Figurative or literary language
Question 1 of 84
2026 Practice Test A English, question 7Passage 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 quotations from the poem support the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid, and which quotations support the theme that human creations detract from natural wonder?
Move each answer to the correct box.
Choose one answer in each row, 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.
| Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid | Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder | |
|---|---|---|
| “Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings,” (lines 3–4) | ||
| “Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” (lines 5–7) | ||
| “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides,” (lines 11–12) | ||
| “Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past,” (lines 17–18) | ||
| “The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice” (lines 24–25) |
Show the answer
Correct answer: “Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings,” (lines 3–4): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder; “Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” (lines 5–7): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid; “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides,” (lines 11–12): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder; “Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past,” (lines 17–18): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid; “The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice” (lines 24–25): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid
The question identifies two themes and asks which quotations from the poem support each theme. Each quotation should be moved to one of the two boxes: “Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid” or “Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder.”
“Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings,” (lines 3–4)
This quotation supports the theme that human creations detract from natural wonder. The lines describe the city-roofs as “dingy,” suggesting that they mar the lovely background of the blue-white mountains, which are compared to angels, a simile that vividly conveys the wonder of nature. The description in the lines primarily serves to create a contrast between the city’s unsightly appearance and the beauty of the mountains, thereby providing support for the theme that human creations (i.e. the city) detract from natural wonder.
“Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” (lines 5–7)
This quotation supports the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid. By describing the mountains as “pillars of the sky” that “uprise” dramatically from a large plateau, the lines primarily convey a sense of the mountains’ dramatic and impressive size. The description suggests that the mountains are holding up the sky, a powerful image of an unspoiled, natural landscape.
“Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides,” (lines 11–12)
The quotation supports the theme that human creations detract from natural wonder. The words “tunnels” and “splits” emphasize that human intervention in nature is destructive, breaking apart the “shining sides” of the mountain. These lines suggest that human creations—such as building a tunnel through a mountain—detract from natural wonder, diminishing its beauty and serenity.
“Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past,” (lines 17–18)
The quotation supports the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid by indicating that the natural mountainous landscape is both splendid and unspoiled (“wilderness still untamed”). The phrase “to which the future is as was the past” suggests that nature in its unspoiled state is timeless or eternal, further supporting the theme.
“The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice” (lines 24–25)
The quotation supports the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid. The reference to the “wide floors of blue-green ice” emphasizes that the landscape is beautiful, and the description in the lines conveys the grandiose splendor of nature, conveying an image of the “south horizon of the sky” majestically “welcoming” one’s eye, inviting appreciation of its unspoiled beauty.
Question analysis
This sorting question on the poem “Snowy Mountains” gives two themes, the splendor of unspoiled nature and the way human creations detract from natural wonder, and asks students to place five quotations under them. The quotations come from all three stanzas. Students make five separate judgments, and a line’s most vivid image is not always the best guide to where it belongs.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Matching quotations to a stated theme is routine grade 7 evidence work, and both themes are given. The added demand is volume: five separate judgments on lines from all three stanzas of old-fashioned verse, each of which must land in the right box.
- 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
- Much to keep track of moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 34 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 tiles sort quickly once a student asks whether people appear in the lines. The first tile is the hard one: its angel simile is pure splendor, yet the “dingy city-roofs” beneath it set the city against the peaks, and only that contrast fits the second theme. The tunneling lines hide their human actor outside the tile. With five placements that must all be right, one hasty tile loses the question.
Much to keep track of moderate Working it out
Five tiles from all three stanzas go into two boxes and every placement must be right, so a student holds both themes in mind while judging each quotation on its own. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Two tiles name no person: in lines 3–4 the human presence is only the “dingy city-roofs,” and in lines 11–12 the subject, “The world,” sits back in line 10, outside the tile. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The splendor is carried by images rather than statements, the mountains as “angels,” “Pillars of the sky” and “wide floors of blue-green ice,” which students must read as praise of untouched nature. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read each quotation to the end and ask whether it shows something people have made or done; then sort it by what the lines as a whole are about, not by one word.
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.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- 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
1:A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Files the lines under splendor for the angel simile, which shows beauty but not beauty unspoiled; the “dingy city-roofs” put a human creation right beneath it.
2:B Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “Pillars” as something people build, a human structure, when the metaphor makes the mountains themselves the columns that hold up the sky.
3:A Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Is drawn by “granite cliffs” and “shining sides,” words of admiration, and misses that “Tunnels” and “Splits” are what “The world” of line 10 does to the mountains.
4:B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “still untamed” as a sign that people are trying to tame the land, though the lines praise a wilderness that people have not changed and that time leaves as it was.
5:B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Remembers that the last stanza blames those who broke down the “Barrier” in lines 21–22 and carries that charge to lines 24–25, which only picture ice and sky.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a sorting question. You get two themes. A theme is a big idea a poem keeps coming back to. The first theme says nature that people have not spoiled is splendid, which means grand and beautiful. The second says things people make detract from nature, which means they take away from its wonder. For each quotation, ask: does it show something people made or did?
Sort the lines about the city
Lines 3 and 4 say “Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings.” The angel picture is beautiful. But right under the mountains are “dingy city-roofs.” Dingy means dirty and dull. City roofs are something people built. The lines set the dirty city against the shining mountains. So this quotation shows a human creation taking away from nature’s wonder.
Sort the lines about the pillars
Lines 5 to 7 say “Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” Pillars are tall posts that hold something up. A plateau is a high, flat stretch of land. The mountains rise up like giant posts holding up the sky. No people appear here. This quotation shows how splendid untouched nature is.
Sort the lines about tunnels
Lines 11 and 12 say “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides.” These lines do not say who does this. Look back at line 10: “The world makes war on them.” So “the world,” meaning people, cuts tunnels and splits the mountains. The cliffs shine, but people are breaking them. This quotation shows human creations hurting nature.
Sort the last two quotations
Lines 17 and 18 say “Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past.” Untamed means not controlled or changed by people. The second line means the mountains will stay as they always were. Lines 24 and 25 say “The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice.” That is a picture of sky and ice, with no people in it. Both praise unspoiled nature.
Place each quotation in its box
- Lines 3–4 (the city roofs): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder
- Lines 5–7 (the pillars): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid
- Lines 11–12 (the tunnels): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder
- Lines 17–18 (the wilderness): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid
- Lines 24–25 (the ice): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid
Drag each tile into its box. All five must be right to get the point.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Lines 3 and 4 are the hardest tile. The angel image alone would fit the first box. But that box is about beauty that is unspoiled. These lines put the dingy city right under the shining peaks. The dirty roofs spoil the view, so the tile belongs in the second box.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 2 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 9Passage 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
Read these sentences from paragraph 7.
Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.”
The sentences contribute to the development of ideas in the passage by showing that Bannister
- Aknew that he was about to achieve the goal he had worked toward.
- Bwas no longer experiencing personal disappointment from his past failure in the Olympics.
- Cfelt grateful to his teammates for helping him take the lead.
- Dwas satisfied that his training had helped him perfect his running technique.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the sentences from paragraph 7 contribute to the development of ideas in the passage.
A. CORRECT. The sentences from paragraph 7 show that toward the end of the race, Bannister knew that the goal of breaking the four-minute-mile barrier was within his grasp and that he had the focus necessary to achieve it. The sentence following Bannister’s quotation states that he did indeed meet his goal, crossing “the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds” (paragraph 7).
B. Incorrect. The feelings Bannister expressed in the sentences from paragraph 7 did not erase those feelings related to his loss at the 1952 Olympics, which were what drove him to the achievement he was about to make.
C. Incorrect. While the quotation states that Bannister felt “unity,” this pertains to his running, not to his work with the team. The sentences from paragraph 7 capture Bannister’s focus on his chance to break the barrier and what he was feeling at that moment.
D. Incorrect. The sentences from paragraph 7 express Bannister’s realization that he was on the verge of reaching a goal. The sentences show that in the seconds before crossing the finish line, Bannister was fully focused on the end goal and was not thinking about his training or his running technique.
Question analysis
This question quotes Roger Bannister’s own words from his famous race, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come,” and asks how they contribute to the development of ideas in “A Miracle Mile.” Students interpret an athlete’s description of a feeling and decide what it shows about him. Each choice links the quotation to a different part of his story.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what a quoted sentence adds to a passage is everyday grade 7 work, and these two sentences are short. Their abstract phrase “a great unity of movement and aim” takes some interpreting, which keeps the demand typical rather than 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
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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
Bannister’s words describe a feeling, and each choice explains it by a different part of his story. The right reading comes from where the quotation sits: on the back straight, seconds from the finish, so “the moment of a lifetime” is the record within reach. Students who take “unity of movement” as polished form, or “no pain” as the end of his Olympic hurt, tie the quotation to his training or his past instead of to this race.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The quotation never names the record; students must link “the moment of a lifetime had come” to the four-minute goal and to the finish in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds reported right after it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“A great unity of movement and aim” is abstract, and “There was no pain” can be heard as emotional relief, so the words invite readings about technique, teamwork or old disappointment. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read the quotation together with the sentences around it in paragraph 7, put Bannister’s state of mind into your own words, and test each choice against what the quotation itself says.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “There was no pain” as the end of the hurt from his 1952 fourth place, but the pain meant is the strain of the race, and the quotation never looks back.
C Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Takes “unity” in its everyday sense of people pulling together and credits his rabbits, though the unity is of his own “movement and aim,” just after he passed Chataway to run alone.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the training of paragraphs 3 and 4 and reads “unity of movement” as perfected technique, but the quotation records a feeling during the race, not a verdict on his preparation.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what Bannister’s words show about him at that moment in the race. To answer, you need to know where the quotation comes. So read the sentences just before it and just after it.
Find where the quotation comes
Paragraph 7 tells the story of the race. Just before the quotation, “Bannister bolted past Chataway.” Bolted means ran off suddenly and fast. Chataway was his second rabbit, a teammate who set the pace. Now Bannister was in front, near the end. Just after the quotation, “Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.” That is under four minutes.
Put his words in your own words
He says “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come.” The moment of a lifetime is the most important moment a person ever has. For Bannister, that was breaking the four-minute mile. “A great unity of movement and aim” means his body and his goal were working as one. He could feel that he was about to do it.
Check each choice
- A fits. He senses that his big goal is about to happen.
- B does not fit. “There was no pain” means he felt no strain in the race. He is not thinking back to 1952.
- C does not fit. The unity is of his own “movement and aim,” not of his team. He had just passed Chataway to run alone.
- D does not fit. The words describe a feeling during the race. They say nothing about his training or his technique, which means his way of running.
Watch out: D is tempting because “unity of movement” sounds like perfect running form. But Bannister is not judging his training here. He is feeling the big moment arrive.
Choose the answer
The quotation shows Bannister sensing that his goal was near, and the next sentence shows he reached it. So the answer is A, “knew that he was about to achieve the goal he had worked toward.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. His training did help him, and he was running well. But the quotation is about a feeling: “the moment of a lifetime had come.” It looks ahead to the finish, not back at his practice. A matches that feeling of a goal about to be reached.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 3 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 17Passage 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
The professor’s observations in paragraphs 15–17 create tension in the excerpt by causing the narrator to feel
- Aflustered by the professor’s criticism of his logic.
- Bannoyed by the professor’s sarcasm about his inexperience.
- Cconfused by the professor’s lack of respect for his opinion.
- Dfrustrated by the professor’s lack of interest in his theory.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the professor’s observations in paragraphs 15–17 create tension in the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. The professor criticizes “ ‘you young fellows’ ” (paragraph 15), suggesting that the ideas of young scientists like the narrator are unsupported (“ ‘like swimming squirrels’ ” [paragraph 17]) and inaccurate (“ ‘but you never land where you hope to—do you?’ ” [paragraph 17] and “ ‘you embark on a theory for destinations that don’t exist’ ” [paragraph 15]). The narrator then becomes “red in the face” (paragraph 18), indicating that the narrator is upset by the professor’s criticism, and asks the professor about the great auk in an attempt to defend himself.
B. Incorrect. While the narrator does experience a negative reaction to the professor’s words, the professor is being genuine, not sarcastic. In fact, the sarcasm comes from the narrator in paragraph 14 (“ ‘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’ ”), not from the professor.
C. Incorrect. The professor’s observations cause the narrator to blush with embarrassment (“rather red in the face” [paragraph 18]), but the narrator understands the point that the professor is making about the narrator’s acceptance of the idea that great auks do not exist. The narrator recognizes that the professor is criticizing his youthful ideas, not his opinion.
D. Incorrect. The professor shows amusement with the narrator’s perspective. The narrator is embarrassed and upset by the professor’s words, but the narrator does not display frustration with the professor’s lack of interest in a commonly held view of the existence of a certain species of bird.
Question analysis
In this question on In Search of the Unknown, Professor Farrago makes remarks about “you young fellows,” comparing them to swimming squirrels that never land where they hope. Students must decide how these remarks in paragraphs 15–17 make the narrator feel and so create tension. The comparison is odd and old-fashioned, and the four choices name similar negative feelings with different causes.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students infer feelings from a character’s reactions, usually from plainly stated emotions. Here the cause is a puzzling figurative jab about “swimming squirrels,” the reaction is shown only through a physical sign, and the choices offer four close negative feelings.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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 professor’s two images are odd, and students must decode them as a comment on how the narrator reasons before they can say why he blushes. Every choice names an unpleasant feeling, so the decision rests on its cause. “You young fellows” makes sarcasm about inexperience the natural guess, but the sarcasm in this scene is the narrator’s own, and the professor smiles “wearily” and speaks in earnest. The narrator’s pointed reply shows he followed the criticism, not that it confused him.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The criticism comes in images: young men who “embark on a theory for destinations that don’t exist” and who, like swimming squirrels, “never land where you hope to,” a picture of reasoning that goes astray. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about annoyance at sarcasm and the right one both name a bad reaction to the professor’s remarks; they part on the cause, sincere criticism of his logic or mockery of his youth. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The narrator never names his feeling; it shows only in “Rather red in the face” and in the defensive question that follows about whether the great auk is extinct. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Paraphrase what the professor says about “you young fellows” in paragraphs 15–17, find how the narrator reacts in paragraph 18, and choose the feeling and the cause that both fit.
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.
- 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.
- 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
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears mockery in “Oh, you young fellows,” but the professor is sincere; the sarcasm belongs to the narrator, who “sarcastically” insists in paragraph 14 that the great auk is extinct.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes the blush in paragraph 18 as confusion, though the narrator answers at once with a pointed question, which shows he understood the professor’s point well enough to push back.
D Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Is drawn by “theory” in paragraph 15 and calls the professor uninterested, though he engages the narrator’s view closely enough to answer it with two vivid images.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the professor’s words in paragraphs 15–17 make the narrator feel. Tension is a feeling of strain between characters. Each choice names a feeling and a cause. Both parts must be right.
Read what the professor says
In paragraph 15 he says, “Oh, you young fellows,” and “you embark on a theory for destinations that don’t exist.” To embark means to set out on a trip. He means young men set out with an idea toward places that are not there. Their reasoning leads them to wrong answers. In paragraph 17 he adds, “Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to—do you?”
Understand the picture
A swimming squirrel can’t really steer. It drifts with luck and the wind. The professor is saying the narrator’s thinking drifts the same way and misses the truth. That is a criticism of his logic, or reasoning. In paragraph 18, the narrator is “Rather red in the face.” He is flustered, which means embarrassed and upset.
Check each choice
- A fits. He turns red after the professor criticizes his reasoning.
- B does not fit. Sarcasm is saying the opposite of what you mean in order to mock. The professor means what he says. The sarcastic one is the narrator, in paragraph 14.
- C does not fit. He is not confused. He fires back a sharp question right away.
- D does not fit. The professor answers the narrator’s idea closely, so he is interested in it.
Watch out: B is tempting because “you young fellows” points to the narrator’s youth. But the professor is sincere, not sarcastic.
Choose the answer
The professor says the narrator’s reasoning goes astray, and the narrator turns red. So the answer is A, “flustered by the professor’s criticism of his logic.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. Both A and B say the narrator feels bad. But B blames sarcasm. Paragraph 14 says the narrator “replied, sarcastically,” so the sarcasm is his own. The professor means his words seriously. A names the real cause: criticism of the narrator’s thinking.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed (page 21)
Question 4 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 20Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown”.
Question
How does paragraph 34 help develop the plot of the excerpt?
- AIt shows that the narrator is beginning to consider the possibility of finding the great auks.
- BIt demonstrates that the narrator is struggling to understand why the professor thinks the great auks exist.
- CIt establishes that the narrator is willing to let the professor overrule him about the great auks.
- DIt emphasizes that the narrator feels a sense of urgency to complete the expedition to locate the great auks.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 34 helps develop the plot of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. Despite his initial disbelief, the narrator admits in paragraph 34 that he is starting to feel the “same strange hope” the professor feels, which is to find the great auks (paragraph 33).
