and 6, and more than one seems to touch on the idea, so close reading of each decides it.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Choosing the sentence that best supports an idea is routine grade 7 evidence work. Here several quotations touch on ways scribes differed, and the article’s dense, technical wording makes those differences harder to sort than usual.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 110 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two of the wrong sentences are not off topic: one says not all scribes understood hieroglyphs, the other that apprenticeship narrowed a scribe’s job prospects, and both imply that scribes differed. The question rewards asking what the idea actually claims, that schooling itself came in stages, and only the sentence about professions that required more years of training says so outright. Students who stop at the first sentence suggesting a difference lose the point.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The right sentence never says “levels”; students must see that training “for several more years” for official, priest or lawyer posts means a higher tier of schooling than the basic course. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Two other quotations also hint at differences among scribes, paragraph 1’s “not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs” and paragraph 4’s “limited the scope for employment,” so each must be weighed, not just scanned. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
Terms such as “hieratic,” “economical of space” and “scope for employment” slow the reading of the quotations, and the shorthand sentence is hard to dismiss until hieratic is understood as a script. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Ask what a sentence would have to say to prove that scribal education came in levels, then test each quotation against that and prefer a direct statement over a hint.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Reads “not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs” as proof of different levels of schooling, but it reports a difference in knowledge without saying anything about how scribes were taught.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks the sentence on hieratic as a faster everyday shorthand, which describes how scribes wrote, not how long or how far any of them studied.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees that on-the-job training “limited the scope for employment” and takes it for a lower level of education, though the sentence contrasts two routes into the trade, not stages of study.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the sentence that best supports one idea: scribes could get “different levels of education.” A level is a stage. Some scribes studied for a short time, and others went on to study more. You need a sentence that shows a difference in schooling, not just any difference between scribes.
Find what each level looked like
Paragraphs 5 and 6 describe the training. Paragraph 5 says the lowest scribes studied for only five or six years. They learned just the basics of hieroglyphs. Paragraph 6 says that more than 450 signs were needed for everyday writing. Then choice D adds a higher level: “For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs.”
Work out what choice D means
A profession is a job that needs special training. Choice D says some jobs needed more years of study and more signs, perhaps over a thousand. A basic scribe stopped sooner and knew fewer signs. So schooling came in stages: a basic course, and then more years for the top jobs. That is what the question means by levels of education.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. It says not all scribes understood hieroglyphs. That is a difference in what scribes knew. It says nothing about how they were taught.
- B does not fit. It explains hieratic, a faster shorthand way of writing. That is about writing, not schooling.
- C does not fit. It is about apprentices, who learned on the job from an older scribe. That is a different way into the work, not a higher or lower stage of study.
- D fits. Some jobs needed several more years of training.
Watch out: A is tempting because it shows that scribes were not all alike. But it never mentions school.
Choose the answer
Only one sentence shows some scribes studying for years after the basic course. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. It shows that some scribes knew hieroglyphs and others did not. But it doesn’t say why, or how long anyone studied. D says plainly that some jobs needed several more years of training. That is a level of education above the basic one.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the test
Question 50 of 120
2025 Practice Test A English, question 15Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian””.
Question
Based on the excerpt, which statement would the author most strongly agree with?
- ABoys in Egypt were encouraged to enter the same profession as older male relatives.
- BKnowledge of hieroglyphs was helpful to Egyptians who were interested in becoming scribes.
- CHieratic script was more practical to ancient Egyptians than hieroglyphs were.
- DBoys in Egypt who studied for only a few years were unlikely to find employment as scribes.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for a statement with which the author would most strongly agree.
A. Incorrect. The author only addresses boys who entered the profession of scribes. While the author does address the role of the family in supporting a boy’s education or securing an apprenticeship, the author does not provide any discussion to support the idea that boys were only encouraged to follow the professions of their male relatives.
B. Incorrect. The author explains that communication using hieroglyphs was not widely practiced in everyday correspondence and that hieratic script was the more popular form of writing. While being able to read and use hieroglyphs would have been helpful, it was not common for citizens to use this formal form of communication. In addition, scribes were trained to learn hieroglyphs and hieratic script as part of their education, so prior ability to read or compose hieroglyphs was not a requirement.
C. CORRECT. As described in paragraph 2, hieratic script was more efficient and economical than hieroglyphs. Because this script was used for “everyday purposes,” it was the more practical of the scripts as hieroglyphs were reserved for “formal inscriptions.”
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 6, the author indicates that “any half-competent scribe” could become employed in making and updating lists. While the paragraph later indicates that scribes would need to study several more years to be employed in a wider range of professions, there is no indication that employment as a scribe would be unavailable to a boy who studied for only a few years.
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks which statement the author of “Scribe Like an Egyptian” would most strongly agree with. The four statements deal with family careers, knowledge of hieroglyphs, Egypt’s two scripts and the length of training, so students must test each one against the article and separate what the author says from what merely sounds likely.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Inferring which statement an author would accept is typical grade 7 work. The four statements draw on different parts of a dense article, and some sound sensible without being backed by it, so each must be checked carefully.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 68 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 right statement is a comparison the author never makes in so many words, while the statement about hieroglyphs sounds like something any author on scribes would accept. The question rewards asking which statement the excerpt itself backs most firmly, and paragraph 2’s contrast between everyday and formal writing does that directly. The two statements about boys rest on assumptions, sons following relatives and short training leaving boys jobless, that the excerpt never makes and partly contradicts.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The four statements cover four topics, family careers, hieroglyphs, the two scripts and length of training, so each has to be traced to its own paragraph before they can be compared. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The author never ranks the scripts; “more practical” has to be drawn from paragraph 2, where hieratic is for “everyday purposes” and quicker to write, while hieroglyphs go on “formal inscriptions.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: For each statement, find the paragraph that deals with its topic and decide whether the author says it, implies it or never addresses it; keep the one with the firmest support.
Traps
- 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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Applies the familiar idea that sons follow their fathers’ trades, perhaps prompted by paragraph 4’s “wealthier relative,” though the excerpt never says boys were steered toward relatives’ professions.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Builds on paragraph 6, where more signs led to better posts, but shifts the benefit to the time before training, though boys learned the signs at school starting at six or seven.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Infers from paragraph 6’s extra years for officials, priests and lawyers that short training meant no job, though “any half-competent scribe” could keep lists and the least-trained scribes studied only five or six years.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which statement the author would most strongly agree with. The author may not say it in the same words, but the excerpt must clearly back it. The four choices cover four topics, so find the paragraph for each one.
Find what the author says about the scripts
Paragraph 1 says many scribes used the simpler hieratic script for everyday papers. Paragraph 2 says hieroglyphs went on “formal inscriptions,” such as tomb and temple walls. Hieratic was used for “everyday purposes.” It was faster to write and took less space. Formal means used for special, serious occasions.
Work out what that means
Practical means useful for real, everyday needs. The author shows hieratic doing the daily work, such as letters, reports and contracts. Hieroglyphs were kept for special uses. So the author would agree that hieratic was more practical than hieroglyphs. The author never uses the words “more practical,” but the facts point there.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The excerpt never says boys were pushed into a relative’s job.
- B does not fit. Boys learned the signs at school, starting at six or seven. The excerpt never says knowing hieroglyphs beforehand helped. Paragraph 1 even says not all scribes understood them.
- C fits. Hieratic was quicker, smaller and used for everyday work.
- D does not fit. Paragraph 6 says “any half-competent scribe” could keep lists. Half-competent means only partly skilled. The lowest scribes studied only five or six years and still worked.
Watch out: B sounds like something any author would accept. But the excerpt does not back it.
Choose the answer
The excerpt shows hieratic doing the everyday work, faster and in less space. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. Knowing hieroglyphs sounds helpful for a future scribe. But boys learned their signs at school, and paragraph 1 says not all scribes understood hieroglyphs at all. C rests on paragraph 2, where hieratic is quicker to write and used for “everyday purposes.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 51 of 120
2025 Practice Test A English, question 21Passage Excerpt from Winter Wheat
Excerpt from Winter Wheat
by Mildred Walker
Ellen, the narrator, is preparing to leave her parents and the family farm for college the next day.
I love Dad’s way of talking that makes him seem different from other ranchers. He’s lived here twenty-three years, but he still says “back East where I come from.” He’s the one who gets excited when I do about spring coming or a serial running in the magazine we’re both reading, but it’s what Mom says that I depend on. When Mom used to say “Don’t worry” about my pet chicken or dog or new calf, it always got well. Dad is always talking of going some place, not now, but next year, maybe. Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning.
Mom folded the ironing board and put it inside their bedroom that was just off the kitchen. She carried in the freshly ironed clothes. Dad went back to his paper. When Mom came back she took beans from the cupboard to soak for tomorrow. Dad always said Mom could make all the dishes he’d had back in Vermont as well as though she were a New Englander herself, instead of a Russian. All of a sudden, I realized that tomorrow when those beans would be ready to eat I’d be going away. It gave me a funny feeling.
“I’ll be taking the train tomorrow night,” I said aloud, more to hear it myself.
“We can drive you into town in the afternoon,” Dad said, dropping his paper on the floor.
“There’s no need to go to town; she can catch the train at Gotham just as well. We haven’t nothing to take us into town for,” Mom said.
“Well, we don’t have to decide tonight,” Dad said, but I knew he wanted to go into Clark City. It wouldn’t be so flat as just seeing me go off on the train from Gotham. My going away was hard on both of them; they were so different—and I was part of them both. It made me uncomfortable to think of leaving them.
While I was getting ready for bed in my room that’s off the front room, I saw how it would be if I left from town. We’d go in right after dinner and go around to the stores, Dad going one way and Mom and I another. Dad would probably have his hair cut at the barbershop and stop in the bank and meet someone he knew to talk to. Then we’d meet at the big store on the corner and go to the cafeteria for supper. The train stops ten minutes or so at the station in town and there are other people and excitement and you have time to wave from the platform and then again from your window by your seat. We went to the station in Clark City to see the Goodals off when they went back to Iowa.
If I left from Gotham, we’d just drive down in the truck and wait till the train came. It only stops long enough for you to get on and you hardly have time to taste the flavor of going away.
I sat on the bed in my pyjamas with my arms around my knees. I couldn’t keep from thinking of that time Dad went back East. I tried to, and then I just sat still and looked straight at it. Sometimes that’s better than working so hard to keep from looking at what’s in your mind.
Dad went all the way back to Vermont. . . . It was in November and it was already dark when the train came through Gotham. Even now, I could feel how cold and dark it was. I held Mom’s hand. Dad was so dressed-up he seemed strange. . . . We stood there without saying anything until Dad told Mom to remember to call Mr. Bardich, our neighbor, if the cow didn’t calve tomorrow.
“I’ll manage,” Mom snapped back.
“I wish you could go, Anna,” Dad said to Mom, “and we could take Ellen.” . . .
“Good-by, Anna Petrovna,” he said, looking at Mom. I had never heard him call her by two names before.
“Good-by,” Mom said, standing still, without smiling.
Then he was gone and the crossroads were darker than ever. The train light shone on the high window in the top of the grain elevator for a moment and then that too was dark. We got into our old Ford and Mom drove back to the house. My throat ached all the way. The name Dad had called Mom kept saying itself in my ears: “Anna Petrovna, Anna Petrovna.” . . .
Our house seemed lonely when we came back to it. It seemed to be hiding under the coulee. I went with Mom to put the truck in the barn that was bigger than the house. I think Mom was prouder of our barn than the house, anyway. We walked back to look at the cow that was going to calve. She was just a big light blob in the dark, waiting. I had thought she was exciting this morning, but now she seemed sad, too.
The wind blew when we walked across the open space to the house and I couldn’t help shivering with the cold. Inside the house it was warm, but empty.
“Bring your nightgown in here and I heat you some milk,” Mom said.
I drank the milk sitting on a stool in front of the stove. It tasted good, but the lonely ache in my throat was still there. I picked up my clothes and hung them neatly behind the stove and put my cup on the sink board. Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning.
“Good night, Mom,” I said almost timidly, standing beside her. She seemed wrapped around in a kind of strangeness. Then she turned around and drew me to her. The front of her dress was warm from the stove. I felt the comfortable heat through my gown. She laid her hand against my face and it felt rough and hard but firm. I dared ask her something I wanted to know.
“Mom, was that really your name—what Dad called you?”
Her voice sounded surprised. “Why, Yeléna, you know that; Anna Petrovna. You know I am born in Russia, in Seletskoe.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know your other name,” I said.
“Anna Petrovna Webb.” She pronounced it slowly. “Once I think what a funny name Ben Webb is!” She laughed. Her laugh was warm and low like our kitchen, and comfortable. The house seemed natural and right again. . . .
But now that I am grown, I feel the wall of strangeness between them, more than when I was a child. I wondered how they would get along without me.
From WINTER WHEAT by Mildred Walker, published by University of Nebraska Press. Copyright © 1944 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1971 by Mildred Walker. All rights reserved.
serial: story published in short segments at regular intervals
coulee: small gulch or ravine
Question
Read these sentences from the excerpt.
Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning. (paragraph 1)
Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning. (paragraph 19)
The sentences help develop a central idea of the excerpt by
- Asuggesting that practical people focus on current needs rather than worrying about the future.
- Bshowing that parents tend to consider the needs of their children before thinking of themselves.
- Crevealing that it is sometimes important to plan ahead.
- Dillustrating that dreaming about the future is a waste of time.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the sentences from paragraph 1 and paragraph 19 help develop a central idea of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. The sentences illustrate a practical aspect of Ellen’s mother’s personality and show that she is concerned with an immediate task that needs to be completed. The details in these sentences help develop the central idea that practical people focus on current needs—such as preparing food for the following day—rather than worrying about the future.
B. Incorrect. These sentences do not show Ellen’s mother focusing on her daughter’s needs before her own, and the idea that parents consider their own needs only after considering those of their children is not a central idea of the excerpt.
C. Incorrect. Although the sentence from paragraph 19 shows Ellen’s mother planning a few hours ahead by preparing the next morning’s breakfast, the idea that it is sometimes important to plan ahead is not a central idea of the excerpt, nor is it supported by the sentence from paragraph 1.
D. Incorrect. The details in the sentences do not show that it is a waste of time to dream about the future. The sentences highlight the tendency of Ellen’s mother to focus her attention on the practical necessities of the moment, but the idea that dreaming about the future is a waste of time is not a central idea of the excerpt.
Question analysis
This central-idea question quotes two sentences about Ellen’s mother from paragraphs 1 and 19 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, far apart in the story, and asks how they help develop a central idea. Students must see what the two sentences have in common and decide which general statement about people they actually support.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Connecting repeated details about a character to a central idea is typical grade 7 work. Both sentences are short and plain, but they sit eighteen paragraphs apart, and the choices are broad statements that must be checked for overreach.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 91 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
Read alone, the oatmeal sentence looks like a lesson in getting ready for tomorrow, which is why the planning choice tempts. Paired with paragraph 1’s description of Mom, though, it shows a mind fixed on the next practical task, the opposite of thinking far ahead. The other wrong choices go past the sentences, into parents’ sacrifices or a verdict on daydreaming, and students who keep both sentences in view can set them aside.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Neither sentence states an idea; students must see what they share, Mom’s attention stopping at today and tomorrow morning, and then decide what general statement that habit supports. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The sentences come from paragraphs 1 and 19, and paragraph 1 sets Mom’s present-minded talk against Dad’s plans for next year, a contrast that frames the idea. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three choices speak of the future, planning or dreaming, so each must be tested against both sentences, not just the oatmeal for tomorrow morning. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Say in your own words what both sentences show about how Mom thinks and acts, then choose the statement that follows from that without going further than the sentences do.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- 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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in the common belief that parents put children first, treating breakfast-making as self-sacrifice, though neither sentence sets Mom’s needs against Ellen’s or says whom the oatmeal is for.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds a lesson about planning on the oatmeal prepared for the next morning alone, a single detail that paragraph 1’s picture of Mom’s short horizon works against.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Hardens Mom’s focus on the present into a verdict that dreaming is “a waste of time,” a judgment the excerpt never passes on Dad’s talk of travel or anyone’s.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how two sentences about Mom help build a central idea, a main idea the story develops. Find what the two sentences have in common. Then pick the idea that follows from both, without going further.
Read the first sentence
Paragraph 1 says “Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning.” Just before this, Ellen says Dad is always talking about going places next year. So Mom is different. Her mind stays on the here and now.
Read the second sentence
Paragraph 19 says “Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning.” This is the night Dad left on his trip, and Ellen is sad. But Mom does the next useful job, making breakfast. Again her mind goes no farther than tomorrow morning.
Find the shared idea
Both sentences show Mom as practical. Practical means focused on real, useful tasks. She deals with what needs doing now and next, not with far-off plans or dreams. So the sentences develop the idea that practical people focus on current needs instead of worrying about the future.
Check each choice
- A fits. Both sentences show Mom focused on today’s needs.
- B does not fit. Neither sentence weighs Mom’s needs against Ellen’s.
- C does not fit. Oatmeal for the next morning is a small step, not planning ahead. Paragraph 1 says Mom doesn’t think far ahead at all.
- D does not fit. The story never says dreaming is a waste of time. It doesn’t judge Dad’s talk of travel.
Watch out: Read alone, the oatmeal sentence looks like planning ahead. Read it together with paragraph 1.
Choose the answer
Both sentences show Mom paying attention to what is needed now, not to the far future. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, because making oatmeal for tomorrow does look like planning. But paragraph 1 says Mom thinks no farther ahead than tomorrow morning. The oatmeal is just the next job, not a long-range plan. Together the sentences show a practical mind fixed on present needs, which is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the test
Question 52 of 120
2025 Practice Test A English, question 55Question
Which revision corrects the error in sentence structure in the paragraph?
The land on Earth has not always been separated into the seven continents, at one time a massive supercontinent, known as Pangaea, covered one-third of Earth’s surface. Additionally, the supercontinent was surrounded by ocean waters called Panthalassa, much of which were in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. Geologists believe that the supercontinent split apart over millions of years because of the movement of the tectonic plates that form Earth’s crust. In fact, experts predict that over the next 250 million years the movement of the plates will cause the seven continents to merge into a supercontinent again.
- Acontinents. At
- Bsurface; additionally,
- CPanthalassa. Much
- Dcrust, in fact,
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the revision that corrects the error in sentence structure in the paragraph.
A. CORRECT. The first sentence of the paragraph is a run-on because both clauses—“The land on Earth has not always been separated into the seven continents” and “at one time a massive supercontinent, known as Pangaea, covered one-third of Earth’s surface”—are independent clauses. Independent clauses are complete sentences, and two complete sentences should not be combined with just a comma. The revision is correct because it separates the two sentences by placing a period where it is needed after “continents” and by capitalizing the word “At.”
B. Incorrect. While adding a semicolon after “surface” can be considered a correct way to separate the independent clauses “at one time a massive supercontinent, known as Pangaea, covered one-third of Earth’s surface” and “Additionally, the supercontinent was surrounded by ocean waters called Panthalassa, much of which were in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere,” this change does not address the sentence structure error in the paragraph (the run-on sentence). The use of a period separating the independent clauses (complete sentences) is correct as is.
C. Incorrect. Adding a period after “Panthalassa” would separate the dependent clause “much of which were in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere” from its antecedent: “ocean waters called Panthalassa.” The dependent clause cannot stand on its own, because it shares elements with the main clause. A dependent clause is not a complete sentence and must be joined with an independent clause. The clause beginning with “much of which” is an adjective clause that modifies “ocean waters.” Changing the comma to a period creates a new error (a sentence fragment) and does not address the existing sentence structure error at the beginning of the paragraph (the run-on sentence).
D. Incorrect. Removing the period after “crust” would create a run-on sentence because the period is needed to separate two complete sentences—“Geologists believe that the supercontinent split apart over millions of years because of the movement of the tectonic plates that form Earth’s crust” and “In fact, experts predict that over the next 250 million years the movement of the plates will cause the seven continents to merge into a supercontinent again.” A comma after “crust” would combine these sentences into a run-on, creating a new error in the sentence without fixing the existing sentence structure error (the run-on sentence) at the beginning of the paragraph.
Question analysis
This editing question shows a short paragraph about Pangaea, the supercontinent that once covered a third of Earth’s surface, and the ocean around it, with four underlined spots, and asks which revision corrects the error in sentence structure. Each revision changes only punctuation and capitals at one spot, so the decision rests on how the clauses around each spot fit together.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Fixing run-ons and fragments is taught well before grade 7, and this item tests that basic skill in one short paragraph. The sentences are long, with an appositive and a clause beginning “much of which,” but the grammar involved stays simple.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 9, 114 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
The error is in the first sentence, but it hides behind a comma that sounds like an ordinary pause, while the later spots carry features that look riskier: a transition word, a clause beginning “much of which,” the phrase “in fact.” Students who test each spot for a complete sentence on both sides find the splice at once. Those who look for a revision that merely sounds polished are drawn to the semicolon, which is correct but fixes nothing.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
The comma after “continents” joins two complete sentences, and because “at one time” sounds like an introductory phrase continuing the thought, the splice reads as a natural pause. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each revision changes only punctuation at one underlined spot, and the semicolon one is correct English, so students must ask whether each spot was wrong to begin with, not only whether the change looks right. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The paragraph’s sentences are long, with the appositive “known as Pangaea” and the clause “much of which were,” whose odd-sounding verb draws suspicion to a spot that is correctly punctuated. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: At each underlined spot, read the words on both sides and ask whether each side could stand as a sentence, then pick the revision that leaves every sentence correctly joined or separated.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
- Fragment or run-on: Creates or keeps a sentence fragment, a run-on sentence or a comma splice.
The wrong answers, classified
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Knows a semicolon can join two clauses before “additionally” and picks that tidy-looking change, though the period it replaces was already correct and the comma splice up front remains.
C Fragment or run-on (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats the long second sentence as a run-on and splits it after “Panthalassa,” leaving “Much of which were in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere” as a fragment with no main clause.
D Fragment or run-on (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Thinks “in fact” belongs inside the sentence before it, set off by commas, which joins two complete sentences with only a comma and creates the error the paragraph already has.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option C says a period after “Panthalassa” would separate the dependent clause “much of which were in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere” “from its subject: ‘ocean waters called Panthalassa.’” The clause has a subject of its own, “much”; “ocean waters called Panthalassa” is its antecedent, the noun phrase that “which” refers to. The explanation also calls the clause “an adjective for ‘ocean waters’”; a clause is not an adjective but an adjective (relative) clause, which modifies the noun. The site now says “from its antecedent” and “an adjective clause that modifies ‘ocean waters.’” The reasoning and the answer, A, are unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Learn the rule for joining sentences
An independent clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a sentence. Two of them can’t be joined with only a comma. That mistake is a run-on sentence, also called a comma splice. For example: I love soccer, my brother loves chess. Fix it with a period: I love soccer. My brother loves chess.
Test each underlined spot
At each spot, read the words on both sides. Ask: could each side stand alone as a sentence?
- After “continents”: both sides are complete. A comma joins them, so this is an error.
- After “surface”: a period already separates two sentences. That is correct.
- After “Panthalassa”: the words after the comma can’t stand alone. The comma is correct.
- After “crust”: a period already separates two sentences. That is correct.
Look closely at the first sentence
The first part says “The land on Earth has not always been separated into the seven continents.” That is a full sentence. The second part says “at one time a massive supercontinent, known as Pangaea, covered one-third of Earth’s surface.” Its subject is “supercontinent,” and its verb is “covered.” So it is a full sentence too. The words “At one time” start a new sentence.
Show the fix
Change the comma to a period, and capitalize the next word: The land on Earth has not always been separated into the seven continents. At one time a massive supercontinent, known as Pangaea, covered one-third of Earth’s surface. Now each sentence stands on its own. That is the revision continents. At.
Check each choice
- A is right. It splits the run-on into two sentences.
- B is wrong. A semicolon could join those two sentences, but the period there was already correct. It fixes nothing.
- C is wrong. “Much of which were in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere” is a dependent clause, a group of words with a verb that can’t be a sentence by itself. “Which” points back to “ocean waters called Panthalassa,” its antecedent. So the clause must stay attached.
- D is wrong. A comma after “crust” would join two full sentences. That makes a new run-on.
Choose the answer
Only the comma after “continents” joins two complete sentences. So the answer is A, continents. At.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because a semicolon can correctly join two sentences. But the spot after “surface” already had a period, which was correct. Changing it does not fix the real error. The comma splice after “continents” would still be there. Only A fixes it.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 53 of 120
2025 Practice Test B English, question 15Passage A Miracle Mile
A Miracle Mile
In the 1950s people compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest and nicknamed the feat a “dream mile.” Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier. One of them was a twenty-five-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister.
Roger Bannister had tasted failure during the 1952 Olympics. There, he was favored to win the 1,500-meter competition, a distance slightly shorter than a mile, but he finished in a dismal fourth place instead. Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain. Determined to redeem himself, Bannister postponed his plans to retire from racing and focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.
Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning. The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed. For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap. In between intervals, he let his body recover for two minutes.
By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target. Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days. The rest from running permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed. When Bannister returned to the track, he completed ten quarter-mile-long intervals at fifty-nine seconds each. He finally felt prepared to attempt to break the world record.
As a member of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), Bannister joined the AAA team for a track meet against Oxford University. The event took place on a cinder track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Bannister and his two AAA teammates, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, were close friends and frequent running partners. Chataway and Brasher agreed to help Bannister accomplish his goal by being his “rabbits.”
In track and field, rabbits are runners who enter the race solely to pace a teammate for a segment of the course. Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo. Additionally, by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort. When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.
Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted “Faster!” at Brasher. Brasher, however, remained composed and maintained his current steady but grueling pace, completing the first two laps in a desirable one minute and fifty-eight seconds. Then Chataway surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half. At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway. Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.” Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. The ecstatic crowd erupted the moment the timekeeper announced the word “three.”
Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners. Over the years, the record continued to fall. However, the current record, 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, has stood unbroken since 1999. Some question whether this record represents the limits of human ability. But perhaps there is another Bannister, an athlete who, with willpower and dedication, will accomplish the miraculous.
Question
How does the author’s use of chronological structure contribute to the development of ideas in the passage?
- AIt presents the increasing physical effects of Bannister’s training methods as he prepared to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
- BIt shows the increase in Bannister’s confidence in his ability to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
- CIt emphasizes the key events in Bannister’s life that inspired him to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
- DIt highlights the progression of Bannister’s training and details about his successful attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the author’s use of chronological structure contributes to the development of ideas in the passage.
A. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions the “plateau” Bannister dealt with and the break that “permitted his muscles to recuperate,” the chronological structure of the passage focuses mainly on the progression of Bannister’s process over time.
B. Incorrect. Even though the passage suggests that Bannister’s ability to break the four-minute-mile barrier improved and that he felt “prepared to attempt to break the world record” (paragraph 4), the chronological structure of the passage primarily serves to show how Bannister’s progress over time led to his success.
C. Incorrect. The chronological structure of the passage begins with an acknowledgment that Bannister was inspired to break the four-minute-mile barrier by his loss at the 1952 Olympics (paragraph 2); however, the overall organization of the passage highlights his dedicated efforts over time to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
D. CORRECT. The chronological structure of the passage follows the progression of Bannister’s training from his loss at the 1952 Olympics to the race where he ran the first sub-four-minute mile on May 6, 1954 (paragraph 5).
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks how the chronological structure of “A Miracle Mile,” an article about Roger Bannister’s attempt to run a mile in under four minutes, contributes to the development of its ideas. The article moves from the 1950s to the present day, and each choice names a thread a reader might trace through it, so students must decide which one the time order really follows.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how an author organizes a text. Here the stem names the structure, and the article moves through dated events in plain prose, so seeing what the order brings out is lighter than most grade 7 structure questions.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 84 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 article tells Bannister’s story in order, and the right choice simply names what that order follows: training that improves, then the race itself. Each wrong choice picks a thread the text touches without tracing, a confidence present from the start, a physical toll mentioned once, an inspiration that comes only from 1952. Students who sum up each paragraph in a few words see that only the training and the race run all the way through.
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem names the structure and asks what it does, so students must say which thread the time order follows from the 1952 Olympics to May 6, 1954, not retell the events. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each wrong thread has a foothold: “a positive attitude” and “finally felt prepared” for confidence, muscles that needed to “recuperate” for physical effects, and the 1952 loss for inspiration. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
A thread counts only if it runs from paragraph 2 to paragraph 7, so it must cover both the training of paragraphs 3 and 4 and the race told in paragraphs 5 to 7. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Note in a few words what each paragraph covers, in order, then choose the description that matches what the whole sequence follows rather than one detail along the way.
Traps
- 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.
- 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
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Recalls the plateau and the muscles that needed to “recuperate” in paragraph 4, but the article tracks lap times falling from sixty-one to fifty-nine seconds, not a physical toll that grows.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Follows Bannister from “Frustrated by the plateau” to “finally felt prepared” and “the moment of a lifetime,” but he began with “a positive attitude,” and the order traces training, not confidence.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Starts from the 1952 Olympic loss that left him “Determined to redeem himself,” but that single event belongs to paragraph 2, and the later paragraphs follow training and a race, not further inspirations.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a structure question. Chronological structure means telling events in time order, from first to last. The question asks what that order helps the passage show. So sum up each paragraph in a few words. Then see which thread runs through all of them.
Sum up each paragraph in order
- Paragraph 1: In the 1950s, a four-minute mile seemed impossible.
- Paragraph 2: Bannister loses at the 1952 Olympics and sets his goal.
- Paragraph 3: He makes a training plan.
- Paragraph 4: By early 1954, his laps get faster.
- Paragraph 5: A race is set for May 6, 1954. Two teammates will set his pace.
- Paragraphs 6–7: The race is run. He finishes in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
- Paragraph 8: Other runners match him, and over the years the record is lowered.
See what the order follows
Most of the passage follows two things. First, his training improves step by step. The track is a quarter mile, so four laps make a mile. Sixty seconds a lap would be exactly four minutes. He goes from sixty-one seconds a lap to fifty-nine, so the goal comes within reach. Second, the passage gives details of the race. It is set up in paragraph 5 and run in paragraphs 6 and 7. Progression means step-by-step progress.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. His body comes up only now and then, as when a rest “permitted his muscles to recuperate” in paragraph 4. Recuperate means recover. The passage never tracks effects that grow, and A leaves out the race.
- B does not fit. He had “a positive attitude” from the start, in paragraph 3. The order follows what he did, not how sure he felt.
- C does not fit. Only one event inspired him, the 1952 loss in paragraph 2. After that come training and the race.
- D fits. The order traces his training and then the record-breaking race.
Watch out: B is tempting because he “finally felt prepared” in paragraph 4. But that is one moment, not the thread of the whole passage.
Choose the answer
The time order follows Bannister’s training as it improves, then the race where he broke the barrier. So the answer is D, “It highlights the progression of Bannister’s training and details about his successful attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. Bannister does end up ready, and he “finally felt prepared” in paragraph 4. But he began with “a positive attitude,” so his confidence does not build from low to high. The paragraphs follow his training and then the race itself. Only D names both.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 54 of 120
2025 Practice Test B English, question 35Passage Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy
Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy
Inside the 40,000-acre Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northern Oklahoma, herds of bison roam on the scenic land that is home to hundreds of different species of plants and animals. While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.
Fires that are started by lightning or other natural circumstances are inevitable, and the results can be disastrous. However, hundreds of years ago the American Indian people who inhabited the Great Plains area between Minnesota and Texas realized that these fires could also be helpful. The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas. The American Indian people began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on, which enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.
Today conservationists at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and farmers in the Great Plains continue to use controlled burns for land management. Intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there. The fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients. Additionally, the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil.
One common target of controlled burns at the preserve and the surrounding area is the invasive red cedar tree. A single red cedar tree can consume up to 40 gallons of water per day, taking this vital resource away from other plant life. These tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them. The fast-growing red cedar trees tend to crowd out prairie grasses, the primary food source for wild and domestic animals that make the prairie their home. An imbalance in one component of the prairie’s ecosystem affects the entire web of life. Controlled burns help maintain this ecosystem’s delicate balance.
Of course, these controlled fires are intended to burn only a portion of an area. A total burn, which is a risk with an uncontrolled wildfire, would destroy all wildlife as well as the crops farmers plant for income. The key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when. Conservation experts at the preserve employ the “patch-burn” approach, meaning they rotate which portion of land is burned each year. They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned, and then they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land. This patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate. The following year, conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve, while the land burned the previous year regrows healthier than before.
Researchers have tracked and studied the variety of plant species and animals that live on the preserve, and their studies show that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out. The patch-burn system is so successful that the conservationists at the preserve provide training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land. Burning land to make it healthy may seem counterintuitive, but strategic controlled fires have helped the prairie sustain life for hundreds of years and, with careful management, will continue to do so.
Question
Which details from the passage best convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land?
- Athe explanation that conservationists use the alternating burn pattern of the patch-burn method in order to allow the animals in the area to avoid the fire
- Bthe information that conservationists evaluate which land would most benefit from a controlled burn before applying the patch-burn method
- Cthe information that conservationists have determined that the patch-burn method has promoted the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out
- Dthe explanation that conservationists are able to control the fire in the patch-burn method by arranging separate burns across the designated portion of land
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which details from the passage best convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.
A. Incorrect. The author explains in paragraph 5 that “patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate.” This explanation conveys two supporting ideas: the patch-burn method is controllable, and patch-burn fires do not pose a threat to animals. However, this explanation does not address the broader central idea that the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.
B. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author states that “the key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when.” The author then provides information about how conservation experts “study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned.” However, these details convey supporting ideas rather than the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.
C. CORRECT. In paragraph 3, the author states that “fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients.” Also, in paragraph 6, the author states that patch burning “has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out.” These details directly convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.
D. Incorrect. The author explains in paragraph 5 how conservationists “arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land,” which helps show how the patch-burn method is applied by conservationists. However, this is a supporting detail that conveys the idea that the burns are deliberately set and carefully controlled. This detail does not convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to manage and protect prairie land.
Question analysis
This evidence question on the article about controlled burns at an Oklahoma tallgrass prairie preserve asks which details best convey the central idea that the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land. Every choice reports something the article really says about the method, so students must decide which details speak most directly to the central idea as stated.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Matching details to a stated central idea is regular grade 7 work, and the article is short and clearly written. Each choice is a long, accurate description, so the work lies in judging relevance rather than truth, which is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- A lot to read minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 118 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 central idea joins three words, protect, manage and effective, and each wrong choice speaks to protect or manage with a step in carrying out the method: keeping animals safe, choosing the land, controlling the fire. Only a result shows that the method is effective, and the one result offered is the return of species once at risk of being crowded out. Students who ask what each detail proves, not what it is about, separate how the method works from whether it works.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four choices report the patch-burn method accurately, the animals’ safe relocation, the study of the land, the dozen burns and the restored species, so truth rules none out; each must be tested for proof the method works. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
Three choices come from paragraph 5, where the method is explained, while the result that shows it works, restored biodiversity, sits in paragraph 6, after the description ends. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
A lot to read minor Understanding the question
Each choice is a noun phrase of 19 to 26 words opening “the explanation that” or “the information that,” so four long details must be unpacked before they can be compared. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Restate the central idea in your own words, noting what “effective” requires, then ask of each choice whether that detail would persuade a doubtful reader of the whole idea.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Links “protect” in the central idea to the animals’ chance to “safely relocate” in paragraph 5, a true detail of how patch burns are run, not proof they improve the prairie.
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears effectiveness in “would most benefit,” but experts studying the land before a burn shows how they plan where to burn, not that the burns have worked.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Connects “manage” and “protect” to fire kept under control by arranging “about a dozen burns over one-third of the land,” which shows how the method is applied, not what it achieves.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which details best support a central idea. A central idea is a main point the whole passage develops. Here the idea is given: the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land. Effective means it works and gets good results. So look for details that show results, not just how the method is done.
Find how the method works
Paragraph 5 explains the patch-burn method. The experts “rotate which portion of land is burned each year.” Rotate means take turns. First, “They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned.” Then “they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land.” This “contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate.” These details tell how the method is done.
Find what the method achieves
Paragraph 6 gives the results. Researchers studied the plants and animals on the preserve. Their studies show “that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out.” Biodiversity means many kinds of living things. A species is one kind of plant or animal. Crowded out means pushed aside, the way red cedars crowd out prairie grasses in paragraph 4. So the method helped species that were losing ground. That shows it works.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Animals escaping safely shows the burns are done with care. It does not show the land gets healthier.
- B does not fit. Studying the land is a planning step before a burn. It shows how the experts choose, not whether the burns work.
- C fits. It reports a result: the method helped species that were at risk.
- D does not fit. Arranging a dozen burns shows how the fire is kept under control. It does not show what the burns achieve.
Watch out: D sounds like “manage,” since the experts control the fire. But controlling a fire is part of doing the method. Only a result proves the method is effective.
Choose the answer
Only one choice shows the patch-burn method getting good results. So the answer is C, “the information that conservationists have determined that the patch-burn method has promoted the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. Careful control sounds like good management. But D only describes how the burns are set up. A method can be done carefully and still fail. C gives the proof that it works: studies show the burns “restored biodiversity.” Paragraph 6 even calls the system “so successful.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed (page 41)
Question 55 of 120
2025 Practice Test B English, question 48Passage Letter from Brooklyn
Letter from Brooklyn
by Jacob Scheier
I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.
“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.
brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past
Question
The poet develops the speaker’s point of view by
- Aproviding details about the speaker’s longing to be in a different place.
- Bshowing the speaker’s sense of unease about the passing seasons.
- Cincluding details about the speaker’s hope that life will remain unchanged.
- Dshowing the speaker’s desire to treasure and appreciate the changes taking place.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view.
A. Incorrect. The speaker concedes that at some point, Brooklyn will become tiresome (lines 2–4). However, the bulk of the poem reveals the speaker’s appreciation for experiencing Brooklyn, not a desire to be in some other place.
B. Incorrect. Cold weather is inevitable, and the speaker is well aware of this future shift as well as the change in attitude it will bring. Nevertheless, the speaker does not focus on this future but rather embraces the current season, describing it in vivid detail.
C. Incorrect. The speaker is not hopeful that life will remain unchanged. Rather, the speaker accepts and appreciates the seasonal changes that occur.
D. CORRECT. The speaker’s point of view is largely positive and appreciative of the shift in seasons. This point of view is developed by language that shows a close connection between the speaker and the setting. For example, the speaker uses words such as “intimacy” (line 11) and “closeness” (line 14) and the description of the “pop-up picture book” (line 20). Finally, the conclusion emphasizes the point of view: “These late afternoons filled / with a loneliness that makes me feel / distinctly myself, and an awareness / of how rare that is” (lines 23–26).
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in “Letter from Brooklyn,” in which the speaker walks through the city at the start of fall knowing that colder, darker days lie ahead. The speaker’s thoughts move between the present and the future, so students must weigh the whole poem, and each choice names a different attitude.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 point-of-view questions focus on one passage or stanza. This one asks for the speaker’s attitude across a whole poem of shifting moods, and several choices rest on real lines, so judging the overall view takes more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 54 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The poem opens by predicting its own end and returns to the coming dark in lines 13–16, so a reader who weighs those lines heavily finds unease, and the speaker does feel some. But the speaker turns back to the present each time, with “But that all happens later” and “These days I am still walking,” and the closing lines call the moment rare. The point of view is a wish to savor what is passing, and only a choice that fits the whole poem, not its most anxious lines, matches it.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The point of view has to hold from line 1 to line 26 while the poem swings between the future, tiring of the bridge and darkening at 4, and the present walk under the branches. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
No line names the speaker’s attitude; it has to be drawn from “For now,” the walk “at a cathedral pace,” the nostalgia “for the moment I am walking inside of” and “how rare that is.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three wrong choices rest on real lines, tiring of the bridge’s “steep incline,” the “felt distance” of line 14 and the nostalgia of lines 21–22, so each must be weighed against the whole poem. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Sum up in one sentence how the speaker feels about the present walk and about the season ahead, then pick the choice that holds true from the first line to the last.
Traps
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the forecast that the speaker “will grow tired” of the bridge and the tourists into a present longing to be elsewhere, though the rest of the poem savors Brooklyn’s streets.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Fixes on the coming cold and the “felt distance” of lines 13–16, real notes of unease, and takes them for the whole view, though “But that all happens later” sets the future aside.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads nostalgia “for the moment I am walking inside of” as a wish that nothing change, though the speaker opens by accepting “how this will end” and treasures the moment because it passes.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about point of view: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about what is happening. The question is about the whole poem, not a few lines. So follow the speaker’s feelings from line 1 to line 26. The right choice must fit all of it.
Follow the speaker’s thoughts
The poem moves back and forth in time. Lines 1–5 look ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker will tire of the bridge, and “The weather will turn cold.” Line 6 turns back: “But that all happens later.” Lines 7–12 describe the cool air of early fall. Lines 13–16 look ahead again, to days that get dark at 4 o’clock. Line 17 returns to now: “These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace.”
See how the speaker treats now
The glossary says cathedral means “meditative,” or calm and thoughtful. The speaker walks slowly to take everything in. Brownstones look “like a pop-up picture book.” Lines 21–22 say “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” Nostalgic means “yearning for the past.” Yet the speaker longs for right now. In the last lines, even the loneliness of late afternoon is welcome. It makes the speaker feel “distinctly myself,” and aware “of how rare that is.”
Put the point of view in words
The speaker knows this season will end. That is why each moment matters. The speaker notices the first signs of fall, like the crisp air, and savors them. To treasure something is to value it highly. So the speaker wants to treasure and appreciate the changes happening now.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Lines 2–4 say the speaker will tire of the bridge someday. But the speaker enjoys Brooklyn now and never wishes to be elsewhere.
- B does not fit. Lines 13–16 show some unease about the dark days ahead. But each time, the speaker turns back to the present.
- C does not fit. The speaker knows from line 1 that this will end, and treasures the moment because it will pass.
- D fits. The speaker savors the early-fall walk while it lasts.
Watch out: B rests on real lines: the closeness the speaker feels now “will be a felt distance” (line 14). But that is one part of the poem, not the whole view.
Choose the answer
The speaker knows the season will change and holds on to each moment of it. So the answer is D, “showing the speaker’s desire to treasure and appreciate the changes taking place.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because lines 13–16 do show unease. But each time the poem looks ahead, the speaker turns back to now: “But that all happens later” and “These days I am still walking.” The poem ends by calling the moment rare. The main feeling is a wish to treasure the present, which is D.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
Question 56 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 1Question
Read this sentence.
The engineers tried some other things in the hope of finding a more effective insulation for the compartment.
What is the most precise revision for the words The engineers tried some other things?
- AThe engineers did experiments with several new materials
- BThe engineers tested foam and fiberglass
- CThe engineers examined two new materials
- DThe engineers worked with foam and fiberglass
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the most precise revision for the words “The engineers tried some other things.”
A. Incorrect. This revision uses the word “materials” rather than precisely identifying what the engineers used.
B. CORRECT. This option revises the words to be more precise by using the specific words “tested” for the verb and “foam and fiberglass” for the materials.
C. Incorrect. This revision uses the word “examined” rather than a word indicating a process of experimental trial and error. The sentence also uses the word “materials” rather than precisely identifying what the engineers used.
D. Incorrect. This revision identifies the materials, but the imprecise verb “worked with” does not specify what the engineers were doing.
Question analysis
This revising question gives one sentence about engineers looking for better insulation for a compartment and asks which rewrite of its vague opening words is the most precise. The tricky part is that some choices sharpen one half of the phrase while leaving the other half as loose as the original.
- NYS standards
- 7L3a precise and concise language
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Choosing precise wording is a grade 7 language standard, but this item is a single sentence about an engineering test with everyday words. Typical grade 7 revision asks for the same judgment across a paragraph or a full draft.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 63 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
Precision here has two halves: a verb that names the actual activity and an object that names the actual materials. Most students who miss it stop at the first concrete detail they see, the named materials or the count of two, and never test the verb. Only one rewrite names both an exact action and the exact materials; each of the others leaves one half, or both, nearly as loose as the original.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The rewrite with “worked with foam and fiberglass” matches the right one word for word except the verb, so only asking whether “worked with” says what the engineers did separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The vague words have two parts, the action “tried” and the object “some other things,” and each rewrite sharpens a different part, so every one must be tested for both. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Split the underlined words into the action and the things acted on, then ask of each revision whether a reader would know exactly what the engineers did and with what.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Takes “did experiments with” as an exact verb, but the wordier phrase still ends in “several new materials,” which leaves the reader guessing what was tried.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats the count “two” as precise detail, though the materials stay unnamed and “examined” suggests looking them over rather than trying them as insulation.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees that naming foam and fiberglass makes the object exact and stops there, missing that “worked with” is as vague as the original “tried.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about precise language. Precise means exact and clear. The words “The engineers tried some other things” are vague. You can’t tell what the engineers did. You also can’t tell what they used. You need the rewrite that tells both.
Learn what makes words precise
Precise writing names the exact action and the exact thing. Vague: She did stuff with food. Precise: She baked bread.
The underlined words have two vague parts. The verb (the action word) is “tried.” The things are “some other things.” A good rewrite must fix both parts.
Think about what the sentence needs
The engineers want “a more effective insulation.” Insulation is material that keeps heat or cold from getting through. To find the best one, they would try out real materials and see how well each works. So the best verb says they tested. The best object names the materials.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “Did experiments with” is wordy, and “several new materials” still doesn’t say which ones.
- B is right. “Tested” names the exact action. “Foam and fiberglass” names the exact materials.
- C is wrong. “Two new materials” gives a number but no names. “Examined” means looked over, not tried out.
- D is wrong. It names foam and fiberglass. But “worked with” is as vague as “tried.”
Watch out: D is tempting because it names the materials. Always check the verb too.
Choose the answer
Only B fixes both vague parts. The reader learns what the engineers did and what they used. So the answer is B: The engineers tested foam and fiberglass.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. It matches B word for word except for the verb. “Worked with” could mean cut, built or studied. “Tested” tells you the engineers tried each material to see how well it insulates. That is what the sentence is about, so B is more precise.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 57 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 4Question
Which pair of revisions need to be made in this paragraph?
(1) Both Italian gelato and American ice cream are delightful treats to have on a hot summer day, but many people wonder: what is the difference between the two? (2) To start with, the butterfat content is much higher in ice cream than it is in gelato, making the Italian treat a wiser decision for people looking to make healthier choices. (3) Additionally, the mixing process, which adds less air to the frozen treat, makes gelato denser than ice cream. (4) Finally, gelato is served 10 to 15 degrees warmer than ice cream, which enhances the texture and flavor of the gelato, and allow it to melt more quickly.
- ASentence 1: Delete the colon after wonder AND change is to are.
- BSentence 2: Delete the comma after with AND change it is to they are.
- CSentence 3: Delete the comma after process AND change makes to make.
- DSentence 4: Delete the comma after gelato AND change allow to allows.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the revisions that are needed to correct errors in the paragraph.
A. Incorrect. The revisions introduce new errors. The colon after “wonder” is needed to set off the question “what is the difference between the two?” from the rest of the sentence. In addition, changing the verb “is” to “are” would be incorrect with the use of the singular noun “difference,” which is the subject of the question.
B. Incorrect. The revisions introduce new errors. The comma following the introductory phrase “To start with” helps with clarity and is needed to separate the phrase from the rest of the sentence. Changing “it is” to “they are” would be incorrect with the use of the singular noun “butterfat content,” which is what the words “it is” refer to in the sentence.
C. Incorrect. The revisions introduce new errors. The comma following “process” is necessary to set off the nonrestrictive clause “which adds less air to the frozen treat” from the rest of the sentence. This clause is considered a nonrestrictive clause because it provides additional, but not essential, information about the mixing process. Changing the verb “makes” to “make” would be incorrect with the use of the singular noun “mixing process,” which is the subject of the sentence.
D. CORRECT. Deleting the comma after “gelato” would include the clause “and allow it to melt more quickly” with the first part of the clause “which enhances the texture and flavor of the gelato.” The word “and” between the two verb phrases (“enhances the texture and flavor of the gelato” and “allow it to melt more quickly”) indicates that the two verb phrases share a subject, “which” (referring to the act of serving gelato 10 to 15 degrees warmer than ice cream). The two ideas should not be separated by a comma within the clause. The entire clause “which enhances the texture and flavor of the gelato and allow it to melt more quickly” should be separated from the main clause only by the comma after “cream” because the entire clause is a nonrestrictive clause. This clause provides additional, but not essential, information about the purpose of serving gelato at a warmer temperature than ice cream. Changing the verb “allow” to “allows” is also necessary to match the use of the singular pronoun “which.”
Question analysis
This editing question gives a four-sentence paragraph comparing Italian gelato with American ice cream and asks which pair of revisions it needs. Students must check subject-verb agreement, what a pronoun refers to and whether each comma or colon belongs, and since every choice bundles two edits in one sentence, a single right-sounding change is not enough.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Subject-verb agreement and commas around added clauses are grade 7 conventions. Eight marked spots across four long sentences make this a fuller check than a one-sentence item, but the demand is still typical of grade 7 editing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 9, 160 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 paragraph's only real errors sit at the end of its longest sentence, where a plural noun pair just before the faulty verb hides the mismatch. Students who do not hear “allow” as wrong start doubting correct marks instead, such as the colon before an embedded question or the comma after “To start with.” Every wrong pair also changes a verb or pronoun that already agrees, so reading each edit back into its sentence rules those pairs out.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
In sentence 4 the plural pair “texture and flavor” sits just before “and allow,” so the verb sounds right, but it belongs to “which,” the warmer serving, and must match “enhances.” (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each pair proposes two edits in one sentence, eight in all, and a pair is right only if both of its edits fix real errors, so every edit has to be tried in place. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Sentence 4 hangs a which-clause with two verbs onto the main clause, and the comma before “and allow” splits that clause's compound predicate in a way few students hear as wrong. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, find each verb's true subject and test every marked comma yourself; then look for the choice whose two edits both fix errors you found.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
- Agreement: A verb that does not agree with its subject, or a pronoun that does not agree with the word it stands for.