B. Incorrect. While the narrator does make an effort in paragraphs 11–22 to understand the professor’s thinking, paragraph 34 reveals that the narrator has been affected by the professor’s “strange hope” for the auks and is beginning to share this hope “in spite of” himself.
C. Incorrect. The narrator describes a feeling of hope in paragraph 34 that would not be present if he had simply been overruled by the professor and did not share any of the professor’s belief in the possibility that the auks exist. In addition, it was established before paragraph 34 that the narrator was willing to be overruled (“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. Incorrect. The narrator does not express a sense of urgency in paragraph 34 to complete the expedition. Instead, he expresses hope that the great auks might really exist.
Question analysis
This plot question on In Search of the Unknown asks how paragraph 34, a single long sentence near the end of the excerpt, helps develop the story of the narrator’s assignment to bring back two great auks. Students must put its formal phrasing into plain words and connect it to the conversation that comes before it.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a paragraph moves a plot forward is regular grade 7 work, and paragraph 34 is a single sentence. Its formal wording, such as “in spite of me” and “stir my pulses,” has to be put into plain words first.
- 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
- Complex sentences minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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
Put into plain words, the paragraph has the narrator admitting that the professor’s hope is starting to take hold of him, which is the turn the question asks about. The losses come from reading it through earlier scenes: his obedience in paragraph 25 makes giving way to the professor look like the point, and the word “strange” makes puzzlement look likely. The paragraph records a change in what he believes, not in what he does.
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 34 is one 31-word sentence that turns on “on the contrary” and breaks its main clause with “in spite of me,” so its point, a hope beginning to stir, arrives late. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“To stir my pulses” means to excite, and a student who reads it as a racing heart may take it for haste to leave rather than hope that the birds exist. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Restate paragraph 34 in plain modern words, then test each choice against what this paragraph itself says about the narrator.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- 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)
Takes “the same strange hope” as the narrator puzzling over the professor’s belief, though the sentence says that hope is now stirring in the narrator himself.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in paragraph 25, where the narrator draws up a chair because he must obey, but paragraph 34 shows him starting to share the hope, not yielding to an order.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads stirring pulses as eagerness to finish the trip quickly, though the excitement is about the chance that the birds exist, and the paragraph says nothing of speed.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraph 34 moves the story forward. Read that paragraph closely. Then decide what has changed for the narrator.
Read paragraph 34 closely
Paragraph 34 says “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.” On the contrary means the opposite is true. Cherished means held dear. To stir his pulses means to make his heart beat faster with excitement.
Put it in your own words
The professor hopes the great auks are real. Now the narrator feels that same hope starting in himself. “In spite of me” means he did not want to feel it, but he does. Before, he called the letter writer a liar or a fool. Now he is starting to think the birds might really be found.
Check each choice
- A fits. He begins to hope that the birds could be found.
- B does not fit. He is not puzzling over the professor’s belief. He is starting to share it.
- C does not fit. Giving in to the professor came earlier, in paragraph 25: “there was nothing to do but to obey.” Paragraph 34 is about hope, not obeying.
- D does not fit. Nothing in the paragraph is about hurrying.
Watch out: D is tempting because a racing pulse can sound like rushing. But the excitement is about the birds, not about speed.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 34 shows the narrator’s doubt starting to turn into hope. So the answer is A, “It shows that the narrator is beginning to consider the possibility of finding the great auks.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice. The narrator did agree to obey the professor. But that happened in paragraph 25, and he was not happy about it. In paragraph 34, something new happens. He feels “the same strange hope” as the professor. A names that change.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 5 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 24Passage 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 main purpose of the comparison in lines 23–24 of the poem is to show
- Athat the particles’ size makes them difficult to see.
- Bhow the particles move within the tunnel.
- Cthat the particles have a familiar shape.
- Dhow the particles can be seen only in darkness.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the comparison in lines 23–24 of the poem is mainly meant to show.
A. Incorrect. While the particles are moving “close to the speed of light” (line 24), which would make them difficult to see, the comparison in lines 23–24 focuses on the movement of the particles, not how visible they are.
B. CORRECT. Lines 23–24 describe “tiny cars / flashing along at close to the speed of light,” which describes how the particles move.
C. Incorrect. Lines 23–24 do not describe the shape of the particles but rather their movement, which is “flashing along at close to the speed of light” (line 24).
D. Incorrect. The word “flashing” in line 24 does not refer to light in darkness but rather to speed, and the word “light” is used to reference a measurement of speed, not brightness in darkness.
Question analysis
This figurative language question asks for the main purpose of a comparison in lines 23–24 of the poem “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything,” where particles in an underground tunnel are likened to tiny racing cars. Students must work out what the image is mainly meant to show about the particles, judging the comparison as a whole rather than word by word.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Explaining what a simple comparison shows is grade 6 work, and this one likens particles to racing cars in two short lines of familiar words, so a single step of interpretation is enough.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 46 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 image is built from words about motion, racing cars “flashing along at close to the speed of light,” so most students see its purpose quickly. Each wrong choice seizes one piece of the picture, the cars’ tininess, their shape or the word “light,” and makes it the point. Students who ask what the whole comparison makes them picture, rather than what one word suggests, avoid all three.
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The comparison sits in parentheses, “like racing cars, only very tiny cars / flashing along at close to the speed of light,” and students must see that racing cars stand for speed. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Name the two things being compared in lines 23–24 and ask what a reader is meant to picture, then choose the purpose that the comparison’s own words support.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Fixes on “very tiny cars” and decides the point is that the particles are too small to see, though racing cars are chosen for their speed, not their size.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the comparison at face value, as if particles looked like little cars, when the speaker uses racing to picture how they move, not what shape they have.
D Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Reads “flashing” and “light” as a glow, like the one in the darkness of lines 27–28, but “the speed of light” measures how fast the particles travel.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the poet makes a comparison in lines 23–24. A comparison shows how two different things are alike. First find the two things. Then ask what the reader is meant to picture.
Read the lines around it
Lines 20–22 describe building “deep circular tunnels beneath the surface / of this Earth” to race particles. Then lines 23–24 add “(like racing cars, only very tiny cars / flashing along at close to the speed of light)”. The speed of light is the fastest speed there is.
Work out the comparison
The particles are compared to racing cars. Racing cars zoom around a track, lap after lap, very fast. The particles zoom around the round tunnel the same way. “Flashing along” means moving so fast they are a blur. So the comparison helps you picture how the particles move.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The cars are “very tiny,” but the point is racing, not being hard to see.
- B fits. Like racing cars, the particles speed around the tunnel.
- C does not fit. The particles do not look like cars. The comparison is about motion, not shape.
- D does not fit. “Light” here measures speed. It is not about glowing in the dark.
Watch out: A is tempting because of the word “tiny.” But a poet picks racing cars to show speed, not size.
Choose the answer
The racing cars help you picture particles speeding around the tunnel. So the answer is B, “how the particles move within the tunnel.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice, since the poem does call them “very tiny cars.” But the comparison is to racing cars “flashing along at close to the speed of light.” Every word there is about speed and motion. So B, how the particles move, fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed (pages 32–33)
Question 6 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 25Uses the passage above: “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything”.
Question
Read lines 27–28 from the poem.
And there, in the explosion, in the darkness,
briefly incandescent, they appear:
The imagery in the lines reveals that the speaker
- Aenvies the physicists who research colliding particles.
- Bhas personally observed colliding particles.
- Cadmires the powerful reactions that occur when particles collide.
- Dhas a simplistic understanding of how particles collide.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks what the imagery in lines 27–28 reveals about the speaker.
A. Incorrect. The physicists mentioned in the fifth stanza (lines 33–44) are described as mere observers: they “jot down / what they can” (lines 41–42). In lines 27–28, the speaker is focused on the reaction between the colliding particles, not on the physicists who study them.
B. Incorrect. The speaker describes the particle collision in detail, but the text does not imply that the speaker has personally witnessed a collision. The speaker implies that his or her understanding of the collision is based on the experiences of the physicists observing the phenomenon (“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” [lines 39–43]).
C. CORRECT. The word “explosion” and the phrase “briefly incandescent” create a picture of rapid changes and short bursts of bright light, revealing how powerful the new particles are. The language the speaker uses is positive, revealing that the speaker admires the power of the reaction and stands in awe of the new particles.
D. Incorrect. The poem reveals the speaker’s deep knowledge about subatomic particles. For example, the speaker is able to name the new particles discovered—“the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons; / the baryons and the mesons” (lines 29–30)—and is able to use imagery to create a powerful picture that reveals the complexity of a scientific process that humans have never been able to see.
Question analysis
This imagery question asks what lines 27–28 of “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” reveal about the poem’s speaker, as particles appear “briefly incandescent” in an explosion inside a particle collider. Students must infer what a vivid image says about the person describing it. The word “incandescent” may be unfamiliar, and the choices are about very different things.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students infer a speaker’s attitude from imagery, but these two lines turn on the uncommon word “incandescent,” state nothing about the speaker outright, and the choices range over the speaker’s knowledge, experience and feelings, which is harder 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
- Reading between the lines major
- Hard words moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 55 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 in the two lines names a feeling, so students must judge the speaker’s attitude from the image alone, and its key word is uncommon. The vividness is itself a trap: a scene described this sharply can seem to be one the speaker watched, though the poem says the particles are perceived only through the physicists’ work. The choices range over envy, experience, admiration and understanding, so each must be tested against the lines rather than against an overall impression.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
The lines describe particles, not the speaker, and contain no word of feeling; admiration has to be inferred from the drama of “the explosion” and the glow of “briefly incandescent.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
“Incandescent,” glowing with heat and light, is the word that makes the image dazzling, and a student who does not know it sees only an explosion in the dark. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The two lines are pure imagery, a burst of light in darkness as the particles “appear,” and the question asks what that picture reveals about the person painting it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Picture the scene in lines 27–28, including what “incandescent” means, decide what the description suggests about the speaker, and test each choice against these two lines.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- 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)
Reasons that someone so drawn to the scene must envy the physicists who study it, though the physicists appear only in lines 39–44 and nothing in the poem hints at envy.
B Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the vivid scene of particles that “appear” in a glow as something the speaker witnessed, though lines 39–43 place that sight “down there,” where physicists record what they can.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats the poem’s playful comparisons, racing cars and garage bands, as a sign of shallow knowledge, though the next lines have the speaker naming quarks, leptons, bosons, baryons and mesons.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the imagery in lines 27–28 shows about the speaker. Imagery is language that helps you see, hear or feel a scene. The lines describe particles, not the speaker. So you must infer, or figure out from clues, how the speaker feels.
Read lines 27–28
The lines say “And there, in the explosion, in the darkness, / briefly incandescent, they appear:” Briefly means for a short time. Incandescent means glowing with heat and light. So picture a burst of bright light flashing in the dark. The particles have just crashed into each other, or collided. In that flash, the tiny particles appear.
Decide how the speaker feels
The words are bold and bright: “explosion,” “incandescent,” “appear.” The speaker makes the moment sound dramatic and amazing. People describe something this way when they are in awe of it. So the speaker admires, or looks up to, the power of the crash.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Physicists come up only later, in line 41. Nothing shows envy, or wanting what they have.
- B does not fit. Nothing says the speaker was there. Lines 39–42 place the sight “down there,” where “physicists jot down / what they can.”
- C fits. The glowing burst in the dark shows the speaker’s wonder.
- D does not fit. Right after, the speaker names quarks, leptons, bosons, baryons and mesons. That is not a simple understanding.
Watch out: B is tempting because the scene is so vivid. But a writer can picture something without seeing it in person.
Choose the answer
The bright, explosive picture shows a speaker who is amazed by the crash. So the answer is C, “admires the powerful reactions that occur when particles collide.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because the scene feels like an eyewitness report. But the lines never say the speaker was in the tunnel. What they do show is a feeling. Words like “explosion” and “briefly incandescent” make the moment thrilling. That is admiration, so C fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 7 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 26Uses the passage above: “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything”.
Question
Read lines 30–32 from the poem.
Their names
sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands
playing terrible music in someone’s garage.
The speaker refers to familiar objects and events in the lines most likely to
- Aexplain confusing information in simple terms to help the reader understand more about the topic.
- Bdemonstrate how scientific ideas can be explained by describing situations that many people are familiar with.
- Cemphasize that the process being used to research particles is still in the early stages of development.
- Dsuggest that the scientific language used to describe particles seems silly by making a humorous comparison.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks why the speaker refers to familiar objects and events in lines 30–32.
A. Incorrect. In lines 30–32, the speaker only gives an opinion about what the names sound like and does not simplify confusing information about how these newly discovered particles function or exist.
B. Incorrect. In lines 30–32, the speaker is only describing what the names of the particles sound like: “dinosaurs or maybe bands” (line 31). These descriptions illustrate the speaker’s opinion but do not explain specific scientific ideas.
C. Incorrect. In lines 30–32, the mention of the names of the particles sounding like “dinosaurs or maybe bands” (line 31) reveals the speaker’s opinion about the names but does not explain the process of researching the particles.
D. CORRECT. The phrase “their names” (line 30) refers to the scientific names of the particles: “the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons; / the baryons and the mesons” (lines 29–30). In lines 30–32, the speaker expresses the opinion that these scientific terms sound nonsensical, much like the strange scientific names of dinosaurs or silly band names.
Question analysis
In “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything,” the speaker says the names of particles sound like dinosaurs or bands playing in someone’s garage. This question asks why the speaker refers to such familiar things in lines 30–32. Students must read the comparison’s tone and purpose, and the choices offer several reasons poets compare science with everyday life.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why a speaker includes a comparison is typical grade 7 work on word choice and tone. The three lines are quoted and their images are everyday ones, but the choices state purposes that differ in subtle ways.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 97 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 choices give the textbook reason for an everyday comparison, to make hard science easier, and they draw students who answer from what comparisons usually do. These lines explain nothing; they say how the particles’ names sound, and “terrible music in someone’s garage” is a joke at the expense of the jargon. Students who trace “Their names” back to the list before it and hear the teasing tone reach the right purpose.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks why the speaker makes the comparison, and two choices offer the usual reason for likening science to everyday things, making it easier to grasp, which these lines do not do. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The humor has to be heard: names that sound like dinosaurs or like bands “playing terrible music in someone’s garage” are being teased, which signals a joke, not an explanation. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
“Their names” points back to the list in lines 29–30, quarks, leptons, bosons, baryons and mesons, and students must see that the lines judge those words, not the particles. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Find what “Their names” refers to in the lines just before, then ask what the comparison says about those names and in what tone, and match the purpose to both.
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.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Assumes that comparing science with familiar things is meant to simplify it, but these lines explain nothing about particles; they only say what the names sound like.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns three lines into a general claim about teaching science through familiar situations, though no scientific idea is described here, only the sound of some names.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “someone’s garage” as an amateur workshop and concludes that particle research is just beginning, a meaning the lines, which tease the names, never suggest.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the speaker compares the particles’ names to familiar things. Familiar means well known from everyday life. First find what “Their names” points to. Then decide what the comparison says about those names, and in what tone.
Find what their names means
Lines 29–30 list the particles: “the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons; / the baryons and the mesons.” Then the speaker says “Their names / sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands / playing terrible music in someone’s garage.” So “their names” means these science words.
Hear the joke
Dinosaurs have long, strange names. A garage band is a group of beginners who practice in a garage. Their music is often loud and bad. The speaker is teasing the science words. They sound odd and a little silly. This is a humorous, or funny, comparison.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The lines explain nothing about particles. They only say how the names sound.
- B does not fit. No science idea is explained here.
- C does not fit. “Garage” is part of the band joke. It does not say the research is new.
- D fits. The joke makes the science names sound silly.
Watch out: A is tempting because comparisons to everyday things often make science easier. But these lines make fun of names. They do not explain anything.
Choose the answer
The speaker compares the particle names to dinosaurs and bad garage bands to poke fun at them. So the answer is D, “suggest that the scientific language used to describe particles seems silly by making a humorous comparison.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. Writers often compare science to everyday things to make it simpler. But ask what these lines explain. Nothing about how particles work is made clearer. The lines only say the names sound like “bands / playing terrible music.” That is a joke about the words, so D fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 8 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 28Uses the passage above: “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything”.
Question
Read lines 39–44 from the poem.
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.
The lines reveal the speaker’s
- Afrustration with the research facilities physicists use.
- Bbelief that physicists are frantically working toward a new discovery.
- Cinterest in physicists and their study of particles.
- Dcertainty that physicists are working in secrecy.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks what lines 39–44 reveal about the speaker.
A. Incorrect. While the discoveries are made “in the darkness” (line 40), the imagery conveys the speaker’s positive tone through descriptions like “perceive their wild dancing” (line 43) and “combusting to the music they make” (line 44), not frustration.
B. Incorrect. In lines 39–44, the imagery of energetic movement (“They spin,” “their wild dancing,” and “combusting to the music they make”) is used to describe the particles, not the physicists.