- Punctuation: A comma, semicolon, colon, dash or apostrophe used where it does not belong, or missing where it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Agreement (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Hears “the two” as the subject and wants “are,” and distrusts a colon before a question, though “the difference” is singular and the colon is correct.
B Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes a short opener like “To start with” needs no comma and accepts “they are,” though the pronoun stands for the singular “butterfat content.”
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Picks edits to a sentence that is already correct, unbalancing the commas around the which-clause and giving the singular “mixing process” a plural verb.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Each choice offers two changes to one sentence. Both changes must fix real mistakes. If even one change breaks something that was right, the choice is wrong. So test every change in its own sentence.
Learn the rule for two verbs
A verb (an action word) must match its subject (who or what does the action). One thing takes allows. Two or more things take allow.
When one subject does two actions joined by “and,” no comma goes before “and.” Example: The sun warms the air and dries the grass. Both verbs end in s, because one sun does both.
Find the mistakes in sentence 4
Sentence 4 says gelato is served warmer than ice cream, “which enhances the texture and flavor of the gelato, and allow it to melt more quickly.”
“Which” stands for one thing: serving gelato warmer. That one thing does two actions. It “enhances” (improves) the texture and flavor. It also lets the gelato melt faster. So “allow” should be “allows,” to match “enhances.” And the comma before “and” must go.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The colon (:) after “wonder” correctly leads into the question. And “is” matches “the difference,” which is one thing.
- B is wrong. The comma after “To start with” sets off an opening phrase. And “it is” stands for “the butterfat content,” which is one thing.
- C is wrong. The commas around “which adds less air to the frozen treat” come in a pair. And “makes” matches “the mixing process,” one thing.
- D is right. Both changes fix real mistakes.
Watch out: “The texture and flavor” comes right before “allow.” Those two things make “allow” sound right. But the subject is “which,” not “texture and flavor.”
Choose the answer
The fixed sentence ends: which enhances the texture and flavor of the gelato and allows it to melt more quickly. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. “The two” sits near “is,” so “are” can sound right. But the question asks what “the difference” is. A difference is one thing, so “is” is correct. A would add a mistake. In D, both changes fix mistakes that are really there.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 58 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 6Passage The Free College Debate
The Free College Debate
(1) A college degree has become an essential tool in an increasingly competitive job market. (2) Yet the price of higher education, at both private and public universities, continues to rise. (3) Helping students cover the cost of attending college is an important issue.
(4) Many people agree that a college education should be a financially realistic option for those who aspire to obtain a degree. (5) For example, in 2017, the New York State legislature passed a bill creating a program to cover the tuition costs for nearly one million students. (6) The state of Tennessee also has a program that offers all students scholarships and mentoring services if they attend one of the state’s community colleges. (7) Proponents generally believe that these programs are a step in the right direction for making college affordable for students who would have had to take out loans or who would have decided not to pursue higher education at all.
(8) On the other hand, some people oppose bills like the ones in New York and Tennessee because they believe “free” college programs are unsustainable. (9) In order to implement these types of programs, a state pays the college on behalf of the students using funds from the state’s budget, which primarily comes from state taxes. (10) As more students choose to attend college, more funds will be needed to cover the costs. (11) Additionally, many students do not finish college within four years because they switch majors or because they have to work. (12) Critics believe that these circumstances will inevitably lead to an increase in taxes, a decline in the quality of the education offered by the schools, or both. (13) They think narrower college-affordability efforts that target the students who need the most support, such as first-generation college students, may be more effective and viable solutions.
(14) Faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down. (15) In light of increased access to computers, mobile devices, and the Internet, there are more opportunities for students to take courses online, thus reducing the need for and cost of maintaining physical classrooms. (16) Additionally, colleges should account for experience by allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in order to avoid having to pay to sit through classes on subjects they have already mastered. (17) Similarly, college-bound high school students need to be prepared for college-level work so that they do not have to spend money on remedial classes.
(18) The solutions to the problems associated with rising college costs are not simple. (19) Passing legislation that boosts college affordability will take time, input from experts with different ideas, and careful planning.
Question
Read this sentence.
Some note that several states have made their community or state colleges low-cost or free for students with limited resources.
Where should the sentence be added to best support the ideas in the second paragraph (sentences 4–7)?
- Aat the beginning of the paragraph (before sentence 4)
- Bbetween sentences 4 and 5
- Cbetween sentences 5 and 6
- Dbetween sentences 6 and 7
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks where the sentence should be added to best support the ideas in the second paragraph (sentences 4–7).
A. Incorrect. Sentence 4 introduces the main idea of the second paragraph (making college “a financially realistic option for those who aspire to obtain a degree”) and should not be preceded by the added sentence, which focuses more narrowly on the specific ways that some states are implementing that idea.
B. CORRECT. The added sentence provides a proposed solution to the issue stated in sentence 4, that “a college education should be a financially realistic option.” Sentence 5 is an example of the programs discussed in the added sentence.
C. Incorrect. Sentences 5 and 6 offer examples of state governments providing “low-cost or free” tuition. The added sentence introduces this idea in the second paragraph and should come before these specific examples are provided as evidence.
D. Incorrect. Sentence 6 provides an example of the state government of Tennessee providing “low-cost or free” tuition, and sentence 7 further explains the opinion of those in favor of such programs (“a step in the right direction for making college affordable”). However, the ideas in sentences 6 and 7 follow from and support the idea in the added sentence. Therefore, the added sentence should be placed before sentences 6 and 7, which help elaborate its idea.
Question analysis
This revising question gives a sentence noting that several states have made public colleges low-cost or free and asks where it best fits in the paragraph about making college financially realistic. Students must follow how the paragraph moves between general claims and specific examples, since the sentence reads smoothly in more than one place.
- NYS standards
- 7W2a introducing and organizing a topic
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Placing a sentence so ideas follow logically is grade 7 writing work. The paragraph is only four sentences long and the four positions sit side by side, so this matches a typical grade 7 revision task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 427 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 56 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 general-before-specific question disguised by smooth reading: the added sentence fits grammatically anywhere in the paragraph. What decides it is that New York and Tennessee are examples of states making college low-cost or free, so the claim belongs before them and after sentence 4's broader belief. Students who place it as a summary before “these programs” have noticed a real link but put the claim after its own evidence.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 5 opens “For example” and sentence 6 says Tennessee “also” has a program, so the claim about several states must come right before the New York example it introduces. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The new sentence reads smoothly in all four spots, even after the examples, where sentence 7's “these programs” seems to point back to it, so each position has to be tried in context. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Decide whether the new sentence is a general statement or a specific example, then read the paragraph with it in each position and check that every example follows what it illustrates.
Traps
- Sentence in the wrong place: Puts a sentence where it breaks the order of ideas or separates it from what it refers to.
The wrong answers, classified
A Sentence in the wrong place (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Rightly treats the new sentence as general, then makes it the opener, ahead of sentence 4, the broader belief that college should be financially realistic.
C Sentence in the wrong place (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Drops the claim about several states between the New York and Tennessee examples, splitting the pair and leaving the first example without the statement it illustrates.
D Sentence in the wrong place (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Sees that sentence 7's “these programs” could refer back to the new sentence, but placed there it only restates what the New York and Tennessee examples have shown.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the best place for a new sentence in paragraph 2. First ask: is it a general idea or a specific example? A general idea usually comes before the examples that show it.
Look at the new sentence
The new sentence says “several states have made their community or state colleges low-cost or free.” It does not name any state. So it is a general claim. A claim is a statement that something is true.
Look at sentences 4 to 7
- Sentence 4 is the paragraph’s main idea. College should be “a financially realistic option,” or something people can afford.
- Sentence 5 starts “For example” and names New York.
- Sentence 6 says Tennessee “also has a program.”
- Sentence 7 tells what supporters think of “these programs.”
New York and Tennessee are two of the “several states.” So the new sentence belongs right before them.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Sentence 4 is the broader main idea, so it should stay first.
- B is right. The claim comes after the main idea. Then “For example” leads into New York.
- C is wrong. It splits New York and Tennessee, two examples that belong together.
- D is wrong. It puts the claim after both of the examples that show it.
Watch out: D is tempting, since “these programs” in sentence 7 could point back to it. But there the claim would just repeat what the examples already showed.
Choose the answer
The order should be main idea, then claim, then examples. So the answer is B, between sentences 4 and 5.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because the sentence reads smoothly there too. But a general claim should come before the examples that prove it. In B, the reader first hears about “several states.” Then “For example” brings in New York, and Tennessee follows.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Free College Debate” as printed (page 38)
Question 59 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 7Uses the passage above: “The Free College Debate”.
Question
Which sentence presents information that shifts away from the topic of the third paragraph (sentences 8–13) and should be deleted?
- Asentence 10
- Bsentence 11
- Csentence 12
- Dsentence 13
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which sentence presents information that shifts away from the topic of the third paragraph (sentences 8–13) and should be deleted.
A. Incorrect. Sentence 9 explains that scholarship funding comes “from the state’s budget, which primarily comes from state taxes.” Sentence 10 logically follows the idea in sentence 9 by explaining that “as more students choose to attend college, more funds will be needed to cover the costs.” Therefore, sentence 10 should not be deleted, because it does not shift away from the topic of the paragraph.
B. CORRECT. Sentence 10 makes the claim that “as more students choose to attend college, more funds will be needed to cover the costs.” Sentence 11 shifts away from this topic by focusing on how switching majors or working affects students’ ability to finish college, rather than on the additional funds that will be needed for scholarship programs. Therefore, sentence 11 should be deleted.
C. Incorrect. Sentence 9 states that scholarship program funding comes “from the state’s budget, which primarily comes from state taxes.” Sentence 10 points out that “as more students choose to attend college, more funds will be needed to cover the costs.” Sentence 12 elaborates on the critics’ opinions discussed in sentences 8–10. It reflects the belief that the “circumstances” described in sentences 9 and 10 “will inevitably lead to an increase in taxes, a decline in the quality of the education offered by the schools, or both.” Thus, sentence 12 should not be deleted, because it does not shift away from the topic of the paragraph.
D. Incorrect. Sentence 13 refers back to the “critics” mentioned in sentence 12 and expands on the critics’ concern about increased taxes mentioned in sentence 12 by stating that “narrower college-affordability efforts . . . may be more effective and viable solutions.” Therefore, sentence 13 should not be deleted because it logically follows the ideas in sentence 12 and serves as a concluding sentence for the paragraph.
Question analysis
This revising question asks which sentence in the paragraph about critics of free-college programs shifts away from the paragraph's topic and should be deleted. All four listed sentences mention students, funding or taxes, so students must follow the critics' chain of reasoning and find the sentence that does not advance it.
- NYS standards
- 7W2b developing a topic
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Cutting a sentence that strays from a paragraph's focus is standard grade 7 writing work. This paragraph is a six-sentence argument with formal words such as unsustainable and viable, which is typical of grade 7 revision passages.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 427 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 23 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
Sentence 11 is camouflaged: it starts with a linking word, and a reader can argue that students who take longer to finish cost the state more. The paragraph, though, is about funding and taxes, and sentence 11 turns to why students switch majors or work. Students who cut sentence 13 sense a move toward solutions, but it still voices the critics, and the question rewards checking that each other sentence advances their case.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 11 opens with “Additionally,” and sentence 12's “these circumstances” can be read as gathering it in, so the stray sentence looks attached to the critics' argument. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Because sentence 11 can be defended, the answer comes mainly from confirming that sentences 10, 12 and 13 each carry the critics' case, which means testing every listed sentence. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: State the critics' argument in a few words, then check whether each listed sentence adds a link to that argument or turns aside to a different issue.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Cuts sentence 10 as a loose prediction, though more students needing more funds is the link between state funding in sentence 9 and the critics' fear of higher taxes.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Removes sentence 12 as mere opinion, though it states the critics' conclusion, higher taxes or lower quality, which the whole paragraph builds toward.
D Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Senses a turn when the critics propose “narrower college-affordability efforts,” but sentence 13 still reports what “They think,” completing their case rather than leaving it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Paragraph 3 (sentences 8–13) has one topic. One sentence wanders away from it. You need to find that sentence. First, say the paragraph’s topic in a few words.
Find the topic of paragraph 3
Sentence 8 says some people think “free” college programs are “unsustainable.” That means they can’t keep going for long. The reason is money. The state pays with tax money (sentence 9). More students means more money is needed (sentence 10). Critics fear higher taxes or worse schools (sentence 12). They want smaller programs instead (sentence 13).
Look at sentence 11
Sentence 11 says many students take more than four years “because they switch majors or because they have to work.” A major is the main subject a student studies. This sentence is about why students take longer. It never says what that costs the state or how it affects taxes. It moves away from the critics’ money argument.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Sentence 10 links state money to the critics’ fears: more students, more costs.
- B is right. Sentence 11 turns to students’ reasons for taking longer.
- C is wrong. Sentence 12 gives the critics’ main fear: higher taxes or worse schools.
- D is wrong. Sentence 13 still tells what the critics think. It finishes their argument.
Watch out: Sentence 13 brings up a different plan, so D is tempting. But it begins “They think,” so it is still the critics talking.
Choose the answer
Without sentence 11, the paragraph moves smoothly from more costs to higher taxes. So the answer is B, sentence 11.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because sentence 13 talks about a different plan. But that plan belongs to the critics, so it stays on topic. Sentence 11 starts with “Additionally,” which makes it look like part of the argument. Yet it talks about switching majors and having jobs, not about the cost to the state.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 60 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 8Uses the passage above: “The Free College Debate”.
Question
Which phrase should be added before sentence 14 to best transition to the ideas in the fourth paragraph (sentences 14–17)?
- ABecause college affordability is a complicated issue,
- BWith so many opinions about how to make college affordable,
- CUntil college becomes more affordable,
- DAlthough some college affordability programs have been successful,
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which phrase should be added before sentence 14 to best transition to the ideas in the fourth paragraph (sentences 14–17).
A. Incorrect. Sentence 13 summarizes the viewpoint of opponents, who believe that targeted approaches to funding education “may be more effective and viable solutions,” and sentence 14 serves to introduce how “faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down.” Affordability is “a complicated issue,” but the use of the word “Because” suggests that the ideas that follow in sentences 14–17 will explain a cause-and-effect relationship. However, sentences 14–17 discuss ways faculty and students should work together to keep the cost of college down while waiting for a long-term solution to the problem, not a causal relationship.
B. Incorrect. Sentences 4–13 provide information about the viewpoint of proponents, who believe that “a college education should be a financially realistic option for those who aspire to obtain a degree” (sentence 4), and opponents, who believe free college programs are “unsustainable” (sentence 8). Although the phrase in this option mentions “opinions,” it indicates that the fourth paragraph will discuss why the number of opinions makes affordability a debatable issue. Instead, the fourth paragraph discusses ways faculty and students can help keep costs down until a solution is reached.
C. CORRECT. Sentence 13 summarizes the viewpoint of opponents, who believe that targeted approaches to funding education “may be more effective and viable solutions,” while proponents “generally believe that these [government] programs are a step in the right direction for making college affordable” (sentence 7). However, sentences 14–17 offer three possible solutions that could alleviate the problem in the meantime. Therefore, the phrase in this option should be added before sentence 14 to best transition to the ideas in the fourth paragraph because it suggests that until the issue of affordability is resolved, alternatives are available to help make a college education more affordable.
D. Incorrect. This phrase mentions “college affordability,” a topic discussed in the fourth paragraph. However, the ideas introduced in the phrase do not logically lead into the ideas discussed in sentences 14–17, because the phrase mentions “programs [that] have been successful,” whereas the paragraph states that “faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down” (sentence 14) and that colleges “should account for experience by allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in order to avoid having to pay to sit through classes on subjects they have already mastered” (sentence 16). Use of the words “can” and “should” in these sentences indicates that the actions or programs mentioned in the paragraph have not been completed.
Question analysis
This revising question asks which introductory phrase should begin the fourth paragraph of a passage on college affordability, linking the debate over state tuition programs to the cost-saving ideas that follow. All four phrases sound natural, so students must work out the relationship between the paragraphs and choose the phrase that signals it accurately.
- NYS standards
- 7W2d transitions in informative writing
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 transition work usually links two sentences with a word such as however. Here the choices are whole phrases that set up an entire paragraph, and judging them needs a grasp of the full argument, which asks more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 427 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 48 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 phrase sounds like a reasonable bridge, and the right one can even seem odd at first, since cutting costs is itself a way to make college affordable. The key is seeing paragraph 4 as what campuses can do while the debate over state programs goes on, a reading the passage confirms only at its end. Students who link back to the many opinions, or accept a causal “Because,” have found real ideas from the passage but not the relationship between these two paragraphs.
How sentences fit together major Working it out
The phrase must link paragraph 3's case against state programs to paragraph 4's steps that “can work to keep costs down,” steps that make sense only as help in the meantime. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Nothing says paragraph 4's ideas are stopgaps; that has to be inferred from sentences 18 and 19, which say the solutions “are not simple” and “will take time.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four phrases are grammatical and about affordability, so each must be read into sentence 14 and judged by the relationship its first word signals. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Sum up paragraphs 3 and 4 in a few words each, decide how the second relates to the first, then test the relationship each phrase's opening word signals.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Agrees that affordability is complicated, as sentence 18 says, but “Because” makes the complexity the reason faculty and students can cut costs, a cause the paragraph never gives.
B Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Rightly looks back to the clashing views of paragraphs 2 and 3, but offers the disagreement as the ground for the steps instead of marking them as help until a solution arrives.
D Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Hears “Although” as a natural turn to a new idea, but the passage never says any program has succeeded, and paragraph 4 does not set its steps against such programs.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need a phrase to start sentence 14. It should work as a transition: a word or phrase that shows how two ideas connect. Words like “because,” “although” and “until” each show a different link. So first work out how paragraph 4 connects to what came before.
Compare paragraphs 3 and 4
Paragraph 3 ends with the critics’ view of state programs. People still disagree, so there is no fix everyone accepts yet. Paragraph 4 then says “Faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down.” Faculty means teachers. The paragraph lists ways to do it: online classes, skipping classes you’ve mastered, and getting ready in high school.
Use the ending as a clue
Sentences 18 and 19 say the solutions “are not simple” and “will take time.” So a big fix is still far off. That makes paragraph 4’s ideas things to do in the meantime, while people wait. The phrase “Until college becomes more affordable” says exactly that.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “Because” shows a cause. The issue being complicated is not the reason teachers can cut costs.
- B is wrong. It makes the many opinions the reason for the steps. The passage never links them that way.
- C is right. “Until” shows these are steps to take while waiting for a bigger fix.
- D is wrong. The passage never says any program has been successful.
Watch out: B looks back at the many opinions, which really are in the passage. But it doesn’t show how paragraph 4 relates to paragraph 3.
Choose the answer
Sentence 14 would read: Until college becomes more affordable, faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because the passage does share many opinions. But “With so many opinions” makes the opinions sound like the reason for the cost-cutting steps. They are not. C shows the steps are help for now, while the bigger problem waits to be solved.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 61 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 14Passage Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”
Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”
by Zitkala-Sa
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) was a Native American writer, musician, teacher, and political activist who was raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. In 1900 she published “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” (the term Indian was commonly used at the time to refer to Native American people) to expose readers to what life is like on a reservation.
Soon after breakfast Mother sometimes began her beadwork. On a bright, clear day, she pulled out the wooden pegs that pinned the skirt of our wigwam1 to the ground, and rolled the canvas part way up on its frame of slender poles. Then the cool morning breezes swept freely through our dwelling, now and then wafting the perfume of sweet grasses from newly burnt prairie.
Untying the long tasseled strings that bound a small brown buckskin2 bag, my mother spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads, just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette. On a lapboard she smoothed out a double sheet of soft white buckskin; and drawing from a beaded case that hung on the left of her wide belt a long, narrow blade, she trimmed the buckskin into shape. Often she worked upon small moccasins for her small daughter. Then I became intensely interested in her designing. With a proud, beaming face, I watched her work. In [my] imagination, I saw myself walking in a new pair of snugly fitting moccasins. I felt the envious eyes of my playmates upon the pretty red beads decorating my feet.
Close beside my mother I sat on a rug, with a scrap of buckskin in one hand and an awl in the other. This was the beginning of my practical observation lessons in the art of beadwork. From a skein3 of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews my mother pulled out a single one. With an awl she pierced the buckskin, and skillfully threaded it with the white sinew. Picking up the tiny beads one by one, she strung them with the point of her thread, always twisting it carefully after every stitch.
It took many trials before I learned how to knot my sinew thread on the point of my finger, as I saw her do. Then the next difficulty was in keeping my thread stiffly twisted, so that I could easily string my beads upon it. My mother required of me original designs for my lessons in beading. At first I frequently ensnared many a sunny hour into working a long design. Soon I learned from self-inflicted punishment to refrain from drawing complex patterns, for I had to finish whatever I began.
After some experience I usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares. These were some of the set forms. My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience. The quietness of her oversight made me feel strongly responsible and dependent upon my own judgment. She treated me as a dignified little individual as long as I was on my good behavior; and how humiliated I was when some boldness of mine drew forth a rebuke from her!
In the choice of colors she left me to my own taste. I was pleased with an outline of yellow upon a background of dark blue, or a combination of red and myrtle-green. There was another of red with a bluish-gray that was more conventionally used. When I became a little familiar with designing and the various pleasing combinations of color, a harder lesson was given me. It was the sewing on, instead of beads, some tinted porcupine quills, moistened and flattened between the nails of the thumb and forefinger. My mother cut off the prickly ends and burned them at once in the centre fire. These sharp points were poisonous, and worked into the flesh wherever they lodged. For this reason, my mother said, I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.
Always after these confining lessons I was wild with surplus spirits, and found joyous relief in running loose in the open again. Many a summer afternoon a party of four or five of my playmates roamed over the hills with me. We each carried a light sharpened rod about four feet long, with which we pried up certain sweet roots. When we had eaten all the choice roots we chanced upon, we shouldered our rods and strayed off into patches of a stalky plant under whose yellow blossoms we found little crystal drops of gum. Drop by drop we gathered this nature’s rock-candy, until each of us could boast of a lump the size of a small bird’s egg. Soon satiated with its woody flavor, we tossed away our gum, to return again to the sweet roots.
From “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” by Zitkala-Sa—Public Domain
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BEADWORK IN SOUTH DAKOTA
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1500s | The Dakota use beads made from bones, shells, stones, and animal teeth. European traders bring glass beads to North America. |
| Late 1600s | The Dakota begin trading with the French in Minnesota. |
| 1830s | The Dakota begin using glass beads in clothing, artwork, and decorations in place of Native-made beads. |
| 1862–1865 | The Dakota are expelled from their homelands in Minnesota as a result of the U.S.-Dakota War. |
| 1900s–1920s | The Dakota create items to sell outside their community. |
Source: MNopedia
1wigwam: hut with an arched framework of poles covered with bark, mats, or animal hides
2buckskin: leather made from the skin of a male deer
3skein: coiled length of yarn or other thread loosely wound on a reel
Question
How does the author distinguish her point of view from that of her mother?
- Aby describing their techniques for knotting sinew thread (paragraph 4)
- Bby describing their approaches to beadwork design (paragraph 5)
- Cby stating her mother’s instructions on working with quills (paragraph 6)
- Dby stating her mother’s ideas about activities after lessons (paragraph 7)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the author distinguishes her point of view from that of her mother.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 4, the author explains that “it took many trials before I learned how to knot my sinew thread on the point of my finger, as I saw her do” and that the “difficulty was in keeping my thread stiffly twisted, so that I could easily string my beads upon it.” Although this explanation describes the author’s difficulty in performing the same task as her mother, it does not distinguish her point of view from that of her mother. In fact, they seem to share the same point of view regarding the importance of the technique the author is attempting to learn.
B. CORRECT. In paragraph 5, the author distinguishes her point of view from that of her mother by describing their approaches to beadwork design. In the paragraph, the author states, “I usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares” and “My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience.” The author also distinguishes her point of view from that of her mother by stating that “the quietness of [my mother’s] oversight made me feel strongly responsible and dependent upon my own judgment.”
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 6, the author states, “My mother cut off the prickly ends and burned them at once in the centre fire. These sharp points were poisonous, and worked into the flesh wherever they lodged. For this reason, my mother said, I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.” Although these instructions explain the importance of having experience and skill when working with quills, they do not distinguish the author’s point of view from that of her mother.
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author describes her beadwork lessons as “confining” and states that she liked to roam “over the hills” with her playmates after the lessons. However, she makes no mention of her mother in paragraph 7; the activities and ideas stated there belong to the author, not the mother.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how Zitkala-Sa separates her own point of view from her mother's in an excerpt about learning beadwork as a girl. Each choice points to a different paragraph, so students must revisit all four and find where the two perspectives actually differ, not just where one person speaks or acts.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Analyzing how an author sets her view apart from another person's is a grade 7 standard. The memoir's sentences are long and old-fashioned, but its paragraphs are short and concrete, so the demand is typical of grade 7 reading.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 51 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A word-order 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 paragraph named shows mother and daughter together, or the daughter alone, so each looks like a candidate until it is tested for an actual difference in outlook. The struggle to knot sinew is a difference in skill, not in view, and the warning about quills gives only the mother's side. Paragraph 5 is the one place where the girl's own designs and her mother's impatience with their faults are set side by side.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice points to a different paragraph, 4 through 7, so all four have to be reread and tested for two outlooks that actually differ, not just one person's action or advice. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks how the author sets her view apart, so students must find where two outlooks meet and clash: her simple, imperfect designs against the faults her mother “had little patience” with. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The key sentence turns on “not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic,” formal words that must be understood to see the mother's standards behind them. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: For each paragraph named, ask whether it shows both the mother's view and the narrator's and sets them against each other; a paragraph with one perspective cannot be the answer.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Sees the girl struggle to knot sinew the way her mother does, a real contrast in skill, but she learns the same method “as I saw her do,” so their views do not differ.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks the mother's warning about poisonous quills because it states her view, but the narrator reports it without setting any opinion of her own against it.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Credits the mother with ideas about play after lessons, though paragraph 7 gives only the narrator's own “joyous relief,” and the mother does not appear in it.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook reads “The author also distinguishes her point of view from that her of mother.” It now reads “from that of her mother,” as earlier in the same explanation.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A point of view is how a person sees or judges something. You need a place where the author shows that she and her mother see things differently. Each choice names a different paragraph. Check each one for two views that don’t match.
Find two views in paragraph 5
The girl “usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares.” Then she says: “My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience.”
Work out what it means
Symmetrical means the same on both sides. “Sufficiently characteristic” means typical enough of the usual style. The girl kept her designs easy and simple. Her mother cared about something else. She saw “faults,” or mistakes, in them. Having “little patience” means being quickly annoyed. So the two judge the designs differently.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. In paragraph 4 the girl learns to knot thread “as I saw her do.” She learns her mother’s way, so their views match.
- B is right. Paragraph 5 sets the girl’s designs against her mother’s standards.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 6 gives only the mother’s warning about quills. The girl does not disagree.
- D is wrong. The mother doesn’t appear in paragraph 7 at all.
Watch out: A is tempting because the girl struggles with something her mother can do. But that is a difference in skill, not in point of view.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 5 is the one place where the two views are set side by side. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. The girl does struggle to knot thread the way her mother does. But they agree on how it should be done. In paragraph 5, the girl’s simple designs meet her mother’s impatience with their “faults.” That is a real difference in how they see the work.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed (pages 42–43)
Question 62 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 16Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.
Question
Which sentence best summarizes the process of beading that is described in the excerpt?
- ATake a buckskin bag full of beads and spread them out on a mat in different colors like a paint palette; take a double sheet of buckskin and smooth it out on a table; take a sinew and awl and thread the beads onto the buckskin in a desired pattern.
- BCut the double sheet of buckskin into a shape; take a skein of sinew and pierce the buckskin with an awl; thread the sinew with beads of many different colors in a simple or complex pattern; twist the sinew to keep it tight after every stitch into the buckskin.
- CArrange the beads into groups of colors on a mat; smooth out a double sheet of buckskin and cut it to shape; take a single thread of sinew; pierce the buckskin with an awl; thread the buckskin with the sinew and string it with beads, carefully twisting after every stitch.
- DGather beads, buckskin, sinew, and awl and place them on a mat; cut the buckskin into the desired shape; decide on a pattern for the beads and create it using the sinews and the awl; thread the beads onto the sinew in the desired pattern and twist it tight.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which sentence best summarizes the process of beading that is described in the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. In paragraphs 2 and 3, the author describes how at the beginning of the process her mother “smoothed out a double sheet of soft white buckskin” on a lapboard (paragraph 2) and how she strings the beads into a pattern. However, this sentence does not describe the steps that take place between the preparation and the stringing of the beads. Thus, this sentence does not best summarize the beading process.
B. Incorrect. In paragraphs 2 and 3, the author describes the process her mother uses to string the beads with “the point of her thread, always twisting it carefully after every stitch” (paragraph 3). While this sentence includes some of the steps in the beading process, it does not describe the necessary preparation, namely spreading the beads out on a mat and smoothing out the buckskin on a lapboard. Thus, this sentence does not best summarize the beading process.
C. CORRECT. This sentence best summarizes the process of beading that is described in the excerpt because it includes details about each step in the process. In paragraph 2, the author explains how her mother “spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads” and how “on a lapboard she smoothed out a double sheet of soft white buckskin; and drawing from a beaded case that hung on the left of her wide belt a long, narrow blade, she trimmed the buckskin into shape.” The author continues her description in paragraph 3, stating, “From a skein of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews my mother pulled out a single one. With an awl she pierced the buckskin, and skillfully threaded it with the white sinew. Picking up the tiny beads one by one, she strung them with the point of her thread, always twisting it carefully after every stitch.”
D. Incorrect. In paragraphs 2 and 3, the author describes the process her mother uses as she “smoothed out a double sheet of soft white buckskin” (paragraph 2) on a lapboard before stringing the beads. While this sentence includes most of the steps in the beading process, it excludes the step of piercing the buckskin. This sentence also provides few details about the process of beading and uses vague wording to describe each step. Therefore, the sentence does not best summarize the beading process.
Question analysis
This reading question asks which sentence best summarizes the beadwork process Zitkala-Sa watches her mother carry out, from laying out the materials to stringing the beads. Each choice is a long list of steps, so students must compare them detail by detail with the excerpt and notice what each one adds, leaves out or misplaces.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Summarizing a process is grade 7 reading, but the four summaries are long and nearly alike, and checking them against two paragraphs of 1900 prose with words like awl, sinew and skein is heavier than usual.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked major
- A lot to read moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 16+, 212 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate detail about the excerpt 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
This question is won by bookkeeping, not insight: list the mother's steps from the two paragraphs, then hold each long summary against the list. The most tempting wrong summary reads like a sensible craft routine in a sensible order, yet it never has the buckskin pierced and puts every tool on the mat. Others open with a familiar image or close with precise stitching while skipping steps, so students who check only the beginning or only the end are caught.
Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer
Each summary is a chain of four to six steps, so all four must be checked step by step against paragraphs 2 and 3 for steps missing, added or out of order. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A lot to read moderate Understanding the question
The four choices together run to about 200 words of semicolon-linked steps, and the text they summarize is two paragraphs of dense 1900 prose. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
Words like awl, sinew, skein and lapboard name the tools and materials, and a student unsure of them cannot tell which steps a summary has dropped. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: List the mother's steps from paragraphs 2 and 3 in order, then check each choice against your list for a missing step, an invented detail or a step out of place.
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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Keeps the familiar palette image but leaves out trimming the buckskin, piercing it with the awl and twisting the thread, and even moves the smoothing onto a table.
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Matches paragraph 3's piercing and twisting closely but leaves out the preparation, laying out the beads and smoothing the buckskin, and starts the process with cutting.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Accepts a tidy, well-ordered outline that keeps most steps but leaves out smoothing the buckskin and piercing it with the awl, and piles every tool onto the mat.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice B, the handbook says the choice leaves out the preparation, “namely spreading the beads and the buckskin out on a table.” The excerpt mentions no table: in paragraph 2 the mother spreads the beads on a mat and smooths out the buckskin on a lapboard. The explanation now says so. (Choice A’s “on a table” is part of a wrong answer and is left as printed.)
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the summary that best matches the beading steps in the excerpt. A summary is a short retelling of the main points. The best one keeps every main step, in order, and adds nothing new.
List the steps from paragraphs 2 and 3
Paragraphs 2 and 3 give the mother’s steps in order. The last one ends with her “always twisting it carefully after every stitch.”
- Spread the beads on a mat.
- Smooth out a double sheet of buckskin on a lapboard (a board held on the lap).
- Trim the buckskin into shape with a blade.
- Pull out a single sinew, a strong thread.
- Pierce (poke a hole in) the buckskin with an awl, a pointed tool.
- Thread the sinew through the buckskin.
- String the beads, twisting the thread after every stitch.
Check each choice against the list
- A is wrong. It skips trimming, piercing and twisting. It also says “on a table,” but she used a lapboard.
- B is wrong. It starts with cutting. It skips spreading the beads and smoothing the buckskin.
- C is right. It has every step, in the same order.
- D is wrong. It never says to smooth the buckskin or pierce it. It also puts every tool on the mat, but only the beads went there.
Watch out: D sounds like a sensible plan in a sensible order. But a summary must match the excerpt, not just sound right. Check it step by step.
Choose the answer
Only C follows the mother’s steps from start to finish. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. It is neat and keeps most of the steps. But it skips smoothing the buckskin and never says to pierce it with the awl. It also piles every tool onto the mat. C matches the excerpt step for step, so it is the best summary.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 63 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 19Passage At Dusk
At Dusk
by Natasha Trethewey
At first I think she is calling a child,
my neighbor, leaning through her doorway
at dusk, street lamps just starting to hum
the backdrop of evening. Then I hear
the high-pitched wheedling1 we send out
to animals who know only sound, not
the meanings of our words—here here—
nor how they sometimes fall short.
In another yard, beyond my neighbor’s
sight, the cat lifts her ears, turns first
toward the voice, then back
to the constellation of fireflies flickering
near her head. It’s as if she can’t decide
whether to leap over the low hedge,
the neat row of flowers, and bound
onto the porch, into the steady circle
of light, or stay where she is: luminous
possibility—all that would keep her
away from home—flitting before her.
I listen as my neighbor’s voice trails off.
She’s given up calling for now, left me
to imagine her inside the house waiting,
perhaps in a chair in front of the TV,
or walking around, doing small tasks;
left me to wonder that I too might lift
my voice, sure of someone out there,
send it over the lines stitching here
to there, certain the sounds I make
are enough to call someone home.
“At Dusk” from NATIVE GUARD by Natasha Trethewey, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. All rights reserved.
1wheedling: speaking in a flattering manner
Question
Which lines from the poem best support the idea that the neighbor’s efforts to call the cat home directly affect the speaker?
- A“At first I think she is calling a child, / my neighbor” (lines 1–2)
- B“the high-pitched wheedling we send out / to animals who know only sound” (lines 5–6)
- C“I listen as my neighbor’s voice trails off. / She’s given up calling for now” (lines 20–21)
- D“left me to wonder that I too might lift / my voice, sure of someone out there” (lines 25–26)
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the best textual support for the idea that the neighbor’s actions in calling the cat directly affect the speaker of the poem.
A. Incorrect. Lines 1–2 show that the speaker has noticed the neighbor’s calling and guessed the reason for it. The speaker at first believes that the neighbor is “calling a child,” but then the speaker notices a sound associated with the time of day—the “street lamps just starting to hum / the backdrop of evening” (lines 3–4). However, the poem does not describe any direct effects on the speaker’s own opinions or behavior caused by these aspects of the surroundings.
B. Incorrect. The “high-pitched wheedling” sound the speaker mentions in line 5 might be assumed to have an annoying effect. However, the poem includes no indication that the sound has any direct effect on the speaker or that the speaker has any personal reaction to the sound. Instead, in lines 6–7, the speaker concentrates on explaining the reason people make the sound: to communicate with “animals who know only sound, not / the meanings of our words.”
C. Incorrect. In lines 20–21, the speaker actively listens “as my neighbor’s voice trails off,” which could be interpreted as an effect of the neighbor’s call. However, the speaker’s listening soon comes to an end because the neighbor has “given up calling for now,” and the poem does not describe any direct effects on the speaker’s own opinions or behavior caused by listening. Therefore, lines 20–21 do not best support the idea that the neighbor’s actions directly affect the speaker of the poem.
D. CORRECT. In lines 25–26, after observing the neighbor calling the cat, the speaker begins to reflect on the speaker’s own behavior and motivations, wondering if, like the neighbor, the speaker “might lift” the speaker’s voice to call someone who is surely “out there.” The speaker’s description of being left “to wonder” indicates that the speaker’s thoughts are a direct effect of observing the neighbor’s efforts to call the cat.
Question analysis
This reading question asks which lines from Natasha Trethewey's poem At Dusk best support the idea that a neighbor's efforts to call her cat home directly affect the speaker. Every option quotes lines connected to the calling, so students must tell lines that merely describe the scene from lines that show its effect on the person watching.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing lines that support an idea is grade 7 evidence work. The quotations are short and the poem's language is plain, but each must be checked against a specific claim, a typical grade 7 task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 79 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 quotation shows the speaker noticing the call in some way, so the question is how strong a connection “directly affect” requires. The listening lines are the trap: they stop one line short of “left me,” where the effect begins. Students who ask what the calling makes the speaker think or want find the lines in which the speaker imagines calling out too.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Students must decide what counts as an effect on the speaker: hearing and listening are reactions, but only lines 25–26 show the calling changing what the speaker thinks or wants. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four quotations involve the speaker and the calling, from “I think” to “we send out” to “I listen,” so each has to be tested for an effect, not just a connection. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: For each quotation, ask what the speaker does, thinks or feels because of the calling; lines that only report a sound or an event show no effect.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes the speaker's first guess, that a child is being called, as an effect, but the lines only record how the speaker interpreted the sound, not any change it caused.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Chooses the lines on the “high-pitched wheedling,” which explain how people call animals in general and show no personal reaction from the speaker.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Treats “I listen” as the effect, but these lines report the voice fading and the neighbor stopping, and the speaker's response begins only with “left me” after them.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the lines that best show the neighbor’s calling has a direct effect on the speaker. The speaker is the “I” who tells the poem. An effect here is a change in what the speaker thinks, feels or does.
Find where the effect begins
In line 20 the neighbor’s voice “trails off.” She has given up calling, and that “left me” with new thoughts. First it “left me / to imagine her inside the house waiting” (lines 21–22). Then it “left me to wonder that I too might lift / my voice, sure of someone out there” (lines 25–26).
Work out what the lines mean
“I too” means the speaker now thinks of doing what the neighbor did. The speaker imagines calling out to someone, the way the neighbor called the cat. Watching her call has changed the speaker’s own thoughts and wishes. That is a direct effect.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Lines 1–2 show only the speaker’s first guess about the sound. Nothing changes for the speaker.
- B is wrong. Lines 5–6 explain how people in general call animals. They show no reaction from the speaker.
- C is wrong. Lines 20–21 show the speaker listening as the calling stops. The effect starts after them, with “left me.”
- D is right. The speaker wonders about lifting “my voice” too.
Watch out: C is tempting because “I listen” is a reaction. But hearing a sound is not the same as being changed by it.
Choose the answer
Lines 25–26 show the calling making the speaker want to call out too. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. In it the speaker does listen to the neighbor. But the lines only report her voice fading and the calling ending. The speaker’s own response begins with “left me to wonder,” in line 25. There the speaker thinks of calling someone too. That is the direct effect.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “At Dusk” as printed (page 48)
Question 64 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 25Uses the passage above: “At Dusk”.
Question
The poet develops a theme about making connections with others mainly through the
- Aexploration of the desires of the speaker and the neighbor.
- Bspeaker’s observations of the sights and sounds in the neighborhood.
- Cspeculations the speaker makes about what the neighbor does inside her house.
- Dspeaker’s explanation of the cat’s thoughts and actions.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for an explanation of how the poet develops a theme about making connections with others.
A. CORRECT. The speaker first describes the neighbor calling the cat in a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5) voice before giving up and returning indoors. The neighbor’s desire to have the cat return home prompts the speaker to wonder whether the speaker could call out and be “certain the sounds . . . / are enough to call someone home” (lines 28–29). These final lines most develop the theme of connection by conveying a desire to be able to prompt someone’s return.
B. Incorrect. Line 1, in which the speaker at first thinks the sound in the neighborhood is the neighbor “calling a child,” might be assumed to introduce a theme of making connections with others. However, other descriptions of the sights and sounds of the neighborhood, including the time of day—“at dusk, street lamps just starting to hum / the backdrop of evening” (lines 3–4) and “constellation of fireflies flickering” (line 12) near the cat—have no relationship to a theme of connection.
C. Incorrect. In lines 22–24, the speaker imagines the neighbor’s activities inside her house: “perhaps in a chair in front of the TV, / or walking around, doing small tasks.” Although the speaker does imagine the neighbor is doing these things to pass time while “waiting” (line 22) for the cat, the neighbor’s actions—and even the speaker’s imagining—are carried out alone, so they do not develop a theme of connection.
D. Incorrect. Lines 10–19 present the speaker’s observations of the cat, which “turns first / toward the voice, then back” when the neighbor calls, then appears “as if she can’t decide” whether to return to the neighbor or stay outside. Although the cat’s indecision about whether to heed the neighbor’s call might seem to develop a theme about making connections, lines 10–19 focus more on the relative appeal of the cat’s two options—returning to “the steady circle / of light” at home or pursuing the “luminous / possibility . . . flitting before her”—than on any connection between the cat and its owner or between the speaker and the neighbor.
Question analysis
This reading question asks which element of Natasha Trethewey's poem At Dusk mainly develops its theme about making connections with others. All four choices describe something that really happens in the poem, from neighborhood sights to a cat's hesitation, so students must weigh how much each part contributes to that theme.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Analyzing how a theme develops is grade 7 work, but here the student must rank four genuine features of the poem by how much each builds the theme, a comparison that asks more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 53 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 asks what mainly carries the theme, and every choice is a real part of the poem, so ruling choices out means ranking them, not spotting errors. The cat takes up the most lines and is the one being called home, which makes it the strongest lure, though its lines are about her choice between two places. What builds the theme is the neighbor's wish to bring the cat home, echoed by the speaker's wish to call someone home.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four choices name something that really fills the poem, so each must be weighed by how much it builds the theme of connection, not by whether it is there. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The theme is built from the two ends of the poem: the neighbor calling and then waiting in lines 1–8 and 20–22, and the speaker's wish in lines 25–29 to send a voice out. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice speaks of “desires,” a word the poem never uses, while the wrong ones echo its sounds, the neighbor's house and the cat. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: For each choice, find the lines it refers to and ask how directly they bear on making connections with others; keep the choice whose lines do so most fully.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- 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.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks the poem's sights and sounds, the humming street lamps and the fireflies, which set the scene at dusk but are not where the poem says anything about reaching others.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Chooses the speaker picturing the neighbor in front of the TV, a real moment of imagining another life, but three lines of solitary tasks cannot carry the theme alone.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Notices how many lines follow the cat, the one being called home, but they weigh the porch light against the night, not one person reaching toward another.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A theme is a big message about life. This poem has a theme about making connections, or reaching out to others. You need the part of the poem that mainly builds that theme.
Look at what the neighbor wants
The neighbor wants her cat to come home. She calls out at dusk with a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5). Wheedling means sweet-talking. When she stops, the speaker pictures her “inside the house waiting” (line 22). Her wish is to reach the cat and bring her back.
Look at what the speaker wants
Her calling “left me to wonder that I too might lift / my voice” (lines 25–26). The speaker hopes the sounds “are enough to call someone home” (line 29). So the speaker wants to reach someone too. Both people wish to call someone back to them. That shared wish builds the theme of connection.
Check each choice
- A is right. The desires, or wishes, of the neighbor and the speaker carry the theme.
- B is wrong. The humming street lamps and the fireflies set the scene. They don’t show anyone reaching out.
- C is wrong. The guesses about the neighbor inside fill only three lines, and they show her alone.
- D is wrong. The cat lines weigh home against the night. They don’t show one person reaching another.
Watch out: D is tempting because the cat fills many lines. But they are about her choice, not about a connection.
Choose the answer
The poem builds its theme through what the neighbor and the speaker both want. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, since the cat takes up lines 10–19. But those lines weigh the porch light against the glowing night. The theme of connection comes from two wishes. The neighbor wants to call the cat home. The speaker wants to “call someone home” too. A names those desires.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 65 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 28Passage Champion of the Channel
Champion of the Channel
In 1926 an editor at the London Daily News predicted that Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals, would fail in her attempt to swim across the English Channel. He claimed that “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance they must remain forever the weaker sex.” Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours. Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.
Crossing the English Channel is a daunting task for any swimmer. At its narrowest point, the channel measures twenty-one miles across. Its icy waters hover around sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and its unruly tides and currents toss swimmers about like bobbing corks. Stinging jellyfish, seaweed, and floating debris from shipwrecks and lost cargoes present added hazards.
For decades the channel’s perils have defeated countless swimmers. Ederle, too, failed in her first attempt to cross the channel in 1925. Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water. Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again. Ederle knew that if she did not complete the challenge this time, she might never get the opportunity to set this record, because a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well.
To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment. She and her sister Meg discovered that melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges, effectively waterproofing Ederle’s goggles against hammering waves. The sisters also designed a two-piece silk swimsuit for Ederle. During her first channel-crossing attempt she had worn a standard one-piece swimsuit that, after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel, had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable. Unlike the cumbersome typical bathing suit, this silk invention weighed little and allowed for easy movement.
On August 6, 1926, Ederle waded into the channel near Cape Gris-Nez, France. At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation. Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular. Driving forward, she fought to clear her mind and find what she called her “sphere,” a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away. Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.
Throughout Ederle’s swim, two tugboats accompanied her. One carried newspaper reporters who wired dispatches of her progress to shore. The other, displaying a sign that read “This way, ole kid!” with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends. Her coach played songs, such as “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” on a phonograph so that Ederle could time her strokes to the rhythm. Using a net, her coach also passed her baby bottles of broth for nourishment.
For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile. However, as she neared the English shore, a sudden fierce storm erupted. The tides and waves forced Ederle backward, and she fought the stubborn swells for several hours. The salty water caused her tongue to swell and inflamed her ears. Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea. Finally, as she neared the English shore, the storm abated, and the tide turned. No longer fighting against her, the sea pushed her toward the shore and victory.
After fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes, Ederle, on wobbly legs, stepped onto the English shore. The waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky. Ederle had swum into history.
When Ederle returned to New York, she received a parade, where thousands of people shouted “Trudy!” Not only were everyday American citizens proud of Ederle, but she also inspired them to be more active. Over the next few years, more than 60,000 people credited her with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates. Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.
SOLO SWIMS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
|
Earliest Speed Records |
||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 1875 | Matthew Webb (M) | 21 hours, 45 minutes |
| 1923 | Enrico Tiraboschi (M) | 16 hours, 33 minutes |
| 1926 | Gertrude Ederle (F) | 14 hours, 31 minutes |
| 1926 | Arnst Vierkotter (M) | 12 hours, 38 minutes |
| Current Speed Records | ||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 2012 | Trent Grimsey (M) | 6 hours, 55 minutes |
| 2006 | Yvetta Hlavacova (F) | 7 hours, 25 minutes |
Question
Which statement describes how the author’s use of a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?
- ADetailing the challenges presented by the cold channel waters highlights the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
- BDescribing Ederle’s physical difficulties during her swim provides evidence of the team effort required to ensure her safety.
- CExplaining the difficulties that arose early in the effort helps predict the additional obstacles that occurred during Ederle’s attempt.
- DIllustrating Ederle’s process of blocking out her discomfort shows that swimming the channel was both a mental and a physical challenge.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the ideas presented in the passage.
A. Incorrect. The details in paragraph 5 do not provide a connection between the cold temperature of the water and the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
B. Incorrect. The difficulties Ederle encountered were only partially relieved by her team, and her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety are not explained in the passage.
C. Incorrect. The paragraph does not focus on the relationship between the problems Ederle encountered at the start of her swim and the problems she encountered during or near the end of her swim.
D. CORRECT. The paragraph describes how the water’s temperature made Ederle uncomfortable and made it difficult for her to regulate her stroke. The paragraph continues with the explanation of how she overcame these issues by focusing her mind on the sea and tuning out the distractions in her surroundings (“the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away” [paragraph 5]).
Question analysis
Gertrude Ederle's cold, stiff first hours in the English Channel are told as problem and solution, and this text-structure question asks what that pattern adds to the passage's ideas. Students must spot the troubles she met in the cold water and how she handled them, then pick the abstract statement that accounts for both halves of the pattern.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 A problem-and-solution question about one paragraph is familiar grade 7 fare, yet these four answers are general claims about the swim, each tied to a real hardship, so students need a clear map of the paragraph before judging them.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 95 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 opening halves of the choices are all accurate, which moves the whole decision onto their second halves. Readers who notice only the physical side of the paragraph, the cold and the stiffness, reach for training, teamwork or foreshadowing to explain it. The paragraph's turning point is a mental one, clearing her mind until the noise faded, and only the statement that names both a mental and a physical challenge accounts for the problem and the solution together.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks what paragraph 5's pairing of problems (bone-chilling water, stiff limbs, irregular strokes) with solutions (finding her “sphere”, the American crawl) does for the passage, so retelling the hardships earns nothing. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice opens with a fair description of paragraph 5, the cold water, her physical difficulties, the early struggle, so only what each claims that description shows can be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The mental half of the solution is told in images, a place where “the sea became her only companion” and gulls and engines “faded away”, which must be read as blocking out discomfort. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Sort paragraph 5 into two lists, what went wrong for Ederle early in the swim and what she did about it, then ask what that pairing shows about the swim as a whole.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that coping with icy water proves good training, a natural idea from sports, but paragraph 5 never mentions training and credits her focus and her stroke.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the tugboat crew of paragraph 6, the coach passing broth and playing songs, though paragraph 5 shows Ederle coping alone and never raises her safety.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Treats the early shivering and stiffness as a setup for the storm of paragraph 7, a link the paragraph never makes, since it resolves its own problems with a steady pace.