C. CORRECT. The speaker uses the phrases “only down there” (line 39), “physicists jot down … whatever seems most real” (lines 41–42), and “they let us perceive” (line 43) to convey that the physicists have a rare role in studying the mysteries of the universe and that the speaker appreciates and is interested in their work.
D. Incorrect. While the description of the experiments occurring “in the darkness” (line 40) may create a sense of secrecy, the secrets that the darkness refers to are the mysteries of subatomic particles, not the work processes that the physicists use.
Question analysis
The final six lines of “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” describe particles spinning in the darkness of a “vast garage” where physicists work. This question asks what those lines reveal about the speaker. The long sentence is broken by dashes and mixes images of the particles with images of the scientists, so students must sort out which words describe which.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students infer a speaker’s attitude, usually from a clear statement. These six lines form one sentence broken by dashes, students must keep track of who does what, and the attitude is never stated, so the task is above 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
- Complex sentences major
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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 sentence is the hardest part: the physicists appear in a clause set off by dashes, and the two uses of “they” around them refer to different subjects. Students who attach “wild dancing” to the physicists see frantic work, and those who stop at “in the darkness” see secrecy. The right choice is mild and general, so it is easy to pass over, yet it fits because the speaker lingers on the scene with evident fascination and nothing in the lines expresses frustration or certainty.
Complex sentences major Understanding the question
Lines 39–44 are one sentence broken by a dash clause, and its two uses of “they” point different ways: “what they can” means the physicists, “they let us perceive” the spinning particles. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The particles’ “wild dancing,” “combusting to the music they make,” and the lab as “the vast garage” are images whose tone, delight rather than complaint, students must judge. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
No line states the speaker’s attitude; interest has to be read from how closely the speaker follows the work of physicists who “jot down / what they can, whatever seems most real.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Untangle the sentence in lines 39–44 by finding who spins, who jots things down and who lets us perceive, then decide what the description reveals about how the speaker regards the scene.
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 tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links “the vast garage” to the garage bands’ “terrible music” of line 32 and hears a complaint, though the lines end on the delighted image of “wild dancing.”
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Gives the particles’ “wild dancing” and “combusting” to the physicists, misled by the pronouns around them, though the physicists only “jot down / what they can.”
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “only down there / in the darkness” as a sign of hidden work, though the darkness belongs to the underground tunnel, and nothing in the lines suggests secrecy.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what lines 39–44 show about the speaker. The lines are one long sentence. It uses the word “they” for two different groups. So first sort out who is doing what.
Sort out who does what
- “They spin” means the particles spin.
- “physicists jot down / what they can” means the physicists write down what they can. Here “they” is the physicists.
- “they let us perceive their wild dancing” means the particles let us see their dance. Perceive means notice or see. Here “they” is the particles again.
Put the sentence in plain words
The part between the dashes describes the place. It is the huge tunnel, “the vast garage,” where physicists take notes. Without that part, the sentence says this: only down there do the particles let us see their wild dance. Combusting means bursting into flame. It is a lively, joyful picture.
Decide what it shows about the speaker
The speaker brings the physicists into the scene and shows their careful work. They write down “whatever seems most real.” The speaker also shows that all of us see the particles only through this research. The speaker cares about the physicists and what they study. That is interest.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. “The vast garage” is playful, and the lines end in delight. There is no complaint.
- B does not fit. The wild motion belongs to the particles. The physicists only “jot down / what they can.”
- C fits. The speaker follows the physicists’ work and the particles they study.
- D does not fit. It is dark because the tunnel is underground. Nothing suggests the work is secret.
Watch out: B is tempting because the lines sound frantic, or wild and rushed. But “they let us perceive” means the particles, so the dancing is theirs, not the physicists’.
Choose the answer
The lines show the speaker paying close attention to physicists and the particles they study. So the answer is C, “interest in physicists and their study of particles.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. The words “wild dancing” and “combusting” do sound frantic. But they describe the particles. In “they let us perceive,” “they” means the particles. The physicists just “jot down / what they can.” So the lines do not show physicists rushing. They show the speaker’s interest, which is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 9 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 37Passage 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
Which lines support the idea that a change in the weather will lessen the speaker’s appreciation for the city?
- A“as though the air has been forced into intimacy / by the brevity of daylight.” (lines 11–12)
- B“But when it starts darkening at 4, / this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,” (lines 13–14)
- C“like someone drawing your attention / to their lack of intimacy.” (lines 15–16)
- D“These days I am still walking . . . / beneath the branches bending across avenues,” (lines 17–18)
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks which lines from the poem support the idea that a change in the weather will lessen the speaker’s appreciation for the city.
A. Incorrect. These lines focus on the positive way the air feels to the speaker during “the early edge of fall” (line 7). They suggest that the speaker appreciates this experience currently, while being aware that the feeling might not last.
B. CORRECT. In these lines, the speaker describes the shift in the “closeness” of the air as the weather changes and “it starts darkening at 4.” The speaker clearly indicates that the positive emotions surrounding this closeness, with “leaves green still” and the air “slightly crisp” (lines 8–9), will soon be “a felt distance,” suggesting that the turn in the weather will make the city less appealing.
C. Incorrect. Although these lines compare the darkening, changing weather to a person revealing a “lack of intimacy,” that specific comparison does not focus on a diminishing appreciation for the city.
D. Incorrect. These lines describe the “cathedral pace” (line 17) at which the speaker walks, emphasizing a meditative or thoughtful experience. Such a description suggests the speaker still appreciates the city, not that the speaker’s appreciation will lessen.
Question analysis
This evidence question asks which lines from “Letter from Brooklyn” support the idea that a change in the weather will lessen the speaker's appreciation for the city. All four choices come from the middle of the poem, where the speaker describes the feel of the early-fall air through figurative comparisons, so students must read each pair of lines closely for both parts of the idea.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Choosing lines that support an idea is standard grade 7 evidence work. Here the idea is carried by figurative comparisons about the air, and the four choices sit within a few lines of one another, so separating them takes closer reading than is 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
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 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
All four choices come from lines 11–18, and three speak of closeness, distance or intimacy, so the vocabulary of the claim is everywhere. The idea has two parts, a change in the weather and a weaker feeling for the city, and only one pair of lines holds both. The strongest pull is the second half of the same sentence, which puts the loss of intimacy most vividly but leaves the darkening behind in the lines before.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
Lines 13–14 and 15–16 are one sentence split in two: the first half names the darkening at 4 and the coming distance, the second only describes what that distance feels like. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The weaker feeling for the city is never stated; it comes through images, the air’s “closeness” turning into “a felt distance,” like a person pointing out their “lack of intimacy.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Students must accept “when it starts darkening at 4” as the change in the weather the stem names, since the lines speak of daylight, not of cold or rain. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Split the idea into its two parts, a change in the weather and a weaker feeling for the city, and choose the lines that hold both on their own, without help from the lines around 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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes “the brevity of daylight” as the coming change, but these lines say the short days force the air “into intimacy,” a closeness the speaker enjoys now.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Chooses the vivid “lack of intimacy,” which does show the feeling weakening, but these lines only finish the simile and never mention the darkening that causes it.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears a coming change in “still walking,” but the lines show the speaker enjoying a slow walk under the branches now and say nothing of the weather turning.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is an evidence question. The idea has two parts. First, the weather will change. Second, the speaker will enjoy the city less. You need the lines that hold both parts by themselves.
Read the lines around the choices
Lines 9–12 describe the early-fall air now. It is “almost grazing / the hair of my arm like a passing stranger.” Grazing here means lightly touching. The speaker says the air feels close, like “intimacy.” Intimacy means a warm, close feeling between people. Lines 13–16 then look ahead to shorter days.
Find both parts in lines 13–14
Lines 13–14 say: “But when it starts darkening at 4, / this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance”. Darkening at 4 means the sun setting at 4 o’clock, as days get shorter. That is the change in the weather. “This closeness” is the warm feeling the speaker has now. It will turn into distance. So the good feeling will fade.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Lines 11–12 describe the closeness the speaker enjoys now. Nothing has faded yet.
- B is right. It names the change, the early dark, and the loss, closeness turning into “a felt distance.”
- C is wrong. Lines 15–16 finish the comparison: the distance feels like a person pointing out their “lack of intimacy.” But these lines never mention the weather.
- D is wrong. Lines 17–18 show the speaker enjoying a slow walk now. They say nothing about the weather turning.
Watch out: C is tempting because “lack of intimacy” sounds like a lost feeling. But the change in weather is back in lines 13–14.
Choose the answer
Only one pair of lines holds both the change and the fading feeling. So the answer is B, lines 13–14, which begin “But when it starts darkening at 4”.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because it shows the good feeling slipping away. But lines 15–16 only describe what that distance feels like. They don’t say what causes it. Lines 13–14 give both parts: the early dark and the fading closeness.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
Question 10 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 39Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.
Question
Read lines 7–9 from the poem.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp,
The word choice in the lines helps convey the speaker’s belief that
- Athe beauty of the current season should still be appreciated.
- Bthe changes in the weather signify the end of the most pleasant season.
- Cthe transition from one season to another happens swiftly and without warning.
- Dthe change in the weather is so subtle that people rarely observe or feel it.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what belief of the speaker is conveyed by the word choice in lines 7–9 of the poem.
A. CORRECT. Words and phrases in these lines, such as “leaves green still” and “slightly crisp,” have a positive connotation, indicating that the speaker believes in appreciating this season while it still lasts.
B. Incorrect. Although imagery such as “leaves green still” and “slightly crisp” in these lines suggests that the speaker enjoys the season, the speaker never indicates that the present season is the most pleasant of all seasons.
C. Incorrect. The phrases “the early edge of fall” and “the air narrows” in these lines imply that the season is just beginning to change, but there is no indication from these phrases that the changes will be swift and without warning. In fact, the narrowing of the air could be a warning of a greater, more gradual change in weather.
D. Incorrect. The speaker experiences the change in weather as subtle: “the air narrows, / is slightly crisp.” However, the speaker does not refer to the viewpoints of others. The entire viewpoint in the poem is personal and introspective, as represented by the use of the pronoun “I” throughout.
Question analysis
This word-choice question quotes three lines from “Letter from Brooklyn” describing the early edge of fall, when the leaves are still green and the air is slightly crisp. Students must work out what the connotations of these words reveal about the speaker's belief, and several choices mix an accurate reading of the lines with a claim they do not support.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how word choice conveys a speaker's feelings is everyday grade 7 work. These three lines are short and concrete, but their meaning rests on the connotations of a few small words, which matches 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 understand
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 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 three lines are short, and every choice builds on something real in them: a change in the weather, a season ending, subtlety. What separates the answer is the time words, “For now,” “early edge” and “still,” which say that something good is present and passing. Students lose the point by stretching a reasonable sense of loss into a claim about the best season, or by turning the speaker’s private notice into what other people miss.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The belief lies in connotation: “early edge of fall” and “leaves green still” mark a season only starting to turn, and “the air narrows” describes the change through an image. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
“For now” at the start of line 7 signals that the moment will pass, and students must infer that the speaker values it for that reason, since no line states the belief. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Mark the words in lines 7–9 that describe time and the feel of the air, decide whether each sounds positive, negative or neutral, then choose the belief that fits those connotations and nothing more.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- 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
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Senses loss in a turning season, which the poem does suggest, but claims the speaker sees this as ending “the most pleasant season,” a ranking the lines never make.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “the air narrows” as a sudden shift, though “early edge” and “slightly crisp” describe a season only beginning to turn, gradually and with clear signs.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly hears the change as subtle in “slightly crisp,” but adds that people rarely notice it, though the lines record the speaker feeling it on the hair of an arm.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about word choice. The exact words a poet picks can show feelings. You need the belief that lines 7–9 show. So look at what each word suggests, not only what it means.
Mark the time words
The lines say “For now it is the early edge of fall, / leaves green still while the air narrows, / is slightly crisp.” Notice the time words. “For now” means this won’t last. “Early edge” means fall has just begun. “Still” means the leaves have not changed color yet.
Hear what the words suggest
“Slightly crisp” means a little cool and fresh. It sounds pleasant, not harsh. When the air “narrows,” it seems to tighten and grow cooler. So the speaker enjoys this moment. The time words show the speaker knows it will pass. Put together, they say: this lovely early fall is still here, so enjoy it now.
Check each choice
- A is right. “Still” and “For now” show the season is still here to enjoy.
- B is wrong. The speaker never calls this the most pleasant season. Nothing ranks the seasons.
- C is wrong. “Early edge” and “slightly” describe a slow, gentle change, not a sudden one.
- D is wrong. The change is subtle, or hard to notice. But the speaker feels it on “the hair of my arm.” The lines say nothing about other people.
Watch out: D starts out right, because the change is gentle. But it adds a claim about other people that the lines never make.
Choose the answer
The words show a pleasant season that is still here, for now. So the answer is A: “the beauty of the current season should still be appreciated.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because the poem does hint that something good is ending. But the lines never call fall the best season. They say only that this pleasant time is here “for now.” That fits A: enjoy the season while it lasts.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 11 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 40Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.
Question
Which idea does the comparison of the brownstone houses to “a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child, / but didn’t” in lines 20–21 convey?
- AIt reveals that some people are still influenced by powerful images from childhood.
- BIt indicates that the neighborhood the speaker is walking through is charming and appealing.
- CIt suggests that the speaker has wanted to live in the neighborhood since childhood.
- DIt suggests that people often experience lingering regret from their past.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the comparison of the brownstone houses to “a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child, / but didn’t” (lines 20–21) conveys.
A. Incorrect. While the lines explain that the neighborhood reminds the speaker of images from childhood pop-up books, those images are not described as very powerful or influential.
B. CORRECT. Pop-up picture books are likely to delight a child with their unique, often beautiful representations of buildings that pop up out of the page. The comparison in these lines helps explain how the speaker views these brownstones with a childlike wonder and appreciation.
C. Incorrect. Though in these lines the speaker compares this neighborhood to scenes in children’s pop-up picture books, there is no clear evidence that the speaker wants to live there, only that the speaker appreciates its appeal.
D. Incorrect. The lines state that the speaker did not have a “pop-up picture book” of the neighborhood’s brownstones as a child, but not in a way that emphasizes regret. Rather, the speaker compares the neighborhood to images from pop-up books in general to suggest that the neighborhood looks beautiful and delightful.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks what idea the poem conveys by comparing Brooklyn's brownstone houses to “a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child, / but didn't.” Students must interpret a simile in context, deciding how the closing words “but didn't” fit with the rest of the comparison and with the speaker's mood during the walk.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a simile in a poem is routine grade 7 work. This comparison uses a familiar childhood object, and the only complication is the added “but didn't,” which invites a reading that the rest of the lines must confirm or rule out.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 78 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 core of the simile is easy: a row of brownstones looks like a pop-up picture book, something charming. The difficulty is the closing “but didn’t,” which tempts students toward regret or toward a story about the speaker’s childhood. Students who ask what the comparison says about the houses, rather than about the speaker’s past, see that the lines praise the neighborhood.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The simile likens brownstones to a pop-up picture book, and its point, that the street looks as delightful as a child’s book, has to be drawn from what such books are like. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The tag “but didn’t” invites a reading of regret, so students must decide from the walk at a “cathedral pace” around it that the comparison is about delight, not loss. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Work out what the brownstones and a pop-up picture book have in common, decide what part “but didn't” plays in the comparison, and test each choice against what the lines actually say.
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.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Generalizes from one speaker’s comparison to what “some people” feel and calls the images “powerful,” though the lines describe how the brownstones look, not lasting childhood influences.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “could have had as a child” as a fact about the speaker’s childhood wishes, though the simile only compares the houses to pages in a book.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears regret in “but didn’t” and widens it to people in general, though the speaker mentions the missing book only in passing while enjoying the walk.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks about a simile. A simile compares two things using like or as. Here the speaker compares brownstones to a pop-up picture book. Brownstones are old row houses built of reddish-brown stone. You need the idea this comparison gives.
Read the comparison
Lines 19–21 say “brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels, / like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child, / but didn’t.” A pop-up book has pictures that stand up off the page when you open it. These books often show houses and streets. Children love them.
Put it in your own words
So the street looks charming and magical, like a page in a child’s favorite book. The words “but didn’t” just mean the speaker never owned such a book. Around these lines the speaker walks at a “cathedral pace.” The glossary says cathedral means “meditative,” or calm and thoughtful. The mood is peaceful and happy, not sad.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The lines describe how the houses look. They don’t claim childhood pictures stay powerful for people.
- B is right. Comparing the houses to a pop-up book shows they look charming, or delightful.
- C is wrong. The speaker never says they wanted to live there as a child.
- D is wrong. “But didn’t” is said in passing. The speaker is enjoying the walk, not full of regret, or sorrow over the past.
Watch out: “But didn’t” can sound sad, so D is tempting. Ask what the comparison says about the houses, not about the speaker’s past.