Working it out, step by step
Learn what the question asks
A problem-and-solution structure tells about a difficulty and then how someone deals with it. The question asks what this pattern in paragraph 5 adds to the ideas of the passage. So first sort the paragraph into problems and solutions.
List the problems in paragraph 5
When Ederle waded in, “she shivered in the bone-chilling water.” Next, “Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular.” Limbs are arms and legs. Irregular means uneven, not steady. All of these are troubles with her body.
List her solutions
Ederle “fought to clear her mind.” She looked for what she called her “sphere.” There, “the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.” In other words, she shut out the noise and her discomfort. Then, using the American crawl, she “settled into a steady pace.”
Connect problems and solutions
The problems were physical, which means of the body. A big part of the fix was mental, which means of the mind. She calmed her thoughts so her body could keep working. So the paragraph shows that the swim tested her mind as well as her body.
Check each choice
- D fits: blocking out her discomfort shows the swim was “both a mental and a physical challenge.”
- A is wrong because paragraph 5 never mentions her training.
- B is wrong because her team on the tugboats appears in paragraph 6, and her safety is never discussed.
- C is wrong because the early troubles are solved inside this paragraph instead of setting up later ones.
Watch out: A storm does hit in paragraph 7, so C may look right. But paragraph 5 does not point ahead to it.
Choose the answer
Only D explains both the problem and the way Ederle solved it. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is tempting, since a storm really does strike in paragraph 7. But paragraph 5 never hints at it. The paragraph ends with its problem solved, as Ederle is “briskly breaking through waves.” D explains both halves of the pattern: troubles of the body, eased by the mind.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
Question 66 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 29Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
Which sentence best supports the idea that Ederle succeeded in swimming across the channel because of her innovative approach to the challenge?
- A“Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours.” (paragraph 1)
- B“At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation.” (paragraph 5)
- C“Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.” (paragraph 5)
- D“The other [tugboat], displaying a sign that read ‘This way, ole kid!’ with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends.” (paragraph 6)
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the best support for the idea that Ederle’s swim across the channel was successful because of her innovative approach to the challenge.
A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 1 shows that Ederle’s performance was groundbreaking but not necessarily innovative.
B. Incorrect. The layers of grease mentioned in the sentence from paragraph 5 primarily served to insulate Ederle (keep her warm) by helping her maintain her body temperature in the cold water; neither the sentence in paragraph 5 nor the surrounding text evidence establishes that this was an innovative practice. Furthermore, the sentence does not show that she succeeded as a result of this approach.
C. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 5 explains that Ederle employed a newly developed, or innovative, type of stroke that allowed her to maintain her pace through the rough water.
D. Incorrect. The tugboat carrying Ederle’s supporters referenced in the sentence from paragraph 6 likely provided encouragement during Ederle’s swim, but the sentence does not show that this approach was innovative or that it enabled Ederle’s success.
Question analysis
In this textual-evidence question, students look for the sentence that best backs up a claim about Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim: that an innovative approach is what made her succeed. The quotations come from four different moments in her story, so each must be checked for something genuinely new and for a real effect on the outcome.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Finding the sentence that backs a claim is the standard grade 7 evidence task, set here at a typical level: four short quotations labeled by paragraph and a claim with two parts, what was new and what it achieved.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 117 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 claim joins two ideas, an innovative approach and the success it produced, and only one quotation carries both. The record-breaking sentence proves success with no method, the grease is a technique the passage never calls new and that did not stop her shivering, and the tugboat sign shows her supporters, not her approach. The adjective “new” before the American crawl is the clue that settles it.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each quotation describes a real moment of the crossing, so each has to clear two tests: a method that was new, and a method that moved her toward the English shore. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Even the right sentence never says the crawl won the swim; the student must take “settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves” as what carried her across. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Test each quotation twice: does it describe a method that was new or original, and does it show that method helping her finish? Keep only a sentence that passes both tests.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Chooses the passage's headline result, first woman across and two hours under the men's record, which proves the success half of the claim but shows no new method behind it.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats eight layers of grease as an innovation, though the passage never calls it new and the sentence says she shivered anyway, so it shows neither originality nor success.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the cheerful “This way, ole kid!” sign as a clever new idea, but the sentence only says who rode in the second tugboat and links nothing to how she swam.
Working it out, step by step
Break the idea into two parts
This asks you to find evidence. Innovative means new and original, a fresh way to do something. The idea has two parts. Ederle used a new approach, and that approach helped her succeed. The best sentence must show both.
Look for something new
Only one choice uses the word “new.” Choice C says she used “a new overhand stroke called the American crawl” (paragraph 5). A stroke is the way you move your arms to pull through the water. So this is a new method.
See whether it helped her
The same sentence says she “settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.” Briskly means quickly and with energy. A steady, quick pace moved her forward through the rough water. So the new stroke helped her succeed.
Check each choice
- C fits: it shows a new stroke and the steady pace it gave her.
- A is wrong because it proves she succeeded but shows no new method.
- B is wrong because the passage never calls the grease new, and she still “shivered in the bone-chilling water.”
- D is wrong because the sign on the tugboat cheered her on but was not a new way of swimming.
Watch out: B may sound clever, since the grease was meant to keep her warm. But it shows neither something new nor a reason she won.
Choose the answer
Only C shows a new method that helped Ederle get across. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the strongest pull, since grease to keep warm sounds like a smart trick. Yet the passage never presents the grease as new, and it did not stop her shivering. C names a method the passage calls “new” and shows it paying off in a steady, quick pace.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 67 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 32Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
Which sentence is the best summary of the steps that Ederle took to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel?
- AWorking with her sister, Ederle waterproofed her goggles using melted candle wax to seal the edges and designed a two-piece silk swimsuit that was lightweight and would not stretch out during the long swim.
- BEderle covered her body in numerous layers of grease for insulation and focused on finding her “sphere” during her swim.
- CEderle began training with her coach, who played music while she swam to help her time her strokes to the music.
- DEderle focused on developing better equipment than the standard bathing suit that proved cumbersome during her first attempt to cross the channel.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the best summary of Ederle’s steps to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel.
A. CORRECT. Ederle’s preparation is outlined in paragraph 4. This option is correct because it acknowledges the idea that Ederle involved her sister in this process, and it details the efforts the two took to improve Ederle’s equipment, including sealing her goggles with wax and designing a better swimsuit.
B. Incorrect. The option focuses on Ederle’s actions in the moments before her swim (covering her body with grease for insulation) and during her swim (finding her “sphere”), not her overall preparation methods.
C. Incorrect. The option refers to a way that Ederle’s coach helped Ederle keep her strokes in rhythm during her swim. While this option suggests that Ederle and her coach had made thoughtful preparations, it does not address the many other steps that Ederle took to prepare for the swim.
D. Incorrect. The option does not refer to the series of steps that Ederle took to prepare for her swim, but rather to just one of the efforts made (improving equipment), without acknowledging her sister’s contributions.
Question analysis
This summary question asks which sentence best sums up how Gertrude Ederle got ready for her second try at swimming the English Channel. Because the passage also describes what she and her team did during the crossing, students must separate preparation from the swim itself and judge which summary is complete.
- NYS standards
- 7R2 theme or central idea
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 This is a one-paragraph summary, the kind of task grade 6 standards describe; grade 7 central-idea work usually follows an idea through a whole text. The real demand is telling preparation apart from the swim.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 121 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
Paragraph 4 holds all of the preparation, but the passage keeps describing things Ederle and her team did, so getting ready must be told apart from the swim. The grease is the hardest to place, because she put it on before wading in, on the day of the crossing itself. Between the two equipment choices, the one that lists the goggles, the silk suit and her sister's help is the fuller summary of several steps.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right summary and the one about better equipment than the standard bathing suit describe the same work; only the waxed goggles and Meg's part, missing from the shorter one, separate them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Two choices borrow real details from the crossing, the grease she wore and the songs played from the tugboat, so each has to be placed before or during the swim. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Locate the paragraph about getting ready, list each preparation step and who took part, and choose the sentence that covers that list most fully without adding events from another part of the passage.
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.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Takes the grease she wore on the day and her search for her “sphere” in the water, both from paragraph 5's account of the swim, as advance preparation.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the phonograph her coach played from a tugboat during the crossing into training sessions before it, which the passage never describes.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Captures the idea of better equipment but names only the bathing suit, leaving out the wax-sealed goggles and her sister Meg, so it summarizes one step of several.
Working it out, step by step
Know what a summary needs
A summary retells the main points in a few words. Here you need the steps Ederle took to get ready before her second try. A good summary includes all of those steps. It leaves out things that happened during the swim itself.
Find the getting-ready paragraph
Paragraph 4 opens with “To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment.” The word “prepare” signals that this paragraph holds the steps. Equipment means the gear she used.
List each step
- With her sister Meg, she found that “melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges,” so water stayed out of her goggles.
- Together the sisters “designed a two-piece silk swimsuit” to replace her old one.
- The new suit “weighed little and allowed for easy movement,” unlike her old suit, which had stretched and filled with water.
Check each choice
- A fits: it names her sister, the waxed goggles and the light silk suit.
- B is wrong because the grease and her “sphere” belong to paragraph 5, the day of the swim.
- C is wrong because her coach played music from a tugboat during the swim (paragraph 6), not in training.
- D is wrong because it leaves out the goggles and Meg.
Watch out: D is true as far as it goes. But it covers only one step, so it is too narrow to be the best summary.
Choose the answer
Choice A lists all the preparation in paragraph 4, and nothing from the swim itself. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes closest, since improving her equipment is what paragraph 4 is about. But D mentions only the swimsuit. It skips the wax-sealed goggles and her sister’s help. A summary of the steps should include every step, and only A does.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 68 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 42Passage 5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books
5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books
by Shaunacy Ferro
Though e-book1 readers have become a more common sight around town, traditional books still have their evangelists.2 According to The New York Times, e-book sales have been falling in 2015. Print definitely isn’t dead. In fact, according to some research, it may actually be a better choice for some readers. While scientists are still trying to tease out exactly how digital reading affects us differently, here are five ways e-books might be inferior to their dead-tree cousins.
E-books can reduce reading comprehension.
In a study of middle schoolers, West Chester University researchers found that students who read on iPads3 had lower reading comprehension than when they read traditional printed books. They discovered that the kids sometimes skipped text in favor of interactive features in the e-books, suggesting that certain multimedia in children’s e-books can be detrimental to the practice of reading itself. However, the researchers noted that some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension, and that those might be more helpful than game-type interactive graphics.
Young kids can get distracted by e-books.
Similar results were found by a small study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center that consisted of 32 kids reading e-books and print books with their parents. It found that “enhanced” e-books might be distracting. Kids who read enhanced e-books—ones with interactive, multimedia experiences—were more engaged with them physically, but in the end they remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.
You remember less about a book’s timeline.
Another study of adults also found that e-books can be hard to absorb. The researchers asked 25 people to read a 28-page story on a Kindle4 and 25 to read the story in paperback, then asked the readers to put 14 events from the story in chronological order. Those who read the story on a Kindle performed worse on the chronology test than the book readers, though they performed about the same as print readers in other tests. Earlier research by the same scholars, from Stavanger University in Norway, found that Norwegian 10th graders also remembered more about texts if they read them in print rather than on a computer screen.
They’re not great as textbooks.
While e-book textbooks are often cheaper (and easier to carry) than traditional door-stop5 textbooks, college students often don’t prefer them. In some surveys of college kids, the majority of students have reported preferring print books. However, a 2012 study from the UK’s National Literacy Trust of kids ages 8 to 16 found that more than 50 percent of children reported preferring screen reading.
They’re tiring.
Staring at a lit screen can be tiring for the eyes and the brain. A 2005 study from Sweden found that reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload than reading on paper. Furthermore, staring at LED6 screens at night can disrupt sleep patterns. A 2014 Harvard study found that people who used e-readers with LED screens at night slept worse and were more tired the next day. So, if you’re going to go for an e-book, go for one without the backlight.
The take-away message? If you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book. And if you’re going to be up all night studying, turn off the backlight.
However, all this may not mean that reading on a Kindle is really going to melt your brain. For instance, reading an e-book on a computer is a much different experience than reading on a Kindle, which is specifically designed for consuming books. So, too, is playing with an interactive e-book on an iPad, compared to using a simpler e-book device that only presents the text, with no opportunities to click away into digital distractions.
And some studies have found that part of the difference between the way people absorb information from e-books versus paper might be due to approaching e-books differently—in one test, participants didn’t regulate their study time with digital books like they did with paper texts, leading to worse performances. It’s possible that our expectations of e-book reading—as well as the different designs of the digital reading experience on a computer or iPad or Kindle—might affect how we approach the text and how much effort we put into studying them. As generations of e-book readers evolve, and people become more accustomed to the idea of sitting down with a digital textbook, these factors could change—for better or for worse.
“5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” by Shaunacy Ferro from MENTAL FLOSS, October 2, 2015. Copyright © 2015 Mental Floss, Inc.
1e-book: an electronic book, a publication made available digitally for reading on a computer or other device
2evangelists: advocates or supporters
3iPads: tablet computers
4Kindle: device for reading e-books
5door-stop: a reference to the idea that some textbooks are large and heavy enough to hold a door open
6LED: Light-emitting diode; LEDs are often used as a backlight for electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets.
Question
What is the best summary of the research into the effects of e-book reading?
- AE-books are disliked by college students and preferred by kids, and their interactive features are distracting.
- BSome e-books can aid comprehension, but most e-book readers remember few details.
- CE-books reduce reading comprehension and increase distraction, and they are tiring for the eyes and brain.
- DEnhanced e-books engage children, but they offer them too many opportunities to be distracted by non-reading activities.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which sentence is the best summary of the research into the effects of e-book reading.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author notes that “college students often don’t prefer” e-book textbooks but that more than half the children in a study reported “preferring screen reading.” Paragraph 3 describes a study that showed that “ ‘enhanced’ ” e-books might be distracting for young children. Therefore, this sentence is not the best summary, because it overstates the opinions of college students and implies that college students are distracted by interactive features, which is not discussed in the text.
B. Incorrect. According to the information in paragraph 3, children who read “ ‘enhanced’ ” e-books “remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.” A study conducted with a group of tenth graders showed that these students “remembered more about texts if they read them in print rather than on a computer screen” (paragraph 4). Although the author points out in paragraph 2 that “some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension,” a study found that “ ‘enhanced’ e-books might be distracting” (paragraph 3). Therefore, this sentence does not provide the best summary of the research about e-book reading, because the author does not show that e-books aid in reading comprehension.
C. CORRECT. The author states in paragraph 2 that studies found that “students who read on iPads had lower reading comprehension than when they read traditional printed books” and that “e-books can be detrimental to the practice of reading itself.” In paragraph 3, the author also points out that a study found that “ ‘enhanced’ e-books might be distracting” and that children “remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.” Finally, in paragraph 6, the author states that “staring at a lit screen can be tiring for the eyes and the brain” and that “a 2005 study from Sweden found that reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload than reading on paper.” Therefore, this sentence provides the best summary of the research about e-book reading, because it includes accurate information about the results of the studies discussed in the text.
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author does point out that “researchers noted that some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension, and that those might be more helpful than game-type interactive graphics.” The author also explains in paragraph 3 how children “were more engaged with [e-books] physically.” But because this sentence does not include important details about reading comprehension or the physical toll of e-book reading on readers, it does not provide the best summary of the research about e-book reading.
Question analysis
This summary question asks for the best summary of the research an article reports on the effects of reading e-books instead of printed books. Students must pull findings together from several sections, and the choices differ in how completely and how accurately they reflect what the studies found.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Summarizing research spread across an article is grade 7 work. The five bold headings make the findings easy to locate, so the demand is typical: weighing four summaries for accuracy and for how much they cover.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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
The right summary practically restates three of the article's bold headings, so students who use the headings as a map can answer quickly. The wrong summaries fail in different ways: one mixes in survey preferences, which are not effects of reading, one stretches a few studies to “most e-book readers”, and one is accurate but covers only the enhanced e-books. Spotting each flaw takes more care than spotting the answer.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each summary joins two or three findings, and every part must be checked: “disliked” against “don't prefer”, “most e-book readers” against small studies, “too many opportunities” against one study of 32 kids. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The findings are spread over five sections, but bold headings such as “E-books can reduce reading comprehension” and “They're tiring” make each one easy to find. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: List the main finding under each bold heading, then pick the choice that reflects several of them accurately without adding claims or stretching any single finding.
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.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the distraction finding right but adds readers' preferences, which are survey results rather than effects of reading, and hardens college students' “don't prefer” into “disliked”.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns features “designed to enhance comprehension” into e-books that aid it and stretches a few small studies to “most e-book readers”, a sweep the article never makes.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Accurately sums up the findings on enhanced, interactive e-books in paragraphs 2 and 3 but leaves out comprehension, timelines, textbooks and tired eyes.
Working it out, step by step
Know what a good summary does
A summary gives the main points in a few words. A good one gets each point right. It doesn’t add new claims or stretch one finding too far. Here you need to sum up what research found about the effects of reading e-books.
Use the bold headings
The headings list the main findings:
- “E-books can reduce reading comprehension.” Comprehension means understanding.
- “Young kids can get distracted by e-books.”
- “You remember less about a book’s timeline.”
- “They’re not great as textbooks.”
- “They’re tiring.”
Match the right choice to the findings
Choice C says e-books “reduce reading comprehension and increase distraction,” and that they “are tiring for the eyes and brain.” That covers three headings: understanding, distraction and tiredness. Each part matches what the studies found.
Check each choice
- C fits: it joins three key findings and states each one correctly.
- A is wrong because what readers prefer is not an effect of reading, and “don’t prefer” is not “disliked.”
- B is wrong because some features are only designed to help, and no study covers “most” e-book readers.
- D is wrong because it covers only enhanced e-books and leaves out comprehension, timelines and tiredness.
Watch out: D is true as far as it goes. But it sums up just one section, so it is too narrow.
Choose the answer
Choice C brings together the main findings from several sections. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes closest, because every word of it is true about enhanced e-books. But a summary of the research has to cover more than one study. C brings together understanding, distraction and tiredness, the findings of several sections, without adding anything the passage doesn’t say.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed (pages 58–59)
Question 69 of 120
2024 Test A English, question 52Passage Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”
Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”
by Emma Marris
The author of this opinion article attended a symposium, or conference, in Missoula, Montana, at which biologists and other scientists discussed species of plants and animals that are not native to the areas in which they live.
Invasive species are scary. It was ecologist Charles Elton, back in the 1950s, who introduced the militaristic “invasion” metaphor to describe exotic plants and animals—but there’s no question some can be extremely destructive.
The brown tree snake has eaten a dozen kinds of forest birds in Guam to extinction; zebra mussels clog pipes around the Great Lakes; the common house cat turns out to be, in Australia, a mercilessly effective killer of cute, fluffy marsupials like the bilby and the numbat.
As scientists have sounded the alarm about these pests, the public has gotten the message. Citizen groups rip out non-native plants. Native gardens have become increasingly popular, both as ways to celebrate the unique flora of each region and as tiny hot spots of diversity. Native trees provide food for native bugs, which feed native birds. Food chains developed over thousands of years of co-evolution unfold in our backyards. . . .
So we’ve learned, scientists and laypeople alike, that native species are good and non-natives are bad.
Julian Olden, a biologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who co-organized the symposium, recently polled nearly 2,000 ecologists. Among his findings: a substantial number of them said they would immediately eradicate a hypothetical non-native forest plant, even if it were shown to have no effect on the forest. Olden calls this the “guilty even when proven innocent” approach.
That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.
Exotics Are Everywhere
Climate change is making it harder even to decide who the invaders are.
How, scientists at the symposium wondered, do you define “native” on a warming planet, when plants and animals are already moving toward the poles or up mountainsides in search of climate conditions they can tolerate? Should we consider them “invasive” in their new homes? Regardless of what we label them, conservationists will be reluctant to remove them from their new environs—to do so would stymie1 their chances of adapting to the warmer future we’re creating.
And then there are the non-natives that we actually like. Most domestic crops are exotic in most of the places they’re grown, but there are even wild exotics that “do good,” forming useful relationships with native species.
Edwin Grosholz of the University of California, Davis, told the recent symposium about one such relationship. On beaches in his state, non-native spartina grass has become important habitat for the endangered California clapper rail, a plump shorebird with a downward curving bill more at home on land than in the air. A project to rip out and poison the spartina—which grows in dense swaths that exclude many other shorebirds—saw clapper rail numbers go tumbling downward.
There are other examples like that. The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher nests in “invasive” tamarisk shrubs. Many native (and beautiful) Hawaiian flowers are now pollinated by the Japanese white-eye bird—because the native pollinators have been driven extinct by other non-native species.
Should we impose further risk on already endangered natives by severing these relationships? Or should we admire the resilience of nature and let such “well-behaved” exotics stay? . . .
Leave them alone, more and more conservationists are arguing, and stop focusing obsessively on categorizing species as native or non-native. Mark Davis, an ecologist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, once considered himself an “invasion biologist”—but not anymore. “I am actively trying to get the field to retire the invader narrative,” he said in Missoula.
A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing
After all, nativeness is just one environmental value, and arguably not as important as preventing extinctions and preserving biodiversity. In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.
This is the thinking behind, for example, installing the Aldabra tortoise on the islands of Mauritius. The islands lost their own large tortoises, and the fruiting plants that formerly had their seeds moved around by these fruit-loving reptiles have been on the decline. A tortoise that’s related to the island’s large tortoises—a non-native from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean that was intentionally introduced in 2004—is now handling some of that work.
Most of the time, for the time being, conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives. We can and should do that in places where it is feasible and important to us.
From “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil” by Emma Marris from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, July 24, 2014. Copyright © 2014 by National Geographic Society.
1stymie: hinder or interfere with
Question
Which detail provides the most relevant support for the claim that “climate change is making it harder even to decide who the invaders are” (paragraph 7)?
- Athe mention in paragraph 8 of non-native species that are forced to seek new habitats
- Bthe acknowledgment in paragraph 9 that non-native species include many domestic crops
- Cthe description in paragraph 11 of the interactions between native and non-native species
- Dthe account in paragraph 13 of an ecologist who changed his beliefs about non-native species
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which detail provides the most relevant support for the claim that “climate change is making it harder even to decide who the invaders are” (paragraph 7).
A. CORRECT. The fact that many plants and animals have no choice but to seek out “climate conditions they can tolerate” (paragraph 8) makes it much harder to decide whether to call these species invaders.
B. Incorrect. The fact that many domestic crops are non-native species has nothing to do with climate change affecting our discernment of which species are invaders.
C. Incorrect. The description in paragraph 11 of native and non-native species interacting never suggests that climate change is a factor in these interactions and never suggests that climate change muddies our understanding of which species is native and which is non-native.
D. Incorrect. While the example of Mark Davis so thoroughly changing his beliefs about non-native species is a powerful one, the role that climate change might have played in this reversal is never discussed.
Question analysis
Here students choose the detail that gives the most relevant support to the claim that climate change is making it harder even to decide which species are invaders, in an article rethinking non-native species. Each choice names a paragraph, and the article gives several different reasons to question the label, so every detail must be checked against the whole claim.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Judging which detail supports a claim is grade 7 argument work, but here the choices name their paragraphs, the claim is short and specific, and only one key idea must be matched, so the task is lighter than typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 76 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 claim has two parts, climate change as the cause and blurred labels as the effect, and every wrong detail muddies the word “invader” without any help from the climate. Crops, helpful partnerships and a converted invasion biologist all complicate the label, so a student who checks only the effect finds four plausible answers. Only paragraph 8 talks about a warming planet.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The choices describe paragraphs instead of quoting them, so each of paragraphs 8, 9, 11 and 13 must be reread for a link to climate. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice says “forced to seek new habitats” where paragraph 8 says species are moving “toward the poles or up mountainsides in search of climate conditions they can tolerate”. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Name the cause and the effect in the claim, then test each detail for both; a detail that fits only one part is not the most relevant support.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
The wrong answers, classified
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Points to crops as non-natives people like, which complicates the label “invader”, but paragraph 9 never connects them to a changing climate.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Picks the helpful pairings of native and non-native species in paragraph 11, which blur good and bad but have nothing to do with a warming planet.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Chooses Mark Davis's turn away from invasion biology, a striking change of mind that nothing in paragraph 13 ties to climate change.
Working it out, step by step
Split the claim into two parts
This asks for the detail that best supports a claim. The claim has a cause and an effect. The cause is climate change. The effect is that it is harder to tell which species are invaders. The best support must connect both parts.
Find where climate comes up
Paragraph 8 comes right after the claim, and it talks about “a warming planet.” Plants and animals “are already moving toward the poles or up mountainsides in search of climate conditions they can tolerate.” To tolerate means to be able to live with. As places get hotter, many species move to cooler ones.
See why the labels get harder
When a species moves to a new place, it is not native there. But it didn’t really invade. Heat pushed it out of its old home. So scientists ask whether such species should be called invasive “in their new homes.” Climate change blurs the line between native and invader.
Check each choice
- A fits: species forced to move by the climate link the cause to the effect.
- B is wrong because crops are non-natives people like, but paragraph 9 never mentions climate.
- C is wrong because the helpful pairings in paragraph 11 have nothing to do with climate change.
- D is wrong because nothing ties Mark Davis’s change of mind to a warming planet.
Watch out: B, C and D all make the word invader less clear. But only A shows climate change doing it.
Choose the answer
Only A shows climate change making the word invader hard to apply. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B comes closest, since crops are non-natives we welcome, and that does complicate the word invader. But paragraph 9 says nothing about climate. A has both parts of the claim: a warming planet, and species that end up in new homes where the old labels don’t fit.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed (pages 68–70)
Question 70 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 1Question
What is the best way to combine these sentences to clarify the relationship between ideas?
(1) The International Space Station has been inhabited by crew members since 2000.
(2) Tourists will soon be allowed to pay for visits to the space station.
(3) Because the cost is $52–$58 million round trip, few people will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to have a vacation in outer space.
- AThe International Space Station has been inhabited by crew members since 2000, but tourists will soon be allowed to pay for visits to the space station, which cost $52–$58 million round trip, so few people will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to have a vacation in outer space.
- BThe International Space Station has been inhabited by crew members since 2000 and will soon allow tourists to pay for visits, but because the cost is $52–$58 million round trip, few people will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to have a vacation in outer space.
- CThe International Space Station has been inhabited by crew members since 2000, but tourists will soon be allowed to pay for visits to the space station, though the cost is $52–$58 million round trip, so few people will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to have a vacation in outer space.
- DThe International Space Station has been inhabited by crew members since 2000, and tourists will soon be allowed to pay for visits to the space station because the cost is $52–$58 million round trip, therefore few people will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to have a vacation in outer space.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the best way to combine the sentences.
A. Incorrect. Although the option combines the sentences in a way that accurately reflects the meaning of each individual sentence, the combined sentence is a string of clauses that do not effectively cohere. Because it is poorly structured, the combined sentence does not clarify the relationship of ideas as effectively as the correct response does. The sentence incorrectly uses “but tourists,” and “which cost” modifies “the space station” but does not modify the trip. Compared with the correct response, the combined sentence in this option is also imprecise and unnecessarily wordy.
B. CORRECT. The option uses a complex sentence to present ideas clearly and precisely, and it shows the relationship between the ideas in the original sentences. In the first part of the sentence, the conjunction “and” correctly joins the first and second sentences by indicating a relationship, rather than a contrast, between the two. In the second part of the sentence, the conjunction “but” adds additional emphasis to the fact that while tourists will be allowed to visit the space station, the cost of the trip will likely prohibit most people from visiting.
C. Incorrect. Although the option combines the sentences in a way that accurately reflects the meaning of each individual sentence, the combined sentence is a string of clauses that do not effectively cohere. Because it is so poorly structured, the combined sentence does not clarify the relationship of ideas as effectively as the correct response does. Compared with the correct response, the combined sentence in this option is also imprecise and unnecessarily wordy.
D. Incorrect. The combination of the sentences contains an illogical relationship between ideas with the statement that tourists will be allowed to pay for visits to the space station because the cost is $52–$58 million round trip. The connection between the idea that “tourists will soon be allowed to pay for visits” and the subsequent “therefore few people will be able to take advantage of the opportunity” is also illogical.
Question analysis
This sentence-combining question gives three sentences about the International Space Station, its crew and the high price of a tourist trip, and asks for the best way to join them into one. Every version keeps the same facts, so students must judge which connecting words show how the ideas relate while the sentences stay long and nearly identical.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students practice joining two short sentences with a fitting conjunction. Here three sentences become one long sentence in four nearly identical versions, so students must weigh every connecting word and clause rather than spot one error.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together major
- Complex sentences moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 15, 261 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
None of the wrong versions drops a fact, and two of them are loose rather than plainly ungrammatical, so the ear is little help. Students lose the point by accepting the smoothest chain of clauses without asking what each connector claims: whether the crew and the tourists really contrast, what the price belongs to, and what the price explains. The question rewards deciding the three links before reading the versions, then checking them one connector at a time.
How sentences fit together major Working it out
Sentence 2 simply adds to sentence 1, while sentence 3’s price works against the tourist plan and explains why few will go, so every “but,” “though,” “because” or “so” in a version must fit one of those links. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
Each version is one sentence of 48 to 53 words with four clauses, and at that length a “which cost” hanging on the wrong noun or a comma before “therefore” is easy to read past. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four versions keep the same facts in the same order and share most of their words, so none can be ruled out by content; each connecting word has to be tested in turn. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, decide how each sentence relates to the next: added fact, contrast, or cause and result. Then check every connecting word in each version against those links.
Traps
- Misplaced modifier: A describing word or phrase that attaches to the wrong word, or to nothing in the sentence.
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Keeps the price as the reason few can go, marked by “so,” but misses that “which cost” hangs on “the space station” and that “but” sets crew against tourists.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Keeps every fact in order, but stacking “but,” “though” and “so” in one sentence turns the price into an aside instead of plainly the reason few people will go.
D Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Keeps sentence 3’s “because the cost is” word for word, but here it explains why tourists are allowed, and “therefore” after a comma splices on the result.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need to join three sentences into one. The best version shows clearly how the ideas connect. Joining words do that job. A conjunction is a joining word, like and, but, so or because. Each one tells the reader something. And adds a fact. But shows a contrast (two ideas that pull against each other). Because and so show a cause and its result.
Decide how the three sentences connect
Sentence 1 says crews have lived on the station since 2000. Sentence 2 adds a new fact: tourists will soon be able to visit. That is not a contrast, so it needs and. Sentence 3 works against sentence 2. The trip costs “$52–$58 million round trip.” That price is also the reason few people will go. So you need a contrast and a reason. Example: The pool is open to all, but because it costs $90, few kids swim there.
Test each choice
- B uses “and will soon allow tourists” to add the new fact. Then “but because the cost is” shows the contrast and the reason. Every link is right.
- A joins sentence 2 with “but tourists,” as if crews and tourists were opposites. Also, “which cost” comes right after “the space station.” So it sounds like the station costs that much, not the trip.
- C stacks “but,” “though” and “so” in one long chain. The price turns into a side note instead of the clear reason.
- D says tourists may visit “because the cost is” so high. That makes no sense. And “therefore” after a comma joins two sentences the wrong way.
Pick the answer
Watch out: A is the most tempting. It keeps the price as the reason, with “so.” But its “but” and its “which” send the reader the wrong way. Only one choice links every idea correctly. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Like B, it says the price keeps most people away. But A sets crews against tourists with “but tourists.” Its “which cost” also seems to give the price of the station. B uses and for the added fact and but because for the price, so each link is clear.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 71 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 2Question
Which sentence contains an error in its construction and should be revised?
(1) In 1976, the National Basketball Association (NBA) absorbed several teams of the American Basketball Association (ABA), including the New York Nets, who played in the Long Island area at the time. (2) The owner of the Nets decided to take the team to New Jersey after the team had financial troubles, where the team played for thirty-five seasons. (3) The New Jersey Nets had sixteen playoff appearances, including two appearances in the NBA finals. (4) In 2012, the team changed ownership and returned to New York, where the team now plays under the name the Brooklyn Nets.
- Asentence 1
- Bsentence 2
- Csentence 3
- Dsentence 4
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the identification of the sentence that has an error in its construction and should be revised.
A. Incorrect. There are no errors in the structure of sentence 1. The clause “who played in the Long Island area at the time” correctly modifies the noun “New York Nets.” “Who” is the correct relative pronoun to serve as the subject of the modifying clause because it refers to people rather than objects or things.
B. CORRECT. Sentence 2 contains a structural error. The current placement of the clause “where the team played for thirty-five seasons” suggests that the clause is modifying the term “financial troubles,” which is illogical. The clause “where the team played for thirty-five seasons” should immediately follow the location, “New Jersey.” A revised version of the sentence might read, “After the team had financial troubles, the owner of the Nets decided to take the team to New Jersey, where the team played for thirty-five seasons.”
C. Incorrect. There are no errors in the structure of sentence 3. The phrase “including two appearances in the NBA finals” is a nonrestrictive phrase that provides further detail about the team’s “sixteen playoff appearances.” The phrase is set off by a comma because it is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence.
D. Incorrect. There are no errors in the structure of sentence 4. The clause “where the team now plays under the name the Brooklyn Nets” is a nonrestrictive clause that provides further detail about the team after its move back to New York in 2012. The clause is set off by a comma because it is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence.
Question analysis
This editing question gives a four-sentence paragraph tracing the Nets basketball team from Long Island to New Jersey and back to Brooklyn, and asks which sentence is built incorrectly. The sentences are long, with commas, parentheses and describing clauses, so students must check what each clause actually describes instead of trusting how smoothly it reads.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Placing clauses so they describe the right word is a grade 7 grammar standard. The paragraph is short and plain, but the correct sentences also carry commas and describing clauses, which matches a careful grade 7 editing task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 108 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 faulty sentence is easy to understand, because the reader supplies the link between New Jersey and the thirty-five seasons without noticing the clause is in the wrong place. Students who go by sound skip it and suspect a busier sentence instead, most often the first, with its parentheses and a “who” that refers to a team. The question rewards asking, for each describing clause, which word it actually sits beside.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
Sentence 2’s “where the team played for thirty-five seasons” follows “financial troubles,” not “New Jersey,” but readers silently attach it to the state, so the misplaced clause does not sound wrong. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The stem names no kind of error, and every sentence carries a describing clause or phrase, from “who played” to “including two appearances” to a second “where” clause, so all four must be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Sentence 1 runs 31 words with two abbreviations in parentheses and a “who” clause, which makes a correct sentence look like the likeliest home for an error. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: In each sentence, find every describing clause or phrase and the word just before it. Ask whether the clause can logically describe that word; a mismatch marks the sentence to revise.
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes “who” cannot refer to a team, or distrusts the long sentence with two abbreviations, though “who played in the Long Island area” correctly describes the New York Nets.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Takes “including two appearances in the NBA finals” for a fragment tacked on with a comma, though the phrase correctly adds detail to “sixteen playoff appearances.”
D Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Hears the shift from “returned” to “now plays” as a tense error, though “now” marks the present, and this “where” clause sits right after New York, the place it describes.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which sentence is built wrong. The facts may all be true. The problem is how the parts of a sentence fit together. The question doesn’t say what kind of error to look for. So you need to test all four sentences.
Learn the rule about describing clauses
A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. Some clauses describe a word. They often start with who or where. A describing clause must sit right next to the word it describes. If it lands next to the wrong word, the sentence says something silly. Example: We went to the beach after the storm, where we swam all day. That says we swam in the storm! Fix: After the storm, we went to the beach, where we swam all day.
Test sentence 2
Sentence 2 ends “after the team had financial troubles, where the team played for thirty-five seasons.” The clause starting with “where” sits right after “financial troubles.” So the sentence says the team played inside its money problems. The clause should describe New Jersey, the place. Fix: After the team had financial troubles, the owner of the Nets decided to take the team to New Jersey, where the team played for thirty-five seasons.
Test sentences 1, 3 and 4
- Sentence 1: “who played in the Long Island area at the time” comes right after “the New York Nets.” A team is a group of people, so who works.
- Sentence 3: “including two appearances in the NBA finals” comes right after “sixteen playoff appearances.” It adds a detail about them, so it fits.
- Sentence 4: “where the team now plays” comes right after “New York,” a place. The word “now” makes the present tense right.
Watch out: Sentence 1 looks busy, with two names in parentheses. That makes choice A tempting. But long is not the same as wrong.
Pick the answer
Only sentence 2 puts a describing clause next to the wrong words. So the answer is B, sentence 2.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 1 is the closest wrong answer, because it is long and uses who for a team. But its clause sits right next to the Nets, the team it describes. In sentence 2, the “where” clause sits next to “financial troubles,” not New Jersey. That is why B is right.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 72 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 3Question
Read this sentence.
The Appalachian Trail is a really long trail that a lot of people do each year.
Which revision of the sentence uses the most precise language?
- AThe Appalachian Trail is an extremely long trail that millions of people do each year.
- BThe Appalachian Trail is a 2,200-mile trail that more than a million people hike each year.
- CThe Appalachian Trail is a 2,200-mile trail that two million people hike each year.
- DThe Appalachian Trail is a lengthy trail that a couple million people do each year.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the revision of the sentence that uses the most precise language.
A. Incorrect. The word “extremely” does not specify the precise length of the trail (2,200 miles); “millions” is less precise than the specific number of people who hike the trail each year (two million); and the verb “do” imprecisely describes the purpose of visiting the trail (hiking).
B. Incorrect. While the revision specifies the precise length of the trail and the verb “hike” precisely describes the purpose of visiting the trail, “more than a million” is less precise than the specific number of people who hike the trail each year (two million).
C. CORRECT. The length of the trail (2,200 miles), the specific number of people who hike the trail each year (two million), and the action of the visitors (hiking) are clear and precise in this revision of the sentence.
D. Incorrect. The word “lengthy” is less precise than specifying the actual length of the trail (2,200 miles); “a couple million” is less precise than the specific number of people who hike the trail each year (two million); and the verb “do” imprecisely describes the purpose of visiting the trail (hiking).
Question analysis
This precise-language question gives a casual sentence saying the Appalachian Trail is “a really long trail that a lot of people do each year” and asks which revision is most precise. Several revisions swap in more specific words or numbers, so students must check every part of each sentence, not just the first improvement they notice.
- NYS standards
- 7L3a precise and concise language
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Choosing precise wording is grade 7 language work, but this item is one short sentence in everyday words. Typical grade 7 revision sets the same choice inside a paragraph, with more wording to weigh.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 6, 89 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 is quick once each revision is tested on three points: how long the trail is, how many people hike it, and what they do there. The near miss catches students who stop checking once they see the mileage and the verb “hike,” though its count of hikers is still a range. Words such as “extremely” and “lengthy” are the other snare, since they sound sharper without saying any more.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right revision and the one with “more than a million” share the 2,200-mile length and the verb “hike,” and differ only in the hiker count: an exact two million or an open-ended floor. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each revision repairs a different part of “a really long trail that a lot of people do,” so all four have to be checked for the length, the count and the verb. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Check each revision on three points: how long the trail is, how many people visit, and what they do there. Keep only a version that is exact on all three.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats “extremely long” and “millions” as upgrades, though neither gives a length or a count, and the vague verb “do” is still there.
B Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Sees the exact length and the verb “hike” and stops checking, missing that “more than a million” is looser than a specific number of hikers.
D Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Takes the fancier “lengthy” and the casual “a couple million” for sharper wording, though neither is exact and “do” still does not say what visitors do.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the revision with the most precise language. Precise means exact. A precise word tells the reader exactly what or how much. For example, a lot of homework is vague, but three pages of math homework is precise. The sentence has three vague parts: “a really long trail,” “a lot of people,” and the verb “do.”
Make a three-part test
The most precise revision must fix all three parts.
- How long is the trail? Look for an exact length.
- How many people go? Look for an exact number.
- What do they do there? Do is vague. People hike a trail.
A choice that fixes only one or two parts is not the most precise.
Check each choice
- C gives “a 2,200-mile trail,” “two million people,” and “hike.” It passes all three tests.
- B gives the length and “hike.” But “more than a million” is not exact. It could mean 1.1 million or 5 million.
- A says “extremely long” and “millions.” Neither is exact, and it keeps “do.”
- D says “lengthy” and “a couple million.” These sound fancier but say no more. It also keeps “do.”
Pick the answer
Watch out: B is very close. It has the length and the right verb, so many students stop there. But its count of people is still loose. Only C is exact on all three parts. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. It matches C on the length, 2,200 miles, and on the verb “hike.” The only difference is the number of hikers. “More than a million” sets a low limit but gives no exact count. “Two million” tells the reader exactly how many, so C is more precise.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 73 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 5Passage Find Time to Volunteer
Find Time to Volunteer
(1) Many people believe that they gain a greater sense of purpose by giving their time to serve others. (2) These are the people who spend their free time volunteering at various places within the community. (3) Those who are served benefit from the work of these volunteers. (4) However, research shows that those who volunteer also receive benefits.
(5) For many students, this proposition may sound impossible. (6) Schoolwork can require hours of study each week. (7) Volunteering at a retirement center or homeless shelter requires both time and energy. (8) Extracurricular activities fill up after-school time. (9) Family obligations and part-time jobs often have to be worked into the schedule, too. (10) However, if students can find time to volunteer, even for a few hours a month, they may find that the benefits outweigh the scheduling difficulties.
(11) To begin with, students who engage in volunteer activities acquire valuable skills and experience, which can help them focus on potential fields of study and career options. (12) Furthermore, when students list volunteer work on college applications, admissions counselors see applicants who care about making their community and college campus a better place.
(13) Volunteerism benefits more than students applying to college. (14) This type of experience is equally important for students moving directly into the workforce after high school. (15) Volunteering demonstrates initiative, dedication, and a strong work ethic, qualities that companies value in a potential employee. (16) In a CareerBuilder study, 60 percent of managers regarded volunteerism as a significant asset when considering applicants.
(17) Students who volunteer undoubtedly make a positive investment in their future, but they also affect their present quality of life. (18) Studies have shown that volunteering is good for both the mind and the body. (19) Volunteering can boost mood levels and reduce anxiety. (20) According to the Mayo Clinic,1 the feeling of doing something meaningful and the appreciation received from that action can reduce stress.
(21) Even the busiest of students can find a way to donate some time to a worthy cause. (22) Though managing different commitments may seem overwhelming at times, students are sure to feel a sense of fulfillment in volunteerism.
1Mayo Clinic: a nonprofit medical organization dedicated to treatment and research
Question
Which revision of sentence 2 uses the most precise language?
- AThese are the people who spend their free time volunteering at animal shelters, helping with activities in community centers, or cleaning up parks.
- BThese are the people who spend their free time helping others in numerous ways at a variety of places, events, or organizations that need support.
- CThese are the people who spend their free time working at local establishments that help people, animals, or other groups in need of assistance.
- DThese are the people who spend a lot of time volunteering at places where they can help people in many ways.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which revision of sentence 2 uses the most precise language.
A. CORRECT. In sentence 2, the author states that people who volunteer in their free time do so “at various places.” The revision to sentence 2 provides the most precise language because it references three specific places (animal shelters, community centers, and parks) where people often volunteer.
B. Incorrect. Although this sentence mentions “a variety of places, events, or organizations” at which people volunteer, the revision does not use the most precise language, because it does not list specific places, events, or organizations.
C. Incorrect. Although this sentence mentions “local establishments that help people, animals, or other groups,” the revision does not use the most precise language, because it does not name the specific types of establishments at which people can volunteer.
D. Incorrect. Although this sentence mentions “places where [volunteers] can help people in many ways,” the revision does not use the most precise language, because it does not provide specific examples of where people can volunteer.
Question analysis
This revising question uses a persuasive essay urging high school students to find time to volunteer. It asks which rewrite of the second sentence, about the people who spend free time volunteering at various places, uses the most precise language. The trap is that longer, list-like wording can look more specific than it really is.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Grade 7 writers learn to replace vague wording with precise language. Here that skill is applied to one sentence of a plain persuasive essay, with no grammar to fix, which makes it lighter than typical grade 7 revision work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 354 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 102 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
Sentence 2’s vague phrase is “various places,” and only one revision replaces it with places a reader can picture: animal shelters, community centers and parks. The wrong revisions grow longer or list the kinds of people helped, which can pass for precision on a quick read. Asking whether a revision names a real place settles it.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every revision is longer than sentence 2 and sounds more detailed, so each has to be checked for whether it names actual places or only adds general words such as “organizations” and “establishments.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Find the vague phrase in sentence 2, then ask of each revision whether it tells the reader something more definite or simply uses more words to say the same thing.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Mistakes a longer string of general categories, “places, events, or organizations,” for precision, though none is named and the sentence only grows wordier.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Is drawn by the three-part list of people, animals and other groups, but “local establishments” still leaves the actual places unnamed.
D Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Accepts “a lot of time” and “many ways,” which keep the original’s vagueness and even drop the point that volunteers give their free time.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need to rewrite sentence 2 with more precise language. Precise means exact. Precise words help the reader picture something real. Sentence 2 says: “These are the people who spend their free time volunteering at various places within the community.” Look for the part that is vague.
Find the vague phrase
The vague phrase is “at various places.” Various means different kinds. But the sentence never says which places. You can’t picture them. A better sentence would name real places. Example: I help out at different spots is vague. I help out at the library and the food bank is precise.
Check each choice
- A names three real places: “animal shelters,” “community centers,” and “parks.” You can picture each one.
- B says “a variety of places, events, or organizations.” That is a longer list of general words. It still names nothing real.
- C says “local establishments.” An establishment is a business or group. It still doesn’t say which ones.
- D says “a lot of time” and “many ways.” Those words are vague too. D even drops the idea of free time.
Pick the answer
Watch out: C has a list, “people, animals, or other groups,” so it looks detailed. But that list tells who gets help, not where volunteers go. Only one choice names the places. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. Its list of people, animals and other groups sounds specific. But “local establishments” could be any place at all. A replaces “various places” with three places a reader can picture: animal shelters, community centers and parks. That makes A the most precise.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Find Time to Volunteer” as printed (page 163)
Question 74 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 7Uses the passage above: “Find Time to Volunteer”.
Question
Which sentence is least relevant to the ideas presented in the second paragraph (sentences 5–10) and should be deleted?
- Asentence 6
- Bsentence 7
- Csentence 8
- Dsentence 9
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which sentence is least relevant to the ideas presented in the second paragraph (sentences 5–10) and should be deleted.
A. Incorrect. Sentence 5 introduces the topic of the second paragraph, which is that finding time to volunteer “may sound impossible” for many students. Sentence 6 logically follows this idea because it provides one reason why students might hesitate or be unable to volunteer. Therefore, sentence 6 is relevant to the ideas presented in the second paragraph and should not be deleted.
B. CORRECT. Sentence 7 states that “time and energy” are required for volunteering, which partially addresses the topic of the second paragraph about the various commitments that fill high school students’ schedules. However, sentence 7 interrupts the flow of the paragraph by interjecting specific examples (“volunteering at a retirement center or homeless shelter”) into a general list of activities and commitments. Thus, the sentence is the least relevant to the paragraph and should be deleted.
C. Incorrect. In the second paragraph, the author discusses why some high school students may hesitate to volunteer. In sentences 6 and 9, the author points out that “schoolwork” and “family obligations and part-time jobs” are activities that require students’ time and may cause them to hesitate taking on any additional activities. Sentence 8 contributes to this idea by stating that “extracurricular activities” also require a time commitment from students. As a result, sentence 8 contributes to the ideas in the second paragraph and should not be deleted.
D. Incorrect. In the second paragraph, the author acknowledges that some high school students may hesitate to volunteer because of “schoolwork” and “extracurricular activities.” Sentence 9 contributes to this idea by stating that “family obligations and part-time jobs” also require a time commitment and may cause students to hesitate to volunteer. Therefore, sentence 9 contributes to the ideas in the second paragraph and should not be deleted.
Question analysis
This revising question focuses on the second paragraph of the volunteering essay, which explains why students may think they have no time to help others. Students pick the one sentence that is least relevant and should be deleted. Since every sentence touches on how students spend their time, the challenge is seeing which one breaks the paragraph’s line of thought.
- NYS standards
- 7W1b supporting claims with evidence
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Spotting a sentence that does not belong is regular grade 7 revision work. The paragraph is short and plain, but every candidate is loosely tied to students’ busy lives, so students must pin down the paragraph’s exact point first.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 354 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 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 sentence to delete is the only one in the paragraph that mentions volunteering, so students who test each sentence against the essay’s topic keep it and cut one of the others. The paragraph’s point is narrower: sentence 5 says volunteering “may sound impossible” for many students, and sentences 6, 8 and 9 list what already fills their schedules. Sentence 7 is loosely related, which is why the stem asks for the least relevant sentence rather than an irrelevant one.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentences 6, 8 and 9 list the commitments that already fill students’ time, schoolwork, activities, family and jobs, while sentence 7 turns to what volunteering itself demands and breaks that list. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every candidate touches on students’ busy lives, and sentence 7 is the only one that mentions volunteering, so each must be tested against the paragraph’s exact point rather than the essay’s topic. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Say in a few words what sentences 5 and 10 tell you the paragraph is about. Then test each listed sentence: does it add to that point, or does it shift to a different one?