Choose the answer
The comparison praises how the houses look. So the answer is B: “It indicates that the neighborhood the speaker is walking through is charming and appealing.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because “but didn’t” hints at something missed. But the speaker is enjoying a slow walk under the branches. The simile’s job is to show how lovely the brownstones look. That points to B, not to regret.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 12 of 84
2026 Practice Test B English, question 41Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.
Question
Read these lines from the poem.
I can already see how this will end. (line 1)
How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of. (lines 21–22)
The lines develop a central idea of the poem by
- Asuggesting the speaker’s desire to find a way to break free from the repetitive pattern of daily life.
- Brevealing the speaker’s feelings of disappointment over the predictable change in season.
- Cemphasizing the speaker’s awareness of the future significance of the present moment in the setting.
- Dshowing the speaker’s anticipation of specific emotions caused by an intimate knowledge of the setting.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how line 1 and lines 21–22 develop a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. Although these lines suggest that life is governed by repetitive patterns, such as the change of seasons, they do not suggest that the speaker wishes to break free from these natural cycles of change, and a desire for freedom is not a central idea of the poem.
B. Incorrect. Although the speaker acknowledges that colder weather will inevitably bring disappointment, the speaker does not suggest in these lines that the predictability of changing weather is itself disappointing. Rather, the speaker recognizes the value of enjoying the present moment.
C. CORRECT. These lines connect the present warmer weather with the future colder weather and develop the central idea that the present “moment I am walking inside of” must be embraced because the speaker will be “nostalgic” for it in the future.
D. Incorrect. In these lines, the speaker is aware that specific emotions will occur in the future, during cold weather, but this awareness is only part of the more complex central idea of the poem, which is that current emotions and feelings must be recognized, experienced, and appreciated.
Question analysis
This central-idea question pairs the first line of “Letter from Brooklyn” with lines 21–22, where Brooklyn makes the speaker nostalgic “for the moment I am walking inside of,” and asks how they develop a central idea of the poem. Students must link excerpts from opposite ends of the poem, untangle a paradoxical image and choose among four abstract statements.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how lines develop a central idea. Here two excerpts twenty lines apart must be read together, one of them built on a paradox, and the four choices are long and abstract, well beyond typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 99 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
This is among the hardest questions in the set because the two excerpts must be joined through a paradox and then matched to four long, abstract statements. Line 1 foresees an ending; lines 21–22 miss a moment while it is still happening, so both look at now from the future. Students who see only the foresight pick the choice about anticipated emotions, while those who hear gloom in “how this will end” settle on disappointment or a wish to escape.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
Lines 21–22 are a paradox: “nostalgic,” glossed as yearning for the past, is aimed at “the moment I am walking inside of,” so the speaker already feels the present as a future memory. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about anticipating “specific emotions” shares the key’s link between future and present; it differs by tracing those feelings to knowing the setting well, which neither excerpt says. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The excerpts are the poem’s first line and lines 21–22, twenty lines apart, and what joins them, the speaker looking ahead at the present, shows only when they are read side by side. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Paraphrase each excerpt on its own, using the glossary's meaning of “nostalgic,” then decide what the first line and the last two share and match that to a choice.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links “how this will end” and growing tired of the bridge to a dull routine and imagines a wish to escape it, which the poem never expresses.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears resignation in “I can already see how this will end” and reads it as disappointment with the seasons, missing that the speaker treasures the present walk.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees the speaker foreseeing feelings in line 1, but traces them to an “intimate knowledge of the setting,” while lines 21–22 long for the present moment itself.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question gives two pieces of the poem: line 1 and lines 21–22. You need the central idea they build together. A central idea is the main point the poem keeps working toward. Read each piece alone first, then join them.
Read line 1
Line 1 says “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker looks ahead. Lines 2–5 then list what will come: growing tired of the bridge, and the cold. So the speaker already pictures the future while living in the present.
Read lines 21–22
The lines say “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” The glossary says nostalgic means “yearning for the past.” Yearning means longing. But the speaker longs for now, a moment still happening. That is a paradox, an idea that seems impossible but makes sense. The speaker knows this walk will be a precious memory.
Join the two pieces
Both pieces look at the present from the future. In line 1, the speaker sees the end coming. In lines 21–22, the speaker already misses the walk. So the speaker knows this present moment will matter later. Significance means importance.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never wants to break free from daily routine.
- B is wrong. Line 1 can sound gloomy. But the speaker isn’t upset with the seasons. The speaker treasures the walk.
- C is right. The speaker sees that this moment in Brooklyn will be precious later.
- D is wrong. The speaker does foresee feelings. But neither piece says they come from knowing the place well.
Watch out: D gets the looking-ahead part of line 1 right. But lines 21–22 long for the moment itself, not for feelings caused by knowing the city.
Choose the answer
So the answer is C: “emphasizing the speaker’s awareness of the future significance of the present moment in the setting.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because line 1 does show the speaker foreseeing feelings. But D says they come from an “intimate knowledge of the setting.” Neither piece says that. Lines 21–22 miss the moment while it is still happening. C captures that: the present will matter in the future.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 13 of 84
2026 Practice Test C English, question 20Passage 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
Read lines 6–7 from the poem.
The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more
anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.
What idea from the second stanza do the lines help develop?
- AThe birds are eager for the return of warmer months.
- BThe birds are most likely to thrive during the spring.
- CThe birds naturally adjust to the seasonal changes.
- DThe birds instinctively prepare for the future.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how lines 6–7 from the poem develop an idea from the second stanza.
A. Incorrect. In lines 2–3, the tree branches exclaim that “ ‘This is the / beginning of summer,’ ” and the birds respond by taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7); however, the birds’ eager reaction to the return of warmer weather is not referenced in the second stanza of the poem, which is more about the nature of birds generally than the changing of the seasons.
B. Incorrect. Birds are more likely to thrive in warmer weather as evidenced by some birds’ migration to a warmer climate during winter, and the creatures in the first stanza are responding to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) in their own way, such as the birds who are taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7). However, the thriving of birds during a particular season is not the focus of the second stanza; rather, it is focused on the general nature of birds.
C. CORRECT. The birds are taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7) in light of warmer weather, but they are not making a big to-do of the change because “a home is a home; worms are worms” (line 7) any time of the year. Such a natural adjustment to seasonal changes is reflected in the second stanza, where the birds “count up this year as against next / year” (lines 26–27) because they are well accustomed to the cyclical nature of things.
D. Incorrect. Although the birds’ actions of “hops and zigzags” (line 6) may indicate some sort of preparation, these actions are not preparation but rather the internalized cognizance of the change that has occurred with little conscious thought. As revealed in the second stanza, birds do not ponder much about past or future but rather adapt naturally as things change.
Question analysis
This question on Carl Sandburg’s poem “Bird Talk” quotes lines 6–7, where the birds hop and zigzag “a little more anxious,” and asks which idea from the second stanza they help develop. Students must link two compressed lines in the first stanza to a later stanza about birds gathered at the Grand Crossing, and every choice sounds like a fair claim about birds.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 poetry questions ask what one line or stanza shows on its own. Here two compressed lines from the first stanza must be tied to an idea the second stanza never states, in Sandburg’s loose, unusual phrasing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 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
The stem runs in an unusual direction: two lines from the first stanza must help develop an idea that only the second stanza holds, and the poem never states it. Students who read “next year” as planning are drawn to preparation, a choice built on the key’s own frame, while others answer from the first stanza’s summer or from what they know about birds. The question rewards hearing the birds’ roll call of who is gone as the same matter-of-fact acceptance as “worms are worms.”
Reading between the lines major Working it out
Neither stanza states the shared idea: students must hear calm acceptance in “a home is a home; worms are worms” and in birds tallying “who won’t be here next year,” then call it adjusting to change. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about instinctive preparation shares the key’s shape, birds acting by nature as time passes; it differs only in what the birds do, prepare for the future rather than adjust to the seasons. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
Lines 6–7 sit in the first stanza and the idea lives in the second, lines 20–29, so students must carry two lines across the poem and match them to the gathering at the Grand Crossing. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“A home is a home; worms are worms” says nothing on its surface; its meaning, a shrug that life goes on as it always has, has to be read from the repetition. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Paraphrase the second stanza first: what are the birds doing and saying at the Grand Crossing? Then reread lines 6–7 and ask which idea about birds both passages share.
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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Hears “a little more anxious” as eagerness for the summer announced in lines 2–3, an idea of the first stanza, while the second stanza never mentions weather or warmth.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in the real fact that birds do well in warm weather, which neither lines 6–7 nor the birds’ talk of who is gone says, and the poem’s season is summer, not spring.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Sees nest-building in “a home is a home” and planning in counting “this year as against next / year,” but the birds only note who will be missing and make no preparations.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question points in an unusual direction. Lines 6–7 are in the first stanza. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line. But the idea you need is in the second stanza, lines 20–29. The question asks which idea in stanza 2 these earlier lines also help build. So find the idea in stanza 2 first. Then see how lines 6–7 support it.
Find the idea in stanza 2
In stanza 2, birds sit “in circles talking bird talk.” They ask “who is here / and as to who is not here and who used to be here.” They also talk about “who is here / this year who won’t be here next year.” The birds simply count the changes. They are not upset by them. The speaker says, “We shall never blame the birds.” The idea: birds take the changes that time brings as a normal part of life.
Read lines 6–7 closely
Lines 6–7 say “The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.” As summer comes, the birds hop about a little more nervously and busily. That is a small change. Then the speaker shrugs: “a home is a home; worms are worms.” Life goes on as it always does. The birds change a little and carry on, with no fuss.
See what the two parts share
Both parts show birds meeting change calmly. In lines 6–7, the season turns, and the birds adjust a little. To adjust is to change a little to fit something new. In stanza 2, the birds note who has come and gone, and life goes on. So lines 6–7 help build stanza 2’s idea: birds naturally adjust to the changing seasons.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Stanza 2 never mentions warm weather or being eager for it.
- B does not fit. Nothing in the poem says birds do best in spring. The poem’s season is the start of summer.
- C fits. Both parts show birds taking seasonal change calmly, as a matter of course.
- D does not fit. The birds talk about next year, but they make no plans for it.
Watch out: D is tempting because “a home is a home” can sound like nest building. But the birds only count who will be missing. They do not get ready for anything.
Choose the answer
Lines 6–7 and stanza 2 both show birds accepting change as natural. So the answer is C, “The birds naturally adjust to the seasonal changes.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. Like C, it says birds act by nature as time passes. But D says they prepare, or get ready. In stanza 2, the birds talk about next year only to count who “won’t be here next year.” In lines 6–7, they hop about and carry on. They adjust to change. They do not plan for it.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Bird Talk” as printed (page 32)
Question 14 of 84
2026 Practice Test C English, question 21Uses the passage above: “Bird Talk”.
Question
Read lines 12–14 from the poem.
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.
What does the phrase “talked most of all” in line 13 convey?
- AIt establishes that the speaker thinks the sound of wind in the leaves is the best indication that the season is changing.
- BIt introduces the idea that the sound of the wind in the leaves remains constant throughout the seasons.
- CIt suggests that the speaker is overwhelmed by the sounds of nature that emerge as the season changes.
- DIt emphasizes that the sounds of nature enable the speaker to appreciate each season of the year.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
This question asks for what a phrase reveals about the speaker’s perspective on the change in seasons.
A. CORRECT. The first stanza of the poem establishes the way different parts of the natural world, including both plants and animals, respond to the change in season. These lines reflect the way the wind in the leaves is the best indication of the seasonal change because it is the wind in the leaves that “talked most of all and said more than any others / though speaking the fewest words” (lines 13–14).
B. Incorrect. Although the sound of the wind is the most obvious sign of the seasonal change per the speaker, it is in response to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) that the wind speaks through the leaves. The poem does not reveal that this figurative speech occurs throughout the seasons, only that it occurs during the transition to summer.
C. Incorrect. While the language used by the speaker indicates a deep appreciation for the natural phenomenon being witnessed, the language used does not indicate a feeling of being overwhelmed but rather a feeling of awareness.
D. Incorrect. Using the personification of the wind “speaking” (line 14) indicates an appreciation by the speaker for the power and volume of the wind’s voice, but only one instance of the wind’s speech, that which occurs at the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3), is chronicled by the speaker in the poem.
Question analysis
Students interpret the personification in lines 12–14 of “Bird Talk,” where the leaves under a strong soft wind “talked most of all,” and decide what that phrase conveys. Because the leaves also speak “the fewest words,” the line seems to contradict itself, and its meaning depends on how it fits Sandburg’s first stanza about the start of summer.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what a figurative phrase conveys about a speaker’s view is standard grade 7 work. The three lines are printed with the question, though the phrase still has to be read against the rest of the first stanza.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 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
The phrase ranks the leaves above the shrilling frogs and chattering birds as voices of the season, but it never says what they are best at, so students must supply the idea of a sign. The tempting wrong readings take the speaker’s pleasure in nature and stretch it to every season, or hear “talked most of all” as noise. The quiet words around the phrase, “strong soft wind” and “fewest words,” point to a calm sound that tells the most.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The leaves are personified, and the line seems to contradict itself: they “talked most of all and said more than any others / though speaking the fewest words.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Students must turn “said more than any others” into a judgment, that the leaves are the surest sign of summer, which lines 17–19 confirm when the leaves themselves announce “the beginning of summer.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Restate lines 12–14 in plain words, especially the contrast between saying more and speaking fewer words, then test each choice against the whole first stanza.
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)
Stretches “as they said one time before” into a sound heard all year, though the leaves have only just come out of “the gaunt nowhere / of winter.”
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “talked most of all” as a din that swamps the speaker, though the “strong soft wind” and “fewest words” describe a quiet sound noted calmly, with no sign of strain.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Rightly senses the speaker’s pleasure in nature’s voices but widens it to “each season of the year,” though the poem watches only the turn to summer and singles out the leaves.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a phrase conveys, or gets across. The phrase is “talked most of all” in line 13. Leaves can’t really talk. Giving a thing human actions, like talking, is called personification. You need to work out what the speaker means by saying the leaves talked the most.
Read lines 12–14
Lines 12–14 say “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.” The others are the frogs and birds from earlier lines. The leaves “said more than any others,” yet they used “the fewest words.” So the quiet rustle of the leaves tells you more than all the frog and bird calls.
Find what the leaves say
The stanza ends with the leaves speaking. Lines 17–19 say it was “the leaves on the branches, beginning to be heavy,” who said “This is the beginning of summer.” So the leaves’ message is that the season has changed. The new leaves, rustling in the wind, are the clearest sign that summer has come.
Check each choice
- A fits. The leaves say the most about the season, so they are the best sign that it is changing.
- B does not fit. The leaves have just come out of “the gaunt nowhere / of winter.” Gaunt means thin and bare. The leaves do not rustle the same way all year.
- C does not fit. A “strong soft wind” and “the fewest words” describe a quiet sound. Nothing shows the speaker is overwhelmed, or swamped.
- D does not fit. The poem watches only one change, the start of summer, not each season.
Watch out: D is tempting because the speaker clearly enjoys nature’s sounds. But it stretches that to “each season of the year,” which the poem never covers.
Choose the answer
“Talked most of all” shows that the leaves tell the most about the change of season. So the answer is A, “It establishes that the speaker thinks the sound of wind in the leaves is the best indication that the season is changing.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. The speaker does seem to enjoy the sounds of nature. But the poem covers just one change, the turn to summer. And the phrase does more than show enjoyment. It ranks the leaves above the frogs and birds. They say the most about the change, so they are the best sign of it.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 15 of 84
2026 Practice Test C English, question 24Uses the passage above: “Bird Talk”.
Question
Throughout the poem, the poet conveys the speaker’s point of view by
- Agradually moving the speaker’s attention from one element of nature to another.
- Bproviding the speaker’s motivation for describing the landscape in great detail.
- Chighlighting the speaker’s emotional response as each season passes.
- Dshifting the speaker’s focus from external observations to personal reflection.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
This question asks for an explanation of how the poet conveys the speaker’s point of view on the natural world and the change of seasons as presented in the poem.
A. Incorrect. Though in the first stanza the speaker describes various elements of nature such as branches, frogs, birds, flowers, and leaves, these elemental shifts are not precisely gradual and occur only in the first stanza. Further, the first stanza, though appreciative of the natural world, is primarily descriptive and does not develop the speaker’s perspective to the degree that other parts of the poem do.
B. Incorrect. While it may be inferred that the speaker describes the landscape to such a degree because it has revealed a seasonal shift, that this is indeed the speaker’s motivation is never explicitly conveyed by the poet.
C. Incorrect. Multiple seasons do not pass in the poem; only the shift to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) occurs in an endless cycle. Further, the speaker does not reveal an emotional response; it is the responses of nature that the speaker describes.
D. CORRECT. The first stanza is the speaker’s observations of the natural world embracing a new season. In the second stanza, the speaker begins to reflect on how the natural world, as embodied by the birds, calmly accepts seasonal change in its perpetual sameness. The reflection continues in the third stanza, where it is revealed that the speaker has been addressing these observations to a child.
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks how the poet of “Bird Talk” conveys the speaker’s point of view throughout the poem. Students must keep in mind the long opening description of early summer and the two shorter stanzas after it, and decide which description of the poet’s method holds from the first line to the last.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 point-of-view questions often ask what a speaker thinks. This one asks how the poet conveys that view across all three stanzas of a long free-verse poem, and the choices name methods in general terms, closer to grade 8 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 54 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The first stanza takes up 19 of the poem’s 32 lines and moves steadily from branches to frogs, birds, flowers and leaves, so a choice that describes it alone feels right. The point of view shows only when the poem turns to “We” and then to “I” addressing a child, and that third stanza is three hard lines. Students must keep the whole poem’s course in mind and choose the method that holds from first line to last.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The answer depends on all three stanzas at once: the long catalog of the season in lines 1–19, the shift to “We shall never blame the birds,” and the closing “If I have put your face … child.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about moving from one element of nature to another and the key both describe a shift in the speaker’s attention; they differ in what shifts, nature to nature or the outside world to the speaker’s own thoughts. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the poet conveys a point of view, a method, so a choice must describe what the speaker does across the poem, not what the speaker sees. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The last stanza is cryptic, “Blame me no more than the bluejays,” and students who miss that the speaker is now talking about putting a child into the poem lose the move to reflection. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Write one phrase for what the speaker attends to in each stanza, then keep only a choice that describes the whole sequence, not one stanza.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Describes the first stanza well, its walk from branches to frogs, birds, flowers and leaves, but misses the later turn to “We” and to the speaker’s own “I.”
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Supplies a reason for all the description, perhaps from the closing words to a child, but the speaker never says why the landscape is described, and the reflection is not a motive.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees that the poem follows nature through a change of season but makes it many seasons and hands the creatures’ reactions, such as the birds’ anxious hops, to the speaker as feelings.
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, sees things. It also asks how the poet shows that view across the whole poem. So look at what the speaker pays attention to in each of the three stanzas. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line.
Follow the speaker through the stanzas
- Stanza 1, lines 1–19: the speaker describes the world outside. There are branches, frogs, birds, flowers and leaves at the start of summer.
- Stanza 2, lines 20–29: the speaker starts to judge and think. “We shall never blame the birds.”
- Stanza 3, lines 30–32: the speaker says “I” and talks to a child: “If I have put your face among leaf faces, child.”
Name the change in focus
The poem starts with external observations, or things the speaker sees and hears outside. It ends with personal reflection, or the speaker’s own thoughts. In the last stanza, the speaker admits to putting a child’s face and voice into the poem. The speaker asks to be blamed “no more than the bluejays.” Since “We shall never blame the birds,” that means not at all. This move from looking outward to looking inward is how the speaker’s view comes through.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Moving from branches to frogs to birds happens only in stanza 1. It misses the turn to “We” and “I.”
- B does not fit. The speaker never says why the landscape is described.
- C does not fit. Only one change of season happens, the start of summer. The anxious feelings belong to the birds, not the speaker.
- D fits. The speaker moves from describing nature to thinking about it.
Watch out: A describes stanza 1 very well. But the question says “Throughout the poem,” so the answer must cover all three stanzas.
Choose the answer
The speaker starts by watching nature and ends by thinking aloud to a child. So the answer is D, “shifting the speaker’s focus from external observations to personal reflection.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. Stanza 1 really does move from one part of nature to another. But that is only 19 of the 32 lines. In stanzas 2 and 3, the speaker turns to “We” and then “I,” and shares personal thoughts. Only D describes the speaker’s path from the first line to the last.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 16 of 84
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 17 of 84
2026 Practice Test C English, question 38Passage 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 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
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)
Question 18 of 84
2026 Practice Test D English, question 21Passage Ode to Fireworks
Ode to Fireworks
In autumn my mother drove us to the edge of the field
where the fair was set up year after year:
the carousel, the bumper cars, the long, low sheds
filled with prizewinning animals.
We—my sister, my cousin, and I—were ready for bed,
already in our pajamas. This was a treat we waited
all year for. We waited in the darkness
for the first low, dull thwumps, like someone
beating an old, filthy rug hung on a wash line.
Then we counted the seconds between the lightning
and thunder, as we also used to do, until the sky
lit up: red, blue, green, gold. In my mind’s eye
I can still see the straggly, ancient oak whose branches
reached up past the exhibition halls, silhouetted
against the spectrum of stars that cascaded behind it.
It was one thing to look up into the sky
and imagine yourself in it or to make out pictures
among the clouds, which my sister liked to do.
No, I would tell her, that cloud
does not look like an elephant, a hat, an umbrella.
But it was another thing to see
the sky at night written upon
with those jewels. (We lived in the country:
night was night.) All around us, crickets
stridulated in the stubble of what had been
somebody’s cornfield, their song rising and falling.
You could smell winter on the air’s edge.
Now, in the city, when the sky dips into shadow
at New Year’s or on the Fourth of July, I find myself
craning my neck upward at odd moments.
The city sky is always lit up. This is where we live now,
and it is how we live now, awash in light
of every hue. Everything is a constant celebration:
picking up washing at the cleaner’s or stopping by
the corner market for a loaf of heavy bread.
And the music around me is the music of people,
their voices rising and falling in a hundred languages.
But beneath the yellowish glow deep in the sky
of all our city lights pelting out into the universe,
I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping
across the ridged field, as I kept waiting for those
childhood bursts, watching as they escorted us home.
Question
The comparison in lines 8–9 of the poem is used to convey
- Athe muffled pounding of explosions in the distance.
- Bthe way lightning streaks through the clouds.
- Cthe echoes of thunder on an autumn night.
- Dthe glow of sparks falling from the sky.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what the comparison in lines 8–9 of the poem is used to convey.
A. CORRECT. In lines 8–9 the speaker compares the deep thumping noises at the start of a fireworks show to the muffled thumping sound made when beating a rug to clean it. The imagery of “low, dull thwumps” (line 8) (onomatopoeia) describes a sound that is not clear or powerful. To the speaker, these low, distant explosions are the signal that the fireworks display is starting and that the loud, cracking sound of fireworks will be heard soon (“Then we counted the seconds between the lightning / and thunder” [lines 10–11]).
B. Incorrect. The comparison in lines 8–9 deals with the low sound of the first fireworks shooting off rather than the streaks of light they emit. To the speaker, the low thwumps (onomatopoeia) are the signal that fireworks are about to explode overhead, much like the way a streak of lightning during a storm indicates that a crash of thunder will follow in a few seconds.
C. Incorrect. The thwump (onomatopoeia) sounds are the start of the fireworks show, not thunder. As a comparison, the speaker says the initial thwumps of the fireworks signal anticipation for the full explosion that will come, much like the way the speaker would watch for lightning and count the seconds before an impending thunderclap (lines 10–11).
D. Incorrect. The muffled thwump (onomatopoeia) sounds occur before the dazzling explosion of lights and before sparks start to fall from the sky. The comparison focuses on the sounds of the experience, not the sight of the experience.
Question analysis
This figurative language question asks what the comparison in lines 8–9 of “Ode to Fireworks” conveys. In the poem an adult speaker remembers waiting with family, already in pajamas, for the fireworks at a country fair. Students must interpret an old-fashioned household image and decide what part of the show it describes, since the nearby lines mention sights as well as sounds.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Interpreting a simile is taught from grade 6, and this one takes up two lines of concrete words. The household chore it pictures may be unfamiliar, but the task is a single step, lighter than typical grade 7 poetry work.
- 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 sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 3, 42 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 comparison is about sound, and once students notice that, the sight-based choices about lightning and sparks fall away. The pull comes from the next lines, where the children count “the seconds between the lightning / and thunder,” a storm game that makes thunder seem like the thing being described. The question rewards staying inside lines 8–9, where “low, dull” and the beaten rug describe the first faint booms of the show.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Lines 8–9 pair the made-up sound word “thwumps” with a simile, someone beating an old rug on a wash line, so students must hear a dull, distant thud in an image about housework. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The simile works only for readers who can imagine the flat whack of a rug being beaten clean on a line, a chore many students have never seen or heard. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Reread lines 8–9 slowly and ask which sense the comparison appeals to, sight, sound or touch, then pick the choice that describes that same experience.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- 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)
Jumps to the “lightning” of line 10, but lines 8–9 come before the sky lights up and describe something heard in the darkness, not a streak of light.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the “lightning / and thunder” of lines 10–11 as a real storm and hears the thwumps as thunder, though the counting game only likens the fireworks to one.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Pictures the colors of lines 12–15, “red, blue, green, gold,” but the rug-beating image describes a dull sound heard before any sparks appear in the sky.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a comparison helps you picture. Lines 8–9 compare one thing to another using “like.” That kind of comparison is called a simile. First ask which sense it describes: sight, sound or touch.
Find the comparison
The family waits in the dark. Lines 8–9 say they wait “for the first low, dull thwumps, like someone / beating an old, filthy rug hung on a wash line.” Thwumps is a made-up word that sounds like the noise it names. So the comparison is about a sound. It comes before the sky lights up.
Picture the rug
People used to hang a dusty rug on a line and hit it with a stick. Each hit makes a flat, soft thud, not a sharp bang. The words “low” and “dull” say the same thing. So the first fireworks sound like soft booms far away. Muffled means soft, as if wrapped in cloth.
Check each choice
- A is right. Dull thuds heard in the dark are the muffled pounding of explosions far off.
- B is wrong. Lightning is something you see. Lines 8–9 describe a sound heard before anything lights up.
- C is wrong. The thunder in lines 10–11 is part of a counting game. It compares the show to a storm. The rug image is about the fireworks.
- D is wrong. Sparks are something you see. The colors don’t come until line 12.
Watch out: Lines 10–11 mention “lightning” and “thunder.” That can make C look right. But the rug comparison comes first and is about the fireworks.
Choose the answer
The rug-beating simile makes the first fireworks sound like soft, faraway thuds. So the answer is A, “the muffled pounding of explosions in the distance.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because thunder is a low boom too. But lines 10–11 only compare the show to a storm in a counting game. The rug image in lines 8–9 describes the fireworks themselves: dull, muffled thuds from far away. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed (page 32)
Question 19 of 84
2026 Practice Test D English, question 22Uses the passage above: “Ode to Fireworks”.
Question
Read lines 22–23 from the poem.
the sky at night written upon
with those jewels.
What does the word choice in these lines convey about the speaker?
- AThe speaker values material possessions.
- BThe speaker imagines that the fireworks are magical.
- CThe speaker believes that the country setting is distinctive.
- DThe speaker cherishes the memory of seeing fireworks as a child.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks what the word choice in lines 22–23 of the poem conveys about the speaker.
A. Incorrect. The word “jewels” is used figuratively to indicate the sentimental value that the experience of watching the fireworks holds for the speaker. There is no indication in the poem that the speaker values material possessions.
B. Incorrect. The use of the word “jewels” highlights the importance of the memory in the speaker’s mind. The imagery in the words “written upon” expresses the way the bright streaks of light curve and fly across the night sky, not that the speaker views the fireworks display as magical.
C. Incorrect. The speaker describes the elements of the fireworks display that stand out most clearly. The view of the bright, colorful fireworks streaking across the sky is distinct, but it is not unique to the country setting.
D. CORRECT. The word “jewels” creates a picture of watching shining and sparkling explosions in the night sky and suggests that this experience holds sentimental and emotional value for the speaker. The speaker cherishes the memory of the experience.
Question analysis
This question quotes lines 22–23 of “Ode to Fireworks,” in which the night sky is “written upon / with those jewels,” and asks what this word choice conveys about the speaker. Students must move from a striking metaphor for fireworks to what it reveals about the person describing them, and every choice names a different value or belief.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Reading a speaker’s feelings through connotation is standard grade 7 work. The two lines are short and quoted, but the metaphor is compressed and the choices name abstract attitudes, so one careful inference is needed, as in typical grade 7 poetry.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 59 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 lines are short, but the answer depends on what “jewels” suggests about the speaker, so students must move from an image to an attitude. The strongest pull comes from the words right after, where the speaker stresses that night in the country was truly dark, a real point but one about the setting, not about the jewel image. Students who take the gems literally or as magic stop at the surface of the metaphor instead of asking why someone would call a memory precious.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Lines 22–23 turn fireworks into “jewels” and the sky into a page “written upon,” a metaphor whose meaning lies in what jewels are worth to a person, not in what they are. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The lines name no feeling; that the speaker cherishes the memory must be inferred from calling the fireworks “jewels” and from the speaker still craning upward for them years later in the city. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Ask what “jewels” suggests beyond its literal meaning, picture the sky “written upon,” and then pick the attitude that fits both these lines and the poem as a whole.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “jewels” at face value, as valuable possessions, though the word describes fireworks in the sky and nothing in the poem is about owning things.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Sees the sky being “written upon” with gems as a fantasy and calls it magic, though the speaker describes real fireworks watched from a field with family.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Is drawn by the parenthesis that follows, “We lived in the country,” which does stress the setting, but the jewel image itself says nothing about the country.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a word choice shows about the speaker. The speaker is the “I” who tells the poem. Look past what the words say. Ask what feeling they show.
Find the lines
In stanza 2, the speaker says “it was another thing to see / the sky at night written upon / with those jewels.” A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph. The jewels are the fireworks. The sky is like a page they write on.
Think about what jewels mean
Calling fireworks jewels is a metaphor: a comparison without “like” or “as.” Jewels are rare, bright and precious. People keep them safe and treasure them. So the word shows how much the sight meant to the speaker. Even now, in the city, the speaker says “I find myself / craning my neck upward at odd moments.” Craning means stretching your neck to look.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The jewels are fireworks, not things the speaker owns.
- B is wrong. The speaker watched real fireworks from a field with family. Nothing calls them magic.
- C is wrong. The next words, “We lived in the country,” do stress the setting. But the jewel image itself is about how precious the sight was.
- D is right. To cherish is to treasure and hold dear. Jewels are treasures.
Watch out: C is tempting because the country comes up right after the jewels. Keep your eyes on lines 22–23 themselves.
Choose the answer
Calling the fireworks jewels shows a treasured childhood memory. So the answer is D, “The speaker cherishes the memory of seeing fireworks as a child.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. The poem does say they lived in the country, where night was truly dark. But that is the next thought, not the jewel image. Jewels are treasures. They show how much the speaker valued the sight. D says just that: the speaker treasures the memory.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 20 of 84
2026 Practice Test D English, question 25Uses the passage above: “Ode to Fireworks”.
Question
Read lines 41–42 from the poem.
I kept waiting for those
childhood bursts, watching as they escorted us home.
How does this memory affect the speaker?
- AThe speaker believes it is impossible to ever return to a place in the past.
- BThe speaker is still amused by the impatience felt during fireworks displays.
- CThe speaker now regrets abandoning the rural way of life.
- DThe speaker feels a sense of comfort when reflecting on the past.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the memory in lines 41–42 affects the speaker.
A. Incorrect. The speaker does not express concern in these lines about the impossibility of returning to childhood or the past. For the speaker, the past and the memories associated with it are a source of comfort and a way to remember simpler times (“I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping / across the ridged field” [lines 40–41]).
B. Incorrect. While the speaker recalls anticipation before the start of a fireworks display, there is no hint that the speaker is impatient. Particularly in lines 41–42, the speaker is reminded of the expectation of hearing and seeing fireworks and the sense of simple contentment felt in the experience (“I find myself / craning my neck upward at odd moments” [lines 29–30]).
C. Incorrect. The speaker is reflecting on past experiences and pointing out the elements of the city that remind the speaker of these past experiences. The speaker acknowledges the differences between the country and city settings but does not convey regret for leaving the rural area (“This is where we live now, / and it is how we live now, awash in light / of every hue” [lines 31–33]).
D. CORRECT. The memory of watching the fireworks on the way home creates a sense of comfort that stays with the speaker (“escorted us home”). The speaker looks forward to moments when the youthful experience (“childhood bursts”) of being excited by something like a fireworks display can be a source of happiness.
Question analysis
This question quotes the last lines of “Ode to Fireworks,” where the adult speaker, now living in the city, recalls waiting for the “childhood bursts” that “escorted us home,” and asks how this memory affects the speaker. Students must read the feeling in a brief closing image and check each choice against the whole final stanza about city life.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Inferring how an experience affects a speaker is regular grade 7 work. The two quoted lines are plain, but the feeling behind them is implied rather than named, and the choices offer four believable reactions to a memory.
- 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
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 74 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The DOE printed this question’s explanation after a different question; the site matches the question with its own explanation.