Traps
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Cuts sentence 6 because schoolwork says nothing about volunteering, judging by the essay’s topic word, though schoolwork is the first commitment on the paragraph’s list.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats extracurricular activities as a separate subject, though sentence 8 adds another after-school demand to the list explaining why volunteering seems impossible.
D Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Senses that the paragraph lists school pressures and cuts family obligations and part-time jobs as outside school, missing that “too” adds them to the same list of demands.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the sentence in paragraph 2 that fits least and should be cut. Every sentence in a paragraph should support its main point. Example: My dog loves the park. He chases balls. Cats sleep a lot. He rolls in the grass. The cat sentence doesn’t fit. So first find the paragraph’s point. Then test each listed sentence against it.
Find the paragraph’s main point
Sentence 5 says “For many students, this proposition may sound impossible.” The proposition is the idea of volunteering. Sentence 10 says the benefits may “outweigh the scheduling difficulties.” So the paragraph is about why students feel too busy. The sentences in between should list what already fills their time.
Test each listed sentence
- Sentence 6: “Schoolwork can require hours of study each week.” That is one thing that fills their time.
- Sentence 7: “Volunteering at a retirement center or homeless shelter requires both time and energy.” This is about volunteering itself. It names two places, and it breaks the list.
- Sentence 8: “Extracurricular activities fill up after-school time.” These are things like sports and clubs. That is another item on the list.
- Sentence 9: “Family obligations and part-time jobs” fill time “too.” The word too adds them to the same list.
Read the paragraph without it
Try reading sentences 6, 8 and 9 in a row. Schoolwork, activities, family and jobs make one smooth list of things that fill a student’s week. Then sentence 10 answers that worry. Nothing is missing when sentence 7 is gone. That shows it is the least relevant.
Pick the answer
Watch out: Sentence 9 can seem off topic, because family and jobs are outside school. That makes D tempting. But the paragraph is about everything that fills a student’s time. So the answer is B, sentence 7.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 9 is the closest wrong answer, because family and jobs are not schoolwork. But its last word, “too,” adds them to the same list as schoolwork and activities. Sentence 7 is the only one about what volunteering takes, not what already fills the week. So B is the one to cut.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 75 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 29Passage Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!
Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!
by Zoa L. Swayne
This narrative is about the Nez Perce, an American Indian tribe, in what is now northern Idaho. The tribe is preparing for a gathering before the coming winter.
In the moon of Ta-Yum, the hottest days of summer, when salmon spawn in the little streams and huckleberries ripen in the high mountains, people from many villages of the Chopunnish Nation gathered in the Oyaip Prairie for the work and festivities of their annual camas1 harvest.
From far and near The People came. . . .
Should a stranger enter their homeland and ask, “Where are you from?” the reply was always, “We are Nee-mee-poo, The People who live here in this place.”
It was a time of Lawtiwa-mah-ton—a time of being friends together—when The People came for this last chance to enjoy being together before the Cold Moons kept them close to their fires. The visiting and trading, the foot racing and horse racing, and the gambling and stick games would be remembered and talked about long after they had forgotten the drudgery of digging and roasting camas, picking berries, or drying meat and fish. Lawtiwa-mah-ton! It was good to be friends together.
As was their custom since wahk-kee-ma, a time far back beyond the memory of man, they set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them. Red Bear’s people, from Kamiah, made their camp near the trail that came out of the mountains. Their neighbors in Kamiah Valley, The People from Tee-e-lap-a-lo, had their camp close by. Across the wide meadow, by the great roasting pits, the camps of the Te-wap-poo and Ask-kah-poo were located. The tepees and ish-nash, brush shelters, of other groups nestled in their accustomed areas in and among the pines in such numbers that they encircled the entire meadow land.
Red Bear’s people had traveled all summer with neighboring bands, gathering and preparing roots, picking and drying berries, drying and smoking meat and fish for their winter food supply. Now they were at the Oyaip camp. The women worked hard to dig and cure as many bags of roots as they could during the warm, sunny days, for the sharp night air brought warnings that WARM was going and COLD was coming.
Everyone helped in some way. Most of the men fished or hunted for meat. While many of the women dug and roasted camas, other women and older children picked and dried berries.
And the younger children played. They played at hunting. They played with the babies. They played with their horses and puppies. They learned how to live through their play.
This sun, happiness, peace, and quiet blessed the Red Bear camp. All were busy with their daily tasks, until sudden cries came from the children playing by the trail.
“People coming! People coming! People coming on the trail from the high mountains!” they called as they ran to their elders, who looked sharply at the figures of approaching horsemen.
Were they friends or enemies? Did they bring good news or bad?
“Who can it be? What brings them here?” were the questions in every mind.
“Could they be the four hunters who had gone to Buffalo Country two summers past? Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?”
It was customary for a hunting party to be gone for more than one season.
“Looks like hunters,” the older men agreed. “Looks like they had good hunting. Maybe our four hunters. [They have] been gone many moons.”
“Looks like five people—not four,” others observed.
Excitement grew as the riders came close enough to be recognized.
“A-a-a-a-a, they are our four hunters! But who is the fifth person?” they asked.
“Looks like a woman. Who is she?”
The hunters rode up to the welcoming crowd, proud to show off the loads of meat, hides, and other trophies of their hunt. They paraded around the encampment for all to see how strong their Hunting Power had been—what great hunters they, themselves, were.
Red Bear’s people rejoiced at their hunters’ success. Good hunters brought good to everybody. The meat meant plenty of food and the hides meant soft-tanned robes to give comfort through the Cold Moons. But it was the sight of the frail figure of the woman that aroused their curiosity. Who was she? Where had she come from? . . .
“Belongs to Red Bear people. Gone then come back,” the hunters said, as they dismounted and unloaded their packs. . . .
Now they could see! She was the daughter of the family gone so long ago! The girl-child who had left came back now—a grown woman.
“Wat-ku-ese!” the women cried. “Gone-from-Home-then-Come-Back. Wat-ku-ese!” And Wat-ku-ese was her name from that time on.
Gentle arms lifted Wat-ku-ese from her horse. The women brought her food and made a place for her to rest. For many suns they cared for her until she became stronger.
One evening Wat-ku-ese told her story for all to hear.
From DO THEM NO HARM!: Lewis and Clark Among the Nez Perce by Zoa L. Swayne. Published by Caxton Press. Copyright © 1990 by Zoa L. Swayne. Orofino, Idaho and Legacy House, Inc. Orofino, Idaho. All rights reserved.
1camas: a wild, edible plant
Question
Which quotation from the excerpt best supports the idea that The People feel a connection to members of their group in spite of distance?
- A“As was their custom since wahk-kee-ma, a time far back beyond the memory of man, they set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them.” (paragraph 5)
- B“ ‘Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?’ ” (paragraph 13)
- C“ ‘Looks like hunters,’ the older men agreed. ‘Looks like they had good hunting.’ ” (paragraph 15)
- D“But it was the sight of the frail figure of the woman that aroused their curiosity.” (paragraph 21)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which quotation from the excerpt best supports the idea that The People feel a connection to members of their group in spite of distance.
A. Incorrect. This quotation describes the fact that The People always set up their camps in the same places their parents and grandparents used before them. This quotation highlights the customs The People continue from their ancestors, but it does not focus on their present personal connections.
B. CORRECT. This quotation alludes to The People’s eagerness to hear about the families who had traveled away from their group. This eagerness shows that they still feel a connection to these families, even though they are far apart.
C. Incorrect. This quotation describes The People’s analysis of the visitors—that they may be hunters. It does not show a connection to the visitors.
D. Incorrect. This quotation shows that The People are curious about a stranger who has come into their camp. It does not show closeness to distant members of the group.
Question analysis
This textual evidence question asks which quotation from the Nez Perce narrative best supports the idea that The People feel connected to members of their group even when those members are far away. The quotations come from across the excerpt, so students must make sure the one they choose fits both parts of that idea.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing the quotation that supports an idea is everyday grade 7 work. Here the idea joins two conditions, connection and distance, and the quotations come from across the excerpt, which keeps the demand at a solid grade 7 level.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 107 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation described one wrong choice's quotation inaccurately; that sentence was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The idea joins two conditions, connection and distance, and the quotations satisfy them unevenly. The camp-location line shows a strong tie, but to ancestors across time rather than to members far away, and the line about the woman involves a returning member before anyone knows she is one. The right line is easy to pass over because it is a question, yet asking after families long gone shows they still matter.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The right quotation is a question, not a statement of feeling; students must infer that asking for news of families “gone long ago” shows a bond that distance has not broken. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each quotation has to pass two tests, a bond with group members and members who are far away, and the camp-location line passes only the first. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Test each quotation against both parts of the idea: does it show a bond with group members, and does that bond reach people who are far away?
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees a bond in camping where parents and grandparents camped, but that ties The People to ancestors across time, not to members far away.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Remembers that the older men go on to say “Maybe our four hunters,” but the quoted words only judge the hunt and show no feeling for absent members.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Knows the woman turns out to be a lost member, but at this point no one knows who she is, so the curiosity is about a stranger, not a bond.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: Choice A quotes paragraph 5: The People “set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them.” The handbook's explanation says the quotation describes them returning “to perform the same traditional tasks and enjoy the same festivities as their ancestors,” which the sentence doesn't say. The explanation now describes the quotation as it is. The reason A is wrong is unchanged: it shows a custom kept from their ancestors, not a connection to members who are far away. The answer, B, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the quotation that best shows The People feel close to group members who are far away. The idea has two parts: a connection, and distance. The right quotation must show both.
Test each quotation on both parts
- A (paragraph 5): they camp where “their parents and grandparents” camped. That is a connection, but to people from the past, not to people far away.
- B (paragraph 13): “Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?” These families are far away and long gone. The People still want news of them.
- C (paragraph 15): the men only guess that the riders are hunters who had a good hunt. They show no feeling for anyone.
- D (paragraph 21): The People are curious about the woman. They don’t know yet that she is one of them.
See why B shows a connection
You only ask for news about people you care about. The families left “long ago.” They went to Buffalo Country, far from the camp. Yet The People still wonder about them. So time and distance have not broken the bond.
Pick the answer
Watch out: A shows a strong bond too, so it is tempting. But it ties The People to their parents and grandparents, across time. It is not about members who are far away. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because camping where parents and grandparents camped shows a strong tie. But that tie stretches across years, not across distance. B is about families who went far away “long ago,” and The People still want news of them. Only B passes both tests.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed (pages 177–178)
Question 76 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 36Passage Invention of the Telegraph
Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is credited with creating the electronic telegraph, a communication device that allows users to send messages using a system of short and long pulses that represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. In 1843 the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill, which provided Morse with the funds to build an electric telegraph system.
Invention of the Telegraph
Earlier Signal Systems
Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were visual or “semaphore” systems using flags or lights. In the eighteenth century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station. The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 for a workable proposal. The framers of this legislation had no way of knowing that when they used the word “telegraph” to refer to this visual semaphore system, they would be offered an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.
The Growth of an Idea
The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Morse during a conversation aboard ship when he was returning from Europe in 1832. Michael Faraday’s recently invented electromagnet was much discussed by the ship’s passengers, and when Morse came to understand how it worked, he speculated that it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire. While a student at Yale College years before, he had written his parents a letter about how interesting he found the lectures on electricity. Despite what he had learned at Yale, Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity, and after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague at the University of the City of New York, Leonard D. Gale.
Gale was a professor of chemistry and familiar with the electrical work of Princeton’s Joseph Henry, a true pioneer in the new field. Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit. In 1831, he had published an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. Gale’s help and his knowledge of this article proved crucial to Morse’s telegraph system because Gale not only pointed out flaws in the system but showed Morse how he could regularly boost the strength of a signal and overcome the distance problems he had encountered by using a relay system Henry had invented. Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.
Obstacles and Opportunities
By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.
However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. It was during this period that Morse visited Europe again and tried not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England. . . .
By 1843, the country was beginning to recover economically, and Morse again asked Congress for the $30,000 that would allow him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, forty miles away. The House of Representatives eventually passed the bill containing the Morse appropriation, and the Senate approved it in the final hours of that Congress’s last session. With President Tyler’s signature, Morse received the cash he needed and began to carry out plans for an underground telegraph line.
Realizing a Great Invention
Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire, and although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse’s partners, Congressman F. O. J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.
Soon, as overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast, the dots-and-dashes method that recorded messages on a long moving strip of paper was replaced by the operator’s ability to interpret the code in real time. . . . Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.
“Invention of the Telegraph”—Public Domain/Library of Congress
legislation: Telegraph Bill
dots-and-dashes method: the short and long pulses of Morse code that are sent and received by telegraph operators
The first transatlantic electric telegraph message was sent in 1858, and by 1902 the British All-Red Line connected most of the world.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2. Washington, D.C., 1975.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 7.
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.
The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” in the sentence convey a
- Asense of relief and fulfillment that the line was finished.
- Bsense of wonder and celebration that the telegraph line was accomplished.
- Cfeeling of excitement about the future possibilities of the telegraph.
- Dfeeling of confidence about being able to continue the work.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” convey in the sentence from paragraph 7.
A. Incorrect. While there may have been some feelings of relief and fulfillment when the lines were finished, the passage instead focuses on the wonder and joy that Morse and Cornell felt after overcoming setbacks and completing the construction of the telegraph system.
B. CORRECT. Morse and Cornell rushed to post the wires overhead, and the “rigid deadline” (paragraph 7) was successfully met. The words have a positive and victorious tone that is consistent with the feeling of wonder that it worked and of celebration that the construction was completed.
C. Incorrect. The passage does not share whether Morse or Cornell considered the future possibilities of the telegraph; it shares only that the finished product was “dramatic,” implying it was amazing to see.
D. Incorrect. While the passage later discusses the expansion of overhead wires “up and down the Atlantic coast” and how they “connected the continents of Europe and America” (paragraph 8), there is no evidence shared in the passage that Morse planned to continue his work with electricity.
Question analysis
Students judge the connotation of two words, “dramatic” and “spectacularly,” in the sentence from “Invention of the Telegraph” that describes the completion of Samuel Morse’s first telegraph link from Washington to Baltimore. Because the same sentence calls Morse “desperate” and says the line was finished just in time, several feelings seem to fit the moment, and the choices name four of them.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Judging what two adjectives convey is standard grade 7 word-choice work, and the sentence is printed with the question. The challenge is that all four choices name believable feelings, so students must separate the words’ own connotations from the situation around them.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 91 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 quoted sentence offers two tempting sources for the answer besides the two words the stem names: Morse is “desperate,” and the line is finished “in time.” Students who read the situation rather than the words choose relief, and those who think ahead to paragraph 8’s spreading wires choose excitement about the future. The question rewards asking what “dramatic” and “spectacularly” say about the link itself, an event that impressed and was celebrated.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The relief choice is built like the key, a pair of feelings about the finished line; only the feelings differ, and “dramatic” and “spectacularly” point to wonder at a public success, not release from worry. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Neither word names an emotion: “dramatic” and “spectacularly” describe the link itself, so the feeling they carry has to be inferred from their sense of an impressive public show. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four choices name a positive feeling that suits a race against a “rigid deadline,” so tone alone rules none of them out. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, picture something you would call dramatic and spectacularly successful, and name the feeling those words give it; then find the choice closest to that feeling.
Traps
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes what Morse probably felt, relief after a “desperate” scramble to beat the deadline, for what the author’s two words convey, which is admiration for a striking success.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in paragraph 8, where wires spread along the coast and across the ocean, but this sentence is about the first finished link and says nothing of what might follow.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes success would leave Morse confident about pressing on, but the sentence never looks past the finished line, and the two words describe the event, not his plans.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about connotation, the feeling a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning. It names two words, “dramatic” and “spectacularly.” Your job is to name the feeling those two words give the sentence. Other words in the sentence should not decide your answer.
See what is happening in paragraph 7
Just before this sentence, Morse’s team lost time laying wire that turned out to be faulty. The job was also “on a rigid deadline” with no time to spare. Cornell had a quick fix: to “string wires overhead on trees and poles” instead. Morse agreed, and the line was done in time. The sentence describes the moment the first link worked, from the Capitol in Washington to the train station in Baltimore.
Work out what the two words suggest
A dramatic event grabs your attention, the way the high point of a movie does. Spectacularly comes from spectacle, a grand sight that makes people stop and stare. So the author is saying the link was more than finished. It was a thrilling public success. Words like these make a reader marvel at what was done and want to cheer.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Morse was “desperate,” so he may have felt relief. But that feeling comes from the word “desperate,” not from the two words the question asks about.
- B fits. Wonder matches an amazing sight, and celebration matches a great success.
- C does not fit. This sentence is only about the finished link. Wires spreading to other places come later, in paragraph 8.
- D does not fit. The two words describe the event itself. They tell nothing about Morse’s plans for more work.
Choose the answer
The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” make the first telegraph link sound like a thrilling show. So the answer is B, a “sense of wonder and celebration that the telegraph line was accomplished.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap, since it also names two good feelings about the finished line. But relief is the quiet feeling you get when worry ends. The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” are loud and showy. They make the link sound like something to gasp at and cheer for, and that is wonder and celebration.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)
Question 77 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 44Passage 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
Which line from the poem best supports the idea that people have sacrificed priceless natural beauty in order to make a profit?
- A“Above the dingy city-roofs” (line 3)
- B“The world makes war on them,” (line 10)
- C“Tunnels their granite cliffs,” (line 11)
- D“Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,” (line 13)
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the line from the poem that best supports the idea that people have sacrificed natural beauty for profit.
A. Incorrect. While city roofs may spoil the natural beauty, they do not directly symbolize financial gain or profit in line 3.
B. Incorrect. Although making a profit might have been the root cause of the damage that was done to the mountains, making war on the mountains is not a direct message about profit or financial gain in line 10.
C. Incorrect. Although tunneling through the mountains affects the natural beauty of the mountains, it does not directly symbolize financial gain or profit in line 11.
D. CORRECT. Advertisements are often used as a means to gain a profit, as implied by the soap advertisements in line 13. Additionally, the word “Plasters,” in line 13, communicates a negative connotation for the use of advertisements on the priceless natural beauty of the mountains.
Question analysis
In this textual evidence question on John Gould Fletcher’s poem “Snowy Mountains,” students pick the line that best backs the claim that people traded priceless natural beauty for profit. Most of the quoted lines show damage of some kind, so the deciding question is which one also shows why the damage was done.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Matching a claim to a quoted line is standard grade 7 evidence work, and these four lines are short and numbered. The images are concrete, so little inference is needed once the claim is read carefully.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 45 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
Three of the four quoted lines show damage to the mountains, which meets the first half of the claim and makes the question a test of the second half. Students who look only for harm tend to settle on the loudest image of attack, “makes war on them.” The one line that contains a product for sale is the only one showing beauty traded for money, and once that is seen the choice is quick.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Lines 10, 11 and 13 all show people harming the mountains, so each must be held against the claim’s second half, making a profit, which only one of them carries. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
No line names money; profit has to be read from “soap-advertisements,” which exist to sell a product, while “Plasters” supplies the spoiling of the cliffs’ beauty. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Underline the two things the claim needs, harm to the mountains’ beauty and a money motive, then read each quoted line and cross out any that shows only one of them.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Connects “dingy city-roofs” with industry and money-making, but line 3 only places the city below the peaks and shows neither profit nor harm done to them.
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Chooses the stanza’s fiercest line, but “makes war on them” shows attack in general with no motive, so it backs the lost beauty without the profit.
C Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in a real-world reason, tunnels dug for railways or mines that earn money, though line 11 itself shows only the cliffs being cut, with no sign of gain.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for evidence: the line that best supports an idea. Notice that the idea makes two claims. People have spoiled the mountains’ beauty, and they did it to make money, or a profit. The best line must show both parts, not just one.
Read the four lines in the poem
Choice A, “Above the dingy city-roofs,” comes from the first stanza, where the poem praises the peaks. Dingy means grimy and gloomy. The other three choices come from the second stanza, where people attack the mountains. In order, they are “The world makes war on them” (line 10), “Tunnels their granite cliffs” (line 11) and “Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements” (line 13).
Test each line for harm and money
An advertisement is a sign that tries to get you to buy something. Soap ads are there to sell soap, so they are about profit. To plaster something is to cover it thickly and messily, like paste on a wall. Picture the bright cliffs smeared with ugly signs, all to sell a product.
Line Harms the mountains? Shows money? 3 No No 10 Yes No 11 Yes No 13 Yes Yes Check each choice
- A does not fit. Line 3 only places the dirty city below the peaks. It shows no harm to the mountains and no money.
- B does not fit. The words “makes war” show an attack, but not the reason for it.
- C does not fit. Tunnels do damage the cliffs. You may know that tunnels are dug for trains or mines, but the line itself never mentions money.
- D fits. It shows the beauty spoiled and a product being sold.
Choose the answer
Only line 13 shows both the harm and the money behind it. So the answer is D, line 13.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the strongest trap, because “makes war” is the fiercest image of harm in the poem. But the idea also needs a reason: making a profit. War on the mountains could happen for any reason. Only the soap ads show something being sold, so only D backs up both parts of the idea.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 78 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 53Passage Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”
Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”
by Alex Ross
About forty-five hundred years ago, not long after the completion of the Great Pyramid at Giza, a seed of Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin bristlecone pine, landed on a steep slope in what are now known as the White Mountains, in eastern California. The seed may have travelled there on a gust of wind, its flight aided by a winglike attachment to the nut. Or it could have been planted by a bird known as the Clark’s nutcracker, which likes to hide pine seeds in caches; nutcrackers have phenomenal spatial1 memory and can recall thousands of such caches. This seed, however, lay undisturbed. On a moist day in fall, or in the wake of melting snows in spring, a seedling appeared above ground—a stubby one-inch stem with a tuft of bright-green shoots.
Most seedlings die within a year; the mortality rate is more than ninety-nine percent. The survivors are sometimes seen growing in the shadow of a fallen tree. The landscape of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, as this area of the White Mountains is called, is littered with fragments of dead trees—trunks, limbs, roots, and smaller chunks. Pinus longaeva grows exclusively in subalpine regions of the Great Basin, which stretches from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Range, in Utah. Conditions are generally too arid for the dead wood to rot; instead, it erodes, sanded down like rock. The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow. Bristlecones rise from the bones of their ancestors—a city within a cemetery.
Coast redwoods and giant sequoias, California’s gargantuan world-record-holding trees, can grow fifty feet or more in their first twenty years. Bristlecones rise agonizingly slowly. After four or five years, the seedling on the steep slope would have been just a few inches higher, sprouting needles in place of the embryonic shoots. The needles are a deep green, tough, resinous, and closely bunched in groups of five. On a mature tree, they live for fifty years or more. Decades may have passed before the tree was human height, and decades more before it resembled a conventional pine. Bristlecone saplings grow straight up, with relatively sparse foliage, looking like undernourished Christmas trees. After a few hundred years—by which time the Old Kingdom of Egypt had fallen—it was probably forty or fifty feet in height.
Many tree species live for hundreds of years. A smaller but not inconsiderable number, including the sequoias and certain yews, oaks, cypresses, and junipers, survive for thousands. Once a bristlecone has established itself in the unforgiving conditions of the White Mountains, it can last almost indefinitely. The trees tend to grow some distance from one another, so fires almost never destroy an entire stand. Because only a few other plant species can handle the dry, cold climate, the bristlecones face little competition. Unlike most plants, they tolerate dolomite soil, which is composed of a chalky type of limestone that is heavily alkaline and low in nutrients. As for insect threats, bristlecone wood is so dense that mountain-pine beetles and other pests can rarely burrow their way into it.
Empires rose and fell; wars raged; . . . and the tree from 2500 B.C. continued its implacable slow-motion existence, adding about two-hundredths of an inch to the diameter of its trunk each year. Minute changes in the tree-ring record make bristlecones an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on Earth. When rains are heavier than normal, the rings widen. When volcanic eruptions cause global cooling, frost rings make the anomaly2 visible. . . .
As the millennia go by, bristlecones become contorted and wraithlike.3 The main stem, or leader, dies back. Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils. At first glance, the tree may look dead. Such is the case of the forty-five-hundred-year-old tree that clings to life near the tourist path that now runs through the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Spears of dead wood jut into the air. The trunk is a marbled hulk stripped of bark, like driftwood thrown from a vanished ocean. A ribbon of live bark runs up one side, funneling water and nutrients to clumps of green needles high above. All told, the tree is an unprepossessing specimen; most people march past it without giving it a second glance. . . .
. . . No two super-elderly trees look alike, to the point where they have acquired the characteristics of individuals. Trees are prone to anthropomorphism; we project our dreams and our anxieties onto them. Bristlecones have been called elders, sentinels, sages. The possibility that climate change will cause their extinction has inspired a spate4 of alarmed news stories, although tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger. They have survived any number of catastrophes in the past; they may survive humanity.
From “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees” by Alex Ross from THE NEW YORKER, January 20, 2020. Copyright © 2020 by Condé Nast. All rights reserved.
1spatial: relating to physical space
2anomaly: oddity
3wraithlike: ghostly
4spate: sudden abundance
Question
Which claim is best supported by the details in paragraph 5 about the bristlecone pine’s tree-ring record?
- AThe bristlecone pine must be protected from extinction so that there is a record of changing Earth conditions.
- BThe structure of the bristlecone pine allows scientists to predict changing Earth conditions over time.
- CThe slow growth process of the bristlecone pine allows it to survive in spite of changing Earth conditions.
- DThe bristlecone pine can be used to gather information on changing Earth conditions because of its long life.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which claim is best supported by the details about the bristlecone pine tree’s ring record presented in paragraph 5.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author explains that the bristlecone pine is “an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on Earth,” and this suggests that the information presented by the trees is particularly valuable and important. However, while the paragraph explains that the data provided by the trees are important, it does not address the need to protect the trees from any threat of extinction. The only reference to the trees’ extinction is in paragraph 7, when the author addresses the “possibility that climate change will cause their extinction” but then explains that “scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger.”
B. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 describes “minute changes in the tree-ring record” that make bristlecone pines “an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on Earth,” and examples of those changing conditions are described in the present tense: “When rains are heavier than normal, the rings widen.” However, the term “record” indicates that the tree rings are already formed by the time scientists study them. The trees provide information about the past, which is emphasized by the description at the beginning of paragraph 5 of historic events one tree lived through. The excerpt contains no information about whether scientists can use the climate patterns of the past as evidenced by tree rings to make predictions about the future.
C. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 describes the “slow-motion existence” of the bristlecone pine and provides examples of the record of “changing conditions on Earth” reflected in the rings of the trees. However, although the paragraph makes it clear that the trees have been able to survive these changing conditions, the paragraph does not indicate that the slow growth of the trees, each of which adds only “about two-hundredths of an inch to the diameter of its trunk each year,” is the key to their survival. Instead, paragraph 4 lists other reasons why an established bristlecone pine “can last almost indefinitely,” including distance between individual trees; tolerance for cold, dry conditions and dolomite soil; and wood that is resistant to insects.
D. CORRECT. Paragraph 5 emphasizes the longevity of the bristlecone pine by discussing its “implacable slow-motion existence” and how this makes the trees a valuable source of information for scientists. The author explains that “minute changes in the tree-ring record make bristlecones an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on Earth.” A tree that has been alive since 2500 B.C., like the one in paragraph 5, can provide a long record of the changing climate.
Question analysis
Students decide which claim is best supported by the details about tree rings in paragraph 5 of an article on the ancient bristlecone pines of California’s White Mountains. Every choice links the trees to changing conditions on Earth, so the challenge is noticing which claim stays within what the paragraph actually says.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing the claim a paragraph supports is core grade 7 inference work, and paragraph 5 is only four sentences long. The demand is typical: one careful reading of those sentences, plus attention to the exact wording of each claim.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 85 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate detail in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
All four claims tie the bristlecone to changing conditions on Earth, so the paragraph’s topic cannot separate them; only what the paragraph supports can. Two claims go a step past it, one turning a record of the past into a tool for prediction and the other making slow growth the cause of survival. The right claim also goes slightly beyond the words, but only by linking the ring record to the tree’s forty-five centuries.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The predicting choice shares the key’s frame, the tree giving scientists knowledge of “changing conditions on Earth”; they part on direction, since a ring “record” shows past conditions and forecasts nothing. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Paragraph 5 credits the rings’ “minute changes,” not the tree’s age, so the key’s “because of its long life” has to be inferred from a tree that has been growing since 2500 B.C. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every claim mentions changing conditions on Earth, so none can be dropped as off topic; each must be tested against what the four sentences of paragraph 5 actually say. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Restate in your own words what paragraph 5 says the tree rings record, then ask of each claim whether those four sentences alone would let you say it.
Traps
- 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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Turns the value of the ring data into a familiar conservation argument, but paragraph 5 calls for no protection, and paragraph 7 says scientists doubt the trees are in immediate danger.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads the present-tense examples, rings that widen when rains are heavy, as a way to forecast, but a tree-ring record shows conditions already past and predicts nothing.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links the “slow-motion existence” to the tree’s survival as cause and effect, a connection paragraph 5 never makes, and leaves out the tree-ring record the question asks about.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In explaining why Option C is wrong, the handbook says paragraph 4 lists “bark that is resistant to insects.” Paragraph 4 says that bristlecone wood “is so dense that mountain-pine beetles and other pests can rarely burrow their way into it”; it says nothing about the bark. The site now says “wood that is resistant to insects.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which claim is best supported by paragraph 5’s details about tree rings. A tree ring is the layer of wood a tree adds each year. You need the claim those details really back up, without adding ideas the paragraph never gives.
Find the tree-ring details
Paragraph 5 says, “Minute changes in the tree-ring record make bristlecones an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on Earth.” Then it gives examples. “When rains are heavier than normal, the rings widen.” When volcanoes cool the planet, “frost rings” show it. The same paragraph describes a tree that has been growing since 2500 B.C.
Explain what the details mean
Minute (said my-NOOT) means tiny. Data means facts and measurements. Each year adds a ring, so the rings work like a diary of conditions on Earth. A tree alive since 2500 B.C. holds about 4,500 years of these yearly entries. Its long life is what makes its record so long and so useful.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Paragraph 5 never says the tree must be protected. Paragraph 7 even says scientists doubt it is in immediate danger.
- B does not fit. A record shows what already happened. Nothing says the rings can predict the future.
- C does not fit. Paragraph 5 never says slow growth keeps the tree alive. Paragraph 4 gives the reasons, such as wood too dense for insects. C also leaves out the rings.
- D fits. A tree that lives for thousands of years keeps a ring record of changing conditions over all that time.
Choose the answer
The rings record changes on Earth, and the tree’s great age makes that record long. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B comes nearest to the right answer. Like D, it says the tree gives scientists facts about changing conditions on Earth. But the rings are a “record,” and a record tells about the past, not the future. D stays with what the paragraph supports: a long-lived tree holds a long record of change.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed (pages 193–194)
Question 79 of 120
2024 Test B English, question 56Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees””.
Question
What is the best summary of the bristlecone pine’s life cycle?
- AThe bristlecone pine takes root as a stubby seedling in the mountains. Over time, it grows slowly in a hostile environment with alkaline soil that ensures little competition from other trees.
- BThe bristlecone pine grows up slowly from the fragments of its dead ancestors. Over time, it begins to become contorted in appearance but continues to funnel water and nutrients to its stem.
- CThe bristlecone pine grows slowly in an environment hostile to other trees. Over time, its trunk and some branches fossilize, but it funnels water and nutrients to other parts that are still alive.
- DThe bristlecone pine grows only in one location in the mountains. Over time, it develops sparse foliage that fossilizes slowly, but the trunk and branches stay alive, as revealed by ribbons of live bark.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the best summary of the bristlecone pine’s life cycle.
A. Incorrect. Though the summary in this option covers key points in the life cycle, it focuses on minor details (“stubby seedling” and “alkaline soil”) while leaving out major details of the life cycle (for example, the fact that parts of the trees become fossilized over time).
B. Incorrect. This option addresses the unique quality of the pine growing from “fragments of its dead ancestors”; however, it does not address the fossilization phase, which is a major part of the life cycle. In addition, this option incorrectly states that the tree continues to funnel nutrients to its stem.
C. CORRECT. The option describes the key phases of the pine’s life cycle without focusing on minor details. The organization of the summary is chronological, and the information presented is accurate.
D. Incorrect. The option focuses more on the location and the appearance of the pine than on the phases of the pine’s life cycle. The option also describes the pine’s appearance inaccurately: it says that the foliage fossilizes and the trunk and branches stay alive, but paragraph 6 says that “entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils.” It provides little information about the main phases of the pine’s life cycle.
Question analysis
This summary question asks students to choose the best summary of the life cycle of the Great Basin bristlecone pine, as described across Alex Ross’s excerpt about the Earth’s oldest trees. Each choice is two sentences long and sounds accurate, and the differences lie in which stages of the tree’s long life each one includes and how faithfully it reports them.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Summarizing a process is regular grade 7 work, but this life cycle unfolds across six paragraphs of dense description, and each choice is a two-sentence summary with accurate-sounding details, so spotting small omissions and errors takes more than typical care.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 141 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate statement in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
A good summary of this life cycle has to reach old age, when the trunk and branches turn to fossil while a strip of bark keeps the tree alive, and it has to get that stage right. One wrong choice never gets past youth, another reaches old age but keeps the wrong part alive, and a third mixes up which parts fossilize. Recalling paragraph 6 exactly, with every choice two sentences long, is what makes the question slow.
Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer
Each two-sentence summary sounds accurate, and its flaw is an omission or a wrong detail, such as nutrients sent to a stem that dies back or foliage that fossilizes, so every clause must be checked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The life cycle runs across six paragraphs: the seedling in paragraph 1, the dead ancestors in 2, slow growth in 3, harsh conditions in 4, and fossilized wood with a live ribbon of bark in 6. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The ancestors-and-stem summary has the key’s shape, slow growth, then decline, then water and nutrients still funneled; it differs in where they go, the stem, which paragraph 6 says “dies back.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, list the stages of the tree’s life from seed to old age with one detail each, then check every sentence of each summary against the passage.
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.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Covers only the tree’s youth, the stubby seedling and slow growth in poor alkaline soil, and stops before the fossilizing and the live strip of bark that mark its old age.
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Starts accurately with growth among dead ancestors and a contorted old age, but sends water and nutrients to the stem, which dies back, and leaves out fossilization.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Assembles real words from the excerpt, sparse foliage, fossils and live bark, but swaps which parts fossilize and shrinks a range across the Great Basin to one location.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook says Option D “contains an accurate description of the pine’s appearance.” It does not: Option D says the foliage fossilizes and the trunk and branches stay alive, but paragraph 6 says that “entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils,” as the correct answer, Option C, also says. The site now says that the option describes the pine’s appearance inaccurately.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the best summary of the bristlecone’s life cycle. A life cycle is the stages of a living thing’s life, from its start to old age. A good summary covers the main stages in order and gets each one right.
List the stages from the excerpt
- Young: the seedling grows “agonizingly slowly” (paragraph 3).
- Settled: it lives where few plants “can handle the dry, cold climate” (paragraph 4).
- Old: “The main stem, or leader, dies back,” and “Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils” (paragraph 6).
- Still alive: “A ribbon of live bark runs up one side, funneling water and nutrients to clumps of green needles high above” (paragraph 6).
Explain the hard words
Hostile means unfriendly or harsh. To fossilize here means to turn into hard, dead wood, almost like stone. To funnel is to carry something along a narrow path. Contorted means twisted out of shape. Nutrients are the things a plant needs to grow. Foliage means leaves, which for a pine are its needles.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. It stops while the tree is young. It never reaches old age, when parts of the tree turn to fossil.
- B does not fit. The main stem “dies back,” so water is not sent to the stem. B also leaves out the fossil stage.
- C fits. It gives slow growth in a harsh place, then a fossilized trunk and branches, with water still carried to the living parts.
- D does not fit. Paragraph 2 says bristlecones grow in high areas across the Great Basin, a region that stretches into Utah. That is not one location. D also mixes up the parts: the trunk and branches turn to fossil, not the foliage.
Choose the answer
Only one summary reaches old age and gets every stage right. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B looks the most like the right answer. Like C, it moves from young growth to old age and has water and nutrients still flowing. But it sends them to the stem, and paragraph 6 says the stem “dies back.” C sends them to the parts still alive, which matches the ribbon of live bark.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 80 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 18Question
A taxi driver recorded the number of fares each day for one month. The box plot displays the data.
Based on the box plot, which statement is a correct interpretation of the data?
- AThe data point 2 is an outlier.
- BThe mean of the data is 16.
- CThe interquartile range (IQR) of the data is 30.
- DOn about 25% of the days, there were between 12 and 16 fares.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The amount of data in a box plot is broken into 4 parts, or quartiles, which each represent 25% of the data. So the amount of data represented between Quartile 1 (12) and the median (16) is about 25% of the data.
Question analysis
A statistics question on a box plot of the number of fares a taxi driver recorded each day for one month. Students decide which of four statements is a correct interpretation of the data, using what a box plot does and does not show. The statements draw on several different box plot ideas, so each one must be checked.
- NYS standards
- 7.SP.1 box plots and interquartile range
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Reading box plots, finding the interquartile range and testing for outliers are all grade 7 standards in New York. This item gathers several of them in one question, but each check is short, typical of grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Something you must already know moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 4, 63 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
No calculation here is long; the challenge is knowing what a box plot does and does not show. Two of the wrong statements sound reasonable because they borrow real features of the plot, its long left whisker and its middle line, and give them the wrong meaning. Remembering that the plot splits the days into four groups of about equal size makes the true statement easy to confirm.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
Each statement draws on a box plot fact the test does not supply: what the middle line marks, how the IQR is found, and when a value counts as an outlier. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The four statements test four separate ideas, an outlier, the mean, the IQR and a quartile's share, so ruling out one says nothing about the next. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question
The scale is labeled every 2 fares with the numbers crowded together, so the five values 2, 12, 16, 24 and 32 must be read off with care. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Read the minimum, quartiles, median and maximum off the plot, then test each statement in turn, computing the IQR and the outlier cutoffs rather than judging by eye.
Traps
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
- Wrong formula: Uses a related but wrong formula: perimeter for area, diameter for radius, area for volume, or a misremembered one.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Takes the long left whisker as a sign that 2 is an outlier, but that whisker holds a quarter of the days, and 2 is above the cutoff 12 − 1.5 × 12 = −6.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Takes the median line at 16 for the mean, though a box plot shows the median and quartiles and cannot show the mean.
C Wrong formula (King et al., 2004)
Subtracts the minimum from the maximum, 32 − 2 = 30, which is the range, not the interquartile range of 24 − 12 = 12.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Interquartile range (IQR)
- Q1 is the first quartile, the left edge of the box. Q3 is the third quartile, the right edge. The IQR is the length of the box. It tells how spread out the middle half of the data is.
- Low cutoff for an outlier
- Q1 and the IQR are found from the box. An outlier is a value far away from the rest. A value below this cutoff counts as an outlier on the low side. A value at or above it does not.
Read the five numbers
A box plot sums up a set of data with five numbers. Here each piece of data is the number of fares on one day.
- Minimum, the smallest value: 2
- First quartile, Q1, the left edge of the box: 12
- Median, the middle value, the line inside the box: 16
- Third quartile, Q3, the right edge of the box: 24
- Maximum, the largest value: 32
Learn what each part holds
These five numbers split the days into four parts. Each part holds about one fourth of the days, or about 25%. For example, about 25% of the days fall between the minimum and Q1. Another 25% fall between Q1 and the median.
Check choice D
Choice D talks about days with between 12 and 16 fares. 12 is Q1, and 16 is the median. That stretch is one of the four parts. So on about 25% of the days, there were between 12 and 16 fares. Choice D is correct.
Rule out choices B and C
Choice B: a box plot shows the median, 16, not the mean (the average). You cannot find the mean from it. Watch out: do not mix up the median and the mean.
Choice C says the IQR is 30. But 30 is the range, . Watch out: the IQR uses the edges of the box, not the ends of the whiskers.
Rule out choice A and answer
A long whisker does not make 2 an outlier. Use the cutoff rule.
2 is above −6, so 2 is not an outlier. The long whisker just shows that the lowest fourth of the days is spread out.
So the answer is D.
Check your answer
Go back over the four choices. Only D uses what a box plot really shows: four parts of about 25% each. Choice B needs the mean, which the plot does not show. Choice C gives the range, not the IQR. And 2 is not far enough out to be an outlier, so A is wrong.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 81 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 28Question
A community center has two 30-member exercise groups. The director recorded the ages of each group’s members in the box plots.
Which statement about the two groups can be verified based on the box plots?
- ABoth groups have at least one member who is exactly 29 years old.
- BGroup P has more members who are at least 17 years old than Group Q has.
- CBoth groups have an equal number of members who are between 21 and 24 years old.
- DGroup Q has fewer members who are between 19 and 27 years old than Group P has.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
Groups P and Q have an equal number of members. All the members of Group P are 17 or older, but only about of the members of Group Q are 17 or older.
Question analysis
Box plots show the ages of the members of two 30-member exercise groups at a community center, Group P and Group Q. Students decide which statement comparing the groups can be verified from the plots alone. The challenge is knowing what a box plot guarantees about individual ages and counts, and what it leaves unknown.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students read box plots and compare medians and spreads. Deciding which claims two box plots can prove, from what the five key values guarantee about counts, is a harder reasoning task than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked major
- Something you must already know moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 91 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 question about evidence: the right statement is the only one the box plots guarantee, while the others may or may not be true. Students who treat the plots as pictures of every member, assuming ages fill each whisker or spread evenly through each box, find support for claims that cannot be checked. Asking what must hold for any 30 ages with these summaries separates the verifiable claim from the merely plausible ones.
Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer
Three of the statements are not false but unverifiable, so each must be tested against what the five-number summaries guarantee, and none can be dismissed at a glance. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
Students must know that the minimum and maximum are actual ages, that each quarter of a plot holds about a quarter of the 30 members, and that a whisker shows nothing in between. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The scale is labeled only every 3 years, so values such as 17, 19, 26 and 29 have to be read from unlabeled ticks on two separate plots. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: List each group's minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile and maximum, then test every statement against only what those five values guarantee about the 30 ages.
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.
- Numbers taken from the question: Combines the numbers in the question without a model of the situation, or is simply a number that appears in the question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Sees that Group Q's maximum is exactly 29 and that 29 also lies in Group P's upper whisker, assuming someone in Group P is that age.
C Numbers taken from the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Matches the two medians, 21 and 24, and assumes the stretch between them holds the same number of members in both groups.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Knows Group P's box from 19 to 27 holds half its members, then assumes ages spread evenly so Group Q has fewer there, which its plot cannot show.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Members in each part of a box plot
- n is the number of members in a group, here 30. A box plot splits the data into four parts at the minimum, Q1, the median, Q3 and the maximum. Each part holds about one fourth of the data. It does not show how the ages spread out inside a part.
Read the two box plots
A box plot shows five numbers. The minimum is the youngest age, and the maximum is the oldest. Q1 is the left edge of the box, and Q3 is the right edge. The median is the line inside the box.
Group Min Q1 Median Q3 Max P 17 19 24 27 33 Q 15 17 21 26 29 Each group has 30 members.
Know what can be verified
To verify a statement means to know for sure that it is true. A box plot shows only five numbers, not every age. The minimum and maximum are real ages of real members. The other ages are hidden inside the box and whiskers.
Check choice B
In Group P, the youngest member is 17. So all 30 members are at least 17. In Group Q, the youngest member is 15, and 15 is under 17. So at most 29 members of Group Q are at least 17.
Group P has 30 such members, and Group Q has 29 or fewer. So choice B is true for sure.
Rule out choices A and C
A: Group Q’s oldest member is 29, so Group Q has a 29-year-old. But in Group P, 29 is inside the right whisker. A whisker does not show single ages. Watch out: 29 is in Group P’s range, but maybe no one in Group P is exactly 29.
C: The plots do not show how many members are between 21 and 24 in either group.
Rule out choice D and answer
Group P’s box, from 19 to 27, is two of its four parts.
So about 15 members of Group P are between 19 and 27. But 19 and 27 fall in the middle of Group Q’s parts, and ages inside a part can bunch up in any way. Group Q could have more or fewer. Watch out: D assumes the ages are spread out evenly, and a box plot never tells you that.
So the answer is B.
Check your answer
Choice B uses only the two minimums, which are real ages. Group P’s youngest member is 17, and Group Q’s is 15. That alone proves it. Each other choice needs ages inside a box or whisker, which a box plot does not show.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 82 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 30Question
GIA’S MIX
| Snack | Number in Bag |
|---|---|
| Pretzels | 12 |
| Raisins | 9 |
Gia and her friends counted the numbers of pretzels and raisins in their snack mix. The table above shows the numbers in Gia’s mix. Which other mix has a ratio of pretzels to raisins in the same proportional relationship as Gia’s mix?
- A
ADELE’S MIX
Snack Number in Bag Pretzels 6 Raisins 18 - B
CARL’S MIX
Snack Number in Bag Pretzels 15 Raisins 12 - C
ISABEL’S MIX
Snack Number in Bag Pretzels 18 Raisins 15 - D
TREVON’S MIX
Snack Number in Bag Pretzels 16 Raisins 12
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The ratio of pretzels to raisins in Gia’s bag of snack mix, , is equivalent to the ratio of pretzels to raisins in Trevon’s bag, .
Question analysis
Gia's snack mix table lists how many pretzels and raisins are in her bag, and four friends' tables list theirs. Students pick the mix whose ratio of pretzels to raisins matches Gia's. It tests equivalent ratios and proportional relationships, and some mixes look close at a glance, so each ratio has to be tested exactly.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Testing whether two ratios are equivalent is core grade 7 proportional reasoning. The numbers are small whole numbers in four short tables, so the work is routine, though every table has to be checked against Gia's.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 4, 77 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
A short ratio check made harder only by an additive pull: Carl's and Isabel's mixes keep the gap of 3 between pretzels and raisins that Gia's mix has, so students who compare differences instead of ratios see two matches. Reducing every table to lowest terms, Gia's 12:9 to 4:3, shows that exactly one mix keeps the ratio.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each of the four tables has to be reduced in turn, to 1:3, 5:4, 6:5 and 4:3, because none of them can be ruled out at a glance. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question
The counts sit in five separate tables, and pretzels must stay first in every ratio, in the same order as Gia's 12 pretzels to 9 raisins. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Simplify the pretzels-to-raisins ratio in Gia's table to lowest terms, then simplify each other mix's ratio in the same order and compare.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Halves Gia's 12 pretzels and doubles her 9 raisins, which keeps the product 108 the same but changes the ratio from 4:3 to 1:3.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Adds 3 to both of Gia's counts, 12 + 3 and 9 + 3, keeping the difference of 3 instead of the ratio; 15:12 reduces to 5:4.
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Adds 6 to both counts, giving 18 and 15, so pretzels still outnumber raisins by 3, but 18:15 reduces to 6:5, not 4:3.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Equivalent ratios
- a and b are the two amounts being compared, in order. k is any number that divides both evenly. Dividing both amounts by the same number keeps the ratio the same. When no number but 1 divides both, the ratio is in simplest form.
Sort out the question
A ratio compares two amounts. Gia’s mix has 12 pretzels and 9 raisins. So her ratio of pretzels to raisins is 12 : 9.
The “same proportional relationship” means the ratios are equal once you simplify them. For example, 2 : 1 and 6 : 3 are equal. Always keep pretzels first and raisins second.
Simplify Gia’s ratio
Both 12 and 9 can be divided by 3. So divide both by 3.
Gia’s mix has 4 pretzels for every 3 raisins.
Simplify each other mix
Do the same for each choice. Divide both numbers by the biggest number that goes into both.
Choice Pretzels : raisins Divide by Simplest form A, Adele 6 : 18 6 1 : 3 B, Carl 15 : 12 3 5 : 4 C, Isabel 18 : 15 3 6 : 5 D, Trevon 16 : 12 4 4 : 3 Pick the matching mix
Only Trevon’s mix simplifies to 4 : 3, the same as Gia’s.
Watch out: Carl’s and Isabel’s mixes each have 3 more pretzels than raisins, just like Gia’s. But adding the same number to both amounts changes the ratio. Equal ratios come from multiplying or dividing. That trap leads to choice B or C.
So the answer is D, Trevon’s mix.
Check your answer
Go the other way. Multiply both parts of 4 : 3 by 4. You get 16 : 12, which are Trevon’s exact numbers. You can also divide pretzels by raisins. Both and equal .
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 83 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 42Question
Jevon earns per year on the money in his savings account. Which expression is not another way to write ?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
Rewrite the percent as a decimal:
So the correct answer must not equal 0.005:
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
All answer options except Option A equal 0.005. Therefore, Option A is the correct answer.
Question analysis
Jevon's savings account earns one-half percent a year, and students must find the expression that is not another way to write one-half percent. It tests converting a percent less than 1 into fractions and decimals. Reading the word not carefully, and evaluating each stacked or unfamiliar fraction correctly, are what make it tricky.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Converting between percents, fractions and decimals is grade 6 and 7 work. A percent smaller than 1 is less familiar, and the question asks which form is not equal, so all four must be checked, which keeps it at typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A question in the negative moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Error-prone arithmetic minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 25 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 expression is built from the same idea, so the question tests whether students can convert a percent smaller than 1 without losing track of decimal places. The odd one out, 0.005 over 100, looks like a correct form, because 0.005 is one-half percent and dividing by 100 seems to turn it into a percent. Converting one-half percent to 0.005 once and comparing each expression with it beats reasoning about each form.
A question in the negative moderate Understanding the question
The bold word not asks for the one expression unequal to one-half percent, so the three expressions that check out are exactly the ones to reject. (Haladyna, Downing & Rodriguez, 2002)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Three of the four forms are equal, so each has to be converted to a decimal and compared with 0.005 before the odd one out can be named. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Error-prone arithmetic minor Working it out
One-half percent is 0.5 with the point moved two places, 0.005, and dividing that by 100 moves it two more places, to 0.00005. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Strategy: Write one-half percent as a single decimal by dividing one half by 100, then evaluate each expression as a decimal and compare it with that value.
Traps
- NOT, LEAST or EXCEPT: The question asks for the exception, the least, or what is not true.
- Answer in another form: The right answer is written differently from the way you worked it out.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Misses the bold not and picks the expression that equals one-half percent most plainly, one half over 100, the literal meaning of percent.
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Believes a percent must be written over 100, so 5 over 1,000 looks like a different number, though both equal 0.005.
D An arithmetic slip (Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Divides 1 by 200 and misplaces the decimal point, getting 0.05 instead of 0.005, so 1/200 seems not to equal one-half percent.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Percent as a fraction
- p is any number. The % sign means out of 100. So p percent is p divided by 100. Dividing by 100 moves the decimal point two places to the left.
Sort out the question
The question asks which expression is not equal to . So three choices are equal to it, and one is different. You need the odd one out.
Write the percent as a decimal
One half is 0.5. A percent means out of 100, so divide by 100.
So is 0.005. It is half of one percent, a very small amount.
Test each choice
Turn each choice into a decimal. Then compare it with 0.005.
Choice Work it out Equal to 0.005? A No B Yes C Yes D Yes Pick the one that is different
Choice A divides by 100 twice. The 0.005 was already divided by 100 once. Dividing again makes it 100 times too small.
Watch out: Choice B is the plainest way to write : one half over 100. Picking it means missing the word “not.” Also, 1 ÷ 200 is 0.005, not 0.05, so D is equal too.
So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
Use fractions instead. Half of one hundredth is , which is choice D. And simplifies to too. Only A is a different amount.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 84 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 46Question
The least positive integer evenly divisible by the first 6 positive integers is 60. What is the least positive integer evenly divisible by the first 8 positive integers?
- A1,680
- B840
- C480
- D420
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
Each option is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Option A:
1,680 is evenly divisible by the first 8 positive integers.
Option B:
840 is evenly divisible by the first 8 positive integers and is less than 1,680.
Option C:
480 is not evenly divisible by 7.
Option D:
420 is not evenly divisible by 8.
Option B (840) is the correct answer.
Question analysis
Knowing that 60 is the smallest number divisible by each of 1 through 6, students find the smallest positive integer divisible by each of 1 through 8. It tests least common multiples and prime factors. The challenge is adding only the factors that 7 and 8 really need, so the result works for all eight numbers and is still the least.
- NYS standards
- 6.NS.4 common factors and multiples
- Grade level
- Grade 6 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Least common multiples are grade 6 content, usually for two small numbers. Extending the given result from six numbers to eight means deciding what 7 and 8 add, more reasoning than typical classwork but no new content.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 13, 25 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A rounded decimal 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 given fact, 60 for the first six integers, is a head start, but only for students who see what 7 and 8 add. Multiplying 60 by 7 is needed; multiplying by all of 8 is not, since 60 already supplies two of its three factors of 2. Students who multiply by the new numbers whole get answers that are too large or that miss one divisor, so checking the smaller choices first is the efficient route.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Both 1,680 and 840 are divisible by 7 and by 8, so testing the choices is safe only from the smallest up; 420 fails for 8 and 480 for 7. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Building on 60 needs prime factors: 7 adds a new prime, while 8 = 2 × 2 × 2 needs only one more 2, since 60 already holds two. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Start from 60 and ask which extra prime factors 7 and 8 require, or test the choices from the smallest up for divisibility by both 7 and 8.
Traps
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
The wrong answers, classified
A Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Multiplies 60 by 7 and by 4 to cover 8, getting 1,680, which all of 1 to 8 divide, but overlooks that the question wants the least.
C Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Multiplies 60 by 8 to bring in the 8 but never checks divisibility by 7, which 480 fails.
D Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Multiplies 60 by 7 to bring in the 7 and stops, but 420 has only two factors of 2, so 8 does not divide it.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: To show that 480 is not evenly divisible by 7, the handbook writes 480 ÷ 7 = 68.57. The quotient is really 68.571428…, a decimal that never ends, so 68.57 is only a rounded value. The site writes 480 ÷ 7 ≈ 68.57, as the handbook itself does for other rounded results in this test. The point of the step is unchanged: the quotient is not a whole number, so 480 is not evenly divisible by 7 and is not divisible by all of the first 8 positive integers.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Evenly divisible
- a is the number you test, and b is the number you divide by. If the answer is a whole number, with no remainder, a is evenly divisible by b. Then b is a factor of a.
Sort out the question
The first 8 positive integers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. “Evenly divisible” means dividing leaves no remainder.
You need the least, or smallest, number that all 8 of them divide. You are told that 60 is the smallest for 1 to 6. So build on 60.
Bring in the 7
60 is not divisible by 7. And 7 is prime, which means its only factors are 1 and 7. So the new number needs a factor of 7. Multiply 60 by 7.
Bring in the 8
8 is , so the number needs three 2s as factors. But 420 has only two: , and 105 is odd. Multiply by one more 2.
Now and . Both are whole numbers.
Test the choices from smallest up
Choice D: . That is not a whole number, so 420 fails.
Choice C: . The ≈ sign means about, since the decimal never ends. It is not a whole number, so 480 fails.
Choice B: 840 works for 7 and 8. It also works for 1 to 6, since .
Watch out: 1,680, choice A, works too. But it is twice 840, so it is not the least.
So the answer is B, 840.
Check your answer
Divide 840 by each number from 1 to 8. You get 840, 420, 280, 210, 168, 140, 120 and 105. Every answer is a whole number, so 840 works for all eight.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 85 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 49Question
Suppose that w, x, y, and z are integers, none of which are zero. Under which set of conditions would the product 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 .
will always be a positive number.
y can be a positive or a negative number.
can be a positive or a negative number.
will always be a positive number.
The expressions and will always be positive. Therefore, making the values of y and z negative would result in the expression 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
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Checks only one number (Schoenfeld, 1985)
Tests the choice with every variable positive, so the product is positive and it seems to work; y = −1 with z = 1 would make it negative.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Pairs the negatives x and w as if they must cancel, not seeing that x² and |w| are positive anyway, so y and z still decide.
D Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Counts two negative letters, x and y, as an even number of negatives, but x² is positive, so y is the only negative factor.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Signs in multiplication
- a and b are positive numbers, so −a and −b are negative. A negative times a negative is positive. A negative times a positive is negative. So a product is positive when it has an even number of negative factors.
Sort out the question
w, x, y and z are integers, meaning whole numbers or their negatives. None of them is 0. The product means .
You need the conditions that make the product positive every time, for every number that fits them.
Look at x squared and |w|
means x × x. Two positives or two negatives multiply to a positive. So is always positive.
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.
Look at y and z cubed
y can be positive or negative. means z × z × z, and it has the same sign as z. For example, .
So the sign of the whole product is the sign of . It depends only on y and z.
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 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 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 , which is positive. Even with x and w negative, the product stays positive.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 86 of 120
2024 Test B Math, question 57Question
If x and y are both negative integers with , which expression has the least value?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
Since x and y are both negative integers, both and are positive.
Therefore, both and are negative, and both and are positive.
Because and both x and y are negative, and . So .
Since and x and y are integers, .
So .
Therefore, .
Question analysis
Two negative integers x and y, with x less than y, appear in four expressions built from squares and minus signs. Students find the expression with the least value. It tests multiplying negative numbers and comparing their sizes, and the difficulty is tracking how each minus sign and each square changes both the sign and the size of the result.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students multiply negative numbers, but this asks them to compare four variable expressions for any pair of negative integers. Deciding how the squares compare when x is less than y goes beyond typical grade 7 sign practice.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 20 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two facts settle the question: squares of negatives are positive, and the more negative number has the larger square. Students who track the minus signs carelessly think a leading minus makes an expression negative, and students who assume the larger y has the larger square choose the wrong negative expression. Substituting x = −3 and y = −2 gives −18, −12, 18 and 12, which orders all four at once.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
No values are given, only that x and y are negative integers with x < y, so students must reason about signs or invent a pair such as −3 and −2. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
x²y and xy² use the same letters with the exponent moved; both are negative, and only comparing x² with y² separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four expressions have to be placed in order, because the minus signs in front of the last two turn those expressions positive. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Pick two negative integers with x less than y, such as −3 and −2, evaluate all four expressions, and confirm the order with a second pair.
Traps
- Negatives and direction: Arithmetic with negative numbers, the order of a subtraction, or direction on a number line. (Moving a term across the equals sign without changing its sign is a faulty procedure.)
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Knows x²y and xy² are both negative but takes y² as the larger square because y > x, though the more negative x has the bigger square.
C Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Reads the leading minus as making −x²y negative, missing that y is negative, so −x²y is in fact positive.
D Negatives and direction (Brown & Burton, 1978)
Assumes the leading minus makes −xy² negative, missing that x is negative, so −xy² is in fact positive.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Signs in multiplication
- a and b are positive numbers, so −a and −b are negative. A negative times a negative is positive. A negative times a positive is negative. So a product is positive when it has an even number of negative factors.
- Squaring a number
- x is any number. x² (x squared) means x times itself. The square of a number other than 0 is always positive, because two negatives or two positives multiply to a positive.
Sort out the question
x and y are negative integers, such as −3 and −2. Since x < y, x is to the left of y on the number line. So x is more negative, farther from 0.
You need the expression with the least value. That is the most negative one.
Find the sign of each expression
Squares are positive, so and are positive.
- is a positive times a negative, so it is negative.
- is a negative times a positive, so it is negative.
- and are the opposites of these, so they are positive.
So the least value must be A or B. Watch out: The minus sign in front of C and D does not make them negative. It turns a negative into a positive.
Compare A and B with numbers
Try x = −3 and y = −2, since −3 < −2.
Since −18 < −12, A is smaller.
See why it always works
Both expressions contain x × y, which is positive. and . Multiplying the same positive number by the more negative x gives the more negative result.
Watch out: y is bigger than x, but is smaller than : 4 is less than 9. Thinking y² is bigger leads to choice B.
So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
Try another pair, x = −5 and y = −1. Then A is , B is , C is 25 and D is 5. A is still the least.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 87 of 120
2023 Test A English, question 3Question
How should this sentence be revised?
To promote their club, a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team on Wednesday.
- ATo promote their club, on Wednesday a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team.
- BOn Wednesday, to promote their club, a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team.
- CTo promote their club, members of the debate team will sponsor a bake sale on Wednesday.
- DMembers of the debate team, on Wednesday to promote their club, will sponsor a bake sale.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the correct revision of the sentence in the box.
A. Incorrect. The revisions do not fix the error that “to promote their club” modifies “a bake sale.”
B. Incorrect. The revisions do not fix the error that “to promote their club” modifies “a bake sale.”
C. CORRECT. The revision is correct because it includes the phrase “to promote their club” clearly modifying “members of the debate team.”
D. Incorrect. While the revision clarifies that “to promote their club” relates to the “members of the debate team,” the rest of the sentence is poorly written because the insertion of “on Wednesday to promote their club” in the middle of the sentence interrupts the main clause, “Members of the debate team will sponsor a bake sale.”
Question analysis
This sentence-structure question gives one sentence about a debate team’s bake sale, planned for Wednesday to promote their club, and asks how it should be revised. The four rewrites shuffle the same three phrases into different orders, so students must check which word each phrase modifies and whether the whole sentence still reads naturally.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Placing a phrase so that it describes the right word is part of the grade 7 language standards, and this one-sentence item is a classic case. Choosing the rewrite that is both logical and smooth is typical grade 7 editing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 92 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 sentence makes sense on a first reading, which is exactly why its error slips past students who edit by ear. Asking who is promoting the club exposes it and removes both rewrites that keep the bake sale as the subject, however neatly they are punctuated. What is left is a judgment of style, and the smoother rewrite keeps the subject and verb together instead of interrupting them with two phrases.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
“To promote their club” has to describe whatever comes right after its comma, and that is “a bake sale”; the meaning is so plain that few students notice the sale doing the promoting. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The original is passive, “a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team,” which places the people who act after the verb, far from the phrase that should describe them. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each rewrite rearranges the opening phrase, the time phrase and the main clause, so each has to be read through to see what follows “To promote their club” and whether anything splits a subject from its verb. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
Two rewrites make the team members the subject of “will sponsor” with identical words; they part only on where the two phrases go, at the edges of the sentence or wedged between subject and verb. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Ask who is really doing the promoting, then read each rewrite aloud in full, checking which words follow the opening phrase and whether the sentence reads smoothly from start to finish.
Traps
- Misplaced modifier: A describing word or phrase that attaches to the wrong word, or to nothing in the sentence.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Moves “on Wednesday” ahead of the bake sale as if the time phrase were the misplaced part, but the sentence stays passive and the sale is still what “To promote their club” describes.
B Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Is drawn by the tidy commas around both fronted phrases, yet “a bake sale” still comes straight after them, so the sale remains the thing promoting the club.
D Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Rightly makes “Members of the debate team” the subject but parks “on Wednesday to promote their club” between it and “will sponsor,” a clumsy break the smoother rewrite avoids.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the best way to rewrite the sentence. This is about a modifier. A modifier is a group of words that describes something else in the sentence. Here the opening words, “To promote their club,” are the modifier. Your job is to check what they describe.
Learn the rule for opening phrases
A sentence may start with a describing phrase and a comma. Then the phrase describes whatever comes right after the comma. So the one doing the action should come next.
Wrong: To get good seats, the line was joined early by Ana. A line can’t want good seats.
Right: To get good seats, Ana joined the line early.Find the problem in the sentence
To promote a club means to get people interested in it. In the sentence, the words right after the comma are “a bake sale.” So the sentence seems to say the bake sale is promoting the club. But a bake sale doesn’t have a club. The club belongs to the “members of the debate team.” They should come right after the comma, and they should do the action: they “will sponsor a bake sale.”
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It moves “on Wednesday” forward. But the bake sale is still what the opening phrase describes.
- B is wrong. It puts “On Wednesday,” at the front. The commas look neat, but “a bake sale” still follows “to promote their club.”
- C is right. “Members of the debate team” comes right after the comma. They are the ones promoting their club.
- D is wrong. The members come first. But “on Wednesday to promote their club” is stuck between the subject (who does the action) and the verb (the action word).
Watch out: D is tempting, since the members do the promoting. But its long middle part breaks up the main idea.
Choose the answer
C fixes the modifier and reads smoothly: To promote their club, members of the debate team will sponsor a bake sale on Wednesday. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. Like C, it makes the members the ones who promote the club. But D pushes a long phrase between “Members of the debate team” and “will sponsor.” C keeps the subject and the verb side by side, so it is easier to read.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 88 of 120
2023 Test A English, question 48Passage Excerpt from Winter Wheat
Excerpt from Winter Wheat
by Mildred Walker
Ellen, the narrator, is preparing to leave her parents and the family farm for college the next day.
I love Dad’s way of talking that makes him seem different from other ranchers. He’s lived here twenty-three years, but he still says “back East where I come from.” He’s the one who gets excited when I do about spring coming or a serial running in the magazine we’re both reading, but it’s what Mom says that I depend on. When Mom used to say “Don’t worry” about my pet chicken or dog or new calf, it always got well. Dad is always talking of going some place, not now, but next year, maybe. Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning.
Mom folded the ironing board and put it inside their bedroom that was just off the kitchen. She carried in the freshly ironed clothes. Dad went back to his paper. When Mom came back she took beans from the cupboard to soak for tomorrow. Dad always said Mom could make all the dishes he’d had back in Vermont as well as though she were a New Englander herself, instead of a Russian. All of a sudden, I realized that tomorrow when those beans would be ready to eat I’d be going away. It gave me a funny feeling.
“I’ll be taking the train tomorrow night,” I said aloud, more to hear it myself.
“We can drive you into town in the afternoon,” Dad said, dropping his paper on the floor.
“There’s no need to go to town; she can catch the train at Gotham just as well. We haven’t nothing to take us into town for,” Mom said.
“Well, we don’t have to decide tonight,” Dad said, but I knew he wanted to go into Clark City. It wouldn’t be so flat as just seeing me go off on the train from Gotham. My going away was hard on both of them; they were so different—and I was part of them both. It made me uncomfortable to think of leaving them.
While I was getting ready for bed in my room that’s off the front room, I saw how it would be if I left from town. We’d go in right after dinner and go around to the stores, Dad going one way and Mom and I another. Dad would probably have his hair cut at the barbershop and stop in the bank and meet someone he knew to talk to. Then we’d meet at the big store on the corner and go to the cafeteria for supper. The train stops ten minutes or so at the station in town and there are other people and excitement and you have time to wave from the platform and then again from your window by your seat. We went to the station in Clark City to see the Goodals off when they went back to Iowa.
If I left from Gotham, we’d just drive down in the truck and wait till the train came. It only stops long enough for you to get on and you hardly have time to taste the flavor of going away.
I sat on the bed in my pyjamas with my arms around my knees. I couldn’t keep from thinking of that time Dad went back East. I tried to, and then I just sat still and looked straight at it. Sometimes that’s better than working so hard to keep from looking at what’s in your mind.
Dad went all the way back to Vermont. . . . It was in November and it was already dark when the train came through Gotham. Even now, I could feel how cold and dark it was. I held Mom’s hand. Dad was so dressed-up he seemed strange. . . . We stood there without saying anything until Dad told Mom to remember to call Mr. Bardich, our neighbor, if the cow didn’t calve tomorrow.
“I’ll manage,” Mom snapped back.
“I wish you could go, Anna,” Dad said to Mom, “and we could take Ellen.” . . .
“Good-by, Anna Petrovna,” he said, looking at Mom. I had never heard him call her by two names before.
“Good-by,” Mom said, standing still, without smiling.
Then he was gone and the crossroads were darker than ever. The train light shone on the high window in the top of the grain elevator for a moment and then that too was dark. We got into our old Ford and Mom drove back to the house. My throat ached all the way. The name Dad had called Mom kept saying itself in my ears: “Anna Petrovna, Anna Petrovna.” . . .
Our house seemed lonely when we came back to it. It seemed to be hiding under the coulee. I went with Mom to put the truck in the barn that was bigger than the house. I think Mom was prouder of our barn than the house, anyway. We walked back to look at the cow that was going to calve. She was just a big light blob in the dark, waiting. I had thought she was exciting this morning, but now she seemed sad, too.
The wind blew when we walked across the open space to the house and I couldn’t help shivering with the cold. Inside the house it was warm, but empty.
“Bring your nightgown in here and I heat you some milk,” Mom said.
I drank the milk sitting on a stool in front of the stove. It tasted good, but the lonely ache in my throat was still there. I picked up my clothes and hung them neatly behind the stove and put my cup on the sink board. Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning.
“Good night, Mom,” I said almost timidly, standing beside her. She seemed wrapped around in a kind of strangeness. Then she turned around and drew me to her. The front of her dress was warm from the stove. I felt the comfortable heat through my gown. She laid her hand against my face and it felt rough and hard but firm. I dared ask her something I wanted to know.
“Mom, was that really your name—what Dad called you?”
Her voice sounded surprised. “Why, Yeléna, you know that; Anna Petrovna. You know I am born in Russia, in Seletskoe.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know your other name,” I said.
“Anna Petrovna Webb.” She pronounced it slowly. “Once I think what a funny name Ben Webb is!” She laughed. Her laugh was warm and low like our kitchen, and comfortable. The house seemed natural and right again. . . .
But now that I am grown, I feel the wall of strangeness between them, more than when I was a child. I wondered how they would get along without me.
From WINTER WHEAT by Mildred Walker, published by University of Nebraska Press. Copyright © 1944 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1971 by Mildred Walker. All rights reserved.
serial: story published in short segments at regular intervals
coulee: small gulch or ravine
Question
Which sentence from the excerpt provides evidence that Ellen has a lot in common with her father?
- A“He’s the one who gets excited when I do about spring coming or a serial running in the magazine we’re both reading. . . .” (paragraph 1)
- B“ ‘We can drive you into town in the afternoon,’ Dad said, dropping his paper on the floor.” (paragraph 4)
- C“ ‘Well, we don’t have to decide tonight,’ Dad said, but I knew he wanted to go into Clark City.” (paragraph 6)
- D“I wondered how they would get along without me.” (paragraph 25)
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which sentence from the excerpt provides evidence that Ellen has a lot in common with her father.
A. CORRECT. This sentence from paragraph 1 shows that Ellen and her father both get excited about the coming of spring and share an interest in reading magazine serials (stories published in serial installments). The sentence implies that Ellen and her father have shared likes and interests, and therefore, it provides clear evidence that they have a lot in common.
B. Incorrect. While this sentence from paragraph 4 highlights the warm relationship between Ellen and her father and shows that he would like to take her to the train station in town, it does not provide clear evidence that they share a lot in common.
C. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 6 implies that Ellen understands her father well enough to intuit his preference to go to the train station in town (“but I knew he wanted to go into Clark City”), their closeness is not clear evidence that Ellen and her father have a lot in common.
D. Incorrect. While this sentence from paragraph 25 shows Ellen’s concern about the effect that her leaving the farm will have on her parents, it does not provide clear evidence that Ellen and her father have a lot in common.
Question analysis
This evidence question on an excerpt from Mildred Walker’s novel Winter Wheat, in which Ellen gets ready to leave her parents’ farm for college, asks which sentence shows that Ellen has a lot in common with her father. The four quotations, from paragraphs 1, 4, 6 and 25, all involve Ellen and her family, so each must be checked for what it really shows.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Finding the sentence that supports an idea about a character is standard grade 7 evidence work. The novel’s language is plain and the idea concrete, but every quotation involves Ellen’s family, so each must be read in its paragraph before it is judged.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 80 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 88 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 asks for likeness, not affection, and three of the quotations show Ellen’s ties to her family in other ways: her father offers to drive her into town, she knows a wish he does not voice, and she wonders how her parents will manage once she is gone. Only one sentence shows father and daughter reacting the same way to the same things, the coming of spring and a magazine story. Students who read “a lot in common” as “close” are drawn to the line where Ellen reads his mind.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every quotation involves Ellen and her parents, and three show a bond of another kind, an offer of a ride, a guessed wish, a worry about leaving, so each must be tested for shared tastes rather than care. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The right sentence neither names Dad nor says “in common”: students must trace “He’s” back to Dad earlier in paragraph 1 and hear shared interests in “when I do” and “we’re both reading.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Decide what having a lot in common would mean for two people, then reread each quotation in its paragraph and ask whether it shows that or some other side of how Ellen and her father relate.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes Dad’s quick offer to drive Ellen into town, made as he drops his paper, as a sign that the two are alike, but it shows his care for her, not tastes they share.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees Ellen reading Dad’s unspoken wish to go into Clark City, a send-off she also prefers, but one shared preference shows that she understands him, not that they have a lot in common.
D True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks Ellen’s closing worry about how her parents will manage without her, a true picture of her concern, but it covers both parents and shows nothing she shares with Dad.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is an evidence question. You need the sentence that shows Ellen has “a lot in common” with her father. Two people have a lot in common when they like the same things and share the same interests. Being close, or caring about each other, is not the same thing. Keep that difference in mind.
Look at the sentence in paragraph 1
In paragraph 1, Ellen is telling about her dad, so “He’s” means Dad. She says he “gets excited when I do about spring coming or a serial running in the magazine we’re both reading.” A serial is a story printed in parts, with a new part in each issue of a magazine.
Work out what it means
The words “when I do” mean Dad gets excited at the same times Ellen does. They both look forward to spring. They both read the same magazine story and enjoy it. Those are two interests they share. In the same paragraph, Ellen compares her parents. Dad is the one who shares her excitement. Mom is the one whose words she counts on.
Check each choice
- A is right. It names two things that excite both of them: spring and a magazine story.
- B is wrong. In paragraph 4, Dad quickly offers to drive Ellen into town for her train. That shows he cares, not that they like the same things.
- C is wrong. In paragraph 6, Ellen says, “but I knew he wanted to go into Clark City.” She understands him well. But knowing what someone wants is not sharing his interests.
- D is wrong. In paragraph 25, “they” means Mom and Dad. Ellen worries about both. That is not something she shares with Dad.
Watch out: C is tempting because it shows Ellen and Dad are close. But being close is not having a lot in common.
Choose the answer
Only A shows Ellen and her dad getting excited about the same things: spring and a story they both read. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. It shows that Ellen can tell what her dad wants without his saying it. That proves they are close. But the question asks what they have in common. A names two shared interests: spring coming and a serial “we’re both reading.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the test
Question 89 of 120
2023 Test A Math, question 12Question
If n is an integer and is an even number, which expression must also represent an even number?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The expression is equal to , and it is given that this is an even number. The expression must also represent an even number, because 3 is an odd number: if were odd, would be the product of two odd numbers, which is an odd number. If is an even number, then n must be an odd number. Choose an odd number to substitute for n in the answer options to find which expression represents an even number:
Let .
Option A:
Option B:
Option C:
Option D:
Since 16 is the only even number, the correct answer is option A.
Question analysis
This number properties question says that 3n + 3 is even for an integer n and asks which of four expressions must also be even. Students reason about odd and even numbers written with a variable. The hidden step is deciding what the given fact says about n itself before testing the expressions.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students rewrite and evaluate expressions, but rarely reason about whether an expression is odd or even for every value of a variable. Here that reasoning comes in two layers: first about n, then about each choice.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 9, 23 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation gave the wrong reason why n + 1 must be even; the reason was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question hides its key step: 3n + 3 = 3(n + 1), and since 3 is odd, n + 1 must be even, so n is odd. A student who skips that step and tests a convenient even value never checks the condition and lands on a wrong expression. Once n is known to be odd, any odd test value, such as 1, picks out 5n + 1 at once.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
No value of n is given; the only fact is that 3n + 3 is even, and it has to be turned into a fact about n itself, that n is odd, before any choice is judged. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The parity rules are assumed, not stated: an odd number times an odd number is odd, and an even number plus an odd number is odd. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each expression has to be tested with an odd n or by parity rules; three of the four come out odd whenever n is odd, so none can be dismissed on sight. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: First work out what 3n + 3 being even says about n, by factoring out 3 or testing small integers, then check each expression with a value of n that fits.
Traps
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Sees the even term 4n and treats the whole expression as even, overlooking that adding the odd 5 makes 4n + 5 odd for every integer n.
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Assumes an expression that starts with 2n must be even, though 2n + 3 is an even number plus 3 and so is always odd.
D Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Tests n = 2 without checking the condition, though 3(2) + 3 = 9 is odd; with n = 2, only n + 2 = 4 comes out even.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation said that n + 1 must be even “because 3 is an odd number and the product of an odd number and an even number is an even number.” That fact does not show that n + 1 is even; the reason is that if n + 1 were odd, 3(n + 1) would be the product of two odd numbers, which is odd, and it is given as even. The site now gives that reason. The answer, A, is unchanged.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Pulling out a common factor
- a is a factor, a number being multiplied, that both terms share. b and c are what is left. This is the distributive property run backward. It turns a sum into a product, which is easier to reason about.
- Multiplying odd numbers
- An even number splits into pairs, like 2, 4 or 6. An odd number has one left over, like 1, 3 or 5. An odd number of odd groups always leaves one extra. So the product is odd.
- Adding odd and even numbers
- Two odd numbers each have one left over. Together the two extras make a pair, so the sum is even. An even number plus an odd number still has one left over, so the sum is odd.
Sort out the question
n is an integer, a whole number that can be positive, negative or 0. You are told that is even. You need the expression that must be even too. Must means it is even every time. First find out what the fact tells you about n.
Pull out the 3
Both terms in have a factor of 3. Pull it out.
So 3 times is an even number.
Decide whether n is odd or even
3 is odd. If were odd, would be odd times odd. That is always odd. But we are told it is even. So must be even. One less than an even number is odd. So n is odd. Watch out: don’t test n = 2. Then , which is odd. With n = 2, only comes out even, choice D.
Test each choice with an odd n
Pick an odd number, n = 3. It fits, since is even.
- A: , even
- B: , odd
- C: , odd
- D: , odd
Only A is even.
Make sure A always works
Must means every odd n, not just 3. If n is odd, 5n is odd times odd, so it is odd. Odd plus 1 is even. So is always even. Watch out: 4n is even, but adding the odd 5 makes odd, choice B. In the same way, is always odd, choice C. So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
Try another odd number, n = 1. Then , which is even, so n = 1 fits. And is even too. The other three choices give 9, 5 and 3, all odd. Choice A wins again.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 90 of 120
2023 Test A Math, question 15Question
A swim instructor used the box plot below to display the distribution of the ages of students who signed up for swim lessons.
Which statement about the distribution of ages is true?
- AThe data contain an outlier.
- BApproximately half the students are exactly 9 years old.
- CApproximately one-fourth of the students are at least 10 years old.
- DThe interquartile range is 3 greater than the range of the data.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The data points in the box plot are as follows:
- minimum: 7
- first quartile: 8
- median: 9
- third quartile: 10
- maximum: 12
Since the value of the third quartile is 10, approximately one-fourth of the students are 10–12 years old.
Question analysis
A swim instructor's box plot shows the ages of students who signed up for lessons. Students decide which of four statements about the distribution is true, using the minimum, quartiles, median and maximum. The statements test different box plot ideas, including outliers, the median, the quartiles and the range, so each needs its own check.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 New York places box plots, the interquartile range and outliers in grade 7. Here four statements test those ideas one at a time; each check is short, so the item matches typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Something you must already know moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 66 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
Reading the five values off the plot is quick; the work is knowing what a box plot can and cannot say. It shows where quarters of the data begin and end, not how many students share any one age, and a long whisker is not an outlier unless it passes the 1.5 × IQR cutoff, here 13. The true statement uses the third quartile: about a quarter of the students are 10 or older.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
The statements rely on box plot facts the question does not give: each section holds about a quarter of the data, the middle line is the median, and outliers lie beyond 1.5 IQRs. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Four statements test four separate ideas, an outlier, the share at one age, a quarter of the data and two spreads, so ruling one out says nothing about the rest. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question
The five values, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12, are read off a 5-to-13 scale, where the longer right whisker draws the eye more than the box does. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Read the five key values off the plot, then test each statement: compute the range, the interquartile range and the outlier cutoffs, and recall what share of the data each part holds.
Traps
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
- Wrong formula: Uses a related but wrong formula: perimeter for area, diameter for radius, area for volume, or a misremembered one.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Takes the long right whisker, reaching 12, as a sign of an outlier, but 12 is below the cutoff 10 + 1.5 × 2 = 13.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Reads the median line at 9 as the age of half the students, though a median only splits the ages into a lower and an upper half.
D Wrong formula (King et al., 2004)
Swaps the two measures, taking the box's 2 years as the range and the whiskers' 5 years as the interquartile range, so the IQR seems 3 greater.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Range
- The maximum is the largest value, the right end of a box plot. The minimum is the smallest, the left end. The range is how far apart they are. It shows how spread out all the data are.
- Interquartile range
- IQR is short for interquartile range. Q1, the first quartile, is the left edge of the box. Q3, the third quartile, is the right edge. The IQR is the width of the box. It is the spread of the middle half of the data. The four parts of a box plot each hold about one-fourth of the data.
- Outlier test
- An outlier is a value far from the rest of the data. A common rule says a value is an outlier if it lies more than 1.5 IQRs below Q1 or above Q3.
Read the five values off the plot
A box plot shows five numbers. The median is the middle value when the ages are in order.
Part Age Minimum, the left whisker’s end 7 First quartile, Q1, the box’s left edge 8 Median, the line in the box 9 Third quartile, Q3, the box’s right edge 10 Maximum, the right whisker’s end 12 Check choice A, an outlier
An outlier would be above 13 or below 5. The ages only run from 7 to 12. So there is no outlier. Watch out: a long whisker is not an outlier. It just means the top ages are spread out. Choice A is false.
Check choice B, the median
The median, 9, is the middle age. About half the students are 9 or younger. About half are 9 or older. It does not tell how many are exactly 9. Watch out: the median line does not mean half the students are 9. Choice B is false.
Check choice C, the top fourth
The box plot splits the students into four groups of about the same size. Each group holds about one-fourth of them. The last group runs from Q3, 10, to the maximum, 12. At least 10 means 10 or more. So about one-fourth of the students are at least 10 years old. Choice C is true.
Check choice D, the two spreads
The IQR is 3 less than the range, not 3 greater. The box always fits inside the whiskers, so the IQR can never be bigger. Watch out: swapping the two measures gives choice D. So the answer is C: about one-fourth of the students are at least 10 years old.
Check your answer
Picture 20 students. About 5 would be in each fourth of the plot. The top 5 would be ages 10 to 12. That is about one-fourth, just as choice C says. Each other choice fails a fact you can read straight off the plot.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 91 of 120
2023 Test A Math, question 22Question
The numbers m, n, p, and q are different, and each is equal to one of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, or 12. If , what is the value of p?
- A2
- B3
- C6
- D12
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
Substitute each answer option for p to see which value will work:
Option A:
If , then , so . This cannot be the answer, because n cannot equal 4.
Option B:
If , then , so . This cannot be the answer, because q cannot equal 0.5.
Option C:
If , then , so ; , so ; and , so . This is the correct answer.
Option D:
If , then , so . This cannot be the answer, because n cannot equal 24.
Question analysis
Four letters, m, n, p and q, stand for different numbers from the list 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12, and the expressions 2m, 6q, half of n, and p are all equal. Students find the value of p. The puzzle-like setup has no single equation to solve, so testing values against every condition is the reliable route.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 The equations involve only doubling, halving and multiplying by 6, all grade 6 skills. What goes beyond grade 7 practice is the chain of four equal expressions, with every letter limited to a short list of different numbers.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 27 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 chain looks forbidding, but it gives each letter as a simple multiple of p: m is half of p, q a sixth of it, and n twice it. Seen that way, q = p/6 forces p to be 6 or 12, and n = 2p rules out 12, so only one value fits. Students who check one or two of the letters, but not all three, can accept 2 or 12.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
Four letters are tied by one chain of equalities, 2m = 6q = ½n = p, and the only numbers are the five allowed values, so each letter has to be written in terms of p. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice for p must be tested against three letters, m = p/2, q = p/6 and n = 2p, and all of them must land on different numbers from 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Test each choice as p: find m, q and n from it, and keep the value for which all three are different numbers from the list 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12.
Traps
- 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.
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
The wrong answers, classified
A Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Checks only m, finding that p = 2 gives m = 1 on the list, and misses that q would be 1/3 and n would be 4.
B Answers a different question (King et al., 2004; Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Finds the solution, m = 3, q = 1, n = 12 and p = 6, then answers with m's value, 3, instead of the value of p.
D Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Tests p = 12 against 2m and 6q, getting m = 6 and q = 2, both on the list, and stops before seeing that ½n = 12 needs n = 24.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Undoing a multiplication
- a is a number that multiplies m, and p is the result. Dividing by a undoes multiplying by a. Use it to write each letter using p.
Sort out the question
m, n, p and q are four different numbers. Each one is 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12. The chain says that four amounts are all equal to p. You need the value of p.
Write each letter using p
Each part of the chain equals p. Undo each multiplication.
Half of n is p, so n is twice p.
Test each choice for p
p m q n All on the list? 2 1 4 No 3 1.5 0.5 6 No 6 3 1 12 Yes 12 6 2 24 No Only p = 6 puts every letter on the list.
Check that the letters are different
With p = 6, you get m = 3, q = 1 and n = 12. All four numbers are on the list, and no two are the same. Watch out: p = 12 makes m = 6 and q = 2, which look fine. But n = 24 is not on the list, so choice D fails. Also, the question asks for p, not m. Picking 3 is choice B. So the answer is C, 6.
Check your answer
Put the values into the chain: , , , and p = 6. All four parts equal 6. The numbers 3, 1, 12 and 6 are all different and all on the list.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 92 of 120
2023 Test A Math, question 26Question
Which statement must be true if x is a whole number greater than or equal to 1?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
Let , and substitute that value for x in each inequality to determine which one is correct:
Option A:
. This is true.
Option B:
. This is false.
Option C:
, or . This is false.
Option D:
, or . This is false.
Option A is the only true inequality.
Question analysis
This question asks which of four inequalities must be true when x is a whole number of at least 1. The inequalities compare fractions with denominators x + 1 and x + 2, or their difference. Students reason about how the size of a fraction changes as its denominator grows, and must be sure a statement holds for every allowed value.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Comparing fractions is familiar, but these fractions have variable denominators and the question asks what must be true for every whole number from 1 up. That abstraction makes it as demanding as typical grade 7 work, though the arithmetic is light.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Error-prone arithmetic minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 6, 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
Choosing a small value, such as x = 1 or 2, and testing every statement settles this quickly, because three of the four fail for any value tried. The trap is the belief that a bigger denominator makes a bigger fraction, which turns the true comparison around. Students unsure of fraction subtraction lose time on the two difference statements, though both differences are tiny, never more than 1/6.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
All four statements are about the unknown x, and the bold must means each has to hold for every whole number from 1 up, not just for a single test value. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The statements are four separate inequalities, two comparisons and two differences, so each has to be tested; one counterexample is enough to rule a statement out. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Error-prone arithmetic minor Working it out
Testing the differences means subtracting unlike fractions, such as 1/3 − 1/4 = 1/12 when x = 2, and comparing the result with 1 and with 1/x. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Strategy: Substitute a small whole number such as 1 or 2 for x in all four statements, rule out any that fail, and confirm the survivor by thinking about larger denominators.
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.
- A faulty procedure: A systematic but wrong procedure: adding fractions straight across, applying an exponent to each term of a sum, dropping a sign when moving a term.
The wrong answers, classified
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Believes a bigger denominator makes a bigger fraction, so 1/(x + 2) seems larger than 1/(x + 1), the comparison turned around.
C Little reason to choose it (Haladyna & Downing, 1993; Rodriguez, 2005)
Both fractions are at most 1/2, so their difference can never exceed 1, and no common working makes it do so; this choice mostly draws guesses.
D A faulty procedure (Brown & Burton, 1978; Tatsuoka, 1983)
Subtracts over a common denominator but keeps only the numerator, (x + 2) − (x + 1) = 1, so the difference looks like 1, larger than 1/x once x is 2.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Comparing unit fractions
- a and b are positive numbers, and b is bigger. One over a means one whole cut into a equal pieces. Cutting the same whole into more pieces makes each piece smaller. So the fraction with the bigger bottom is smaller.
- Subtracting fractions
- a and b are the bottoms of the two fractions. Rewrite both fractions over the common bottom a × b. Then subtract the tops. The bottom stays a × b.
Sort out the question
x is a whole number that is 1 or more, so x can be 1, 2, 3 and so on. You need the statement that must be true. That means it is true for every such x. One x that makes a statement false rules it out.
Test x = 1 in each statement
With x = 1, x + 1 is 2 and x + 2 is 3.
- A: . True.
- B: . False.
- C: , which is not more than 1. False.
- D: is not more than . False.
Only A is true when x = 1. So B, C and D are out.
Make sure A is always true
Must means A has to work for every x, not just 1. In and , both tops are 1. The bottom x + 2 is always 1 more than x + 1. Cutting a whole into more pieces makes each piece smaller. So A is always true. Watch out: a bigger bottom makes a smaller fraction, not a bigger one. Thinking the other way gives choice B.
See why C and D always fail
Use the subtracting rule with a = x + 1 and b = x + 2.
The bottom is at least 2 × 3 = 6, so the difference is at most . That is less than 1. Its bottom is also bigger than x, so it is less than . Watch out: keep the bottom when you subtract. Keeping only the top, 1, leads to choice D. So the answer is A.
Check your answer
Try a bigger number, x = 9. A tenth of a pizza is more than an eleventh, so . The difference, , is tiny. It is less than 1 and less than . A still holds, and C and D still fail.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 93 of 120
2023 Test A Math, question 29Question
Integer x is evenly divisible by 3. Which expression below is also evenly divisible by 3?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
Since integer x is evenly divisible by 3, substitute 3 for x in the answer options to determine which expression is also divisible by 3:
Let .
Option A:
Option B:
Option C:
Option D:
Option D is the only value that is divisible by 3.
Question analysis
This number properties question says an integer x is divisible by 3 and asks which of four linear expressions in x is also divisible by 3, whatever multiple of 3 the integer is. Students can test a multiple of 3 in each expression or think about remainders. Testing a value that is not a multiple of 3 can make a wrong expression look right.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 students rewrite and evaluate linear expressions, but they seldom ask whether one is divisible by 3 for every allowed value. One well-chosen substitution settles it, so the demand is about typical for grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Variables instead of numbers moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 13, 18 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 algebra is light; the question turns on choosing a test value that obeys the condition. The habit of trying x = 1 backfires here, because 1 is not a multiple of 3 and it makes two wrong expressions come out divisible. Students who substitute 3, or who see that 4x and 6 are both multiples of 3 whenever x is, settle it quickly, and a second multiple such as 6 confirms it.
Variables instead of numbers moderate Understanding the question
Nothing pins x down except that it is a multiple of 3, so each expression must be judged for every such x, and any test value has to be a multiple of 3 itself, such as 3 or 6. (Koedinger & Nathan, 2004; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The four expressions differ only in their coefficients and constants, from 2x + 1 to 4x + 6, so none can be dismissed at a glance; each needs a test or a look at its terms. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Substitute a multiple of 3, such as 3 or 6, for x in every expression and keep the one whose value divides evenly by 3; a second multiple confirms it.
Traps
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
- Numbers taken from the question: Combines the numbers in the question without a model of the situation, or is simply a number that appears in the question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Tests x = 1, which is not a multiple of 3, finds that 2(1) + 1 = 3 divides evenly, and stops at the first choice; with x = 3 it gives 7.
B Numbers taken from the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Sees the 3 in 3x and takes the whole expression to be a multiple of 3, overlooking that subtracting 5 spoils it: with x = 3 it gives 4.
C Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Tries a value that is not a multiple of 3, such as x = 4, where 4x − 1 = 15 divides evenly, though x = 3 gives 11.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Adding multiples of 3
- a and b are whole numbers, so 3a and 3b are multiples of 3. A multiple of 3 is a number that 3 divides evenly, with nothing left over. Adding two multiples of 3 always gives another multiple of 3, because you can pull the 3 out of both parts.
Sort out the question
“Evenly divisible by 3” means 3 goes into the number with nothing left over. Such a number is called a multiple of 3, like 3, 6, 9 or 12.
You know that x is a multiple of 3. You need the expression that is a multiple of 3 every time, whatever multiple of 3 x is.
Test x = 3 in every choice
Pick a number for x that follows the rule. The easiest one is 3. Put it into each expression.
Choice Work Divisible by 3? A No B No C No D Yes Watch out: your test number must be a multiple of 3. With x = 1, choice A gives 3 and looks right. That leads to the wrong choice, A.
See why D always works
One test could be lucky, so see why D works for every x. Since x is a multiple of 3, 4x is one too. For example, 4 × 3 = 12 and 4 × 6 = 24. The number 6 is also a multiple of 3, since 6 = 3 × 2.
So 4x + 6 is a multiple of 3 plus a multiple of 3. That is always a multiple of 3.
Rule out the other choices
Watch out: choice B starts with 3x, but then it subtracts 5. The 5 is not a multiple of 3, so it spoils the result, and 3(3) − 5 = 4. Choices A and C also add or take away a number that is not a multiple of 3.
So the answer is D, .
Check your answer
Try two more multiples of 3. With x = 6, choice D gives , and 30 ÷ 3 = 10. With x = 9, it gives , and 42 ÷ 3 = 14. Both divide evenly, so D keeps working.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 94 of 120
2023 Test A Math, question 48Question
The manager of a shipping company recorded the weights, in pounds, of the last 9 packages the company shipped. The manager displayed the distribution of the weights in a box plot with the five-number summary shown below:
- minimum: 29
- first quartile: 31
- median: 42
- third quartile: 73
- maximum: 98
Which statement about the distribution of weights is supported by the box plot the manager created?
- AThe minimum, 29, is an outlier.
- BThe maximum, 98, is an outlier.
- CThe interquartile range of the data is 11.
- DThe interquartile range and the median are equal.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
First, identify the first quartile and the third quartile:
- first quartile: 31
- third quartile: 73
Then, find the difference between the first quartile and the third quartile:
The median is given: 42.
So, the interquartile range and the median are equal.
Question analysis
This statistics question gives the five-number summary of nine package weights shown in a box plot and asks which statement about the distribution is supported. Students compute the interquartile range and decide whether the minimum or the maximum is an outlier. Judging outliers by eye, or subtracting the wrong pair of values for the IQR, makes wrong statements look true.
- NYS standards
- 7.SP.1 box plots and interquartile range
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Finding the interquartile range and testing for outliers are grade 7 standards in New York. There is no plot to read here, only five numbers, but every statement has to be checked by calculation, which makes it a careful grade 7 task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Something you must already know moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 84 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 numbers are given outright, so the work is knowing what each statement claims and testing it. The outlier statements sound right because 98 looks far from 73 and 29 is the smallest value, but the 1.5 × IQR rule clears both. The true statement needs only one subtraction, 73 − 31, and a look at the median, which happens to have the same value.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
Neither the interquartile range, the third quartile minus the first, nor the outlier rule, more than 1.5 × IQR beyond a quartile, is defined on the page. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The four statements test different ideas, two possible outliers, a value for the IQR and a comparison of the IQR with the median, so ruling out one says nothing about the next. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Compute the interquartile range from the two quartiles, use it to set the outlier cutoffs 1.5 IQR beyond each quartile, and test every statement against those numbers.
Traps
- Misunderstands the concept: A wrong belief about a concept: that percents can be added, that area grows like length, that averages can be averaged, that a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction.
- Wrong formula: Uses a related but wrong formula: perimeter for area, diameter for radius, area for volume, or a misremembered one.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Calls 29 an outlier just because it is the minimum, though it sits only 2 below the first quartile and far inside the cutoff 31 − 63 = −32.
B Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Judges 98 an outlier because it lies 25 above the third quartile, without testing it against the cutoff 73 + 1.5 × 42 = 136.
C Wrong formula (King et al., 2004)
Subtracts the first quartile from the median, 42 − 31 = 11, instead of from the third quartile, measuring only the lower half of the box.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Interquartile range
- Q1, the first quartile, is the middle of the lower half of the data. Q3, the third quartile, is the middle of the upper half. The interquartile range, or IQR, is the distance between them. It is the width of the box in a box plot. It shows how spread out the middle half of the data is.
- Outlier rule
- An outlier is a value far away from the rest of the data. Q1 and Q3 are the quartiles, and IQR is the interquartile range. A value is an outlier if it lies more than 1.5 times the IQR below Q1 or above Q3.
Sort out the question
The manager’s box plot is drawn from the five numbers in the list, so you can work from the list. The weights, in pounds, are: minimum 29, first quartile 31, median 42, third quartile 73, maximum 98. You need the one statement that is true. So check each choice.
Find the interquartile range
The interquartile range is 42 pounds. That makes choice C, which says 11, false.
Compare the IQR with the median
The median is 42 pounds. The interquartile range is also 42 pounds. They are equal, so statement D is true.
Watch out: 42 − 31 = 11 subtracts Q1 from the median, not from Q3. That mistake makes choice C look right.
Test the ends for outliers
An outlier would be below −32 or above 136. The minimum, 29, is not below −32. The maximum, 98, is not above 136. So A and B are false. Watch out: 98 looks far away, but not far enough to be an outlier.
Choose the answer
Only statement D is supported by the five numbers. So the answer is D, the interquartile range and the median are equal.
Check your answer
Check the subtraction by adding back: , which is Q3. The median, 42, sits inside the box, between 31 and 73, as it must. The two measures mean different things, but here they happen to be the same number.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 95 of 120
2023 Test B English, question 11Passage Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”
Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”
by Mandalit Del Barco
“La Cocina” means “the kitchen” in Spanish. It’s also the name of a business incubator1 based in San Francisco’s Mission District. Since it began in 2005, it’s been helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.
Over the years, many of its alumni have found success: more than 50 chefs in its program have become self-sufficient business owners, and many of them have opened their own brick-and-mortar restaurants. Two alumnae of its culinary program . . . were even recognized as semi-finalists for prestigious James Beard awards.2
A new cookbook, We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream, tells some of their stories.
Executive director Caleb Zigas says the nonprofit La Cocina grew out of two grassroots economic development organizations3 who found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets. The vendors needed an affordable commercial kitchen space and technical assistance in order for their businesses to be legally viable. La Cocina provided just such a space, in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.
Zigas says as many as eight businesses can work in the kitchen space at La Cocina at any one time. Some can prep for a farmers’ market sale, corporate catering gigs or weddings, while others might be making and packaging their food products.
“It’s just an incredible and exciting range of techniques, flavors, perspectives, age, language. And that’s a really beautiful thing,” he says. . . .
Twice a year, La Cocina hosts “F&B: Voices from the Kitchen,” a storytelling project where their chefs can tell their own stories, as they do in the new cookbook. Some of the chefs will be on tour to promote the book, whose proceeds will go to support La Cocina entrepreneurs.