- 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 memory is warm, but warm memories of a lost place are easy to read as sadness, and the choice about regretting the move to the city draws students who hear nostalgia as complaint. The other wrong choices turn the anticipation of “kept waiting” into impatience or make the past impossible to reach, both stronger than anything the lines say. Students who read the whole sentence from “But beneath the yellowish glow” see a speaker carried home by the memory, not mourning it.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Lines 41–42 name no feeling, so the comfort must be read from fireworks that “escorted us home” and from the grown speaker still waiting for “those / childhood bursts” in the city. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
Ruling out regret takes the rest of the third stanza, where city life is “a constant celebration” and “This is where we live now” is said without complaint. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Escorted us home” makes the fireworks companions guarding the family’s drive across the field, a personification that carries the sense of safety the question asks about. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read lines 38–42 as one sentence, starting from “But beneath the yellowish glow,” and ask how the speaker feels about the city and about the memory, using the whole third stanza, before choosing.
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.
- 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
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns a speaker who looks back into one mourning a place for good, with the absolute “impossible to ever return,” though the poem never says so and keeps the memory alive.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the eager waiting of “kept waiting for those / childhood bursts” into impatience and adds amusement, though nothing in the lines is treated as funny.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the speaker’s longing for the country as regret for leaving it, though the third stanza calls city life “a constant celebration” and never wishes the move undone.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In the DOE’s explanations appendix, the explanation printed after this question belongs to question 24 (“what the purpose is of the repeated words ‘rising and falling’ in lines 26 and 37”) and marks B correct, and this question’s explanation (“how the memory in lines 41–42 affects the speaker”) is printed after question 24, marking D correct. Read page by page, the appendix gives this question the answer B. The site gives the question the explanation that restates it, and the answer follows that explanation: D, because the memory of the fireworks that “escorted us home” is a source of comfort to the speaker.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how a memory makes the speaker feel. The lines don’t name a feeling. So you have to infer it, which means figure it out from clues.
Read the whole sentence
The sentence starts in line 38: “But beneath the yellowish glow deep in the sky / of all our city lights pelting out into the universe, / I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping / across the ridged field, as I kept waiting for those / childhood bursts, watching as they escorted us home.” The bursts are the fireworks.
Work out the feeling
To escort is to go along with someone to guide or protect them. So the speaker pictures the fireworks keeping the family company on the way home. That is a safe, warm picture. The memory comes back even under the bright city sky. It works like a favorite old song that still makes you feel good.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never says it is “impossible to ever return.” The memory is still alive.
- B is wrong. The waiting was eager, not impatient. Nothing is treated as funny.
- C is wrong. Regret means wishing you had done something else. The speaker never wishes the move undone. The city is “a constant celebration.”
- D is right. The fireworks that “escorted us home” give the speaker a sense of comfort.
Watch out: Missing the past is not the same as regret. C reads a complaint into the poem that is not there.
Choose the answer
The memory of the fireworks bringing the family home warms the speaker. So the answer is D, “The speaker feels a sense of comfort when reflecting on the past.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because the speaker clearly misses the country. But stanza 3 says “This is where we live now” with no complaint. It even calls city life “a constant celebration.” The memory warms the speaker. It does not make the speaker wish to undo the move. That is comfort, choice D.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 21 of 84
2026 Practice Test D English, question 26Uses the passage above: “Ode to Fireworks”.
Question
The fireworks in the poem represent the speaker’s
- Awish to return to a simpler way of living.
- Bbittersweet feelings about leaving the past behind.
- Chigh expectations for everyday life.
- Dreflections on past interactions with relatives.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the fireworks in the poem represent about the speaker.
A. Incorrect. While the speaker misses elements of the past, the speaker is also positive about the present, with comparisons to a “constant celebration” (line 33) and descriptions of “the music of people” (line 36). The speaker does not indicate a desire to return to a simpler way of living.
B. CORRECT. The speaker misses the experience of watching the fireworks display with family and friends but understands that time has progressed and that life is now different. The lines “This was a treat we waited / all year for” (lines 6–7) highlight the significance of the memory of waiting for and watching the fireworks. In the speaker’s present, the lines “I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping / across the ridged field” (lines 40–41) emphasize the key details from the experience that stand out in the speaker’s mind when something in the current environment reminds the speaker of the past.
C. Incorrect. While the speaker does share details about the present and the tone is generally positive, the fireworks do not suggest that the speaker has high expectations for how everyday life should be. The third stanza (lines 28–42) describes the speaker’s daily life in the city, but the speaker does not form expectations from these everyday moments.
D. Incorrect. While the speaker does mention discussing cloud shapes with a family member in lines 19–20, the fireworks serve as a more general reminder of the speaker’s past life. Viewing the bright lights of the city makes the speaker recall memories of the speaker’s past and the feelings of anticipation before the fireworks show.
Question analysis
This question about symbolism asks what the fireworks represent in “Ode to Fireworks,” a 42-line poem in which an adult speaker remembers watching fireworks at a country fair as a child. Students must weigh all three stanzas to decide what the central image stands for, and the choices name abstract feelings and wishes that are close to one another.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students interpret symbols, usually where the text makes their meaning fairly clear. Here they must hold a 42-line poem in mind and choose among four abstract feelings, two of them very close, which goes beyond 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 35 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation of C misdescribed the third stanza; one 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
This symbol question asks students to hold the whole 42-line poem in mind and weigh two feelings at once: the speaker misses the fireworks of childhood but speaks warmly of city life. Readers who notice only the longing choose a wish to go back, and readers who fix on one detail choose the relatives or the city’s “constant celebration.” The key’s “bittersweet” is the one word that holds both halves, which is why it is easy to pass over for a choice that states only one.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The fireworks are never explained; they are “jewels” in stanza 2 and the “childhood bursts” that “escorted us home” in stanza 3, so their meaning as a symbol must be built from images. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The wish-to-return choice and the key both read the fireworks as feelings about the past; they differ in whether the speaker wants that past back or has accepted leaving it. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The answer needs all three stanzas: the treat “we waited / all year for,” the dark country night, and the city stanza’s “This is where we live now,” which shows acceptance beside longing. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Note how the speaker describes the fireworks in each stanza and how the speaker feels about the present in the last one, then choose the feeling that fits all three stanzas, not only the first.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
- 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 Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the poem’s fond memories of the country as a wish to go back, though the speaker accepts “where we live now” and never asks to return.
C Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Links the fireworks to line 33’s “Everything is a constant celebration,” then turns that into high expectations for daily life, which the poem never mentions.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Fixes on the mother, sister and cousin of the first stanza, real details, but the fireworks stand for a whole period of the speaker’s life, not time with relatives.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: Rejecting C, the handbook's explanation calls the third stanza (lines 28–42) “the speaker’s imaginings” and “fantasies”. The stanza describes the speaker's real life in the city now: “This is where we live now”, picking up washing at the cleaner's, stopping by the corner market. It now says the stanza describes the speaker's daily life in the city. The answer, B, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the fireworks represent, or stand for. A thing in a poem that stands for a bigger idea is called a symbol. Look at the fireworks in all three stanzas. Then see how the speaker feels about the past and the present.
Look at the past
Stanza 1 shows how special the fireworks were: “This was a treat we waited / all year for.” Stanza 2 calls them “jewels.” In stanza 3 the speaker still remembers them: “I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping / across the ridged field.” So the speaker misses that time.
Look at the present
The speaker also accepts city life: “This is where we live now, / and it is how we live now.” The city is “a constant celebration,” full of “the music of people.” So the speaker is not unhappy now. The speaker misses the past but has moved on. That feeling is bittersweet: happy and sad at the same time.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never says they want to go back to the country.
- B is right. The fireworks stand for a loved past the speaker has left behind. The feeling is both warm and sad.
- C is wrong. The “constant celebration” describes city life. Nothing shows high expectations.
- D is wrong. Relatives appear in stanza 1. But the fireworks stand for a whole time of life, not just time with family.
Watch out: A notices only the longing. It misses that the speaker accepts “where we live now.”
Choose the answer
The fireworks hold both the joy of the past and the sadness of leaving it. So the answer is B, “bittersweet feelings about leaving the past behind.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Both A and B are about feelings for the past. But A says the speaker wants to return, and the poem never says that. The speaker calls the city “a constant celebration” and accepts “where we live now.” Missing the past while accepting the present is bittersweet. That is B.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 22 of 84
2025 Practice Test A English, question 19Passage 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 this sentence from paragraph 9.
I tried to, and then I just sat still and looked straight at it.
How does the phrase “looked straight at it” contribute to the meaning of the excerpt?
- AIt shows that Ellen is willing to deal with a problem directly instead of ignoring it.
- BIt suggests that Ellen studies all parts of an issue and not just its surface.
- CIt illustrates that Ellen examines both sides of an argument.
- DIt implies that Ellen is eager to seek wisdom from past experiences.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the phrase “looked straight at it” in paragraph 9 contributes to the meaning of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. The phrase shows Ellen deciding to directly confront the memory even though she initially wanted to ignore it (“I couldn’t keep from thinking of that time Dad went back East. I tried to” [paragraph 9]). Though the memory is emotionally fraught for Ellen, the phrase “looked straight at it” shows that she is willing to face problems—such as a painful family memory—head-on.
B. Incorrect. The phrase in paragraph 9 does not show Ellen studying all parts of an issue but rather forcing herself to focus on something she would have preferred not to think about.
C. Incorrect. In looking “straight at” the memory, Ellen is not considering both sides of an argument. Instead, she is making herself think about an uncomfortable memory that she had been trying to avoid revisiting. The phrase indicates that she is finally willing to directly confront an unsettling recollection.
D. Incorrect. Given the detail in paragraph 9 that Ellen initially attempted to keep from thinking about her father’s trip to Vermont, the phrase “looked straight at it” indicates a willingness, but not an eagerness, to seek wisdom from reflecting on past experiences.
Question analysis
This word-meaning question quotes a sentence from paragraph 9 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, where Ellen sits on her bed the night before she leaves home, and asks how the phrase “looked straight at it” contributes to the excerpt’s meaning. Students must work out what “it” refers to and read the phrase figuratively, using the sentences around it.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a figurative phrase in context is routine grade 7 work. The phrase is short and quoted with its sentence, but its meaning depends on the sentence before it, so students cannot judge it from the quotation alone.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 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
Once “it” is traced to the memory of Dad’s leaving, the phrase reads naturally as facing something hard, and the sentence that follows it in paragraph 9 says as much. The wrong choices make the act more intellectual than it is, studying every part or weighing two sides, or make Ellen eager when she has just tried not to think about it. Students who read the phrase only by itself are likeliest to slip.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Nothing is literally looked at: “it” is a memory, so “looked straight at it” means facing the painful thought of Dad’s trip back East instead of pushing it away. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
What “it” refers to, and what “I tried to” leaves out, both sit in the sentence before, “I couldn’t keep from thinking of that time Dad went back East.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Reread the sentence before the quoted one to find what “it” is, picture what looking straight at that would mean, and test each choice against the whole of paragraph 9.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- 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 Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “looked straight at it” as close study of an issue from every angle, but Ellen is making herself face a memory she tried to avoid, not analyzing its parts.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Keeps the idea of looking at something carefully but turns it into weighing both sides of an argument, though Ellen sits alone with a memory and no one is arguing.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees Ellen turning back to a past experience but calls her eager to learn from it, though paragraph 9 shows she first tried hard not to think of it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the phrase “looked straight at it” adds to the meaning of the excerpt. First you need to know what “it” is. Then picture what looking straight at that thing would mean.
Find what “it” means
Paragraph 9 says “I couldn’t keep from thinking of that time Dad went back East. I tried to.” So “it” is a memory of the night Dad left on a trip. “I tried to” means Ellen tried not to think about it. The memory is painful, so she tried to push it away.
Picture the phrase
Ellen can’t look at a memory with her eyes. So “looked straight at it” is a figure of speech, words that mean more than they literally say. It means she stopped running from the memory and faced it. The next sentence in paragraph 9 agrees. It says facing a thought is sometimes better than working hard to avoid it.
Check each choice
- A fits. Ellen faces a hard memory instead of ignoring it.
- B does not fit. She is not studying every part of an issue. She is making herself think about one painful memory.
- C does not fit. No one is arguing, so there are no two sides to weigh.
- D does not fit. Ellen first tried hard not to think about the memory, so she isn’t eager.
Watch out: D is half right, since Ellen does turn to the past. But eager means wanting to do something, and at first she didn’t want to.
Choose the answer
The phrase shows Ellen choosing to face a painful memory head-on. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, because Ellen does think about a past experience. But paragraph 9 says she first tried to keep from thinking about it. Only then did she sit still and face it. She is willing, not eager. That makes A the better fit: she deals with the problem directly.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the test
Question 23 of 84
2025 Practice Test A English, question 20Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Winter Wheat”.
Question
The words “cold” and “dark” affect the tone in paragraph 10 by
- Ahighlighting the feeling of unpredictability among the family members.
- Bshowing the feelings of anger and resentment Ellen directs toward her parents.
- Cexaggerating the feeling of regret Dad experiences when leaving his family.
- Demphasizing the feelings of separation and loss that Ellen feels.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the words “cold” and “dark” affect the tone in paragraph 10.
A. Incorrect. The mood of paragraph 10 is primarily one of sadness as Ellen says goodbye to her father at the train station. The words “cold” and “dark” do not convey unpredictability but rather emphasize Ellen’s feeling of loss over the departure of her father.
B. Incorrect. Although the father’s departure causes tension with his wife (“ ‘I’ll manage,’ Mom snapped back” [paragraph 11]), Ellen does not display anger or resentment toward her parents.
C. Incorrect. Although Ellen’s father states that he wishes his family could come with him on the trip to Vermont (“ ‘I wish you could go, Anna,’ Dad said to Mom, ‘and we could take Ellen’ ” [paragraph 12]), the words “cold” and “dark” describe Ellen’s perspective on her father’s departure. They create a tone of sadness from Ellen at being left behind rather than a tone of regret from her father because he has to leave.
D. CORRECT. In paragraph 10, Ellen states, “I could feel how cold and dark it was.” The words “cold” and “dark” highlight her emotional response to the departure of her father, emphasizing the almost physical sense of grief she feels at being separated from someone so precious to her.
Question analysis
This tone question asks how the words “cold” and “dark” affect the tone of paragraph 10 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, where Ellen remembers waiting for the train one November night as her father set off for Vermont. Students must decide what the two words add beyond describing the night itself.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how word choice shapes tone is regular grade 7 work. The two words are named in the question and sit in one short paragraph, so the main step is seeing that they carry feeling as well as describing a November night.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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 two words are named in the stem and appear together in a single sentence of paragraph 10, so the main step is seeing that they describe a feeling as well as the weather. The wrong choices shift the feeling to someone else or swap it for another, borrowing Mom’s sharp reply and Dad’s wish from the paragraphs just after. Students who keep their attention on Ellen waiting for the train in paragraph 10 have little trouble.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Cold” and “dark” describe a November night, yet the grown narrator says she “could feel how cold and dark it was,” so the weather words carry her sense of loss as Dad leaves. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Paragraph 10 never names a feeling; the sadness comes from details such as Ellen holding Mom’s hand and Dad seeming strange in his good clothes. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Reread paragraph 10 and ask what Ellen is going through at that moment, then choose the option that names the feeling the two words strengthen and the person who has it.
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)
Links darkness with not knowing what comes next, but nothing in paragraph 10 is uncertain: Dad’s trip is settled, and the words deepen Ellen’s sadness, not suspense.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Carries the sharpness of Mom’s “I’ll manage” into Ellen’s feelings and calls it anger at her parents, though Ellen holds her mother’s hand and blames no one.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Gives the feeling to Dad because in paragraph 12 he wishes his wife and daughter could come, though the cold and dark are what Ellen feels as she waits to see him off.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how two words, “cold” and “dark,” affect the tone of paragraph 10. Tone is the feeling the writing gives off. Ask whose feeling it is and what that feeling is.
Find the words in paragraph 10
Paragraph 10 begins Ellen’s memory of the night Dad left for Vermont. It was November, and dark when the train came. Ellen says that even now, years later, “I could feel how cold and dark it was.” She held Mom’s hand. Dad looked strange in his good clothes. They stood there without talking.
Work out the feeling
Cold and dark describe a November night. But Ellen can still feel them years later, so the words carry her feelings too. Cold and dark are lonely, sad words. Her father is leaving, and she feels cut off from him. The words stress her sense of separation and loss.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Nothing is uncertain. Dad’s trip is planned, and the words make the scene sad, not unpredictable.
- B does not fit. Ellen holds Mom’s hand. She blames no one, so there is no anger.
- C does not fit. Dad says in paragraph 12 that he wishes they could come. But the cold and dark are what Ellen feels, not Dad.
- D fits. The words deepen Ellen’s sadness at being separated from her father.
Watch out: C borrows Dad’s wish from a later paragraph and gives him the feeling.
Choose the answer
“Cold” and “dark” show how lonely and sad Ellen felt as her father left. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, because Dad does wish his family could come with him. But that wish is in paragraph 12. In paragraph 10, Ellen says “I could feel how cold and dark it was.” The feeling belongs to her. The words stress her sense of being separated from her father, which is D.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 24 of 84
2025 Practice Test B English, question 3Passage 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 two phrases from paragraph 3 most affect the tone of the excerpt?
Move the two correct answers to the box.
Phrases That Most Affect the Tone of the Excerpt
On the test you drag tiles into the box; 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“sounded the alarm”
- B“gotten the message”
- C“rip out”
- D“become increasingly popular”
- E“provide food”
Show the answer
Correct answer: A and C
The question asks for the two phrases from paragraph 3 that most affect the tone of the excerpt.
A. “sounded the alarm”: CORRECT. This phrase affects the tone of the excerpt by conveying the stark sense of urgency surrounding the debate over the ecological impact of non-native species. The reference to an alarm sounding evokes the feeling of being on high alert.
B. “gotten the message”: Incorrect. This phrase does not most affect the tone of the excerpt.
C. “rip out”: CORRECT. This phrase affects the tone of the excerpt by vividly depicting the effect of widespread misunderstanding of non-native species.
D. “become increasingly popular”: Incorrect. This phrase does not most affect the tone of the excerpt.
E. “provide food”: Incorrect. This phrase does not most affect the tone of the excerpt.
Question analysis
This select-two tone question on Emma Marris’s opinion article about non-native species lists five short phrases from paragraph 3 and asks which two most affect the tone of the excerpt. On the test students move two tiles into a box, and both must be right. All five are common, everyday expressions, so students must weigh how strongly each one colors the excerpt.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Typical grade 7 tone questions quote the words and ask what effect they have. Here students pick the two phrases themselves from five in one short paragraph and compare how much feeling each carries, which keeps the demand at grade 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Much to keep track of minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 3, 42 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 urgency of “sounded the alarm” at once, and the point is lost on the second pick. The idiom that ends the same sentence sounds just as colorful, while “rip out” is a short, everyday verb whose force is easy to read past as plain weeding. Swapping each phrase for a neutral word and asking how much feeling is lost separates them, and credit comes only when both tiles are right.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
“Sounded the alarm” and “gotten the message” are paired idioms in the first sentence of paragraph 3, both about the warning passing from scientists to the public, and only the first carries urgency. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The tone lives in connotation: “sounded the alarm” borrows the picture of a siren or bell, and “rip out” shows plants torn up by force where “remove” would sound flat. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Much to keep track of minor Working it out
Five tiles compete for one box and both picks must be right, so each phrase’s charge has to be weighed against the other four, since the stem asks which affect the tone “most.” (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Strategy: Swap each phrase for a plain word with the same meaning, reread its sentence, and keep the two whose replacement changes the feeling of the passage the most.
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.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears an idiom as colorful as “sounded the alarm” in the same sentence and takes it as equally charged, though “gotten the message” only says the public accepted the warning.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears approval in the word “popular” and takes it as setting the tone, though “become increasingly popular” is a neutral report of a trend in gardening.
E Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Is drawn by the pleasant picture of native trees feeding bugs that feed birds, though “provide food” is plain, factual wording that any science textbook might use.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Left out by students who read “rip out” as a plain account of weeding, missing that the verb pictures citizen groups tearing up plants by force, where “remove” would be neutral.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a tone question. Tone is the feeling or attitude that a writer’s words give a passage. You need the two phrases from paragraph 3 that carry the most feeling. Words can carry feeling beyond their plain meaning. On the test you drag two tiles into the box. On this site, you choose two of the five. Both must be right.
Read paragraph 3 in its place
The excerpt opens with “Invasive species are scary.” Paragraph 2 lists the harm some invaders do. Then paragraph 3 says “As scientists have sounded the alarm about these pests, the public has gotten the message. Citizen groups rip out non-native plants.” The rest of the paragraph is calm. It says native gardens are popular, and native trees feed bugs that feed birds.
Swap each phrase for plain words
A good test is to swap each phrase for plain words with the same meaning. Then ask how much feeling is lost.
- “sounded the alarm” becomes warned. An alarm is a loud bell for danger, like a fire alarm. The sense of danger is lost.
- “gotten the message” becomes understood. Little changes.
- “rip out” becomes remove. To rip is to tear roughly and fast. The force is lost.
- “become increasingly popular” becomes grown more common. Little changes.
- “provide food” becomes feed. Nothing changes.
See what the two phrases do
Urgency is the feeling that something must be done right now. “Sounded the alarm” makes non-native species sound like an emergency. “Rip out” shows people tearing up plants with force. Together they make the fight against non-natives sound urgent and harsh. That matches paragraph 1, which calls the word “invasion” militaristic, or warlike. The author goes on to question treating every non-native as bad.
Check each of the five tiles
- A fits. It adds urgency.
- B does not fit. It is an idiom, a saying whose meaning differs from its words. It only means the public understood.
- C fits. It adds force.
- D does not fit. It calmly reports a trend in gardening.
- E does not fit. It is plain, factual wording.
Watch out: B sits in the same sentence as A, and it sounds just as colorful. But it adds no danger and no force.
Choose both answers
So the answers are A and C. On the test, move the tiles “sounded the alarm” and “rip out” into the box Phrases That Most Affect the Tone of the Excerpt. You need both to get the point.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. It is an idiom in the same sentence as A, so it seems just as strong. But swap in understood, and the feeling barely changes. C is easier to miss because it is short. Swap in remove, and the force is gone.
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 25 of 84
2025 Practice Test B English, question 8Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil””.
Question
Determine whether each sentence from the excerpt presents a claim or presents evidence to support a claim.
Select all the correct answers.
Choose one answer in each row, 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.
| Presents a Claim | Presents Evidence | |
|---|---|---|
| “That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.” (paragraph 6) | ||
| “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.” (paragraph 10) | ||
| “In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.” (paragraph 14) | ||
| “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.” (paragraph 15) |
Show the answer
Correct answer: “That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.” (paragraph 6): Presents a Claim; “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.” (paragraph 10): Presents Evidence; “In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.” (paragraph 14): Presents a Claim; “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.” (paragraph 15): Presents Evidence
The question asks which quotations from the excerpt present a claim and which present evidence in support of a claim. (A claim is a statement made as part of an argument that can be supported or proved with evidence. Supporting evidence can include facts, figures, details, quotations, or other sources of data and information that can be evaluated by others.)
Row 1: Presents a claim [“That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.” (paragraph 6)]. The phrase “is not very useful” indicates that the sentence expresses a claim—an arguable statement, or in this case an opinion, for which the author must provide proof.
Row 2: Presents evidence [“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.” (paragraph 10)]. Despite its figurative language (“tumbling downward”), this sentence does not present a claim that must be supported by evidence. Instead, the sentence provides factual information—that numbers of clapper rail birds decreased when spartina grass was removed—that is evidence for another claim, that non-native plants can be welcome sometimes.
Row 3: Presents a claim [“In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.” (paragraph 14)]. The wording “we can best serve” signals that this sentence presents a claim—a statement being made as part of an argument that needs proof in order to be accepted—regarding the best way to achieve biodiversity.
Row 4: Presents evidence [“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.” (paragraph 15)]. Although this sentence does not provide statistics, quotations, or other obvious markers that signal evidence, it does provide a factual example—non-native tortoises are now moving the seeds of fruiting plants in a way that preserves the diversity of plant life on the islands of Mauritius—that is used to support the author’s claim that non-native species can help preserve diversity.
Question analysis
This table-grid question on the opinion article about non-native species gives four sentences, from paragraphs 6, 10, 14 and 15, and asks whether each presents a claim or presents evidence to support a claim. Students make four separate decisions, and credit comes only when every row is right, so each sentence must be judged by the job it does in the author’s argument.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Telling a claim from the evidence for it is core grade 7 argument work. The four sentences come labeled with their paragraphs, but they are long and broken by dashes and asides, and all four must be sorted correctly, a typical demand overall.
- 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
- Much to keep track of moderate
- How, not what minor
- Complex sentences minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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 two claims carry the author’s judgment in a few words, “not very useful” and “we can best serve,” while the two evidence rows report what happened. Students go wrong when they sort by surface: dramatic wording makes the spartina report sound like opinion, and the tortoise sentence, with no number or quotation, can pass for the author’s assertion. Asking whether a sentence judges or reports settles each row, but all four must be right for credit.
Much to keep track of moderate Working it out
Sentences from paragraphs 6, 10, 14 and 15 are judged one at a time, and the question is scored right only when all four rows are, so one doubtful row costs the point. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
How, not what minor Working it out
Each row asks what a sentence does in the argument, not what it is about: rows 3 and 4 both concern bringing in non-natives on purpose, but one argues for it and one reports it. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
In the two evidence rows, 17 and 22 words separate the subject from its verb, “A project … saw” and “A tortoise … is now handling,” most of them inside dashes. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
Row 2 reports a result in vivid words, a project to “rip out and poison” the grass and clapper rail numbers that “go tumbling downward,” so a report can sound like an opinion. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: For each sentence, ask whether it states a judgment the author must argue for or reports something that happened or was found, and sort it by that test alone.
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.
- 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
1:B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Takes “a rapidly changing planet” as plain fact, the climate change the next section describes, and misses that “not very useful” is the author’s own verdict on the approach Olden describes.
2:A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears opinion in the vivid “rip out and poison” and “go tumbling downward,” though the sentence reports what happened to clapper rail numbers once a project removed the spartina.
3:B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees that the sentence backs the case for leaving non-natives alone and so calls it support, missing that “we can best serve” is itself a claim, which the tortoise example then backs.
4:A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Expects evidence to come as numbers, studies or quotations, so takes the plain report that a tortoise brought in during 2004 “is now handling some of that work” as an assertion.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Decide the job each of the four sentences does in the argument. A claim is a statement the author wants you to accept, such as an opinion or a judgment. People could disagree with it, so it needs support. Evidence is a fact, an example or an event that backs up a claim. Ask: does the sentence judge, or does it report what happened?
Sort the sentence from paragraph 6
Row 1 says “That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.” The approach is the one in paragraph 5. There, many ecologists said they would wipe out a non-native plant even if it had no effect on the forest. The words “not very useful” are the author’s judgment. Someone could disagree, so the article has to argue for it. This sentence presents a claim.
Watch out: “A rapidly changing planet” sounds like a fact. But the point of the sentence is the judgment about the approach.
Sort the sentence from paragraph 10
Row 2 is long, so set aside the part between the dashes. What is left says “A project to rip out and poison the spartina” saw clapper rail numbers fall. Spartina is a grass that is not native to California. The clapper rail is an endangered shorebird that lives in it. So the sentence reports what happened: the grass was removed, and the birds declined. It backs the claim in paragraph 9 that some non-natives “do good.” This row presents evidence.
Watch out: Vivid words like “go tumbling downward” can sound like an opinion. But they only mean the numbers fell fast. Strong wording does not turn a report into a claim.
Sort the sentence from paragraph 14
Row 3 says “In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.” Biodiversity is the variety of living things in a place. The words “we can best serve” show the author’s judgment about what is best. “Brace yourself” shows she expects you to be surprised. A surprising idea needs proof. This sentence presents a claim.
Sort the sentence from paragraph 15
Row 4 also has a long part between dashes. Without it, the sentence says “A tortoise that’s related to the island’s large tortoises” is “now handling some of that work.” The sentence before explains the work. The islands lost their own large tortoises, which used to spread the seeds of fruiting plants. Now a non-native tortoise, brought in on purpose in 2004, does part of that job. It is a real example. It backs row 3’s claim. This row presents evidence.
Watch out: Evidence does not need numbers or quotations. An example of what happened counts.
Fill in the table
- Row 1 (paragraph 6): Presents a Claim
- Row 2 (paragraph 10): Presents Evidence
- Row 3 (paragraph 14): Presents a Claim
- Row 4 (paragraph 15): Presents Evidence
On the test and on this site, click one circle in each row. All four rows must be right to get the point.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
Row 2 is the hardest. “Rip out and poison” and “tumbling downward” sound strong, like an opinion. But the sentence reports a project and its result: the bird numbers fell. Nobody judges what is best. So it is evidence for the claim that some non-natives “do good.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 26 of 84
2025 Practice Test B English, question 44Passage 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 details in lines 9–12 convey a central idea of the poem by
- Ashowing that the cool weather makes the speaker reflect more deeply on life.
- Bsuggesting that the speaker feels uncomfortable with what the coming weather signifies.
- Cimplying that the sensations the speaker experiences during the fall season are fleeting.
- Dsuggesting that the thought of fall approaching increases the loneliness the speaker feels.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how lines 9–12 convey a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. Although the speaker discusses the very beginning of cool weather in these lines, the speaker does not reflect on life in these lines.
B. Incorrect. Although the description in these lines likens the movement of crisp air to “a passing stranger,” that comparison does not have a negative connotation in this context; it does not suggest that the speaker is uncomfortable. Rather, it is used to describe the subtle physical sensation of cool air on the speaker’s arm.
C. CORRECT. By using a description of the crisp air as “a passing stranger” and the daylight as being brief, these lines express the poem’s central idea that the joy of early fall is temporary or fleeting.
D. Incorrect. Although the speaker acknowledges the coming fall in these lines, there is no mention of loneliness. The speaker reveals a loneliness in lines 23–26 but gives no hint of that feeling in lines 9–12. Further, this loneliness is not a central idea of the poem.
Question analysis
This central-idea question on Jacob Scheier’s poem “Letter from Brooklyn” asks how lines 9–12, where the crisp early-fall air grazes the speaker’s arm, convey a central idea of the poem. Students must interpret a simile and a personification packed into four short lines and connect what they suggest to the poem as a whole, while each choice names a different feeling or idea.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students explain how particular lines develop a central idea. These four lines make their point only through a simile and a personification about air and daylight, and linking them to the whole poem takes more interpretation 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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
The four lines describe a sensation, cool air almost grazing an arm, and the central idea sits in two small words, “passing” and “brevity.” The strongest pull hears the stranger and the air “forced into intimacy” as unwelcome, borrowing the unease the poem saves for the darkening of lines 13–16. Other choices bring in moods from elsewhere, the meditative walk and the loneliness of the last lines, so students must judge only what lines 9–12 themselves suggest.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The lines never say the moment is short: the air almost grazes the speaker’s arm “like a passing stranger” and is “forced into intimacy / by the brevity of daylight,” so “passing” and “brevity” carry the idea. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Students must tie the brief touch and the short days to a central idea the poem never states, that early fall is slipping away, framed by “For now” in line 7 and “But when it starts darkening” in line 13. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice says “fleeting” where the lines say “passing” and “brevity,” while a wrong choice borrows the poem’s own word “loneliness” from line 24, which makes it look supported. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Paraphrase lines 9–12 in plain words, checking the glossary for unfamiliar words, then decide what the comparison suggests about the speaker’s experience and test each choice against these four lines.
Traps
- 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.
- 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)
Senses that the poem is meditative and credits the cool air with prompting deep thought, though lines 9–12 record a light, passing touch on the arm, not reflections on life.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears something unwelcome in “a passing stranger” and in air “forced into intimacy,” though the touch is light and the closeness enjoyed; unease arrives only with the darkening of lines 13–16.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings the “loneliness” of lines 23–26 into lines that never mention it, and even there it makes the speaker feel “distinctly myself,” not lonelier as fall approaches.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how lines 9–12 help build a central idea. A central idea is a main point the poem keeps coming back to. First work out what the four lines say. Then see how they connect to the rest of the poem. Test each choice against these four lines.
Read lines 9–12
The sentence is about the air, named in line 8. Lines 9–12 say it “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.” Crisp means cool and fresh. Grazing here means lightly touching. Intimacy means closeness. The glossary says brevity means “briefness.”
Work out the comparisons
“Like a passing stranger” is a simile, a comparison that uses like or as. A stranger who passes you on the street is there for a moment, then gone. So the cool air touches the speaker lightly and briefly. The next lines treat the air like a person pushed into closeness by the short daylight. Giving human feelings to something that isn’t human is called personification. Both “passing” and “brevity” point to the same thing: this feeling won’t last.
Connect the lines to the poem
The rest of the poem agrees. Line 7 begins “For now it is the early edge of fall.” Lines 13–14 look ahead: “But when it starts darkening at 4,” this closeness “will be a felt distance.” Lines 21–22 say Brooklyn makes the speaker “nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” So a central idea is that this early-fall moment is precious and passes quickly. Fleeting means lasting only a short time.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. These lines describe a touch on the skin, not thoughts about life.
- B does not fit. The touch is light, and the speaker enjoys the closeness now. The worry comes later, in lines 13–16.
- C fits. “Passing” and “brevity” show that the feelings of early fall won’t last.
- D does not fit. Lines 9–12 never mention loneliness, which comes in line 24. And line 7 says fall has already begun.