NPR4 caught up with . . . La Cocina chefs, who shared their stories:
Mariko Grady, Aedan Fermented Foods
At La Cocina, you can often hear Mariko Grady singing or humming as she prepares miso, koji, and amasake. Her fermented products come in four different flavors, including mushroom and chicken, to be used in soups and sauces. She originally brought the fermenting rice and barley koji seeds from Japan, where she had a 30-year career as a singer and dancer with the prestigious modern theatrical dance group she founded, Pappa Tarahumara. They performed around the world, and 16 years ago, had a one-night show in San Francisco. The man who would become her husband was in the audience. She soon joined him in San Francisco, often returning to Tokyo to rehearse. But after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, her company disbanded. . . . Grady focused on nourishing her family and creating a line of fermented products that she sells online, at local Bay Area stores and at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. She began at La Cocina in 2012 and named her business after her son, Aedan. (Written in Kanji characters, the name means “wisdom” and “handed down from generation to generation.”) . . . Her fermented products are “also full of wisdom about how to relate to nature and how to create a healthy life,” she says. . . .
Shani Jones, Peaches Patties
Shani Jones is a native San Franciscan. Her father was born in New Orleans, her mother, in Jamaica. She says their home was always filled with a variety of spices and dishes like jerk chicken and Jamaican patties—savory pastries filled with beef or chicken. Jones says she learned to cook from her mother, whose nickname was Peaches. After returning from college in Atlanta, Jones worked on her doctorate in organizational leadership and management while driving a Lyft5 car. She often told passengers about her idea of opening a catering company with her mom’s recipes. They steered her to La Cocina, where she developed her own business, named after her mother. Five years later, she caters and runs a kiosk6 at a small food cooperative in Bernal Heights, where some of her handmade patties have an Ethiopian twist, “because my husband is Ethiopian.” Jones has big aspirations for Peaches Patties: “The ultimate goal,” she says, “is to be the patty kingpin7 of the West Coast.”
From “The Food Business Incubator That Helps Immigrant Women Pursue The American Dream” by Mandalit Del Barco from WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY, June 19, 2019. Copyright © 2019 NPR.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR LA COCINA APPLICANTS
| Level of Income | La Cocina considers assets and access to opportunity when screening applicants. La Cocina’s mission is to support entrepreneurs who face barriers to becoming successful in the food industry. Applicants must be classified as low- or very-low-income earners according to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Guidelines for San Francisco. |
|---|---|
| Business Plan | Applicants must have a business plan that is ready to be put into action. La Cocina will help applicants refine an existing business plan. Applicants without a business plan should contact one of La Cocina’s partner organizations for guidance in developing one. |
| Viable Product | The applicant’s food must not only be delicious but also stand out. For a business to make a profit, there also has to be a market for the food. |
| Entrepreneurial Work Ethic | La Cocina is excited to work with entrepreneurs who are motivated and passionate about growing their business. Succeeding in the food industry requires a lot of heart and hard work. |
| Community Spirit | The 30+ entrepreneurs who share La Cocina’s kitchen are from many different backgrounds. La Cocina values the community it has created and expects each entrepreneur to be active in bringing the spirit of La Cocina to the wider world. In order to succeed in the La Cocina kitchen, accepted applicants must be flexible and willing to work closely with others. |
Source: La Cocina
1business incubator: company that helps new and startup companies develop by providing services such as management training and office space
2James Beard awards: an award named after American cook and author James Beard, considered one of the highest honors in the culinary industry
3economic development organizations: organizations whose mission is to promote economic improvement within a specific geographical area
4NPR: National Public Radio, a nonprofit media organization that produces and distributes news and cultural programming
5Lyft: ride-sharing company where people use their own cars to provide rides to customers
6kiosk: cart or small structure with one or more open sides that is used to vend merchandise or services
7kingpin: the leader in a group or undertaking
Question
Paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas about La Cocina in paragraph 1 by
- Aspecifying how La Cocina helps local food entrepreneurs become successful.
- Bexplaining what kind of goals La Cocina tries to set for local food entrepreneurs.
- Cproviding background information about local food entrepreneurs in San Francisco.
- Ddescribing how Caleb Zigas discovered the need to provide assistance to local food entrepreneurs.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas about La Cocina in paragraph 1.
A. CORRECT. Paragraph 4 lists ways that La Cocina provides support to local food entrepreneurs. This supports the statement in paragraph 1 that La Cocina has been “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.”
B. Incorrect. Paragraph 1 simply states that La Cocina tries to help local food entrepreneurs develop their businesses, but neither paragraph describes or mentions any goals that La Cocina sets for local food entrepreneurs.
C. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions some background information on where local food entrepreneurs were found, these details do not directly support any ideas in paragraph 1.
D. Incorrect. The description of the process by which Caleb Zigas realized there was a need for La Cocina provides background for the organization, but it does not directly support any ideas in paragraph 1.
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks how paragraph 4 of the La Cocina article contributes to the development of ideas about the nonprofit in paragraph 1. Paragraph 4 gives executive director Caleb Zigas’s account of how La Cocina started and whom it served, so students must set the two paragraphs side by side and decide what the later one adds.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one paragraph develops an idea from another is core grade 7 structure work. Both paragraphs are short and plain, but paragraph 4 holds several kinds of information and several choices echo its details, so close checking is needed.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 61 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
Paragraph 4 opens with background, the grassroots groups that found people cooking at home and selling on the streets, and only its last sentence says what La Cocina provided. Students who stop at the opening find the background choice accurate and the Zigas choice plausible, since his name leads the paragraph. The question rewards asking which part of paragraph 4 builds on paragraph 1’s claim about helping entrepreneurs develop businesses, and that part is the list of services.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how paragraph 4 develops paragraph 1, so students must match paragraph 1’s general “helping local food entrepreneurs … develop their small businesses” to paragraph 4’s specifics: kitchen space, business plans, city permits. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Paragraph 4 mixes an origin story told by Zigas, the vendors’ needs and La Cocina’s services, and the wrong choices draw on the first two, so each must be checked for who did what. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The two paragraphs are separated by the alumni successes and the cookbook, so paragraph 1’s statement of what La Cocina does must be carried across them and set beside paragraph 4. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Write down what paragraph 1 says La Cocina does, then go through paragraph 4 sentence by sentence and ask which sentences expand on that statement; check who does what in each choice.
Traps
- 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.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Equates help with “business plans” with setting goals and so credits paragraph 4 with explaining La Cocina’s targets for entrepreneurs, a purpose neither paragraph serves.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Rightly notes that paragraph 4 describes people cooking at home and selling food on the streets, but that background is about the vendors and adds nothing to paragraph 1’s point about La Cocina.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “Caleb Zigas says” as Zigas making the discovery, but in paragraph 4 two grassroots organizations found the home cooks, and Zigas only tells how La Cocina grew out of them.
Working it out, step by step
Understand the question
This is a question about how a text is put together. You need to see how paragraph 4 builds on an idea from paragraph 1. Find the idea in paragraph 1 first. Then ask what paragraph 4 adds to it.
Find the idea in paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 says that since 2005, La Cocina has been “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.” An entrepreneur is a person who starts a business. Notice that this statement is general. It tells you that La Cocina helps, but not how.
See what paragraph 4 adds
Paragraph 4 opens with a little history. Two grassroots groups “found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets.” (Grassroots means started by ordinary people in a community.) Then the paragraph gets specific. La Cocina gave those cooks a kitchen, “in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.” Those are the actual ways it helps.
Check each choice
- A is right. Paragraph 4 names the help: a kitchen, business plans and city permits. That shows how La Cocina helps cooks succeed.
- B is wrong. Neither paragraph mentions goals that La Cocina sets for the cooks.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 4 does describe the cooks selling on the streets. But that is background about the cooks. It doesn’t build on paragraph 1’s idea about La Cocina.
- D is wrong. Zigas only tells the story. In paragraph 4, it is the two grassroots groups that found the cooks. Zigas discovers nothing there.
Watch out: C is tempting because its facts are true. A true detail is still wrong if it doesn’t answer the question.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 1 says that La Cocina helps. Paragraph 4 spells out exactly how it helps. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
The strongest wrong choice is C. It describes the start of paragraph 4 correctly. But the question asks how paragraph 4 develops an idea about La Cocina. Only the list of services does that. It turns paragraph 1’s general word, helping, into real examples.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed (pages 158–160)
Question 96 of 120
2023 Test B English, question 42Passage Cross-Purposes
Cross-Purposes
What I am is built: concrete and steel.
I defy gravity. I am what every athlete
wants: to remain at the apex of the leap,
up in the air. And yet I am useful, too:
cars, trucks, people, even trains
make their way across my broad back.
Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.
What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older
than anything else you know. No human
built me. I am gravity’s best friend; I pool
and flow wherever gravity takes me.
I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest,
and I catch everything: from the hills,
the mountains. It all washes down through me.
What you are is an accident,
what happens to rain when rain gives in
to Earth’s gravitational pull.
You are some tears dribbling from a mountain’s
eye, running down the pavements
of small towns, into the cities, to the sea.
You are the path of least resistance.
What I am is power. You, of course,
have none: you are a static lump, an artifact
slowly decaying. But my regal flow
nourishes grasses, permits empires to rise.
Those who made you will break you,
in time, replacing you with yet another
clumsy structure. I have seen. I know.
“Clumsy”? Being rebuilt makes me
a friend of time, does it not? And it means
that I have siblings—those “clumsy” structures,
my sisters and brothers.
We stitch across the rip you make.
We are steel thread to the human needle.
We bind you up. We sew you.
And I sow into you; in every cranny
of your superstructure my vapors cling.
They bring out your softness, your rust.
Boast your best, and boast better yet.
I am listening to the bright hum
of the wind in your wires. Because I am,
above all else, patient. I will wait for you.
ospreys: large birds
Question
How does the poet develop the points of view of the structure and the water?
- Aby giving an account of a discussion between them about the future of human civilization
- Bby narrating a debate they have over their impact on the environment
- Cby illustrating the unique power they each possess over nature
- Dby using personification to allow them to debate who is more important
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the poet develops the two points of view.
A. Incorrect. While the poem relates how the water views the structure as “an artifact / slowly decaying” (lines 23–24) and the structure refers to itself as “a friend of time” (line 30), the poet does not give an account of a discussion about the future of human civilization.
B. Incorrect. While the speakers do discuss their impact on the environment, there is no narrator speaking for them.
C. Incorrect. Although the structure states it is made of “concrete and steel” (line 1) and is a “steel thread to the human needle” (line 34), only the water claims to possess power over nature, stating that “all washes down through me” (line 14) and “what I am is power” (line 22).
D. CORRECT. The poet develops the speakers’ points of view by personifying (giving human characteristics to something nonhuman such as an object or animal) the structure and the water, allowing them to debate by criticizing each other and declaring their own importance.
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks how the poet of “Cross-Purposes” develops the viewpoints of its two speakers, a human-made structure and a body of water, across six alternating stanzas. Each answer pairs a way of presenting the voices with a subject for their exchange, so students must check both halves against the poem, since a choice can be right about one and wrong about the other.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 This is exactly the grade 7 standard on how a writer develops and contrasts the points of view of different speakers. The choices are short, but each joins a way of presenting the voices to a subject, so two things must be checked at once.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 64 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The poem is a direct exchange: stanzas alternate between two speakers who address each other as “you,” with no voice outside them. Most students sense the argument, which makes the narrated-debate choice the strongest pull, since its subject, the speakers’ effects on the land, does come up in the poem. The question is decided by the method half of each choice, and only one names a device the poet actually uses, letting the two speak for themselves about which matters more.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the poet develops the two viewpoints, so the right choice must name a method, speakers given voices to argue for themselves, and a choice that only reports what they say falls short. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The right choice relies on the term “personification,” which the poem never names, so students must recognize concrete and water that speak and boast as that device. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each choice pairs a way of presenting the voices, an account, narration, illustration or personification, with a subject, so both halves must be tested against all six stanzas. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Go through the six stanzas noting who is speaking and what each speaker claims, then judge each choice twice: once for how it says the voices are presented, once for what it says they discuss.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds the whole exchange on passing references such as “permits empires to rise” and “the human needle,” though the speakers argue about themselves and never discuss where civilization is headed.
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees a debate, and the speakers do touch on their effects on the land and on each other, but “narrating” adds a narrator, while each speaker talks in its own voice.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Lists the powers the speakers boast of, which is what the poem says rather than how the poet builds the viewpoints, and only the water claims power over nature.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the poet’s method: how the poet shows what each speaker thinks. Each choice names a method and a topic. The right choice must get both parts right.
Notice who is speaking
The poem has six stanzas, or groups of lines. The structure speaks in stanzas 1, 3 and 5. The water speaks in stanzas 2, 4 and 6. Each one says “I” about itself and “you” to the other. No outside voice tells the story. A voice like that is called a narrator, and this poem has none.
Name the poet’s method
In real life, concrete and water have no voices. The poet lets them speak like people anyway. This is called personification: treating a thing as if it were a person. Then the two argue. The structure calls the water “an accident” (line 15). The water answers, “What I am is power. You, of course, / have none” (lines 22–23).
See what they argue about
Each speaker brags about itself and puts the other down. The structure says it is useful, carrying “cars, trucks, people, even trains” (line 5). The water says it is older and stronger. It ends by saying it will outlast the structure: “I will wait for you” (line 42). Their real fight is over which of them matters more.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Empires come up only once, in line 25. The speakers argue about themselves, not the future of civilization.
- B is wrong. The speakers do mention their effects on the land. The water says it “nourishes grasses” (line 25). But “narrating” means a narrator tells the debate, and no one does. The two speak for themselves.
- C is wrong. It names what the speakers brag about, not how the poet presents them. Also, only the water claims power over nature: “It all washes down through me” (line 14).
- D is right. Personification lets the two argue about who is more important.
Choose the answer
The poet uses personification so the structure and the water can argue over who matters more. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. It is right that there is a debate, and the speakers do talk about their effects on the world around them. But B says the debate is narrated. In the poem, the structure and the water speak in their own voices. D names that method.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
Question 97 of 120
2023 Test B Math, question 10Question
A total of 24 students in a math class took a 100-point test:
- None of the students scored 100 points.
- 75% of the students scored less than 82 points.
- The lowest score in the class was 54 points.
Which box plot best represents the test scores from this math class?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
Use the information in the bullet points to reason which box plot could represent the data set of test scores.
Since none of the students scored 100, the maximum value on the box plot must be less than 100.
If 75% of the students scored less than 82, then 25% scored 82 points or more. Since the third quartile (Q3) indicates (75%) of the data is to the left and (25%) of the data is to the right, it is reasonable that Q3 would be at or about 82.
Given that the lowest score in the class was 54, the minimum point on the box plot must be 54.
The box plot graph in option B is the only one that meets all three criteria.
Question analysis
Twenty-four students took a 100-point test: nobody scored 100, 75% scored below 82, and the lowest score was 54. Students choose the box plot that fits all three facts. The skill is linking each statement to a part of the plot, the whiskers, the box and the quartiles, and checking every plot closely.
- NYS standards
- 7.SP.1 box plots and interquartile range
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 students usually read values off a box plot. This item runs the other way, turning a percent statement into a quartile and checking the whiskers against two more facts, but the content stays at grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 2, 45 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question turns three sentences into three features of a box plot, and a plot that matches two of them is easy to accept. The upper-quartile fact is the conceptual one: students who do not know that the box’s right edge marks 75 percent put 82 at the end of the whisker. The other two facts are quick visual checks, but only if every plot is actually checked.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each wrong plot fails a different fact, so all four must be tested against all three bullets: the left whisker against 54, the right whisker against 100, and the box’s right edge against 82. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The axis is labeled every 5 points, and the deciding features fall between labels: one left whisker starts near 51 instead of 54, and box edges sit near 82.5. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Nothing explains that “75% of the students scored less than 82” locates the upper quartile, the right edge of the box, rather than the highest score. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Turn each fact into a feature to check: where the left whisker starts, where the right whisker ends, and where the box ends. Rule out any plot that breaks one.
Traps
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
- 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.
- Misreads the figure: Reads a value, label or tick spacing in a figure, table or graph wrongly.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Puts 82 at the end of the right whisker, as if it were the highest score, when 75 percent below 82 marks the box’s right edge.
C Misreads the figure (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Accepts the left whisker as starting at the lowest score, 54, when it begins near 51, just past the 50 tick.
D Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Matches the lowest score and the box’s right edge near 82 but overlooks that a whisker reaching 100 means someone scored 100.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Parts of a box plot
- A box plot shows five numbers. The left whisker starts at the minimum, the lowest value. The box starts at Q1, the first quartile, and ends at Q3, the third quartile. The line inside is the median, the middle value. The right whisker ends at the maximum. About a quarter of the data falls in each of the four sections.
Sort out the question
24 students took a test. You know three facts. Nobody scored 100. 75% scored less than 82. The lowest score was 54. You need the box plot that fits all three facts.
Turn each fact into a feature
Match each fact to a part of the box plot.
- The lowest score is 54, so the left whisker starts at 54.
- Nobody scored 100, so the right whisker ends before 100.
- 75% is three quarters. Three quarters of the scores are below Q3. So the box should end at about 82.
Read the number line
The ticks are 5 points apart: 50, 55, 60 and so on. A score of 54 sits just left of the 55 tick. A score of 82 sits a little less than halfway from 80 to 85. Look closely, because these points fall between labels.
Check plot A
In plot A, the right whisker ends near 82, and the box ends near 72. That would make 82 the highest score. Watch out: 75% below 82 does not make 82 the top score. It tells you where the box ends. So A is out.
Check plot C
In plot C, the left whisker starts near 51, just right of the 50 tick. But the lowest score was 54. So C is out.
Check plot D
Plot D starts at 54, and its box ends near 82. But its right whisker reaches 100. That means someone scored 100, and nobody did. Watch out: D fits two facts, so it is easy to stop early. Check all three. So D is out.
Check plot B and answer
Plot B starts at 54. Its box ends near 82. Its right whisker stops near 98, below 100. It fits all three facts. So the answer is B.
Check your answer
Go over B once more with all three facts. Its lowest point is 54. Its box ends near 82. Its highest point is under 100. Each other plot breaks one fact: A’s box, C’s left whisker and D’s right whisker.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 98 of 120
2023 Test B Math, question 29Question
Which number could be the sum of 4 consecutive integers?
- A−12
- B−10
- C−8
- D−4
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The sum of 4 consecutive integers can be expressed as:
Set that expression equal to each of the options and solve for n:
Option A:
is not an integer.
Option B:
is an integer.
Option C:
is not an integer.
Option D:
is not an integer.
The only option for which n is an integer is −10.
Question analysis
A number properties question about consecutive integers: which of four negative numbers could be the sum of 4 consecutive integers? Students write the sum with a variable, or add runs of negative integers, and test each choice. Keeping signs straight with negative numbers, and remembering that the integers must be whole numbers, is the tricky part.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 consecutive-integer problems usually give the sum and ask for the integers. This one reverses the task: students test which negative total is possible at all, using the structure of the sum rather than one equation.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- No obvious method minor
- Error-prone arithmetic minor
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 8, 9 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A stray word in the explanation’s last sentence was removed.
- 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
Three of the four choices are multiples of 4, and that is the whole trap: a student who pictures the sum as four times some integer finds three choices that seem to work. The sum of four consecutive integers is 4n + 6, so it is always even but never a multiple of 4. Trying the most natural run, −4, −3, −2 and −1, lands on −10 at once and is the fastest check.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The stem asks which number “could be” the sum, so no single equation gives the answer; each of −12, −10, −8 and −4 has to be tested against the form a four-integer sum must take. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
No obvious method minor Working it out
Nothing points to the shortcut that n + (n + 1) + (n + 2) + (n + 3) = 4n + 6 is always 2 more than a multiple of 4, or to simply adding a run such as −1, −2, −3 and −4. (Schoenfeld, 1985)
Error-prone arithmetic minor Working it out
Every choice is negative, so solving 4n + 6 = −12 or adding a run of integers means subtracting 6 from a negative number and dividing a negative by 4. (Brown & Burton, 1978; Junker & Sijtsma, 2001)
Strategy: Write the integers as n, n + 1, n + 2 and n + 3, add them, and set the sum equal to each choice to see which one gives a whole-number n.
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.
- A faulty procedure: A systematic but wrong procedure: adding fractions straight across, applying an exponent to each term of a sum, dropping a sign when moving a term.
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Assumes four consecutive integers add to a multiple of 4, as if they had a whole-number middle, and takes −12 = 4 × (−3), the first such choice.
C A faulty procedure (Brown & Burton, 1978; Tatsuoka, 1983)
Writes n + (n + 1) + (n + 2) + (n + 3) as 4n, dropping the 1 + 2 + 3, so −8 = 4 × (−2) seems to give a whole-number n.
D Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Solves 4n + 6 = −4 to get n = −2.5 and accepts it, since −2.5, −1.5, −0.5 and 0.5 add to −4, though they are not integers.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook ends with “The only option for which n is an integer answer is −10.” The word “answer” does not belong in that sentence; the site reads “The only option for which n is an integer is −10.” The working above it is unchanged: only 4n + 6 = −10 gives an integer, n = −4, and −4 + (−3) + (−2) + (−1) = −10.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Sum of 4 consecutive integers
- n is the smallest of the four integers. Each next integer is 1 more than the one before, so they are n, n + 1, n + 2 and n + 3. Adding them gives four n’s, plus 1 + 2 + 3, which is 6. Use it to add any four integers in a row.
Sort out the question
Integers are whole numbers and their negatives, like −2, 0 and 5. They have no fractions or decimals. Consecutive integers come one right after another, like 7, 8, 9, 10 or −3, −2, −1, 0.
You need the choice that can be the sum of four consecutive integers. The sum is what you get when you add them.
Write the sum with a letter
You don’t know the integers yet. So call the smallest one n. Each next one is 1 more: n + 1, n + 2 and n + 3. Use the formula. Collect the four n’s, then add the numbers.
Any four consecutive integers add up to 4n + 6.
Test each choice
Set 4n + 6 equal to each choice and solve for n. First subtract 6 from both sides. Then divide both sides by 4.
Choice 4n + 6 4n n A −12 −18 −4.5 B −10 −16 −4 C −8 −14 −3.5 D −4 −10 −2.5 n must be an integer. Only choice B gives one: n = −4.
Name the four integers
Start at n = −4 and count up by 1. The integers are −4, −3, −2 and −1.
Watch out: Choices A, C and D are multiples of 4. A multiple of 4 is 4 times an integer, like 4 × (−3) = −12. It is tempting to think four integers must add to one of those. But the sum is 4n + 6, and the extra 6 gets in the way. Choice D works only with n = −2.5, and that is not an integer.
So the answer is B, −10.
Check your answer
Add the integers: . That is choice B. Also, 4n + 6 is always 2 more than a multiple of 4. And −10 is 2 more than −12, which is 4 × (−3).
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 99 of 120
2022 Test A English, question 4Question
Which edit should be made to correct this sentence?
In 1962 the agile athletic Wilt Chamberlain became the first and only professional basketball player in the United States to score 100 points in a single game.
- AInsert a comma after agile.
- BInsert a comma after first.
- CInsert a comma after only.
- DInsert a comma after States.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which edit should be made to correct the sentence.
A. CORRECT. The sentence in the box needs a comma to separate the coordinate adjectives. Coordinate adjectives describe characteristics of the same noun or subject and are connected with a comma or “and.” This option is the only one that places a comma where it is needed, between the coordinate adjectives “agile” and “athletic.”
B. Incorrect. The option incorrectly adds a comma in the middle of the phrase “first and only,” which modifies, or gives additional information about, “professional basketball player.”
C. Incorrect. The option incorrectly adds a comma between two adjectives that are not coordinate adjectives. “Only” is part of the phrase “first and only” and is modifying “professional basketball player.”
D. Incorrect. The option is incorrect because a comma is not needed to set off the phrase “to score 100 points in a single game.”
Question analysis
This punctuation question gives one sentence about Wilt Chamberlain, the basketball player who scored 100 points in a single professional game in 1962, and asks which comma edit corrects it. All four choices add a comma, three after describing words and one after the country’s name, so students must decide which spot a comma rule truly requires.
- NYS standards
- 7L2 capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Deciding where a comma belongs in one sentence is typical grade 7 editing, and the rule tested here is part of the grade 7 language standards. The sentence sounds natural as printed, so the needed comma must be found by rule, not by ear.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 54 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The sentence sounds natural as printed, so a student listening for pauses could put a comma in almost any of the four places. The question rewards knowing the test for coordinate adjectives: when “and” fits between two describing words and their order can be swapped, a comma belongs there. “Agile and athletic” passes that test, while “only and professional” fails, because “first and only” works as one unit that limits the whole phrase “professional basketball player.”
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
The missing comma falls between “agile” and “athletic,” two adjectives that each describe Chamberlain, and the phrase reads smoothly without it, so the error has to be found by rule rather than by ear. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four edits add a comma, and two of the spots come between describing words, after “agile” and after “only,” so each pair must be tested with “and” before one is chosen. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Take the four marked words one at a time, say what the words on either side of each are doing, and add a comma only where a rule calls for one, not wherever you would pause.
Traps
- Punctuation: A comma, semicolon, colon, dash or apostrophe used where it does not belong, or missing where it does.
The wrong answers, classified
B Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Hears an emphatic pause in “the first and only,” as if writing “the first, and only,” though a single comma there splits a pair that works as one unit.
C Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Believes any two describing words in a row need a comma and spots “only professional,” though “only” cannot be swapped with “professional” or joined to it by “and.”
D Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Puts a comma before “to score 100 points in a single game” because the sentence is long, though that phrase tells what made him the first player and takes no comma.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a punctuation question. Punctuation means marks like commas and periods. Each choice adds one comma to the sentence about Wilt Chamberlain. Only one of those commas is needed. Find the spot where a comma rule calls for one. Don’t just go by where you would pause when you read it aloud.
Learn the rule for describing words
An adjective is a describing word. Sometimes two adjectives in a row each describe the same noun (a naming word). They are equal partners, so a comma goes between them.
Two quick tests tell you. Can you put “and” between them? Can you swap their order? If both work, use a comma. Example: a long, boring movie. You could also say a long and boring movie or a boring, long movie.
Test agile and athletic
The sentence begins “In 1962 the agile athletic Wilt Chamberlain.” Agile means quick and light on your feet. Athletic means strong and good at sports. Both words describe Chamberlain. Now try the tests. The agile and athletic Wilt Chamberlain makes sense. So does the athletic, agile Wilt Chamberlain. Both tests pass, so a comma belongs after “agile.”
Check each choice
- A fits. “Agile” and “athletic” are equal describing words, so they need a comma.
- B does not fit. “First and only” is a pair already joined by “and.” One comma does not go inside a pair like that. You write salt and pepper, not salt, and pepper.
- C does not fit. Try the “and” test: only and professional makes no sense. “Only” goes with “first,” not with “professional.”
- D does not fit. The words after “States” tell what he was the first to do. They finish the idea, so no comma goes before them.
Choose the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because “only professional” is also two describing words in a row. But that pair fails the “and” test. The fixed sentence begins In 1962 the agile, athletic Wilt Chamberlain. So the answer is A: insert a comma after agile.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. Like A, it puts a comma between two describing words. But only A’s pair passes the tests. You can say agile and athletic, but you can’t say only and professional. “Only” belongs with “first.” Together, “first and only” describe the whole phrase “professional basketball player.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 100 of 120
2022 Test A English, question 5Question
Which revision corrects the error in sentence structure in the paragraph?
In 1967 Kathrine Switzer signed up for the Boston Marathon using her first and middle initials instead of her full name, at that time, only men were permitted to officially register and receive a number for the legendary race. Once officials realized a woman was attempting to run in the race, they made efforts to remove her from the competition. Switzer prevailed and finished in just over four hours, paving the way for the official rule change that allowed for the inclusion of women. In 2017, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of this pioneering event, a seventy-year-old Switzer repeated her run, wearing the number 261, the same number she had worn in that first run in 1967.
- Aname. At
- Brace. They
- Chours. Paving
- D261. The
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the revision that corrects the error in sentence structure in the paragraph.
A. CORRECT. As written, the first sentence (“In 1967 Kathrine Switzer . . . legendary race.”) is a run-on sentence because a comma is used to combine two independent clauses. Independent clauses are complete sentences with a subject and a verb. The clauses—“In 1967 Kathrine Switzer signed up for the Boston Marathon using her first and middle initials instead of her full name” and “at that time, only men were permitted to officially register and receive a number for the legendary race”—should be separated with a period instead. This revision correctly places a period after the word “name” and capitalizes the word “At” to separate the two independent clauses into two sentences.
B. Incorrect. The revision introduces an error into the paragraph and does not revise the run-on in the first sentence. The clause “Once officials realized a woman was attempting to run in the race” is a dependent clause functioning as an adverb of the independent clause that follows it. Changing the comma after the word “race” to a period would incorrectly separate the adverbial dependent clause from the independent clause.
C. Incorrect. The revision introduces an error into the paragraph and does not revise the run-on in the first sentence. The sentence “Switzer prevailed and finished in just over four hours, paving the way for the official rule change that allowed for the inclusion of women” combines an independent clause (“Switzer prevailed and finished in just over four hours”) and a participial phrase (“paving the way for the official rule change that allowed for the inclusion of women”). The phrase “paving the way for the official rule change that allowed for the inclusion of women” is not a complete sentence and must stay connected to the first part of the sentence. Changing the comma after “hours” to a period would incorrectly separate the participial phrase from the independent clause.
D. Incorrect. The revision introduces an error into the paragraph and does not revise the run-on in the first sentence. Changing the comma after “261” to a period would incorrectly separate the appositive phrase “the same number she had worn in that first run in 1967” from the words it describes (“number 261”). Additionally, the phrase “the same number she had worn in that first run in 1967” is not a complete sentence.
Question analysis
This sentence-structure question gives a four-sentence paragraph about Kathrine Switzer, who entered the 1967 Boston Marathon under her initials when only men could register and ran it again at seventy. Students pick the revision that corrects its error in sentence structure, and because every choice turns an underlined comma into a period, each spot needs its own check.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Run-ons and fragments are taught before grade 7, and this item checks that skill at four underlined spots in one short paragraph. The clauses and phrases around the correct commas take some grammar sense, but the core skill is basic.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 131 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misspelled name in the paragraph and its explanation was corrected.
- Grammar terms in the explanations of two wrong options 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
Every choice makes the same kind of change, so the question comes down to telling one real comma splice from three commas doing legitimate work. The most dangerous spot is after “race,” where a subject and verb sit on both sides of the comma, just as at the real error, and only the word “Once” marks the first part as dependent. Students who test each side for a complete thought, not just for a subject and a verb, find the splice in the opening sentence quickly.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
The run-on hides behind the short phrase “at that time,” which makes the comma after “name” sound like an ordinary pause; only checking that each side can stand alone exposes the comma splice. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four revisions swap a comma for a period, so every underlined spot needs the same test: could the words before it and the words after it each stand as a sentence? (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The three correct commas guard three different structures, an opening “Once” clause, a participial phrase beginning with “paving” and an appositive after “261,” and each has to be recognized as unable to stand alone. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: At each underlined comma, read the words before it and the words after it as separate pieces and ask whether each could stand alone as a sentence; that shows where a period belongs.
Traps
- Fragment or run-on: Creates or keeps a sentence fragment, a run-on sentence or a comma splice.
The wrong answers, classified
B Fragment or run-on (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Finds a subject and verb on both sides of the comma after “race” and calls it a splice, missing that “Once” makes the first part a dependent clause that cannot stand alone.
C Fragment or run-on (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats the long third sentence as a run-on and ends it after “hours,” leaving “Paving the way for the official rule change” as a fragment with no subject or main verb.
D Fragment or run-on (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Spots the subject and verb “she had worn” after the comma following “261,” but they sit inside a phrase that renames the number, so the new sentence would be a fragment.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Stem and explanation: The handbook spells the runner’s name “Katherine Switzer” in the paragraph and twice in the explanation. She is Kathrine Switzer, who entered the 1967 Boston Marathon as “K. V. Switzer,” so the site now spells her name that way, in the question’s title too. No answer depends on the spelling.
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option C calls “paving the way for the official rule change that allowed for the inclusion of women” a dependent clause, and on that basis calls the sentence a complex sentence. The words have no subject or finite verb of their own: they are a participial phrase, which the site now calls them, and the site no longer calls the sentence complex for that reason. Its explanation of Option D calls “the same number she had worn in that first run in 1967” a modifying clause; it is an appositive phrase, a noun phrase that renames “number 261,” and the site now says so. Neither phrase can stand alone as a sentence, so Options C and D are still wrong, and the answer, Option A, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a sentence structure question. In one spot, two full sentences are joined by only a comma. That mistake is called a run-on. Every choice turns one underlined comma into a period. Only one of those changes fixes a run-on. The other three would break off a piece that can’t stand alone.
Learn the rule for run-ons
An independent clause is a group of words that makes sense alone. It has a subject and a verb. The subject is who or what the sentence is about. The verb tells what the subject does or is. A comma alone can’t join two independent clauses. Use a period instead.
Example: It rained, we stayed inside. Fix: It rained. We stayed inside.
Test the comma after name
Read the words before that comma: “In 1967 Kathrine Switzer signed up for the Boston Marathon using her first and middle initials instead of her full name.” That makes sense alone. Now read the words after it: “at that time, only men were permitted to officially register.” That makes sense alone too. Its subject is “only men,” and its verb is “were permitted.” So two full sentences are joined by a comma. That is the run-on.
Test the other three commas
- B (after “race”): The first part is “Once officials realized a woman was attempting to run in the race.” The word “Once” makes it a dependent clause. That is a group of words with a subject and verb that can’t stand alone.
- C (after “hours”): The words starting “paving the way for the official rule change” are a participial phrase. The phrase starts with an -ing verb form and adds information. It has no subject of its own.
- D (after “261”): “the same number she had worn in that first run in 1967” is an appositive phrase. It renames the noun right before it, the number 261. It can’t stand alone either.
Choose the answer
Watch out: B is the trickiest. It has a subject and a verb on each side of its comma, “officials realized” and “they made.” But “Once” keeps the first part from standing alone. Only the comma after “name” joins two full sentences. A period goes there, and “At” gets a capital letter. So the answer is A: name. At.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. Like the comma after “name,” its comma has a subject and a verb on each side. But “Once” means the first part needs the words after the comma to finish its thought. At the comma after “name,” both sides already stand alone. So that comma is the real run-on.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 101 of 120
2022 Test A English, question 6Passage Cracking the Code
Cracking the Code
(1) Computer code is part of every electronic interaction, from video games to home thermostats to vehicle GPS systems. (2) Code is a language that computers can interpret, and programmers use it to instruct computers to perform different tasks, such as finding, sorting, or calculating data. (3) People who code have to learn this language. (4) They can construct programs that will perform detailed tasks. (5) The programs can also perform complex tasks.
(6) A coding language uses letters, numbers, and symbols that are arranged in a way that makes sense to a computer. (7) The code that makes up a program tells a computer how to process information. (8) Studying a coding language involves learning the rules for combining phrases and instructions so that they are recognizable to the computer. (9) Once a person understands coding rules, the possibilities for applying them are infinite.
(10) Coding skills are becoming important in many occupational fields. (11) For example, code can be used to create programs to track, analyze, and predict changes in the stock market. (12) Code can also be designed to help doctors track and monitor a patient’s health. (13) Jobs that require coding skills are typically higher paying, offering salaries that are up to as much as $22,000 a year more than jobs that do not require coding knowledge.
(14) People have a variety of opportunities to learn how to code. (15) In some schools, young people can study computer science and coding just as they study foreign languages. (16) Computer science teachers can use websites and apps that employ games designed to help everyone understand how code works. (17) Even high school students who do not take computer science can learn coding by attending coding workshops and online classes or by watching tutorials online. (18) After studying the basics of coding, some students may become interested in learning how to create programs, such as games and apps.
(19) The late Steve Jobs, a pioneer in computer technology, once said, “Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer . . . because it teaches you how to think.” (20) Learning to code can seem challenging, but one does not need to become an expert programmer to reap the benefits of understanding this language.
Question
What is the best way to combine sentences 3 through 5 to clarify the relationship between ideas?
- APeople who code have to learn this language because they can construct programs that will perform detailed and complex tasks.
- BPeople who code have to learn this language so they can construct programs that will perform detailed or complex tasks.
- CWhen people who code have to learn this language, it is so they can construct programs that will perform detailed and complex tasks.
- DIf people who code have to learn this language, then they can construct programs that will perform detailed as well as complex tasks.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the best way to combine sentences 3 through 5 to clarify the relationship between ideas.
A. Incorrect. While this sentence shows a relationship between the ideas, it does not clarify the relationship accurately. Learning the language of code does not depend on people’s previous ability to construct programs that will perform detailed and complex tasks. The word “because” incorrectly indicates that people can already construct complex programs prior to learning the coding language that would allow them to do so.
B. CORRECT. This sentence accurately shows the relationship between the ideas of the sentences. Before people can construct programs that will perform detailed and complex tasks, they have to learn a coding language. Knowing that language will, in turn, allow them to build programs that can perform detailed and complex tasks.
C. Incorrect. This sentence does not accurately express the relationship between ideas because the sentence implies that some people who code do not have to learn the language to perform their job functions. The passage clearly states that “computer code is part of every electronic interaction” (sentence 1) and that “programmers use it to instruct computers to perform different tasks” (sentence 2).
D. Incorrect. The conditional (If . . . then) construction of the sentence in Option D does not convey the intended relationship of the ideas in the sentences. The “then” statement (“they can construct programs that will perform detailed as well as complex tasks”) does not follow the condition of the “if” statement (“people who code have to learn this language”).
Question analysis
This sentence-combining question uses the first paragraph of “Cracking the Code,” a passage about computer coding, and asks for the best way to join sentences 3 through 5: coders must learn the language, they can build programs for detailed tasks, and those programs can also handle complex ones. Each version links the ideas with a different word, so students must judge which states the relationship accurately.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Joining short sentences with a word that shows how their ideas relate is typical grade 7 work. Here three sentences become one and every version is grammatical, so the choice rests on whether the joining words state the logic accurately.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 357 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 101 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 version is a correct sentence carrying the same facts, so the question tests logic rather than grammar: what does learning the language make possible? The look-alike joined by “because” is the main danger, since it seems to give a reason for learning. Careful readers may also pause over the key’s “detailed or complex tasks,” looser than sentence 5’s “also,” but the joining word, not that slip, is what separates the best sentence from the rest.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The version joined by “because” matches the key word for word except for its linking word and “and” in place of “or,” so the decision rests on which way the link between learning and building runs. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 3 states a requirement and sentences 4 and 5 state what meeting it allows, so the combined sentence must present learning the language as the means and building programs as the purpose. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four versions are grammatical and keep the same facts; only the opening or joining words change, “because,” “so,” “When … it is so” and “If … then,” and each must be weighed. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, decide in your own words how sentence 3 relates to sentences 4 and 5, then check whether each version’s opening or joining word signals that same relationship.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Hears “because” as giving the reason to learn the language, but it treats the ability to build detailed and complex programs as already there, when that ability comes from learning.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Is drawn by the formal ring of “When … it is so,” which buries the purpose in a clumsy frame and suggests coders must learn the language only on some occasions.
D Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Keeps learning before building but frames it with “If … then,” turning a stated requirement into a mere possibility, though having to learn a language does not by itself let anyone build programs.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks you to join three short sentences into one. The new sentence must show how the ideas connect. All four choices are correct sentences with the same facts. What changes is the joining word. So first decide how the ideas connect. Then find the joining word that says so.
Read sentences 3 through 5
Sentence 3 says “People who code have to learn this language.” Sentence 4 says “They can construct programs that will perform detailed tasks.” Sentence 5 adds “The programs can also perform complex tasks.” To construct is to build. Detailed tasks have many small parts. Complex tasks are complicated and hard to do.
Name the link between the ideas
Why do coders have to learn the language? So that they can build programs. Learning comes first. Building programs is the goal it makes possible. A word that shows a goal, or purpose, is “so” (short for “so that”). Example: I practice piano so I can play in the concert. The practice comes first, and the concert is the goal.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. “Because” gives a reason that is already true. It says coders learn the language because they can already build programs. That gets the order backward.
- B fits. “So” shows that building programs is the goal of learning the language. It says “detailed or complex tasks” where sentence 5 means both, a small slip. But its joining word is right.
- C does not fit. “When” suggests coders only sometimes have to learn the language. And “it is so” is wordy.
- D does not fit. “If” makes learning sound like a maybe. The passage says coders “have to learn” it. That is a must.
Choose the answer
Watch out: A is the most tempting. It matches B almost word for word, and “because” sounds like a reason to learn. But it points the wrong way. B shows that learning leads to building. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It uses the same words as B except for the joining word. “Because” makes building programs the reason coders learn the language, as if they could already do it. “So” makes building programs the goal that learning leads to. Learning comes first, so B shows the link correctly.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cracking the Code” as printed (page 40)
Question 102 of 120
2022 Test A English, question 7Uses the passage above: “Cracking the Code”.
Question
Which sentence should follow sentence 5 to best state the main claim in the passage?
- APeople should take advantage of opportunities to study and learn basic coding because of its many valuable benefits.
- BPeople should attempt to understand how code can be used to design programs that are beneficial for a variety of industries and businesses.
- CSchools should offer coding classes because knowing how to code will help students succeed in many types of businesses.
- DStudents should prepare for the future job market by studying code and learning how to code programs.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks for the sentence that should follow sentence 5 to best state the main claim in the passage.
A. CORRECT. This sentence logically follows sentence 5 and introduces the main idea of the passage: that due to the high demand for coding skills across a wide range of industries and disciplines, learning basic coding skills can provide a range of opportunities for personal growth.
B. Incorrect. While this sentence incorporates a point made in the passage about how coding can benefit many occupational fields (sentence 10), this idea alone does not address the entire argument in the passage. This sentence does not capture the passage’s emphasis on the variety of ways people can learn how to code (sentence 14).
C. Incorrect. While this sentence incorporates ideas about opportunities to learn coding skills in school (fourth paragraph), the larger claim presented in the passage is not about opportunities schools should offer in order to help students learn to code. The passage primarily focuses on the opportunities offered to people who take on the challenge of learning to code.
D. Incorrect. Although the passage discusses the opportunities that are available to some students to learn coding skills in school (sentences 15–16), this point is a supporting detail of the passage, not the main claim of the passage.
Question analysis
This introduction question asks which sentence, added after sentence 5 of “Cracking the Code,” would best state the main claim of the passage. Students must work out what the whole argument is driving at, across paragraphs on what code is, how it is used at work and where people can learn it, and then choose among four sentences that each sound like a claim.
- NYS standards
- 7W1a introducing claims and counterclaims
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Introducing a precise claim is a core grade 7 argument skill. Students must find the claim behind all five paragraphs, since the first paragraph only explains what code is, and compare four sentences that each tell someone what to do.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 357 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 91 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 claim is clearest at the very end, where sentence 20 says anyone can benefit from understanding code without becoming an expert. Each wrong option grows out of one paragraph, the industries of paragraph 3 or the students and schools of paragraph 4, so it sounds supported but speaks to too few people or asks for the wrong action. The question rewards naming the whole argument before reading the options.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The first paragraph only explains what code is, so the claim must be pieced together from later parts: coding’s value at work in paragraph 3, the ways to learn in paragraph 4 and sentence 20’s benefits for non-experts. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four options are “should” statements built from real material in the passage, so each has to be checked for whom it addresses and what it asks them to do. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, note in a phrase what each paragraph adds, then say in one sentence what the whole passage wants its readers to do, and pick the option that matches all of it.
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.
- Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
The wrong answers, classified
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the stock-market and medical programs of paragraph 3, but asks people only to understand how code serves industries, never to learn it, and leaves out the ways to learn.
C Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Takes the schools of sentence 15 as the heart of the argument and turns the claim into a duty for schools, a demand the passage never makes of them.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Joins the higher-paying jobs of sentence 13 to the students of paragraph 4, but limits the claim to students preparing for jobs, while the passage addresses everyone and promises benefits beyond pay.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the main claim of the whole passage. A claim is the main point a writer argues for. The new sentence goes after sentence 5, at the end of the first paragraph. So it should tell the reader what the whole passage will argue. Each choice tells someone what they “should” do. Find the one that fits all five paragraphs.
Sum up each paragraph
- Paragraph 1 (sentences 1–5): code is everywhere, and coders must learn its language.
- Paragraph 2 (sentences 6–9): how a coding language works.
- Paragraph 3 (sentences 10–13): coding skills matter in many jobs and can mean higher pay.
- Paragraph 4 (sentences 14–18): “People have a variety of opportunities to learn how to code.”
- Paragraph 5 (sentences 19–20): everybody should learn, and you don’t have to be an expert.
Find the claim in the ending
The end of a passage often makes its point clearest. Sentence 19 quotes Steve Jobs: “Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer.” Sentence 20 says “one does not need to become an expert programmer to reap the benefits of understanding this language.” To reap benefits is to get good things from something. So the claim is this: everyone should learn at least basic coding, because it helps in many ways.
Check each choice
- A fits. It speaks to all people. “Basic coding” matches sentence 20. “Opportunities” matches paragraph 4. “Many valuable benefits” covers jobs, pay and more.
- B does not fit. It asks people only to understand how businesses use code, the idea of paragraph 3. It never says to learn coding.
- C does not fit. The passage never tells schools what to do. Schools are just one place to learn, in sentence 15.
- D does not fit. It speaks only to students, and only about jobs. The passage speaks to everybody.
Choose the answer
Watch out: D sounds right because the passage does talk about students and jobs. But those are only parts of paragraphs 3 and 4. Only A covers who the passage speaks to and why they should learn. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is a close wrong answer, because studying code for good jobs is part of the passage. But D limits the claim to students and to jobs. Sentence 19 says “Everybody” should learn. The reason Steve Jobs gives is that it “teaches you how to think,” which is not about jobs at all. A speaks to all people and all the benefits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 103 of 120
2022 Test A English, question 9Uses the passage above: “Cracking the Code”.
Question
Which sentence would best follow sentence 13 and support the ideas in the third paragraph (sentences 10–13)?
- AExperienced programmers, software engineers, and system administrators at large companies can earn well over $100,000 a year.
- BHospitals, physicians’ offices, and pharmaceutical companies are frequently looking to hire people who code to help with a variety of tasks.
- CMany companies are eager to hire employees who have experience in a specific industry as well as knowledge of basic coding.
- DAccording to a report from a job market analytics firm, almost half of today’s jobs paying more than $58,000 a year call for some level of coding ability.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which sentence would best follow sentence 13 and support the ideas in the third paragraph.
A. Incorrect. While this sentence provides an example of a high salary, which is mentioned in the paragraph (sentence 13), the reference to “Experienced programmers, software engineers, and system administrators at large companies” focuses on specific occupations that may use coding, as opposed to the range of diverse occupations discussed in the third paragraph.
B. Incorrect. While sentence 12 does mention coding skills in the medical field as an example, the information provided in this answer supports only that idea and not the other ideas expressed in the third paragraph.
C. Incorrect. This sentence generally discusses employers looking for two things: “experience in a specific industry” and “knowledge of basic coding.” The third paragraph, however, discusses the possibilities of using coding skills in a variety of occupations. The words “experience in a specific industry” do not connect to the idea the paragraph develops.
D. CORRECT. This sentence provides specific evidence of the job market favoring potential employees who have coding ability. It supports what is stated in sentence 13, that “jobs that require coding skills are typically higher paying.”
Question analysis
This supporting-details question asks which sentence would best follow sentence 13 of “Cracking the Code,” which says jobs requiring coding skills tend to pay more, and support the ideas of the third paragraph. All four options are plausible facts about coding and work, from salaries to hiring, so students must judge which one backs up the paragraph as a whole.
- NYS standards
- 7W1b supporting claims with evidence
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Choosing relevant evidence for a claim is grade 7 argument work. Here all four options are believable facts about coding and jobs, and the best one must fit both sentence 13 and the paragraph’s larger point, a finer judgment than usual.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 357 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 100 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 paragraph makes two claims, that coding matters in many fields and that coding jobs pay more, and the best addition must serve both while following the sentence about pay. The $100,000 figure is the main trap, since it seems to back the pay claim but turns attention to computing careers, the opposite of the paragraph’s point. The hospital and industry-experience options each touch one idea of the paragraph and drift away from the rest.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four options are believable facts about coding and work, two of them with salary figures, so each must be tested against sentence 13’s pay comparison and sentence 10’s claim about many fields. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
The added sentence comes right after sentence 13, so it should carry on the point that coding jobs pay more while still serving the paragraph’s opening claim that coding matters in many occupations. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Seeing why the job-market statistic fits takes a step of reasoning: if almost half of jobs paying over $58,000 call for coding, coding is both widespread and tied to better pay. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Restate sentence 10 and sentence 13 in your own words, then ask of each option whether it is evidence for what those two sentences claim, not just a fact on the same topic.
Traps
- Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
The wrong answers, classified
A Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Matches sentence 13’s talk of pay with a striking salary, but it turns to computing careers such as software engineering instead of the many fields the paragraph describes, and compares nothing.
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Extends sentence 12’s point about doctors to hospitals and drug companies, but it backs only the medical example and says nothing about pay, so it does not build on sentence 13.
C Off the point (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Sees support for coding’s value in companies wanting “knowledge of basic coding,” but the sentence adds a second demand, experience in one industry, which the paragraph never discusses.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need a sentence to add after sentence 13. It must support the third paragraph. To support means to give evidence: facts that back up a point. So first find the paragraph’s points. Then test each choice against them.
Find the paragraph’s two points
Sentence 10 says “Coding skills are becoming important in many occupational fields.” That means many kinds of jobs. Sentences 11 and 12 give examples: the stock market and doctors. Sentence 13 says “Jobs that require coding skills are typically higher paying.” So the paragraph makes two points. Coding matters in many kinds of jobs. And jobs that need coding tend to pay more.
Test each choice against both points
- A gives a big salary. But it names only computer jobs, like programmers and software engineers. The paragraph is about coding in many other fields.
- B is only about hospitals and drug companies. It repeats the doctor example and says nothing about pay.
- C brings in a new idea: “experience in a specific industry.” The paragraph never talks about that, and C says nothing about pay.
- D says “almost half of today’s jobs paying more than $58,000 a year call for some level of coding ability.”
See why D supports both points
D is about jobs that pay well, so it backs up sentence 13 on pay. It also says almost half of those jobs need some coding. Half of all well-paying jobs covers many kinds of work, not just computer jobs. That backs up sentence 10. D also names where its facts come from, a report, which makes it stronger evidence.
Choose the answer
Watch out: A is the most tempting. Its $100,000 salary seems to match sentence 13. But of course computer experts need coding. That doesn’t show that coding matters in other fields. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, since it talks about high pay. But it is about programmers and other computer jobs. The paragraph’s point is that coding helps in many fields beyond computers. D shows that almost half of all well-paying jobs call for some coding. It supports both the pay and the many fields.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 104 of 120
2022 Test A English, question 30Passage Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!
Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!
by Zoa L. Swayne
This narrative is about the Nez Perce, an American Indian tribe, in what is now northern Idaho. The tribe is preparing for a gathering before the coming winter.
In the moon of Ta-Yum, the hottest days of summer, when salmon spawn in the little streams and huckleberries ripen in the high mountains, people from many villages of the Chopunnish Nation gathered in the Oyaip Prairie for the work and festivities of their annual camas1 harvest.
From far and near The People came. . . .
Should a stranger enter their homeland and ask, “Where are you from?” the reply was always, “We are Nee-mee-poo, The People who live here in this place.”
It was a time of Lawtiwa-mah-ton—a time of being friends together—when The People came for this last chance to enjoy being together before the Cold Moons kept them close to their fires. The visiting and trading, the foot racing and horse racing, and the gambling and stick games would be remembered and talked about long after they had forgotten the drudgery of digging and roasting camas, picking berries, or drying meat and fish. Lawtiwa-mah-ton! It was good to be friends together.
As was their custom since wahk-kee-ma, a time far back beyond the memory of man, they set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them. Red Bear’s people, from Kamiah, made their camp near the trail that came out of the mountains. Their neighbors in Kamiah Valley, The People from Tee-e-lap-a-lo, had their camp close by. Across the wide meadow, by the great roasting pits, the camps of the Te-wap-poo and Ask-kah-poo were located. The tepees and ish-nash, brush shelters, of other groups nestled in their accustomed areas in and among the pines in such numbers that they encircled the entire meadow land.
Red Bear’s people had traveled all summer with neighboring bands, gathering and preparing roots, picking and drying berries, drying and smoking meat and fish for their winter food supply. Now they were at the Oyaip camp. The women worked hard to dig and cure as many bags of roots as they could during the warm, sunny days, for the sharp night air brought warnings that WARM was going and COLD was coming.
Everyone helped in some way. Most of the men fished or hunted for meat. While many of the women dug and roasted camas, other women and older children picked and dried berries.
And the younger children played. They played at hunting. They played with the babies. They played with their horses and puppies. They learned how to live through their play.
This sun, happiness, peace, and quiet blessed the Red Bear camp. All were busy with their daily tasks, until sudden cries came from the children playing by the trail.
“People coming! People coming! People coming on the trail from the high mountains!” they called as they ran to their elders, who looked sharply at the figures of approaching horsemen.
Were they friends or enemies? Did they bring good news or bad?
“Who can it be? What brings them here?” were the questions in every mind.
“Could they be the four hunters who had gone to Buffalo Country two summers past? Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?”
It was customary for a hunting party to be gone for more than one season.
“Looks like hunters,” the older men agreed. “Looks like they had good hunting. Maybe our four hunters. [They have] been gone many moons.”
“Looks like five people—not four,” others observed.
Excitement grew as the riders came close enough to be recognized.
“A-a-a-a-a, they are our four hunters! But who is the fifth person?” they asked.
“Looks like a woman. Who is she?”
The hunters rode up to the welcoming crowd, proud to show off the loads of meat, hides, and other trophies of their hunt. They paraded around the encampment for all to see how strong their Hunting Power had been—what great hunters they, themselves, were.
Red Bear’s people rejoiced at their hunters’ success. Good hunters brought good to everybody. The meat meant plenty of food and the hides meant soft-tanned robes to give comfort through the Cold Moons. But it was the sight of the frail figure of the woman that aroused their curiosity. Who was she? Where had she come from? . . .
“Belongs to Red Bear people. Gone then come back,” the hunters said, as they dismounted and unloaded their packs. . . .
Now they could see! She was the daughter of the family gone so long ago! The girl-child who had left came back now—a grown woman.
“Wat-ku-ese!” the women cried. “Gone-from-Home-then-Come-Back. Wat-ku-ese!” And Wat-ku-ese was her name from that time on.
Gentle arms lifted Wat-ku-ese from her horse. The women brought her food and made a place for her to rest. For many suns they cared for her until she became stronger.
One evening Wat-ku-ese told her story for all to hear.
From DO THEM NO HARM!: Lewis and Clark Among the Nez Perce by Zoa L. Swayne. Published by Caxton Press. Copyright © 1990 by Zoa L. Swayne. Orofino, Idaho and Legacy House, Inc. Orofino, Idaho. All rights reserved.
1camas: a wild, edible plant
Question
Which quotation from the excerpt best supports the idea that The People maintain a connection to members of their group in spite of distance?
- A“As was their custom since wahk-kee-ma, a time far back beyond the memory of man, they set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them.” (paragraph 5)
- B“ ‘Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?’ ” (paragraph 13)
- C“ ‘Looks like hunters,’ the older men agreed. ‘Looks like they had good hunting.’ ” (paragraph 15)
- D“But it was the sight of the frail figure of the woman that aroused their curiosity.” (paragraph 21)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which quotation from the excerpt best supports the idea that The People maintain a connection to members of their group in spite of distance.
A. Incorrect. This quotation describes the fact that The People always set up their camps in the same places their parents and grandparents used before them. This quotation highlights the customs The People continue from their ancestors, but it does not focus on their present personal connections.
B. CORRECT. This quotation alludes to The People’s eagerness to hear about the families who had traveled away from their group. This eagerness shows that they still feel a connection to these families, even though they are far apart.
C. Incorrect. This quotation describes The People’s analysis of the visitors—that they may be hunters. It does not show a connection to the visitors.
D. Incorrect. This quotation shows that The People are curious about a stranger who has come into their camp. It does not show closeness to distant members of the group.
Question analysis
This textual evidence question on the excerpt from Do Them No Harm!, set at a Nez Perce camp during the yearly camas harvest, asks which quotation best supports the idea that The People maintain a connection to members of their group in spite of distance. The quotations come from four different paragraphs, and each must be checked against both halves of that idea.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Matching a quotation to an idea is routine grade 7 evidence work. This idea has two parts, keeping up ties and being far apart, and the four lines come from different points in the story, a standard grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 107 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation described one wrong choice’s quotation inaccurately; that sentence was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The idea pairs connection with distance, and the strongest-sounding line covers only one of them: camping where parents and grandparents camped keeps a tie across generations, not across miles. The line about the frail woman tempts readers who know she turns out to be a lost daughter, though no one knows it yet. The answer is easy to overlook because it is phrased as a hopeful question, yet asking after families long gone is exactly how the connection is kept.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The right quotation is a question the villagers ask, not a statement of their bond; students must see that wanting news of families “gone long ago” is a way of keeping that bond alive. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each line must pass two tests, a tie to members of the group and members who are far away; the camp-site line from paragraph 5 passes the first test and fails the second. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Split the idea into its two parts, an ongoing tie to group members and members who are far away, then read each quotation in its paragraph and keep only one that shows both.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes camping where parents and grandparents once camped as a lasting bond, but it links The People to ancestors across time, not to living members far away.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Connects these riders to the absent hunters the older men name a moment later, but the quoted words only judge the hunt and show no tie to anyone far away.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads ahead to the woman being a daughter who left long ago, but at this line she is still a stranger, and curiosity about a stranger keeps up no connection.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: Choice A quotes paragraph 5: The People “set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them.” The handbook’s explanation says the quotation describes them returning “to perform the same traditional tasks and enjoy the same festivities as their ancestors,” which the sentence doesn’t say. The explanation now describes the quotation as it is. The reason A is wrong is unchanged: it shows a custom kept from their ancestors, not a connection to members who are far away. The answer, B, is unchanged. The site made the same correction to this explanation as printed in the 2024–2025 guide (2024 Test B English, question 29).
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for evidence: the quotation that best supports an idea. The idea has two parts. The People keep a connection, or bond, with members of their group. And those members are far away. The right quotation must show both parts. One part alone is not enough.
Read paragraph 13 in its place
In paragraphs 10 to 12, the children shout that riders are coming down the mountain trail. Everyone wonders who they are. Paragraph 13 gives their hopes: “Could they be the four hunters who had gone to Buffalo Country two summers past? Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?”
Work out what the question shows
Some families left the group “long ago.” They went far away to Buffalo Country and never came home. Yet The People still hope for news of them. You only ask about people you still care about. So the bond holds across the miles and the years. Later, paragraph 23 shows that the woman riding with the hunters is “the daughter of the family gone so long ago!” The People welcome her and care for her.
Check each choice
- A (paragraph 5) does not fit. The People set up camp where “their parents and grandparents” camped before them. That is a custom from their ancestors, the family members who lived long ago. It is not a bond with members who are far away now.
- B (paragraph 13) fits. The People want news of families who left long ago and went far away.
- C (paragraph 15) does not fit. The older men only guess that the riders are hunters who had a good hunt.
- D (paragraph 21) does not fit. The People are curious about a stranger. At this point, no one knows she belongs to the group.
Choose the answer
Watch out: A is the most tempting, since camping where your grandparents camped is a strong tie. But that tie reaches back in time, not out across distance. Only B shows both parts of the idea. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It shows The People keeping an old custom from their ancestors. But it says nothing about group members who live far away now. B is about families who went to Buffalo Country and never returned. The People still want news of them, so the bond lasts in spite of distance.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed (pages 177–178)
Question 105 of 120
2022 Test A Math, question 36Question
When the three-digit whole number 27 ? is divided by 3 or by 4, the remainder is zero. What is the missing digit?
- A0
- B2
- C3
- D6
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
Each of the options 0, 2, 3, and 6 must be considered:
Option A: In the case of 0, the three-digit whole number is 270. Divide 270 by both 3 and 4:
Dividing 270 by 3 results in a remainder of 0, but dividing 270 by 4 results in a remainder of 2, so 0 cannot be the missing digit.
Option B: In the case of 2, the three-digit whole number is 272. Divide 272 by both 3 and 4:
Dividing 272 by 4 results in a remainder of 0, but dividing 272 by 3 results in a remainder of 2, so 2 cannot be the missing digit.
Option C: In the case of 3, the three-digit whole number is 273. Divide 273 by both 3 and 4:
Dividing 273 by 3 results in a remainder of 0, but dividing 273 by 4 results in a remainder of 1, so 3 cannot be the missing digit.
Option D: In the case of 6, the three-digit whole number is 276. Divide 276 by both 3 and 4:
Dividing 276 by 3 results in a remainder of 0, and dividing 276 by 4 results in a remainder of 0, so 6 is the missing digit.
Question analysis
A three-digit number begins with 27 and is missing its last digit, and it divides evenly by both 3 and 4. Students find the missing digit. It tests factors, multiples and divisibility rules; a digit that works for one divisor may fail the other, so both tests must be applied.
- NYS standards
- 6.NS.4 common factors and multiples
- Grade level
- Grade 6 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Divisibility by 3 and by 4 is grade 6 number sense. Testing four possible digits against two conditions is quick, much like a grade 6 exercise, as long as both divisors are actually checked.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 19 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 candidate passes at least one of the two tests, which makes the question a matter of finishing the checks rather than finding a method. Students who test only by 3, or only by 4, find a fitting number and stop. Seeing that a number divisible by both 3 and 4 is divisible by 12, and that 276 = 12 × 23, settles it in one step.
Turning words into math minor Understanding the question
The words “divided by 3 or by 4, the remainder is zero” mean that both divisions come out even, though or can be read as either one being enough. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each candidate, 270, 272, 273 and 276, has to be tested against two divisors, and three of them pass one test, so stopping after one check is costly. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The divisibility tests are not given: a number is divisible by 3 when its digit sum is, and by 4 when the number formed by its last two digits is. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Use the divisibility tests: a number is divisible by 4 when its last two digits are, and by 3 when its digit sum is. Keep only a digit that passes both.
Traps
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
- Numbers taken from the question: Combines the numbers in the question without a model of the situation, or is simply a number that appears in the question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Checks only division by 3, which 270 passes with a digit sum of 9, and never tests 4, though 270 ÷ 4 leaves a remainder of 2.
B Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Checks only division by 4, which 272 passes because 72 is a multiple of 4, but its digit sum is 11, so 272 ÷ 3 leaves 2.
C Numbers taken from the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Matches the missing digit to the divisor 3 in the question; 273 is a multiple of 3 but leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by 4.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Test for dividing by 3
- The digit sum is what you get when you add up a number’s digits. Divides by 3 means it divides evenly, with a remainder of 0. If the digit sum divides evenly by 3, so does the whole number. Use it to test a big number quickly.
- Test for dividing by 4
- Look only at the number made by the last two digits. If it divides evenly by 4, so does the whole number. This works because every 100 divides evenly by 4, so only the last two digits matter.
Sort out the question
The number is 27 followed by a missing digit. Remainder zero means the division comes out even, with nothing left over. The remainder is zero when the number is “divided by 3 or by 4.” That means both divisions come out even. So the number must pass both tests. The choices give four digits to try: 0, 2, 3 and 6.
Test each number for 3
Add the digits of each number.
Number Digit sum Divides by 3? 270 yes 272 no 273 yes 276 yes So 270, 273 and 276 pass. 272 fails.
Test each number for 4
Look at the last two digits: 70, 72, 73 and 76.
So 272 and 276 pass. 270 and 273 fail.
Keep the digit that passes both
Only 276 passes both tests. Check by dividing:
Watch out: 0 and 3 pass only the test for 3, so A and C fail. 2 passes only the test for 4, so B fails. And 3 is not right just because the question says 3. So the answer is D, 6.
Check your answer
A number that divides evenly by both 3 and 4 also divides evenly by 12, since . And . So 276 is a multiple of 12. None of 270, 272 or 273 is.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 106 of 120
2022 Test B English, question 12Passage Excerpt from “The World Has an E-Waste Problem”
Excerpt from “The World Has an E-Waste Problem”
by Alana Semuels
As a tech-hungry nation . . . gets ready to upgrade to the next generation of lightning-fast 5G devices, there is a surprising environmental cost to be reckoned with: a fresh mountain of obsolete1 gadgets. About 6 million pounds of discarded electronics are already processed monthly at recycling giant ERI’s Fresno plant. Pallets2 of once beloved but now outdated devices . . . arrive here daily. Workers with hammers hack at the bulkiest devices, while others remove dangerous components like lithium-ion batteries. The scene is like a twisted . . . movie, with doomed gadgets riding an unrelenting conveyor belt into a machine that shreds them into piles of copper, aluminum and steel.
“In our society, we always have to have the new, best product,” said Aaron Blum, the co-founder and chief operating officer of ERI, on a tour of the facility. Americans spent $71 billion on telephone and communication equipment in 2017, nearly five times what they spent in 2010 even when adjusted for inflation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. . . . When we buy something new, we get rid of what’s old. That cycle of consumption has made electronics waste the world’s fastest-growing solid-waste stream.
That stream is expected to turn into a torrent3 as the world upgrades to 5G, the next big step in wireless technology. 5G promises faster speeds and other benefits. But experts say it will also result in a dramatic increase in e-waste, as millions of smartphones, modems and other gadgets incompatible with 5G networks are made obsolete. “I don’t think people understand the magnitude of the transition,” says ERI co-founder and executive chairman John Shegerian. “This is bigger than the change of black-and-white to color, bigger than analog to digital, by many multitudes.”
. . . Less than a quarter of all U.S. electronic waste is recycled, according to a United Nations estimate. The rest is incinerated or ends up in landfills. That’s bad news, as e-waste can contain harmful materials like mercury and beryllium that pose environmental risks.
Part of the problem is regulatory. Only 19 states have laws banning electronics from the regular trash. In states without such rules, like Nevada, electronics often end up in garbage and recycling bins, said Jeremy Walters, a community-relations manager for waste collector Republic Services. Environmental concerns aside, compacting flammable lithium-ion batteries with paper recycling can be dangerous; recycling centers have reported an uptick in fires.
Even when e-waste rules exist, it’s left up to consumers to handle their old devices properly. But recycling them can be a pain. Rather than just drop a used phone in a bin outside their homes, lots of people have to take their electronics to a store, which may pay them for it but could also charge them to get rid of it. Many consumers, paralyzed by the hassle or put off by the expense, simply throw their devices into the trash or stash them in a drawer, hoping they’ll just disappear. “We don’t necessarily have the measures to make sure people aren’t throwing it away,” Walters said.
One solution is to make electronics last as long as they once did. At ERI’s facility, Shegerian showed TIME [magazine] dozens of televisions from the 1970s and 1980s that stopped working only recently. Yet instead, technology companies are speeding the pace of obsolescence. Most smartphone batteries can’t be easily replaced when they stop holding a charge, new laptops don’t accept old cables, and software companies push upgrades that won’t run on old devices. “Our products today don’t last as long as they used to, and it’s a strategy by manufacturers to force us into shorter and shorter upgrade cycles,” said Kyle Wiens, the founder of iFixit, which publishes do-it-yourself repair guides. . . .
Some environmental groups say multibillion-dollar companies . . . should pick up the cost of recycling the devices they sell. Lawmakers in parts of Europe and Canada and in some U.S. states have passed so-called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, which require manufacturers to establish and fund systems to recycle or collect obsolete products. . . .
. . . Some companies are increasing their recycling efforts on their own, whether for the economic benefit or the public relations boost.
From “The World Has an E-Waste Problem” by Alana Semuels from TIME Magazine, June 3, 2019. Copyright © 2019 TIME USA, LLC.
Electronics such as smartphones, computers, cameras, and large appliances contain toxins like lead, chromium, zinc, nickel, mercury, beryllium, and cadmium. These substances are bioaccumulative, which means that they accumulate over time in living organisms.
1obsolete: outdated and no longer useful
2Pallets: wooden platforms used to store or transport materials in a warehouse
3torrent: an outpouring
Question
How does paragraph 2 build on what the reader learns in paragraph 1?
- AParagraph 2 explains the underlying cause of the massive amounts of recycling that are described in paragraph 1.
- BParagraph 2 discusses the past trends that have led to the technological innovation mentioned in paragraph 1.
- CParagraph 2 cites statistics that support the claim about technology that is stated at the beginning of paragraph 1.
- DParagraph 2 expresses disapproval of the consumers who throw away the products that are discussed in paragraph 1.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 2 expands upon the reader’s understanding from paragraph 1.
A. CORRECT. Paragraph 1 describes massive amounts of recycling (“about 6 million pounds . . . processed monthly”). Paragraph 2 then explains the underlying reason for so much electronics recycling, using a quote from a resource: “ ‘we always have to have the new, best product,’ ” so we buy new electronic products and “get rid of what’s old.”
B. Incorrect. The trend outlined in paragraph 2 is not one of the past but rather one that is ongoing and even increasing at an alarming rate; in only seven years, American consumers quintupled their spending on “telephone and communication equipment.”
C. Incorrect. While it is true that paragraph 2 presents a statistic about American consumer patterns from 2010 to 2017, the spending on these items does not directly support any claims about waste problems. Specific statistics about waste generation, as opposed to this statistic related only to spending, would better support this type of claim.
D. Incorrect. Although paragraph 2 mentions that consumers “get rid of what’s old” once “we buy something new,” this is merely a statement of fact and not a judgment about this behavior.
Question analysis
This text-structure question on “The World Has an E-Waste Problem” asks how paragraph 2, with a recycling executive’s remark and figures on Americans’ spending on phones and communication equipment, builds on the opening scene at a recycling plant. Students must name the link between two paragraphs, and every choice points to something that really appears in one of them.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one paragraph builds on another is core grade 7 text-structure work. The two paragraphs are short, but students must judge the relationship between them rather than find a detail, and the magazine prose is dense with figures and quotations.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 760 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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
Paragraph 2 answers the question that paragraph 1 leaves open, why so many gadgets pour into ERI’s plant. The spending figures are the snag: a $71 billion total that grew nearly fivefold seems to prove the opening’s “tech-hungry nation,” and the choice built on them sounds like a fair account of the paragraph. Students who read to its end, where buying something new means getting rid of what’s old, see that its job is to explain the waste, not to back a claim.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how paragraph 2 relates to paragraph 1, so students must name a link, the buy-new, throw-out-old cycle behind the 6 million pounds a month, rather than spot a detail both paragraphs share. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each choice ties something in paragraph 2 (statistics, a trend, Blum’s remark) to something in paragraph 1 (the recycling, 5G, the opening claim), so both ends of every choice must be checked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Sum up each of the first two paragraphs in a few words, ask what the second adds to the first, and check that both ends of a choice match what each paragraph says.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- 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
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Pairs the years 2010 and 2017 with the 5G upgrade and assumes spending led to new technology, though paragraph 2 says the cycle of buying led to waste.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Matches the $71 billion figure to the opening’s “tech-hungry nation,” but the claim there is that the 5G upgrade brings an environmental cost, which spending from 2010 to 2017 does not show.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears criticism in Blum’s “we always have to have the new, best product,” though the paragraph says “we” and reports the habit of replacing devices without judging the people who do it.
Working it out, step by step
See what the question asks
This asks how two paragraphs fit together. Paragraph 2 builds on paragraph 1 when it adds something new to it. So first sum up each paragraph in a few words. Then ask what the second one adds. Both ends of a choice must match.
Sum up paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 shows a mountain of old gadgets. “About 6 million pounds of discarded electronics are already processed monthly” at one recycling plant. Discarded means thrown away. Workers break the devices apart, and a machine shreds them. So paragraph 1 shows what is happening: a flood of e-waste.
Sum up paragraph 2
Paragraph 2 tells why. Aaron Blum says, “In our society, we always have to have the new, best product.” Spending on phones and similar gear grew nearly five times from 2010 to 2017. Then comes the key line: “When we buy something new, we get rid of what’s old.” That habit, the paragraph says, made e-waste the fastest-growing kind of solid waste.
Test both ends of each choice
- A fits. The buy-new, toss-old habit causes the huge amounts of recycling in paragraph 1. An underlying cause is the deeper reason behind something.
- B does not fit. Paragraph 2 says the buying habit leads to waste. It never says what led to 5G or to any new invention.
- C does not fit. Paragraph 1 opens by claiming the 5G upgrade brings an environmental cost. Money spent from 2010 to 2017 does not show that cost. Paragraph 2 uses its numbers to show the buying habit instead.
- D does not fit. Blum says “we,” so he counts himself in. The paragraph reports a habit without blaming anyone.
Choose the answer
Watch out: C is tempting. A jump to $71 billion sounds like proof of a “tech-hungry nation.” But read paragraph 2 to its end. Its point is the cycle of buying and throwing away, which explains the waste. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, because paragraph 2 does have numbers. But the numbers serve a bigger point. People buy new things and toss the old ones, and that cycle fills plants like ERI’s. Paragraph 2 gives the reason behind paragraph 1’s pile of gadgets. That is a cause, which is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The World Has an E-Waste Problem”” as printed (pages 164–166)
Question 107 of 120
2022 Test B English, question 13Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The World Has an E-Waste Problem””.
Question
Which sentence from the excerpt suggests that electronic devices are purposely designed to be disposed of after a short time?
- A“ ‘In our society, we always have to have the new, best product,’ said Aaron Blum, the co-founder and chief operating officer of ERI, on a tour of the facility.” (paragraph 2)
- B“Even when e-waste rules exist, it’s left up to consumers to handle their old devices properly.” (paragraph 6)
- C“Most smartphone batteries can’t be easily replaced when they stop holding a charge, new laptops don’t accept old cables, and software companies push upgrades that won’t run on old devices.” (paragraph 7)
- D“Some environmental groups say multibillion-dollar companies . . . should pick up the cost of recycling the devices they sell.” (paragraph 8)
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
This question asks for the best support from the excerpt for the idea that electronic devices are purposely designed to be disposed of after a short time.
A. Incorrect. This statement actually contradicts the notion that it is the manufacturers who are at fault for designing products to only last a short while, as it suggests that the desire for upgrading electronic devices comes directly from consumers themselves.
B. Incorrect. Though this explains a problem that occurs after the devices have already been upgraded, it provides no support for the idea that these devices are intentionally designed to become obsolete quickly.
C. CORRECT. This explains the techniques manufacturers of these devices implement to make the devices unusable after a short time. They cannot easily be repaired; they cannot be integrated with legacy components, and older devices are unable to run with new software.
D. Incorrect. This sentence explains that some people feel that these companies should accept responsibility for creating such short-lived devices, but it does not directly indicate that they intentionally make devices to become useless after only a short time.
Question analysis
This textual evidence question on “The World Has an E-Waste Problem” asks which quoted sentence suggests that electronic devices are purposely designed to be thrown away after a short time. The four sentences come from paragraphs 2, 6, 7 and 8, and each relates to the e-waste problem, so students must tell evidence for this exact claim apart from related points.
- NYS standards
- 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing the sentence that best supports a stated idea is standard grade 7 evidence work. The four sentences are quoted with their paragraph numbers, so the search is short, though each one has to be weighed in its paragraph.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 760 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
The claim has two parts, that devices are built to be short-lived and that this is deliberate, and only one sentence speaks to how they are built. Blum’s remark is the strong pull because it explains why devices are replaced quickly, yet it puts the cause in buyers’ appetite for the newest model. Reading paragraph 7 around its quoted sentence settles the deliberate part, since the next sentence calls it a manufacturers’ strategy.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The keyed sentence lists batteries that can’t be replaced, cables that don’t fit and upgrades that won’t run, but never calls them deliberate; the intent comes from “speeding the pace of obsolescence” and Wiens’s “it’s a strategy.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four quoted sentences concern old devices and come from four different paragraphs, so each has to be tested for design and intent, not just for being about e-waste. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Restate the claim in your own words, then read each quoted sentence in its paragraph and ask whether it supports that exact claim or only a related point about e-waste.
Traps
- Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees that Blum’s “we always have to have the new, best product” explains quick replacement, but it blames buyers’ wants and says nothing about how devices are designed.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks a sentence about who must handle old devices under e-waste rules, which concerns disposal after a device is replaced, not anything built into it to cut its life short.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reasons that companies asked to pay for recycling must be making short-lived devices on purpose, though the sentence reports a demand from environmental groups and says nothing about design.
Working it out, step by step
Restate the idea to support
This asks for evidence, a sentence that backs up an idea. The idea has two parts. Devices are designed, or built, to be thrown out soon. And this is done on purpose. So the right sentence must be about how devices are made.
Find the sentence about design
Paragraph 7 says, “Most smartphone batteries can’t be easily replaced when they stop holding a charge, new laptops don’t accept old cables, and software companies push upgrades that won’t run on old devices.” Each part is something built into a product. Each one makes an old device stop being useful, so you have to buy a new one.
Find the clue that it is planned
The sentence just before says technology companies “are speeding the pace of obsolescence.” Obsolescence is the process of going out of date and becoming useless. Speeding it means making it happen sooner. Right after, Kyle Wiens calls it “a strategy by manufacturers to force us into shorter and shorter upgrade cycles.” A strategy is a plan, so it is done on purpose.
Check every quoted sentence
- A does not fit. Blum says buyers always want the newest thing. That blames what people want, not how devices are built.
- B does not fit. It is about who must handle old devices. That happens after a device has been replaced.
- C fits. It names three ways products are built to wear out fast.
- D does not fit. It says who should pay for recycling. It never mentions how long devices last or how they are made.
Give the answer
Watch out: A is tempting because it explains why devices get replaced so quickly. But it puts the cause on buyers, not on the companies that build the products. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Blum’s sentence, A, is the strongest pull. It does explain why people swap devices so often. But the idea you need is about design. Only C describes the products themselves: batteries you can’t replace, cables that won’t fit, software that won’t run. Paragraph 7 then calls this a plan by manufacturers.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 108 of 120
2022 Test B English, question 27Passage Going Solar in China
Going Solar in China
In the Anhui province of China, 166,000 floating solar panels are strung together atop the rippling surface of a lake. It is the largest solar-power farm in the world, an immense blanket of renewable energy strong enough to power 15,000 homes.
The floating solar-power farm, which harvests the sun’s rays for power, was first conceived by the Sungrow Power Supply Company after heavy rains flooded a collapsed coal mine and created a lake. Sang Dajie, a former coal miner from the area, is now an electrician for the farm, which occupies the original mine site where he used to work. Now, instead of working under the dangerous conditions at the mine, he spends his days maintaining the solar panels on the water. “The coal mine,” says Dajie, “was very hot and the air was bad. . . . But here I feel safe. The new energy is safe.” People in China rely primarily on the burning of coal in massive power plants to create electricity. While the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, is a reliable source of energy, the process releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, creating air pollution and harming Earth. Solar power, on the other hand, is clean and safe for the environment.
Solar panels are typically placed on rooftops or in open fields, but experts in China determined that the newly formed lake was a great spot for the solar-power farm. Solar-power farms over water are efficient because the water keeps the panels cool. A water-based solar-power farm can potentially generate more power than one based on land. Additionally, with the solar-power farm on the lake, the land in the surrounding area remains available for farming, which is another source of income for Anhui residents.
Originally, China displayed minimal interest in solar energy. The use of solar energy was limited primarily to rural areas that had no access to a power grid. Without access to other means of electricity, people in these areas used solar panels as an alternative to lighting candles and kerosene lamps. China began to manufacture solar panels for other countries in the late 1990s when the German government offered its people financial incentives for installing solar panels. The heightened demand for solar panels was instantaneous, and Chinese businesses were quick to seize the opportunity. Soon the governments of Spain and Italy also offered incentives for using solar technology, and Chinese manufacturers were ready for the increased demand.
Between 2008 and 2013, China improved its manufacturing technology and processes so much that it effectively lowered the worldwide cost of using solar energy by 80 percent, further increasing demand. However, a point came when Chinese manufacturers had become so efficient at producing solar-power equipment that they outpaced the demand. The manufacturers were producing two solar panels for every one solar panel they sold. In order to make manufacturing a profitable industry again, the Chinese government offered its own financial incentives to Chinese citizens for using solar energy. Now, projects like the floating solar-power farm are putting those surplus panels to use, in addition to providing jobs and cleaner energy.
A second solar-power farm has already been constructed near the massive one in Anhui as part of a government initiative to build more low-emission power plants. The goal is to meet 20 percent of the country’s energy needs with renewable, clean energy sources by the year 2030.
As Sang Dajie puts it, “I’m glad we are reusing this area to create a better future.” China’s dedication to increasing its production of renewable energy through solar power demonstrates that patience, time, and flexibility can result in transformation.
Question
How does paragraph 2 contribute to the development of ideas in the article?
- AIt explains the series of events that led a former coal miner to become an electrician at a solar-power farm.
- BIt provides details on how a shift from coal mining to collecting solar power can improve conditions for energy workers and the environment.
- CIt describes the reasons a company chose to transform a lake created by a collapsed coal mine into a solar-power farm that floats on the water.
- DIt presents an overview of how a collapsed coal mine became a productive floating solar-power farm over several years.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how paragraph 2 contributes to the development of ideas in the article.
A. Incorrect. The details in paragraph 2 explain how the coal mine was flooded and later turned into a solar farm. Dajie’s experience is used to highlight the differences between the two forms of energy, but the transition from coal to solar and the differences between the two, rather than Dajie, are the focus of the paragraph.
B. CORRECT. Dajie’s comparison of the coal mine and the solar farm is used to highlight the improved working conditions for energy workers, and the last two sentences of the paragraph describe the air pollution created by coal power and explain the environmental benefits of solar power. Therefore, this paragraph shows how transitioning from coal to solar power benefits both workers and the environment.
C. Incorrect. The first sentence of the paragraph explains how the lake was formed, but the reasons the location was chosen by the energy company are not a central idea of the article or the paragraph. The paragraph focuses on the advantages of solar power compared with coal power.
D. Incorrect. Although the author does explain how the area was affected by a flood at a coal mine that created a lake, the process of the lake becoming a solar farm is not a central idea of the paragraph. Instead, the paragraph focuses on the differences between the mine and the solar-power farm.
Question analysis
This question asks how paragraph 2 of “Going Solar in China” contributes to the development of ideas in the article. The long paragraph moves from a flooded coal mine and the company that planned the solar-power farm to a former miner’s comments and facts about coal, so students must decide what the paragraph as a whole adds rather than fasten on one detail.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a paragraph contributes to an article is standard grade 7 structure work. Paragraph 2 is long and changes topic several times, so students must summarize all of it, a typical step for grade 7 readers.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A lot to read moderate
- How, not what minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 13, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 100 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 paragraph opens with how the farm came to be, which invites a choice about its origin, but most of it compares two workplaces and two fuels. Students who stop after the first sentences or fasten on Dajie’s career miss the closing sentences on carbon dioxide and clean solar power, which carry half of the right answer. Summing up every part before reading the choices keeps the vivid miner from crowding out the environmental point.
A lot to read moderate Understanding the question
Paragraph 2 is the article’s longest, nine sentences that move from the flooded mine and Sungrow’s plan to Dajie and his quotation and then to coal’s carbon dioxide and solar power’s clean energy. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks what the paragraph contributes to the article, so students must name what its parts do together, compare coal with solar for workers and for the air, rather than list its events. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Three choices rest on things the paragraph really contains, the flood that made the lake, Dajie’s change of job, the farm on the mine site, so each must be tested against the whole paragraph. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Split paragraph 2 into its parts and say in a few words what each part shows, then choose the description that every part of the paragraph supports.
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.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Follows Dajie from coal miner to electrician and takes his career as the paragraph’s point, though it uses his words to compare the mine with the farm, not to tell his story.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Looks for why the lake was chosen, but those reasons, cooler panels and land left free for farming, come in paragraph 3, while paragraph 2 only says how the lake formed.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the first sentence’s flooded mine and adds a change “over several years,” though the paragraph gives no timeline and spends most of its length on safety and pollution.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what is asked
This asks what paragraph 2 adds to the article as a whole. It is the longest paragraph, and it has several parts. To answer, find what all the parts do together. Don’t stop at the first sentence.
Split paragraph 2 into parts
- How the farm began: heavy rains flooded a collapsed coal mine and made a lake.
- Dajie, who once mined coal on that spot, now maintains the panels. He compares the two jobs.
- Coal: burning it “releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, creating air pollution and harming Earth.”
- Solar: “Solar power, on the other hand, is clean and safe for the environment.”
See what the parts do together
Only the first sentence tells how the farm began. Everything after it compares coal with solar power. Dajie’s part shows the change is better for workers. The last sentences show it is better for the environment, the air, land and water around us. Carbon dioxide is a gas that harms the planet in large amounts.
Test the four choices
- A does not fit. Dajie’s job change is only one part, and the paragraph never explains the steps that led to it.
- B fits. It covers both the workers and the environment.
- C does not fit. Paragraph 2 says only how the lake formed. Why experts chose the lake, such as water keeping panels cool, comes in paragraph 3.
- D does not fit. The paragraph gives no timeline, and only its opening is about how the farm began.
Choose the answer
Watch out: A is tempting because Dajie is the most vivid part of the paragraph. But his story is there to compare coal with solar, not to tell about his career. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Of the wrong choices, A pulls hardest. It is true that Dajie moved from coal miner to electrician. But the paragraph uses his words for a comparison, then adds facts about coal’s pollution and solar power’s clean energy. B is the only choice that includes both halves: safer work and a cleaner environment.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Going Solar in China” as printed (page 174)
Question 109 of 120
2022 Test B English, question 29Uses the passage above: “Going Solar in China”.
Question
How do the details in paragraph 6 about the solar-power goals of the Chinese government convey a central idea of the article?
- AThey indicate that the Chinese government wants China to be the world leader in solar-energy production.
- BThey show that the Chinese government understands the benefits of transitioning to renewable energy sources such as solar power.
- CThey suggest that constructing solar-power farms is the best way for the Chinese government to put excess solar panels to use.
- DThey imply that solar farms are a good way for the Chinese government to make solar power the main source of energy in China.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the details in paragraph 6 convey a main idea of the article.
A. Incorrect. The details in paragraph 6 help explain that China has a goal of increasing its use of solar power, but there is no information in the paragraph to suggest that the Chinese government wants to make China a world leader in solar energy. The only goal discussed is the government’s goal to use renewable energy sources to meet 20 percent of the country’s energy needs by 2030.
B. CORRECT. The discussion of a second solar farm and the government’s goal to increase its reliance on “low-emission power plants” shows that the Chinese government understands the benefits of solar energy and other renewable energy sources.
C. Incorrect. Paragraph 6 addresses the Chinese government’s focus on increasing its use of renewable energy and low-emission power. The topic of excess solar panels is not discussed in paragraph 6; instead, the topic is mentioned in paragraph 5.
D. Incorrect. The paragraph explains that the goal of the Chinese government is to increase the use of renewable energy so that 20 percent of the country’s power comes from such sources by 2030. However, this goal would not make solar power the main source of energy in China.
Question analysis
Paragraph 6 of “Going Solar in China” reports a second solar-power farm and a national goal for renewable energy by 2030. This central-idea question asks how those details about the Chinese government’s plans convey a central idea of the article. The paragraph is short, but the choices differ in how far they go beyond what it actually says.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Linking a paragraph’s details to a central idea is grade 7 work, but this paragraph has only two plain sentences, and checking each choice against them takes one careful reading, below the usual grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 13, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 101 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 paragraph is two sentences long, and the right choice says little more than they do. The wrong choices are harder to dismiss because each attaches to something real: the farm is called the world’s largest in paragraph 1, the surplus panels come from paragraph 5, and the goal does concern renewable energy. The figure that settles the last of them is “20 percent,” far from making solar China’s main source of power.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Paragraph 6 reports a second farm and a 2030 goal but never says the government understands anything; that has to be read from its decision to build “more low-emission power plants.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each wrong choice goes past the paragraph in its own way, a world lead, a best use for surplus panels, solar as the main source, so every claim must be measured against two sentences. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Reread the two sentences of paragraph 6 and put the government’s plan in your own words, then keep only a choice those sentences support without adding to them.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes a government building record solar farms wants to lead the world, a plausible real-world aim, though paragraph 6 speaks only of meeting China’s own energy needs.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in paragraph 5’s surplus panels that projects like the floating farm put to use, but paragraph 6 is about low-emission plants and a 2030 goal, not extra panels.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Inflates the goal of meeting 20 percent of the country’s needs with all renewable sources into making solar power China’s main source of energy.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out the question
This asks how paragraph 6 helps show a central idea, a main point of the whole article. Paragraph 6 is only two sentences long. So read them closely, and pick the choice that says no more than they do.
Read paragraph 6
The first sentence says a second solar farm was built “as part of a government initiative to build more low-emission power plants.” An initiative is a plan to get something done. Low-emission means giving off very little pollution. The second sentence gives the goal: to meet “20 percent of the country’s energy needs with renewable, clean energy sources by the year 2030.”
Connect it to the article
Back in paragraph 2, the article explains that burning coal causes air pollution, while solar power is clean. Paragraph 6 shows the government acting on that difference. It is building more clean power plants and setting a target for clean energy. A government plans like this only when it sees the gains. So it understands why the change is worth making.
Test each choice
- A does not fit. The goal is about China’s own needs. Nothing compares China with other countries.
- B fits. Building low-emission plants shows the government sees the good in renewable energy.
- C does not fit. Extra panels come up in paragraph 5, not 6. And nothing calls farms the “best way” to use them.
- D does not fit. Twenty percent is one fifth, and it is for all renewable sources together. That is far from making solar the main source.
Pick the answer
Watch out: D is tempting because the goal is about clean energy. But the main source means the biggest share, and paragraph 2 says China still relies mostly on coal. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. Paragraph 6 does set a goal for clean energy. But the goal is 20 percent from all renewable sources, so solar would not become China’s main source. B claims less, and paragraph 6 fully supports it. A government building cleaner plants clearly sees their benefits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 110 of 120
2022 Test B English, question 30Uses the passage above: “Going Solar in China”.
Question
China’s role in the increase of solar-energy use around the world is illustrated in the article mainly through the inclusion of
- Ainformation about where Chinese businesses sold solar panels and other materials for solar-power farms.
- Bexplanations of how solar-power use in China demonstrated that solar power could replace other energy sources.
- Cdetails about how the Chinese government encouraged its citizens to use solar energy.
- Dfacts indicating that Chinese manufacturing processes helped make solar power more affordable.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the article illustrates China’s role in the growth of global solar-energy use.
A. Incorrect. In paragraphs 4 and 5, the author explains that Chinese businesses manufactured solar panels to meet demand from European countries; however, the paragraph does not specify that those countries used the panels in solar-power farms.
B. Incorrect. Although paragraph 4 does explain the early use of solar power in China, the paragraph only explains the developing Chinese business of making solar panels. It does not suggest that solar-power use in China, as opposed to solar-power use in other countries, demonstrated that solar power could replace other energy sources.
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author explains how the Chinese government offered incentives for its own citizens to promote solar energy, but this action served only to increase solar-power use in China. No connection is made between the incentives offered to Chinese citizens and the global increase in solar-power use.
D. CORRECT. Paragraphs 4 and 5 explain how growing demand for solar power encouraged China to improve manufacturing; this “lowered the worldwide cost of using solar energy by 80 percent” (paragraph 5). The affordability of solar energy contributed greatly to the increased global use of that energy source.
Question analysis
This evidence question on “Going Solar in China” asks what the article mainly uses to illustrate China’s role in the growth of solar-energy use around the world. The choices name four kinds of information about China and solar power, so students must check each against paragraphs 4 and 5 and against the question’s worldwide focus.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Identifying how a text illustrates an idea is common grade 7 evidence work. The relevant facts sit in two neighboring paragraphs in plain prose, and each choice is a general description that must be traced back to the text.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 13, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 76 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question turns on three words in the stem, “around the world,” and the most tempting wrong choice fails only that test: the government’s incentives are real but aimed at Chinese citizens. The sales to European countries are harder to set aside, since supplying them is a kind of role, but the article never says where panels were sold or mentions other materials. The one detail with a worldwide reach is the 80 percent fall in cost.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Three of the four kinds of information are in the article, European demand in paragraph 4 and the 80 percent cut and citizen incentives in paragraph 5, so each must be tested against “around the world.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The details sit in different paragraphs, rural panels and European incentives in paragraph 4, cheaper manufacturing and incentives at home in paragraph 5, and must be sorted by where they had their effect. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The article states the 80 percent cut and adds “further increasing demand,” and students must see that cheaper solar power everywhere is China’s part in the worldwide growth. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Note that the question is about solar-energy use around the world, then find the detail each choice describes and ask whether it shows China affecting that worldwide use.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Recalls Chinese firms making panels when Germany, Spain and Italy offered incentives, but the article never lists where they sold, mentions other materials or says the panels went to solar farms.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats rural Chinese panels used instead of candles and kerosene lamps as proof to the world that solar can replace other sources, a lesson paragraph 4 never draws.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Chooses the government’s incentives, which paragraph 5 does describe, but they were offered to Chinese citizens and raised solar use inside China, not around the world.
Working it out, step by step
See what the question asks
This asks how the article shows China’s part in the rise of solar power “around the world.” Those three words are the key. The right detail must show China changing solar use in many countries, not just inside China.
Find the worldwide detail
Paragraph 5 says that between 2008 and 2013, China improved how it made solar equipment. It did this so well “that it effectively lowered the worldwide cost of using solar energy by 80 percent, further increasing demand.” Demand is how much people want to buy something.
Work out what 80 percent means
A drop of 80 percent means the cost fell to one fifth of what it was. Something that cost $100 would now cost about $20. When solar power gets that cheap, more people everywhere can pay for it. Affordable means cheap enough to buy. So China’s better factories helped solar power spread across the globe.
Check every choice
- A does not fit. Paragraph 4 says China made panels for other countries. But it never mentions “other materials for solar-power farms,” and the demand there grew from those countries’ own incentives.
- B does not fit. Rural areas used panels instead of candles and kerosene lamps. The article never says this taught the world anything.
- C does not fit. The government’s rewards went to Chinese citizens, so they raised solar use inside China only.
- D fits. Cheaper manufacturing made solar power more affordable everywhere.
Name the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because paragraph 5 really does describe those rewards. But they were for people in China. That fails the test of “around the world.” So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, since the incentives are a real detail in the article. But they reached only Chinese citizens. D is about a change felt everywhere: China made solar energy far cheaper to use worldwide. That is how China helped solar use grow in other countries.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 111 of 120
2022 Test B English, question 41Passage Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything
Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything
Located underground near Geneva, Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) helps scientists study and understand how the smallest particles of matter interact with one another. The LHC propels atomic particle beams along a 17-mile-long ring.
There are the things the world is made of,
things we can see and feel, and then
there are the things even smaller, things that seem
to exist only when we are looking right at them.
So beneath the level of molecules are atoms,
and beneath the level of atoms, we find
protons, electrons, neutrons; and beneath that—
what, exactly? Because we are talking about
everything here: your fingernail,
the candy at the back of your mouth,
the coffee your teacher drank this morning,
your little sister, and the stuffed dog
she used to carry around with her everywhere.
And everywhere.
Everything and everywhere
are made up of the same stuff, whatever
it is. How do we find it? We can listen for it
in the wavelengths from deep space,
talking back to us from unimaginable
distances. Or we can build long,
deep circular tunnels beneath the surface
of this Earth and race particles
(like racing cars, only very tiny cars
flashing along at close to the speed of light)
until everything we think we know
bangs against everything else we know.
And there, in the explosion, in the darkness,
briefly incandescent, they appear:
the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons;
the baryons and the mesons. Their names
sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands
playing terrible music in someone’s garage.
The one thing we know for sure
is that they spin. This is how gravity
enters our world, how our world is held
both together and apart, what keeps
together the pencil in your hand right now
as well as separate from, say,
Jupiter. They spin, and it is only down there
in the darkness—in the vast garage
where physicists jot down
what they can, whatever seems most real—
that they let us perceive their wild dancing,
combusting to the music they make.
Question
The break between the second stanza (lines 5–14) and the third stanza (lines 15–26) serves as a transition from
- Aidentifying common physical objects to explaining how the particles that make up all physical things are observed.
- Bsuggesting that the visible world is made up of simple materials to revealing why invisible materials make the world complicated.
- Cdiscussing the methods used to study particles in space to describing how matter is researched on Earth.
- Ddescribing an environment that feels comfortable to characterizing an environment that seems unstable.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the break between the second stanza (lines 5–14) and the third stanza (lines 15–26) serves as a transition between ideas.
A. CORRECT. The second stanza describes physical objects, including “your fingernail, / the candy at the back of your mouth, / the coffee your teacher drank this morning” (lines 9–11) and even “the stuffed dog” that “your little sister” (line 12) carries around. In the third stanza, the speaker introduces the topic of observation by asking, “How do we find it?” in line 17. Lines 17–18 offer one possible method for finding “it” (“We can listen for it / in the wavelengths from deep space”), while lines 20–22 describe a second method (“Or we can build long, / deep circular tunnels beneath the surface / of this Earth and race particles”). With these details, the focus of the poem shifts toward explaining how the particles that make up everything are observed.
B. Incorrect. While the speaker does list common items such as “candy” and “coffee” (lines 10–11) that many people are familiar with and that seem to be simple in composition or structure, the speaker does not imply in the third stanza that invisible objects complicate the world. In fact, the speaker claims that everything is “made up of the same stuff” (line 16), which simplifies the invisible world.
C. Incorrect. The second stanza focuses on the structure of matter (“beneath the level of molecules are atoms, / and beneath the level of atoms, we find / protons, electrons, neutrons” [lines 5–7]) and does not discuss the methods used to explore this structure in space. The third stanza mentions space (“We can listen for it / in the wavelengths from deep space” [lines 17–18]) and how we can “race particles” (line 22) on Earth but does not compare the methods of study used in these different locations.
D. Incorrect. While the second stanza describes items that are familiar to readers, including “your fingernail, / the candy at the back of your mouth, / the coffee your teacher drank this morning” (lines 9–11), the familiarity of these items does not necessarily mean they are part of a comfortable environment. The third stanza discusses studying the parts of matter “until everything we think we know / bangs against everything else we know” (lines 25–26). The “banging” the speaker refers to is not related to an unstable environment but rather to the mysteries of atomic structure.
Question analysis
This structure question on the poem “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything,” about the Large Hadron Collider, asks what shift the break between the second stanza (lines 5–14) and the third stanza (lines 15–26) marks. Students must sum up what each stanza is doing and check that both halves of a two-part choice fit, each matched to the right stanza.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a stanza break shifts a poem’s focus is regular grade 7 structure work. Both stanzas use everyday language, and each two-part choice must be checked half by half, a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 12, 84 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 shift is easy to hear: stanza 2 closes with a list running from a fingernail to a stuffed dog and “everywhere,” and stanza 3 asks how the shared stuff can be found. The wrong choices fail on one half or put content in the wrong stanza, the most tempting being the one that splits stanza 3’s two methods, deep space and underground tunnels, across the break. Checking each half against its own stanza separates them.
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks what the stanza break marks, so students must sum up what stanza 2 does, listing everyday things made of particles, and what stanza 3 does, asking “How do we find it?” (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Every choice has a “from” half and a “to” half, and each half must be matched to its own stanza, so a choice can fail on either side or by moving content across the break. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Write a few words for what stanza 2 does and a few for what stanza 3 does, then choose the pair that matches both, in the right order.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
The wrong answers, classified
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Accepts that stanza 2 lists everyday things but then reads stanza 3 as making the world complicated, though it says everything is “made up of the same stuff.”
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Notices the “wavelengths from deep space” and the tunnels “beneath the surface / of this Earth,” but both methods come in stanza 3, and stanza 2 describes no methods at all.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Feels the coziness of candy and a sister’s stuffed dog, then hears “bangs against” as an unstable place, though the collisions belong to the particle experiment, not to anyone’s surroundings.
Working it out, step by step
Understand the transition question
This asks what changes at the break between stanza 2 and stanza 3. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph. A transition is a move from one idea to the next. Each choice has a “from” part and a “to” part, and both must match.
Sum up stanza 2, lines 5–14
Stanza 2 goes smaller and smaller: molecules, then atoms, then “protons, electrons, neutrons.” Then it turns to everyday things made of that tiny stuff: “your fingernail, / the candy at the back of your mouth, / the coffee your teacher drank this morning.” It ends with a little sister and her stuffed dog. These are common physical objects, things you can touch.
Sum up stanza 3, lines 15–26
Stanza 3 says all things are “made up of the same stuff.” Then line 17 asks, “How do we find it?” The rest of the stanza gives two answers. We can listen “in the wavelengths from deep space.” Or they can build tunnels and race particles, the tiny bits that make up matter. So stanza 3 is about how people observe, or study, those particles.
Check both halves of each choice
- A fits. Stanza 2 names common things. Stanza 3 explains how particles are found.
- B does not fit. Stanza 3 says everything is the same stuff. It never says hidden materials make the world complicated.
- C does not fit. Stanza 2 has no methods at all. Both ways of searching, in space and on Earth, come in stanza 3.
- D does not fit. Candy and a stuffed dog are familiar, but no comfortable place is described. The banging in line 26 is particles crashing in a tunnel.
Choose the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because the poem does mention deep space and the Earth. But both come after the break, so C splits stanza 3 in two. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C comes closest, because space and the Earth are both in the poem. But they sit side by side in stanza 3, as two ways to search. Stanza 2 searches for nothing; it lists things from a fingernail to a stuffed dog. A matches each stanza: everyday objects first, then how scientists find the particles inside them.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed (pages 32–33)
Question 112 of 120
2022 Test B Math, question 52Question
A farmer has 100 apples and will eat 2 apples per day. Is there a proportional relationship between the number of apples remaining and the number of days that have passed?
- Ano, because the relationship does not include 99 as a number of apples
- Bno, because the ordered pair (0, 0) is not part of the relationship
- Cyes, because all the values in the relationship are even
- Dyes, because the number of apples is decreasing at a constant rate
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
Proportional relationships are relationships between two variables where their ratios are equivalent. The graph of a proportional relationship will always go through the point (0, 0).
In the text of the problem, it is given that the farmer begins with 100 apples. Therefore, the ordered pair (0, 100) would be the point at which the graph of the relationship crosses the y-axis, not (0, 0). Additionally, in a proportional relationship, each pair of values represents the same ratio of .
If the relationship were proportional, the ratio for the first two days (1, 98) and (2, 96) would be equivalent.
Question analysis
A farmer starts with 100 apples and eats 2 apples per day. Students decide whether the number of apples remaining and the number of days that have passed are in a proportional relationship, choosing a yes or no answer with its reason. It tests the definition of a proportional relationship, and every reason offered has to be judged, not just the verdict.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Deciding whether two quantities are proportional is core grade 7 work. Here there is no table or graph to check, only a description, so students must produce pairs of values themselves before testing them.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Something you must already know moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Turning words into math minor
- Solution
- 2 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 74 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 situation is clearly linear, a steady drop of 2 apples a day, and that is the trap: a constant rate of change sounds like proportionality. The relationship starts at 100 apples on day 0, not at 0, so the ratio of apples to days falls from 98 to 48 between days 1 and 2. Half the choices say no, and only one of those gives a reason that decides the question.
Something you must already know moderate Working it out
The tests for a proportional relationship are not given: apples over days must be one constant ratio, and the graph must pass through (0, 0), which day 0 with 100 apples does not. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice pairs a verdict with a reason, so a right “no” with a wrong reason, the missing 99, has to be ruled out as firmly as a wrong “yes”. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Turning words into math minor Understanding the question
No table or graph is given, so the pairs have to be built from the words: 100 apples on day 0, 98 on day 1, 96 on day 2. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)
Strategy: List the apples left after 0, 1 and 2 days, recall the two tests for a proportional relationship, and keep only a choice whose reason is both true and decisive.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Has the right verdict, no, but rests it on a true detail that decides nothing: the count skips 99, yet missing values have no bearing on whether ratios are equal.
C Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Treats the even counts, 100, 98, 96 and so on, as a sign of proportionality, a pattern in the numbers that has nothing to do with a constant ratio.
D Misunderstands the concept (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993; De Bock et al., 1998; Ni & Zhou, 2005)
Takes a constant rate of change for proportionality: the apples do fall by 2 each day, but they start from 100, not 0, so apples ÷ days is not constant.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Proportional relationship
- x and y are two amounts that change together. k is a fixed number, the constant of proportionality. In a proportional relationship, y ÷ x always equals k. When x is 0, y is 0 too, so the graph passes through (0, 0).
Sort out the question
The farmer starts with 100 apples and eats 2 apples each day. You must decide if apples left and days passed are proportional. Each choice gives a yes or a no and a reason. Both parts must be right.
Make a small table
Each day, take away 2 apples.
Days passed 0 1 2 Apples left 100 98 96 As pairs (days, apples), these are (0, 100), (1, 98) and (2, 96).
Test the ratios
If the relationship were proportional, apples ÷ days would be the same every day. Are and equal? Work out each one.
98 is not equal to 48. The ratio changes, so the relationship is not proportional.
Check the point (0, 0)
A proportional graph always passes through (0, 0). Here, on day 0 the farmer has 100 apples, not 0. So that pair is (0, 100). When the apples run out, 50 days have passed: (50, 0). The pair (0, 0) never happens. That is the reason in choice B.
Rule out the other choices
Watch out: choice D is tempting. The apples do drop at a constant rate, 2 each day. But they start at 100, not 0. A steady change alone is not enough.
Choice A is true, since 99 never appears, but it decides nothing. Choice C is about even numbers, which has nothing to do with a steady ratio. So the answer is B.
Check your answer
Try one more day. After 10 days the farmer has apples. Then apples ÷ days is 80 ÷ 10 = 8, not 98 or 48. The ratio keeps changing, so the answer is no, and (0, 0) is missing.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 113 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 1Question
Read this sentence.
During a nightly news segment about a cooking contest, a reporter talked to some people who did the best in the contest.
Which revision uses the most precise language for the words talked to some people who did the best in the contest?
- Aconversed with some of the people who won the contest
- Bspoke to the three contestants who did well
- Cdiscussed the contest with some of the winners
- Dinterviewed the top three contestants
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
This is the answer.(D)
The question asks for the most precise revision for the words “talked to some people who did the best in the contest.”
Option D is the correct response because the revision precisely states both the reporter’s action (“interviewed”) and whom the reporter interviewed (“the top three contestants”).
Option A is an incorrect response because the revision does not provide precise information about the number of people interviewed.
Option B is an incorrect response because the revision uses the imprecise phrase “who did well.”
Option C is an incorrect response because the revision does not provide precise information about the number of people interviewed.
Question analysis
This revising question gives one sentence about a news report on a cooking contest and asks which rewrite of a vague phrase uses the most precise language. The tricky part is that several choices sound more formal or add one specific detail while staying vague about something else.
- NYS standards
- 7L3a precise and concise language
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Choosing precise wording is a grade 7 language skill, but this item is one short sentence with everyday words and a single comparison to make. Typical grade 7 revision work asks for the same judgment inside a longer paragraph.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 5, 77 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 quick item once a student tests two things in every rewrite: what the reporter did and exactly who was involved. Points are lost by stopping at the first concrete detail, such as the number three, or by mistaking a formal verb like “conversed” for a precise one. It rewards checking each rewrite all the way through.
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each rewrite repairs a different piece of “talked to some people who did the best”, so all four have to be checked for both the action and the people. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Ask two things of each revision: does it say exactly what the reporter did, and exactly whom the reporter spoke with? Keep a revision only if it is specific on both counts.
Traps
- Wordy, vague or informal: A revision is grammatical but wordy, imprecise or too casual for the passage.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Treats the formal verb “conversed” as more precise than “talked”, but it is only a fancier synonym, and “some of the people” leaves the number as vague as before.
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Spots the exact number in “the three contestants” and stops checking, though “spoke to” and “who did well” are as loose as the original wording.
C Wordy, vague or informal (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Takes “winners” as sharper than “people who did the best”, missing that “some of the winners” still gives no count and “discussed the contest with” is wordier.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks you to make a phrase more precise. Precise language is exact. It tells the reader exactly what happened and exactly who was there. For example, a big dog is vague, but a 90-pound sheepdog is precise. You need to fix the words “talked to some people who did the best in the contest.”
Find what is vague now
The words are vague in two ways. First, “talked to” is a plain verb. On the news, a reporter who asks people questions is doing an interview. Second, “some people who did the best” does not say who or how many. So a good fix must sharpen both parts: the action and the people.
Test each choice on both parts
- A uses “conversed with,” which is just a fancy word for “talked.” And “some of the people” is still vague.
- B gives a number, “the three contestants.” But “spoke to” and “who did well” are still loose.
- C says “some of the winners,” which still gives no number. “Discussed the contest with” is wordier, not clearer.
- D says “interviewed,” the exact action. “The top three contestants” says exactly who.
Watch out: Choice B is tempting because it has a number. Many students stop there. But it fixes only one part.
Pick the answer
Only one choice is exact about both the action and the people. The new sentence reads: During a nightly news segment about a cooking contest, a reporter interviewed the top three contestants. So the answer is D, “interviewed the top three contestants.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Choice B is the closest wrong answer. Like D, it names three contestants. But “spoke to” is as plain as “talked to,” and “who did well” is vaguer than “top.” D is exact about what the reporter did and about whom, so it is the most precise.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 114 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 2Question
Read this paragraph.
(1) When coal was used to heat homes, it frequently left soot stains on the walls. (2) Brothers Cleo and Noah McVicker, who owned a cleaning product company created a doughy substance to help people remove this soot. (3) Over time, as natural gas becomes more common, people had little need for soot cleansers, and the McVickers’ family company struggled to stay in business. (4) Then one day Joe McVicker, Cleo’s son, learned that his sister-in-law had been using the substance for art projects in her classroom, so he remarketed the product as the toy known today as Play-Doh.
Which pair of revisions need to be made in the paragraph?
- A
Sentence 1: Delete the comma after homes.
Sentence 3: Change becomes to became.
- B
Sentence 1: Delete the comma after homes.
Sentence 4: Change remarketed to had remarketed.
- C
Sentence 2: Insert a comma after company.
Sentence 3: Change becomes to became.
- D
Sentence 2: Insert a comma after company.
Sentence 4: Change remarketed to had remarketed.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
This is the answer (C)
The question asks for the pair of revisions needed to correct the errors in the paragraph, which appear in sentence 2 and sentence 3.
Option C is correct because it is the only choice that revises the errors in both sentence 2 and sentence 3.
In sentence 2 (Option C and Option D), a comma needs to follow the word “company” to set off the phrase “who owned a cleaning product company.” A comma is necessary because the phrase is a nonrestrictive clause: the phrase provides extra information about Cleo and Noah McVicker’s line of work, but the phrase is not necessary in order to understand the meaning of the sentence.
The second error is in sentence 3 (Option A and Option C), which incorrectly shifts the verb into the present tense. The clause “as natural gas becomes more common” should be “as natural gas became more common.”
The comma after the word “homes” in sentence 1 (Option A and Option B) is necessary for separating the subordinate clause “When coal was used to heat homes” from the main clause.
In sentence 4 (Option B and Option D), the word “remarketed” is in the past tense established in the rest of the paragraph and should not change to the past perfect tense “had remarketed.”
Question analysis
This editing question gives a short paragraph about how a soot cleaner became the toy Play-Doh and asks which pair of revisions it needs. Students must check comma use and verb tense, and because each choice pairs two edits, one correct fix can hide a wrong one.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Comma rules and verb tense are taught by grade 6, but here the student must judge four separate edits and accept a choice only if both of its edits are needed, which matches grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 155 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 paragraph holds two errors of different kinds, an unclosed “who” clause and a slip into present tense, and the other two proposed edits change text that is already correct. Students who catch the tense shift but not the comma are left between two pairs, and many then delete the sound comma after the opening “When” clause. The question rewards finding both errors in the paragraph before reading the pairs.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
The “who owned a cleaning product company” clause opens with a comma but never closes, and sentence 2 still reads smoothly aloud, so the missing comma after “company” is easy to miss. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right pair and the pair that deletes the comma after “homes” share the “becomes” to “became” fix, so only the comma edit, after “company” or after “homes”, tells them apart. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The four pairs draw on four possible edits in four sentences, so each edit has to be judged on its own and a pair accepted only when both are needed. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Find the errors yourself before looking at the pairs: check whether each comma is needed or missing, and check that each verb's tense fits when its event happened.
Traps
- Punctuation: A comma, semicolon, colon, dash or apostrophe used where it does not belong, or missing where it does.
- Verb tense or form: The wrong tense, an inconsistent shift of tense, or a wrong verb form.
- Fixes what isn't broken: Changes a part of the sentence that was already correct, while the real error stays; or, where the question asks which sentence has an error or should go, picks one that is correct and belongs.
The wrong answers, classified
A Punctuation (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Gets the “becomes” to “became” fix but, missing the unclosed “who” clause in sentence 2, deletes the comma that correctly ends the opening clause of sentence 1.
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Changes two correct parts, deleting the comma after an opening clause and adding a needless past perfect, while both real errors in sentences 2 and 3 stay.
D Verb tense or form (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Adds the needed comma after “company” but thinks the later event needs “had remarketed”, missing the real tense error, the present-tense “becomes” in sentence 3.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Each choice is a pair of edits. You need the pair where both edits are needed. If even one edit in a pair changes something that was already right, that pair is wrong. The best plan is to find the errors yourself first. Then look for the pair that fixes them.
Check the comma in sentence 2
Sentence 2 says “Brothers Cleo and Noah McVicker, who owned a cleaning product company created a doughy substance.” The part “who owned a cleaning product company” is extra information. The sentence still makes sense without it. Extra information in the middle of a sentence needs a comma on both sides. Example: My aunt, who lives in Ohio, sent me a card. Sentence 2 has the first comma but not the second. So you need to add a comma after “company.”
Check the comma in sentence 1
Sentence 1 starts with “When coal was used to heat homes.” That part is a dependent clause (a group of words with a verb that can’t stand alone as a sentence). When a sentence starts with one, a comma goes after it. Example: When the bell rang, we ran outside. So the comma after “homes” is correct. Deleting it would add an error. That rules out choices A and B.
Check the verb in sentence 3
Verb tense tells when something happens. This paragraph tells a story from the past, so its verbs should stay in the past. Sentence 3 says “as natural gas becomes more common.” The word “becomes” is present tense. But the same sentence uses “had” and “struggled,” which are past tense. So change “becomes” to became.
Check the verb in sentence 4
Sentence 4 says Joe learned about the art projects, so he “remarketed” the product. Remarketed means sold it again in a new way. The form had remarketed is for something that happened before another past event. But Joe remarketed the product after he learned about the art projects. So the plain past “remarketed” is right. No change is needed.
Find the pair that matches
The two needed edits are: add a comma after “company,” and change “becomes” to “became.”
- A fixes the verb but deletes a correct comma.
- B makes two changes that are not needed.
- D adds the comma but changes a verb that was already right.
- C makes exactly the two needed edits.
So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Choice A is the closest wrong answer, because it has the same “becomes” to “became” fix. But A also deletes the comma after “homes,” and that comma belongs after an opening “When” clause. Only C fixes both real errors and changes nothing that was already right.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 115 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 3Question
Read this paragraph.
(1) Walking dogs, cleaning kennels, hand-feeding newborn kittens, and supporting the pet-adoption process, the animal shelter is looking for volunteers to help with a variety of tasks. (2) Working at the animal shelter is a great way for young people, especially those who aspire to care for and protect animals, to gain valuable work experience. (3) In addition to hands-on training with animal care, volunteers will learn important job skills, such as punctuality, responsibility, and personal initiative. (4) Caring for animals can also help volunteers develop empathy, which is the awareness and understanding of the feelings of others.
Which sentence contains an error in its construction and should be revised?
- Asentence 1
- Bsentence 2
- Csentence 3
- Dsentence 4
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks for the identification of the sentence in the paragraph that has an error in its construction and should be revised.
Option A (sentence 1) is the correct response because sentence 1 contains a structural error. The sentence begins with a list of modifying phrases: “Walking dogs, cleaning kennels, hand-feeding newborn kittens, and supporting the pet-adoption process.” As written, this list modifies the closest noun phrase, “the animal shelter,” which is illogical because the list describes tasks at the animal shelter, not the shelter itself. The list should follow the word “tasks” at the end of the sentence, so that it is closer to the word that it modifies.
Option B, Option C, and Option D are incorrect responses because sentence 2, sentence 3, and sentence 4 do not contain structural errors.
For Option B, the phrase “especially those who aspire to care for and protect animals” in sentence 2 correctly modifies “young people.”
For Option C, the structure of sentence 3 allows the words “In addition to hands-on training with animal care” to correctly modify “volunteers will learn.”
For Option D, the phrase “which is the awareness and understanding of the feelings of others” in sentence 4 correctly modifies the word “empathy.”
Question analysis
This editing question gives a paragraph inviting young people to volunteer at an animal shelter and asks which sentence is built incorrectly and should be revised. The error is in sentence structure, not spelling or punctuation, and every sentence contains long descriptive phrases, so students must check what each phrase actually describes.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Spotting a misplaced or dangling modifier is the grade 7 grammar skill tested here. The faulty sentence reads smoothly and the correct sentences also hold long modifying phrases, so it matches a careful grade 7 editing task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 10, 113 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 faulty sentence is the first one and the smoothest-sounding, because the mind supplies the missing volunteers who walk the dogs. Students who judge by ear pass over it and then flag a correct sentence that merely sounds busy. The question rewards asking, for every opening phrase, which noun it actually attaches to.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong major Working it out
Sentence 1's opening list, “Walking dogs, cleaning kennels, hand-feeding newborn kittens”, grammatically describes “the animal shelter”, an error that sounds natural because readers know volunteers will do those tasks. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
The stem names no kind of error, so all four sentences must be checked, and sentences 2, 3 and 4 each contain a long phrase that could look misplaced. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Every sentence carries a lengthy modifier, from the interrupting “especially those who aspire to care for and protect animals” to the closing definition of empathy, so the faulty one does not stand out. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: In each sentence, find every descriptive phrase and ask which noun sits next to it. Any phrase placed beside a noun it cannot logically describe marks the sentence to revise.
The wrong answers, classified
B Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Flags the interruption “especially those who aspire to care for and protect animals” as an error, though it correctly describes “young people” and the sentence is complete.
C Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Suspects the opening phrase “In addition to hands-on training with animal care” dangles like sentence 1's, but it leads straight into “volunteers”, who receive the training.
D Fixes what isn't broken (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Picks the “which is the awareness and understanding of the feelings of others” clause as misplaced, though it sits right after “empathy”, the word it defines.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks which sentence is built wrong. The words may be fine, but the parts are in the wrong order or don’t fit together. The question doesn’t say what kind of error to look for. So you need to check all four sentences.
Learn the rule about describing phrases
A modifier is a word or phrase that describes something. It must sit right next to the thing it describes. If it sits next to the wrong word, the sentence says something silly. Example: Barking loudly, the mail carrier ran from the dog. This says the mail carrier was barking! Fix: The mail carrier ran from the dog, which was barking loudly.
Test sentence 1
Sentence 1 begins with a list: “Walking dogs, cleaning kennels, hand-feeding newborn kittens, and supporting the pet-adoption process.” Right after the comma comes “the animal shelter.” So the sentence says the shelter is walking dogs and feeding kittens. A shelter is a place. It can’t do those things. The list really describes the “tasks” at the end of the sentence. One fix moves the list after that word: …volunteers to help with a variety of tasks, such as walking dogs, cleaning kennels…
Test sentences 2, 3, and 4
- Sentence 2: “especially those who aspire to care for and protect animals” comes right after “young people.” It describes them, so it is in the right place. (To aspire means to hope or aim.)
- Sentence 3: “In addition to hands-on training with animal care” leads straight into “volunteers.” The volunteers get the training, so it fits.
- Sentence 4: “which is the awareness and understanding of the feelings of others” comes right after “empathy.” It explains that word, so it fits.
Watch out: Sentence 3 also starts with a phrase and a comma, so choice C can look like sentence 1. Ask who gets the training. The volunteers do.
Pick the answer
Only sentence 1 puts a describing phrase next to the wrong noun. So the answer is A, sentence 1.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Sentence 3 is the closest trap, because it also opens with a phrase and a comma. But the word after its comma is “volunteers,” and the volunteers really do get the training. In sentence 1, the words after the comma are “the animal shelter,” and a shelter can’t walk dogs.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 116 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 6Passage Moving through Mountains
Moving through Mountains
(1) An age-old proverb says that necessity is the mother of invention. (2) Centuries of human ingenuity in the face of obstacles prove this to be true. (3) For many years the Swiss Alps, a mountain range spanning southern Switzerland and northern Italy, were such an obstacle. (4) Roads and railways had to navigate around the mountains or through winding tunnels inside the mountains, making the transportation of people and goods difficult and time consuming. (5) In 2016 these burdens were eased with the completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.
(6) Construction of the high-speed railway tunnel began in 1996. (7) The tunnel was created through the use of tunnel-boring machines, which are giant drills with a flat rotating head called a cutter head. (8) Each of the tunnel-boring machines used during the construction of the tunnel was about the length of four football fields arranged end-to-end. (9) During the seventeen-year construction period, 28 million tons of rock were removed, enough to rebuild the Great Pyramid of Giza five times. (10) This massive construction project is reported to have cost $12 billion. (11) After that, 4 million cubic meters of concrete, or enough concrete to build eighty-four Empire State Buildings, were used to construct and support the tunnel.
(12) By 2020 the high-speed railway will carry more than 250 freight trains and 55 passenger trains a day, with most traveling at speeds of around 100 to 125 miles per hour. (13) It will be faster for people to travel between northern and southern Europe. (14) The travel time between the European cities of Zurich, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy, will be reduced by an hour. (15) Many European leaders compare the Gotthard Base Tunnel to the Channel Tunnel, a 33-mile underwater tunnel that connects the United Kingdom and France. (16) While there is no roadway in the Channel Tunnel, people can drive their cars onto special trains that will carry vehicles through to the other side.
(17) Just as traffic congestion in major cities led to the construction of underground local transportation, natural formations, such as mountain ranges, have also sent people underground for faster, easier, and cheaper methods of transportation across larger areas. (18) There is renewed interest in constructing innovative methods of transportation that will help eliminate problems associated with traveling to and from certain areas.
Question
Where should sentence 11 be moved in order to improve the organization of the second paragraph (sentences 6–11)?
- Ato the beginning of the paragraph (before sentence 6)
- Bbetween sentences 6 and 7
- Cbetween sentences 8 and 9
- Dbetween sentences 9 and 10
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The Answer is (D)
The question asks where sentence 11, which completes the detailed steps of how the tunnel was built, should be moved within the second paragraph in order to improve the organization of the paragraph.
Option D, placing the sentence between sentences 9 and 10, is correct because placing the sentence there helps the reader understand the full sequence of steps performed in constructing the tunnel before the cost of the project is introduced.
Option A, placing the sentence at the beginning of the paragraph (before sentence 6), is incorrect because it would not make sense since the process of building the tunnel has not yet been introduced.
Similarly, Option B is incorrect because placing the sentence after sentence 6 would not make sense given that adding concrete would have to happen after the rock was broken down and removed from the tunnel.
Option C, placing the sentence between sentences 8 and 9, would also be incorrect because the use of concrete did not take place before the removal of “28 million tons of rock” (sentence 9).
Question analysis
This revising question asks where to move a sentence about the concrete used to support the Gotthard Base Tunnel so the second paragraph is better organized. Students must follow the order of the construction steps and notice what the sentence's opening words refer back to, since several positions sound acceptable at a glance.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Ordering sentences logically is a grade 7 writing skill. Here the student follows a sequence of construction steps and a time-order signal word, a short, typical grade 7 revision task with four nearby positions to compare.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Much to keep track of minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 362 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 33 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question turns on two signal phrases: what “After that” must follow, and what “This massive construction project” sums up. Students who see only that the concrete belongs with the digging often park it beside the machine details, before the rock has been cleared. Those who try each position in context see that lining the tunnel can only follow removing the rock.
How sentences fit together major Working it out
Sentence 11 opens with “After that”, so it must follow the rock removal in sentence 9, while “This massive construction project” in sentence 10 reads best as the paragraph's close. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
Moving the sentence between sentences 8 and 9 differs from the right spot, between 9 and 10, by a single sentence, and only seeing that sentence 9's rock removal must come first tells them apart. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Much to keep track of minor Working it out
The construction steps, from the 1996 start through the machines, the 28 million tons of rock and the concrete, have to be kept in order across six sentences. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each of the four positions has to be tried by rereading the paragraph with the concrete sentence in place, since several sound acceptable at a glance. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Look at the signal words that open sentence 11 and ask what event they must follow. Then read the paragraph with the sentence in each position to check the order of events.
Traps
- Sentence in the wrong place: Puts a sentence where it breaks the order of ideas or separates it from what it refers to.
The wrong answers, classified
A Sentence in the wrong place (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Moves the sentence to open the paragraph, where “After that” would follow the 2016 completion in sentence 5, putting the concrete work after the tunnel was finished.
B Sentence in the wrong place (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Reads “After that” as following the 1996 start of construction, which sounds smooth but has the tunnel lined with concrete before any machine had bored it.
C Sentence in the wrong place (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Sees that the concrete comes after the machines did their work but places it before sentence 9, so the tunnel is lined before its 28 million tons of rock are removed.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Sentence 11 is in the wrong spot. You need to move it so paragraph 2 tells events in the right order. Paragraph 2 is sentences 6 to 11.
Look at the clue words in sentence 11
Sentence 11 says: “After that, 4 million cubic meters of concrete, or enough concrete to build eighty-four Empire State Buildings, were used to construct and support the tunnel.” “After that” is a transition, a word or phrase that links ideas. It tells you the concrete came after some other event. You need to find that event.
Put the building steps in order
Think about how you build a tunnel. First you dig out the rock. Then you line the hole with concrete to hold it up.
- Sentence 6: work began in 1996.
- Sentences 7 and 8: the machines that did the digging.
- Sentence 9: “28 million tons of rock were removed.”
- Sentence 10: the project cost $12 billion.
The concrete must come after the rock is removed. So sentence 11 belongs right after sentence 9.
Read the paragraph in the new order
Sentence 9 removes the rock. “After that,” the concrete is poured. Then sentence 10 sums up “This massive construction project” and its cost. The cost makes a good last point. Right now, sentence 11 comes after the cost. So “After that” seems to mean after paying. That makes no sense.
Check each choice
- A, before sentence 6: “After that” would point back to sentence 5, after the tunnel was finished.
- B, after sentence 6: the concrete would come before any digging.
- C, between 8 and 9: the tunnel would be lined before the rock was removed.
- D, between 9 and 10: the concrete comes right after the rock is removed.
Watch out: C is only one spot away from D. Ask yourself: is the rock gone yet? In C, it isn’t.
Pick the answer
So the answer is D, between sentences 9 and 10.
Now the paragraph goes: start, machines, digging, concrete, cost.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Choice C is close because it puts the concrete after the machines. But sentence 9 is where the rock is removed, and you can’t line a tunnel that is still full of rock. Only D puts “After that” right after the rock removal.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Moving through Mountains” as printed (page 48)
Question 117 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 8Uses the passage above: “Moving through Mountains”.
Question
Which transition phrase should be added to the beginning of sentence 18?
- AAlthough the Gotthard Base Tunnel is mainly for freight trains
- BWith the Gotthard Base Tunnel taking ten years to complete
- CBecause of the successful completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel
- DAs the number of trains using the Gotthard Base Tunnel increases
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks for a transition that bridges the ideas between sentences 17 and 18 and accurately presents the relationship.
Option C is correct because it bridges the sentences by referring to the Gotthard Base Tunnel as a solution to the problems described in sentence 17 and logically introducing sentence 18.
Option A is incorrect because the use of the word “although” and the mention of freight trains suggest that sentence 18 will be about other types of vehicles that use the Gotthard Base Tunnel, and the transition phrase does not logically precede the sentence.
Option B is incorrect because the reference to the amount of time it took to build the tunnel does not help lead into the idea presented in sentence 18.
Option D is incorrect because it suggests that sentence 18 is related to the increasing number of trains using the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is not accurate.
Question analysis
This revising question asks which introductory phrase should begin the last sentence of a passage about the Gotthard Base Tunnel, linking it to the idea before it. All four phrases are grammatical and mention the tunnel, so students must work out the logical relationship between the two sentences and check each phrase against the facts given earlier.
- NYS standards
- 7W2d transitions in informative writing
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Choosing a transition that shows how two ideas relate is a core grade 7 writing skill. The two sentences involved are short and the vocabulary is plain, so this is typical classroom revision work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- How sentences fit together moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 362 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 52 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 task is to see that renewed interest is a result, which calls for an opener that names a cause. Phrases that are merely true of the tunnel, or that tie interest to growing traffic, read smoothly and slip past students who do not test the logic. One opener also gives the construction time as ten years, which careful readers can reject against the seventeen-year period in sentence 9.
How sentences fit together moderate Working it out
Sentence 17 widens the view from this tunnel to tunnels in general, and sentence 18 reports renewed interest, so the opener has to name what caused that interest. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four openers are grammatical and name the Gotthard Base Tunnel, so each has to be read into sentence 18 and checked against facts given earlier in the passage. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Read sentences 17 and 18 together and decide how they are connected: by contrast, by time, or by cause. Then choose the opening that expresses that link and fits facts already stated.
Traps
- Wrong transition: A connecting word or phrase that signals the wrong relationship, such as contrast where the idea continues.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Likes the accurate freight detail from sentence 12, but “Although” promises a contrast, and nothing in sentence 18 runs against the tunnel being mainly for freight.
B Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Accepts a time detail that explains nothing about renewed interest and gets the time wrong, since sentence 9 gives a seventeen-year construction period.
D Wrong transition (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)
Senses that sentence 18 needs a cause but names growing train traffic, a plausible link the passage never makes, when the interest follows from the tunnel's completion.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A transition is a word or phrase that links two ideas. Some show contrast, like although. Some show time, like then. Some show cause, like because. You need the opening for sentence 18 that shows how it links to sentence 17.
Read sentences 17 and 18 together
Sentence 17 says mountain ranges “have also sent people underground for faster, easier, and cheaper methods of transportation across larger areas.” Sentence 18 says: “There is renewed interest in constructing innovative methods of transportation.” Renewed interest means people care about something again. Innovative means new and creative.
Decide how the ideas connect
Why would people care about new kinds of travel again? Because the whole passage just showed a tunnel that worked. It solved the mountain problem. So sentence 18 is a result. The opening should name the cause.
Check each choice
- C, “Because of the successful completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel,” names the cause. The tunnel’s success led to new interest.
- A starts with “Although,” which signals a contrast. Nothing in sentence 18 goes against the tunnel being for freight.
- B gives the building time, which doesn’t explain new interest. It is also wrong. Sentence 9 says the work took seventeen years, not ten.
- D names more trains as the cause. The passage never makes that link.
Watch out: D also sounds like a cause, so it is the most tempting wrong choice.
Pick the answer
The new sentence reads: Because of the successful completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, there is renewed interest in… So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because it also gives a cause. But the passage never says the number of trains made people interested. The tunnel’s success is what the whole passage builds up to, so C links the ideas best.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 118 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 10Passage An Early Warning
An Early Warning
One of the books that has done the most to alert the world to the dangers of environmental degradation is George Perkins Marsh’s Man and Nature. Its message—that Western society is in the process of causing irreparable harm to the environment—greatly influenced ecologists during the beginning of the modern environmentalist movement in the 1960s. Marsh was not, however, part of this movement. Surprisingly, Man and Nature was first published in 1864.
Marsh first observed the environmentally destructive effects of human activities while growing up in Vermont in the early nineteenth century. The heavy demand for firewood had depleted the forests, and extensive sheep grazing had stripped the land. The result was flooding and soil erosion. Furthermore, streams were fouled by wastes dumped from numerous mills and dye houses.
Much later in his life, after careers in law, business, farming, and politics, Marsh served as ambassador to Italy. There he noticed land abuse similar to what he had seen in Vermont. Overgrazing and forest mismanagement had rendered areas that had been productive farmland since the days of the Roman Empire desolate. Marsh attributed this to what he called “man’s ignorant disregard for the laws of nature.”
In Italy, Marsh began to organize his observations and theories. He wrote in a way intended to educate readers about the impact of industrial and agricultural practices on the environment. In Man and Nature, he evaluated the important relationships between animals and plants, discussed forestry practices in great detail, and analyzed the ways natural water supplies are affected by human use.
Man and Nature challenged the popular belief that nature can heal any damage that people inflict upon it. Marsh argued that people may use and enjoy, but not destroy, the riches of the earth.
Furthermore, he asserted that everything in nature is significant and that even the tiniest organism affects the fragile environmental balance. His belief that drastic alteration of this balance would be dangerous is now accepted as a fundamental principle of modern environmental science.
Although he pointed out environmental damage caused by irresponsible human activities, Marsh did not oppose every human alteration to the environment. To him, the goal was proper management, not a return to wilderness conditions. People should consider the consequences of their actions, he wrote, and become “co-worker[s] with nature.” Marsh praised the Suez Canal, the human-made waterway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as “the greatest and most truly cosmopolite physical improvement ever undertaken by man.” He believed that the advantages of the canal— improved transportation and commerce—would outweigh any environmental damage. Yet he also warned of possible unintended consequences, such as destructive plants and animals spreading from one body of water to the other.
Marsh was considered a radical thinker during his lifetime. By the late nineteenth century, however, his writings, along with those of John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and others, had inspired what became known as the conservation movement. The conservationists of that time sought to educate the public that wilderness areas were worth preserving and were responsible for creating the National Park Service and the National Forest Service.
Question
Which statement best describes the central idea of the passage?
- AMarsh’s experience growing up on a farm allowed him to witness firsthand how human demands on nature can lead to problems, and as an adult he wrote one of the first books about conservation.
- BMarsh challenged the notion that nature can repair the damage people cause to it, but he also supported human-made modifications to nature that improve transportation and commerce.
- CMarsh’s ideas about the environment were considered radical in his lifetime, but they later gained popularity during the environmental movement in the twentieth century.
- DMarsh was a radical thinker who believed that people’s actions could dramatically affect nature, and his writings are considered foundational to the conservation movement.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks for the statement that best illustrates the central idea of the passage. Paragraphs 2 through 5 focus on Marsh’s personal experiences and his ideas about nature, and paragraph 8 explains how his ideas are the basis for the conservation movement. These two aspects comprise the central idea of the passage and are best stated in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because it focuses mainly on Marsh’s early life and does not address his influence.
Option B is incorrect because, while it describes specific details about Marsh’s beliefs, it does not explain who he was or how he affected the conservation movement.
Option C is incorrect because it emphasizes that Marsh’s ideas were radical and influential but does not provide any information about what Marsh’s beliefs were.
Question analysis
This reading question asks for the central idea of an informational passage about George Perkins Marsh and his 1864 book Man and Nature, an early warning about environmental damage. Most choices state something true about Marsh, so students must judge which one sums up the whole passage instead of a single part of it.
- NYS standards
- 7R2 theme or central idea
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Finding a central idea is a grade 7 standard, but this passage uses dense, abstract vocabulary and most choices are accurate about Marsh. Typical grade 7 tasks offer one clearly complete summary; here completeness must be weighed.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- A lot to read moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 523 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 119 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
Each wrong statement is a fair summary of one stretch of the passage, so the question is really about completeness. Students lose the point by picking the summary of the part they remember best, whether his Vermont boyhood, his views on nature and canals, or his reputation over time. The right statement joins what Marsh believed to his lasting influence, the two halves that the opening and closing paragraphs frame.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right statement and the one calling his ideas “considered radical in his lifetime” share the radical-then-influential shape; only the right one adds what Marsh believed, that people's actions could dramatically affect nature. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Every statement draws on real parts of the passage, Vermont, the Suez Canal, the 1960s, so each must be tested for whether it covers the whole text. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A lot to read moderate Understanding the question
Eight paragraphs move from Vermont to Italy, the book's contents, its claims, the Suez Canal and the conservation movement, so the whole arc has to be held at once. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
Words such as “degradation”, “irreparable”, “desolate” and “cosmopolite” slow the reading of a passage whose central idea depends on the details they carry. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, sum up the whole passage in one sentence of your own, then pick the statement that covers its beginning, middle and end rather than one section.
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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds the summary on Marsh's boyhood in Vermont, recast as farm life, and on his book, leaving out his central claims and the influence the closing paragraphs describe.
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Pairs two real points from paragraphs 5 and 7, his challenge to the belief that nature heals itself and his praise of the Suez Canal, but omits his influence.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Tracks how Marsh's reputation changed from radical to influential, matching paragraphs 1 and 8, but never states the belief about human harm to nature that made him matter.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The central idea is the main point of the whole passage. A good statement of it covers the beginning, the middle, and the end. A choice that covers only one part is too narrow, even if it is true.
Sum up each part of the passage
- Paragraph 1: Marsh’s book Man and Nature warned that people were “causing irreparable harm to the environment.” It came out in 1864, long before the 1960s.
- Paragraphs 2 to 7: what Marsh saw in Vermont and Italy, and what he believed.
- Paragraph 8: Marsh “was considered a radical thinker during his lifetime.” But his writings “inspired what became known as the conservation movement.”
Put the big idea in plain words
Irreparable means it can’t be fixed. A radical thinker has ideas that seem extreme or very new for the time. Conservation means protecting nature and using it wisely. So the passage says: Marsh had a bold idea that people can badly harm nature. Later, that idea helped start a movement.
Check each choice
- D says what Marsh believed, that people could “dramatically affect nature.” It also says his writings are “foundational,” or a base, for the conservation movement. It covers the whole passage.
- A is mostly about his early life. It leaves out his main beliefs and his influence.
- B gives two of his views, from paragraphs 5 and 7. It leaves out how he shaped a movement.
- C tells how people saw his ideas over time. It never says what his ideas were.
Watch out: C has the same shape as D: radical then, important later. Check that a choice also says what Marsh believed.
Pick the answer
Only D covers both what Marsh believed and the effect his ideas had. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. Like D, it says Marsh’s ideas seemed radical but mattered later. But C never says what those ideas were. D adds his key belief, that people’s actions could badly change nature. So D covers the whole passage.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “An Early Warning” as printed (page 52)
Question 119 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 15Uses the passage above: “An Early Warning”.
Question
Which of Marsh’s ideas most influenced the environmental movement of the 1960s?
- ASome human alterations to the environment are necessary.
- BPeople lack an understanding of the environment.
- CHuman activities could damage the environment.
- DEnvironmental degradation has been occurring for many years.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks for the idea Marsh had that was the most influential on the movement in the 1960s. Marsh’s main contribution to the modern environmental movement—the idea that Western society is causing irreversible harm to the environment—is given in paragraph 1, making Option C correct.
Option A is incorrect because, while Marsh did believe that some human alterations to the environment are necessary (paragraph 7), the negative impact of human activity was his most influential idea.
Option B is incorrect because, while Marsh believed that people lacked an understanding of nature (paragraph 3), this belief is a detail in support of his overall claim.
Option D is incorrect because, while Marsh observed firsthand that environmental degradation had been occurring for many years (paragraph 3), that was not the focus of his most influential idea.
Question analysis
This reading question asks which of George Perkins Marsh's ideas most influenced the environmental movement of the 1960s, according to a passage about his book Man and Nature. All four choices are ideas the passage connects to Marsh, so students must find the one the text links to that later movement.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Identifying an idea that a text says shaped later events is routine grade 7 reading. Each choice is one of Marsh's real ideas, so the demand is matching the question to the passage's exact statement, not interpretation.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 1, recall and reproduction · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 523 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 41 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The link to the 1960s is stated outright in the second sentence of the passage, so a student who goes back to it can answer quickly. Points are lost by answering from memory, since every choice is a genuine Marsh idea, including his view that people misunderstand nature. Matching the paraphrase rather than the familiar wording is the whole task.
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The right choice restates paragraph 1's message, “causing irreparable harm to the environment”, in plain words, while wrong ones echo “environmental degradation” and “human alteration to the environment”. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
All four choices are ideas the passage connects to Marsh, so recognizing one as his is not enough; each must be checked for a link to the 1960s. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Find where the passage mentions the movement of the 1960s and read exactly what it says influenced it, then match that wording to a choice.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Recalls paragraph 7's point that Marsh accepted some changes to nature, such as the Suez Canal, a real view of his but not the message credited with shaping the 1960s.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Remembers Marsh blaming “man's ignorant disregard for the laws of nature”, a real belief, but the passage ties the 1960s to his warning about harm, not to ignorance.
D Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Repeats “environmental degradation” from the passage's first sentence, so it looks anchored in paragraph 1, but long-standing damage is an observation, not the message that influenced ecologists.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
All four choices are ideas linked to Marsh. You need the one the passage says shaped the environmental movement of the 1960s. So find where the passage talks about the 1960s.
Find the 1960s in the passage
Paragraph 1 says: “Its message—that Western society is in the process of causing irreparable harm to the environment—greatly influenced ecologists during the beginning of the modern environmentalist movement in the 1960s.”
Put the sentence in plain words
“Its message” means the book’s main point. Irreparable means it can’t be repaired. Western society means the countries of Europe and North America. So the message was: people are doing damage to nature that can’t be undone. That message is what influenced the 1960s ecologists.
Check each choice
- C: “Human activities could damage the environment.” This says the same thing in simpler words.
- A: Marsh did accept some changes, like the Suez Canal (paragraph 7). But the passage doesn’t link that to the 1960s.
- B: Marsh did blame “man’s ignorant disregard for the laws of nature” (paragraph 3). But that is a reason for the harm, not the message that shaped the 1960s.
- D: “environmental degradation,” or damage, appears in paragraph 1. But saying damage has gone on for years is only an observation.
Watch out: B is a real belief of Marsh’s, so it feels right. Make sure a choice answers this question, about the 1960s.
Pick the answer
The passage directly says the message about harm influenced the 1960s. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because Marsh really did think people didn’t understand nature. But paragraph 1 says the message that influenced the 1960s was about harm: people were “causing irreparable harm to the environment.” C states that idea.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 120 of 120
2018 Test A English, question 17Passage Champion of the Channel
Champion of the Channel
In 1926 an editor at the London Daily News predicted that Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals, would fail in her attempt to swim across the English Channel. He claimed that “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance they must remain forever the weaker sex.” Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours. Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.
Crossing the English Channel is a daunting task for any swimmer. At its narrowest point, the channel measures twenty-one miles across. Its icy waters hover around sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and its unruly tides and currents toss swimmers about like bobbing corks. Stinging jellyfish, seaweed, and floating debris from shipwrecks and lost cargoes present added hazards.
For decades the channel’s perils have defeated countless swimmers. Ederle, too, failed in her first attempt to cross the channel in 1925. Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water. Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again. Ederle knew that if she did not complete the challenge this time, she might never get the opportunity to set this record, because a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well.
To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment. She and her sister Meg discovered that melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges, effectively waterproofing Ederle’s goggles against hammering waves. The sisters also designed a two-piece silk swimsuit for Ederle. During her first channel-crossing attempt she had worn a standard one-piece swimsuit that, after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel, had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable. Unlike the cumbersome typical bathing suit, this silk invention weighed little and allowed for easy movement.
On August 6, 1926, Ederle waded into the channel near Cape Gris-Nez, France. At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation. Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular. Driving forward, she fought to clear her mind and find what she called her “sphere,” a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away. Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.
Throughout Ederle’s swim, two tugboats accompanied her. One carried newspaper reporters who wired dispatches of her progress to shore. The other, displaying a sign that read “This way, ole kid!” with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends. Her coach played songs, such as “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” on a phonograph so that Ederle could time her strokes to the rhythm. Using a net, her coach also passed her baby bottles of broth for nourishment.
For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile. However, as she neared the English shore, a sudden fierce storm erupted. The tides and waves forced Ederle backward, and she fought the stubborn swells for several hours. The salty water caused her tongue to swell and inflamed her ears. Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea. Finally, as she neared the English shore, the storm abated, and the tide turned. No longer fighting against her, the sea pushed her toward the shore and victory.
After fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes, Ederle, on wobbly legs, stepped onto the English shore. The waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky. Ederle had swum into history.
When Ederle returned to New York, she received a parade, where thousands of people shouted “Trudy!” Not only were everyday American citizens proud of Ederle, but she also inspired them to be more active. Over the next few years, more than 60,000 people credited her with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates. Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.
SOLO SWIMS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
|
Earliest Speed Records |
||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 1875 | Matthew Webb (M) | 21 hours, 45 minutes |
| 1923 | Enrico Tiraboschi (M) | 16 hours, 33 minutes |
| 1926 | Gertrude Ederle (F) | 14 hours, 31 minutes |
| 1926 | Arnst Vierkotter (M) | 12 hours, 38 minutes |
| Current Speed Records | ||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 2012 | Trent Grimsey (M) | 6 hours, 55 minutes |
| 2006 | Yvetta Hlavacova (F) | 7 hours, 25 minutes |
Question
Which sentence is the best summary of the steps that Ederle took to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel?
- AWorking with her sister, Ederle waterproofed her goggles using melted candle wax to seal the edges and designed a two-piece silk bathing suit that was lightweight and would not stretch out during the long swim.
- BEderle covered her body in numerous layers of grease for insulation and focused on finding her “sphere” during her swim.
- CEderle began training with her coach, who played music while she swam to help her time her strokes to the music.
- DEderle focused on developing better equipment than the standard swimsuit that proved cumbersome during her first attempt to cross the channel.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks for the best summary of Ederle’s steps to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel. Ederle’s preparation is outlined in paragraph 4.
Option A is correct because it acknowledges the idea that Ederle involved her sister in this process, and it details the efforts the two took to improve Ederle’s equipment, including waxing her goggles and designing a better swimsuit.
Option B is incorrect because it focuses on Ederle’s actions in the moments before (covering her body with grease for insulation) and during her swim (finding her “sphere”), not her overall preparation methods.
Option C is incorrect because it refers to a practice that was employed to help Ederle keep her strokes in rhythm during her swim.
Option D is incorrect because it does not refer to the series of steps that Ederle took to prepare for her swim but rather to just one of the efforts made (improving equipment) without acknowledging her sister’s contributions.
Question analysis
This reading question asks for the best summary of the steps swimmer Gertrude Ederle took to prepare for her second attempt to cross the English Channel. The passage describes many things Ederle and her helpers did, so students must sort out which ones were preparation and which summary covers them most completely.
- NYS standards
- 7R2 theme or central idea
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Summarizing the steps described in one paragraph is a grade 6 skill; grade 7 summaries usually cover a whole text and how it develops. The demand here is a careful match between details and choices.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 121 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 preparation is confined to paragraph 4, but the passage keeps describing things Ederle and her team did, so students must separate getting ready from the swim itself. The grease is the trickiest, since she put it on before entering the water. Between the two equipment summaries, the one that lists the goggles, the suit and her sister's help is the fuller account.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right summary and the one about better equipment than the standard swimsuit describe the same work, and only the waxed goggles and Meg's help, missing from the shorter one, tell them apart. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Two choices take real details from the swim itself, the grease and the phonograph, so each must be placed in time, before the swim or during it. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Find the paragraph that describes how Ederle got ready, list its steps in order, and choose the summary that matches that list most completely.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- 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
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Takes the grease she wore on the day and her search for her “sphere” in the water, both from paragraph 5's account of the swim, as preparation.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the phonograph her coach played from a tugboat during the crossing into training sessions, which the passage never describes.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Captures the idea of better equipment but mentions only the swimsuit, leaving out the waxed goggles and her sister Meg, so it summarizes one step of several.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A summary tells the main points in a short way. This asks for the steps Ederle took to get ready for her second try. So focus on what she did before the swim, not during it.
Find the paragraph about getting ready
Paragraph 4 begins: “To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment.” That word “prepare” tells you this is the paragraph you need.
List the steps in paragraph 4
- She and her sister Meg found that “melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges.” That kept water out of her goggles.
- The sisters “designed a two-piece silk swimsuit” for her.
- Her old suit had “stretched out, filling with water and creating drag.” Drag is a pull that slows you down.
- The new suit “weighed little and allowed for easy movement.”
Check each choice
- A names her sister, the waxed goggles, and the light silk suit. It covers every step.
- B: the grease and her “sphere” come from paragraph 5, the day of the swim itself.
- C: her coach played music on a phonograph, an old record player, during the swim (paragraph 6). The passage never describes training sessions.
- D is about better gear, but it mentions only the swimsuit.
Watch out: D is true, but it leaves out the goggles and Meg’s help. A summary of the steps should name the steps.
Pick the answer
Choice A matches the full list of steps from paragraph 4, with nothing missing. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because better equipment is the main idea of paragraph 4. But D tells only about the swimsuit. It leaves out the waxed goggles and her sister Meg. A includes every step, so it is the best summary.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)