Watch out: B is tempting because “stranger” and “forced into intimacy” can sound unpleasant. But the stranger only passes by, and the touch is light.
Choose the answer
The brief touch and the short daylight show that this early-fall moment slips away fast. Sensations are feelings you get through your senses, like touch. So the answer is C, “implying that the sensations the speaker experiences during the fall season are fleeting.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because “forced” and “stranger” can sound unpleasant. But line 14 calls this feeling “this closeness,” and losing it is what will feel bad. So the closeness is welcome now. What lines 9–12 stress is how brief it is, which is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
Question 27 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 10Passage 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
In paragraph 1, the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” affect the tone of the excerpt by suggesting
- Athe sadness that the author feels reflecting upon her former way of life.
- Bthe enthusiasm with which the author approached her work indoors.
- Cthe fond feelings that the author has toward her childhood experiences.
- Dthe mix of emotions that the author feels toward her work and her mother.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” affect the tone of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Although the author describes in paragraph 1 the setting of her childhood experiences, the positive wording of the phrases the author uses in the paragraph (“swept freely” and “perfume of sweet grasses”) does not suggest a tone of sadness the author feels when she reflects on her former way of life.
B. Incorrect. Although the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” used in paragraph 1 create a positive tone, the phrases do not suggest an enthusiasm for the author’s work but rather suggest an appreciation of the peaceful beauty of her childhood.
C. CORRECT. In paragraph 1, the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” are used to describe where the author’s childhood experiences took place. The phrases create a tone of fondness and evoke a feeling of happiness through their lyrical sensory detail: “swept freely” suggests a sense of joyful possibility, while “perfume,” “sweet,” and “cool” convey delight.
D. Incorrect. Although the author describes her mother’s beadwork lessons as “confining” in paragraph 7, the phrases in paragraph 1 do not suggest that the author feels conflicting or mixed emotions toward her work and her mother. Instead, the phrases convey a positive tone by affectionately describing the author’s childhood home.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how two sensory phrases about cool morning breezes and the scent of sweet grasses shape the tone of Zitkala-Sa's 1900 memoir of life on a Sioux reservation. Students must read the feeling behind descriptive language and decide what that feeling is directed at, since the choices pair different emotions with different subjects.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Judging how sensory words shape tone is grade 7 reading work. Both phrases are quoted in the question, so little searching is needed, but the 1900 prose keeps the demand at a typical grade 7 level.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 72 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misstatement of the question 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 phrases are so clearly pleasant that the real decision is what the pleasant feeling is about. They describe the wigwam on a clear morning, so the warmth belongs to the author's memory of her childhood, not to the beadwork the rest of the excerpt follows. Students who know the excerpt is about lessons tend to attach the mood to the work, and a few read sadness into any memoir.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The tone comes from sensory images, breezes that “swept freely” and “the perfume of sweet grasses,” which describe air and scent and leave the author's feeling to be read from them. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The phrases describe the dwelling, not the author, so her fondness for her childhood has to be inferred from how lovingly she remembers the setting. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Wafting” and “perfume,” used for the smell of grasses from newly burnt prairie, are unusual words that must be understood before the tone they create can be judged. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Decide what feeling the quoted words create on their own, then check what they describe: the right choice must match both the feeling and what it is about.
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)
Assumes an adult remembering a lost way of life must sound sad, but breezes that sweep freely and the perfume of sweet grasses carry delight, not grief.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Senses the positive mood but ties it to the beadwork, borrowing the interest the girl shows in paragraph 2, though these phrases describe breezes and scent, not work.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the “confining” lessons of paragraph 7 and the rebuke of paragraph 5, feelings that the two morning images of paragraph 1 do not touch.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation begins by saying the question asks how the two phrases “affect the tone of paragraph 1 in the excerpt.” The phrases are in paragraph 1, but the question asks how they affect the tone of the excerpt, and the answer is about the author’s feelings toward her childhood as a whole. The explanation now reads “affect the tone of the excerpt.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about tone. Tone is the feeling or attitude that a writer’s words show. You need the feeling that two phrases from paragraph 1 give the whole excerpt. An excerpt is a part taken from a longer piece.
Find the phrases in paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 describes a clear morning at home. The mother rolls up the side of the wigwam (a hut made of poles and covers). “Then the cool morning breezes swept freely through our dwelling.” A dwelling is a home. The breezes were “now and then wafting the perfume of sweet grasses.”
Work out the feeling
“Wafting” means gently carrying through the air. “Perfume” is a sweet smell. Cool air, sweet smells and breezes moving freely are all pleasant. The author is remembering her childhood home with love. That feeling is fondness, a warm liking for something.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Nothing in these words is sad. They are bright and pleasant.
- B is wrong. The phrases describe air and smells, not her work.
- C is right. The loving details show warm feelings about her childhood.
- D is wrong. Mixed feelings, like the “confining” lessons, come later, in paragraph 7. These phrases have nothing negative in them.
Watch out: B is tempting, since the excerpt is mostly about beadwork lessons. But these two phrases describe the morning, not the work.
Choose the answer
The phrases make her childhood home feel cool, sweet and free. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because the phrases do sound happy. But a choice must match both the feeling and what the feeling is about. These phrases describe breezes and the smell of grass at her home. That shows fond memories of her childhood, not eagerness to work.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed (pages 42–43)
Question 28 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 12Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.
Question
The phrase “just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette” in paragraph 2 suggests that
- Abeadwork is a true form of art.
- Bcolor is a source of artistic inspiration.
- Call artistic activities begin with a series of steps.
- Dthe beadworker tries to imitate art.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what the phrase “just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette” in paragraph 2 suggests in the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. In paragraph 2, by comparing the way her mother arranges the beads to the way a painter “arranges the paints upon his palette,” the author emphasizes that her mother approaches her craft just as a painter does, thus suggesting that beadwork is a true form of art.
B. Incorrect. Although the author mentions “bunches of colored beads” in paragraph 2, this detail does not provide enough evidence for the idea that color inspires beadworkers. The phrase “just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette” indicates the connection of beadwork to other forms of art in general, not necessarily to the specifics of color as a source of inspiration.
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author describes her mother “untying the long tasseled strings” and then spreading “upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads.” However, the phrase “just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette” does not suggest that all artistic activities begin with a series of steps. There is no mention in the passage of any other artistic activities involving multiple initial steps.
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author describes how her mother “spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads” as the first step in the artistic process described in the passage. Therefore, the comparison between the mother’s process and a painter arranging paints on a palette suggests that the mother is creating art, not imitating it. There is no indication that the mother is copying a technique she has seen in other art forms.
Question analysis
This reading question asks what the comparison between Zitkala-Sa's mother laying out her colored beads and an artist arranging paints on a palette suggests. It tests reading a simile in context, and the choices include readings that fix on a single word or go further than the comparison itself.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Interpreting a simile is taught by grade 6. The phrase is short and quoted in the question, and one step of interpretation is enough, so this asks less than typical grade 7 work on figurative language.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; 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
The comparison is quoted in the stem and makes one point: the mother lays out her beads the way a painter lays out paints, so her craft counts as art. Wrong answers fix on the word “paints,” stretch one comparison into a rule about all art, or read the comparison as copying. Asking what the two things being compared have in common settles it.
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The simile sets the mother laying out bunches of colored beads beside a painter arranging paints, and students must see what that comparison says about beadwork itself. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Name the two things being compared and what they share, then choose the idea that comparison supports without adding anything the sentence does not say.
Traps
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
- 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 Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Links “paints” with the “bunches of colored beads” and decides color is the point, though the simile compares how materials are arranged, not what inspires the artist.
C Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns one comparison about laying out beads into a rule about all artistic activities, a generalization the sentence does not make.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees that the simile links beadwork with painting but twists its point, reading it as the mother imitating art rather than practicing it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The phrase is a simile. A simile compares two things using “like” or “as.” You need to know what this comparison suggests about the mother’s beadwork.
Read the phrase in paragraph 2
The mother “spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads, just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette.” The word order is old-fashioned. It means she spread her bunches of colored beads on a mat beside her. A palette is the board a painter uses to hold and mix paints.
Work out what the comparison means
The two things being compared are the mother and a painter. Both lay out their colors before they start to make something. So the author treats her mother like a painter. That means beadwork is real art, just like painting.
Check each choice
- A is right. Comparing the mother to a painter shows that beadwork is a true art.
- B is wrong. The simile is about laying out materials, not about what gives an artist ideas.
- C is wrong. One comparison can’t prove a rule about all art.
- D is wrong. The mother is not copying art. She works the way an artist does, so she is making art.
Watch out: B is tempting because paints and colored beads both bring color to mind. But the simile is about how she arranges them.
Choose the answer
The simile puts the beadworker side by side with a painter. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. Paints and colored beads do share color. But the simile compares what the two people do: both arrange their materials before they create. Nothing is said about inspiration, which means where ideas come from. A matches the point that the mother works as an artist does.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 29 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 21Passage 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
The details in lines 10–17 about the cat convey a central idea of the poem by
- Ashowing that returning home after experiencing independence is challenging.
- Bsuggesting that caring for others means allowing them to grow and to roam freely.
- Cimplying that expecting to feel at home in the natural world leads to disappointment.
- Demphasizing the conflicting desires to return to the familiar and to explore the unknown.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the details in lines 10–17 convey a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. In lines 10–17, the speaker says that the cat’s actions—she “turns first / toward the voice, then back”—make the cat seem “as if she can’t decide” whether to return home or to explore “the constellation of fireflies flickering / near her head.” However, while the cat is indecisive, it is not the experience of independence that causes this conflict for the cat but rather the “luminous / possibility . . . flitting before her” (lines 17–19).
B. Incorrect. The neighbor’s calling of the cat indicates that she does allow it to roam outside regularly. However, the details in these lines focus not on whether allowing the cat to roam is an expression of caring but on the cat’s reaction to the neighbor’s calls, “as if she can’t decide” (line 13) whether to return home “into the steady circle / of light” (lines 16–17) or stay and enjoy the “luminous / possibility” (lines 17–18) that the night offers. Furthermore, the neighbor’s “wheedling” (line 5) and the timing of her call, “at dusk” (line 3), introduce the possibility that encouraging others to come home expresses more caring than allowing them to roam freely.
C. Incorrect. Lines 10–17 describe the reactions of the cat, who is exploring the natural world, including a “constellation of fireflies flickering / near her head,” when the neighbor calls to her. The poet describes the cat’s conflict by saying that “It’s as if she can’t decide” whether to stay outdoors or return “into the steady circle / of light” at home with the neighbor. However, the cat’s indecision demonstrates that, rather than being a disappointment, the natural world is as appealing as home.
D. CORRECT. Lines 10–11 describe how the cat “turns first / toward the voice, then back,” indicating that the cat is experiencing a conflict. To the speaker, the cat seems “as if she can’t decide” (line 13) between exploring “the constellation of fireflies” (line 12) outdoors and returning to the familiar “steady circle / of light” (lines 16–17) indoors. This central idea that someone might experience a conflict between exploring and returning to the familiar is suggested again in lines 28–29 when the speaker wonders whether “the sounds I make / are enough to call someone home.”
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the lines describing a cat in another yard, as the neighbor calls from her doorway, convey a central idea of Natasha Trethewey's poem At Dusk. Students must turn a concrete picture of an animal's behavior into a general idea and check each proposed lesson against what the cat actually does in these lines.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Showing how specific lines convey a central idea is grade 7 work. The cat's behavior is concrete and easy to picture, so the step from image to idea is a typical grade 7 poetry 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 understand
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 66 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar 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
The lines show a cat turning toward the voice and back to the fireflies, then hesitating between the porch light and the night, so the idea is a pull in two directions. The most tempting wrong answer also describes trouble going home but explains it by time spent away, a cause these lines never give. Other choices bring in lessons about caring for pets or about nature letting us down, which the bright images of the night contradict.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The two pulls are images, “the constellation of fireflies flickering” for the unknown and “the steady circle / of light” on the porch for the familiar, and both must be read that way. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Students must turn one cat's hesitation in a yard into an idea about people, a step these lines leave to the reader until the speaker's own wish at the end of the poem. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Describe in plain words what the cat does in lines 10–17 and why, then choose the general idea that matches that behavior without adding causes the lines never give.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- 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 Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees that going home is hard for the cat but blames a taste of independence, when the lines show her drawn by the fireflies now, not changed by time away.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in a familiar belief that caring means letting loved ones roam, but lines 10–17 describe the cat's choice, not how the neighbor shows care.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the poem's picture of nature upside down: the fireflies and the “luminous / possibility” make the outdoors appealing, not a source of disappointment.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice A, the handbook reads “the cat’s actions—she “turns first / toward the voice, then back”—makes the cat seem.” It now reads “make,” to agree with “actions.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Lines 10–17 are about the cat. A central idea is a main message of the poem. You need the idea that these details about the cat show.
Read what the cat does
The cat “lifts her ears, turns first / toward the voice, then back / to the constellation of fireflies flickering / near her head” (lines 10–13). Then the speaker says, “It’s as if she can’t decide” (line 13). She could leap “onto the porch, into the steady circle / of light” (lines 16–17). Or she could “stay where she is” (line 17).
Work out what it means
The porch light is home. It is familiar, something the cat knows well. The fireflies are like a “constellation,” a group of stars. They stand for the unknown night and its wonders. The cat is pulled both ways. Part of her wants home. Part of her wants to stay out and explore.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Going home is hard for the cat. But the reason is the fireflies near her now. The lines never say she got used to being free.
- B is wrong. These lines are about the cat’s choice. They say nothing about caring for her or letting her roam.
- C is wrong. Nature is not disappointing here. The fireflies make the outdoors glow.
- D is right. The cat is torn between the familiar porch and the unknown night.
Watch out: A sounds close, because the cat really does have trouble going home. But A adds a cause the poem never gives.
Choose the answer
The cat turns toward home and then back to the fireflies. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It is right that going home is hard for the cat. But A blames a taste of freedom from time spent away. The poem says nothing about that. It shows two pulls at once: the voice and light of home, and the fireflies close by. D names both desires.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “At Dusk” as printed (page 48)
Question 30 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 22Uses the passage above: “At Dusk”.
Question
The phrases “luminous possibility” and “all that would keep her / away from home” (lines 17–19) affect the poem by
- Ahighlighting the cat’s lack of concern for the neighbor.
- Bimplying that the speaker finds the cat’s current situation interesting.
- Csuggesting that the cat is compelled by its sense of wonder to remain outdoors.
- Dindicating that the speaker supports the cat’s decision to ignore the neighbor.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the phrases “luminous possibility” and “all that would keep her / away from home” (lines 17–19) affect the poem.
A. Incorrect. In lines 20–21, the neighbor’s voice “trails off,” and the speaker states that “she’s given up calling for now,” which could be interpreted as a lack of concern. However, these lines describe the neighbor rather than the cat. The phrases from lines 17–19 are used to explain that what keeps the cat from returning home is the allure of “luminous possibility.” The use of the phrase “all that would keep her” suggests that the cat would likely return home to the security of “the steady circle / of light” (lines 16–17) if not for the possibilities offered by the night, implying that the cat usually prefers to be at home with the neighbor. The phrases do not highlight a lack of concern for the neighbor on the part of the cat.
B. Incorrect. While the phrase “luminous possibility” does convey a high degree of interest, it is used to describe why being outside at night appeals to the cat. It does not describe the speaker’s interest in the cat. The speaker observes the cat as it tries to decide between returning home and staying out and then concludes that it is only “luminous / possibility . . . that would keep [the cat] / away from home.”
C. CORRECT. The phrases are used to explain that the cat, though tempted to return home, is also tempted or compelled by “luminous possibility” to remain outdoors. The phrases convey a sense of wonder about what the night may offer, and it is the powerful effect of this sense of wonder (“all that would keep her / away from home”) that ultimately tempts the cat to remain outdoors rather than return to the comforts of home.
D. Incorrect. Lines 17–19 present the speaker’s observations about the cat as it tries to decide whether to stay where it is or return home. The speaker explains that it is only “luminous possibility” that can convince the cat to stay rather than return to the comforts of home. While the speaker then imagines the neighbor indoors, there is no indication that the speaker supports the cat’s decision. The speaker merely notes that the neighbor stops calling to the cat “for now” (line 21), and then the speaker reflects on the possible results of calling someone home.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the phrases luminous possibility and all that would keep her away from home, which describe what surrounds a cat in a nearby yard, affect the poem At Dusk. Students must interpret abstract, figurative wording and work out whose feelings it conveys: the cat's, the neighbor's or the speaker's.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how word choice affects a poem is grade 7 work. These phrases are abstract and broken across lines, which adds some challenge, but the lines around them are concrete, so the task stays within 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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
The phrases belong to the speaker but describe what tempts the cat, and the choices exploit that by offering the speaker's interest or approval, or the cat's indifference to its owner. The words “all that would keep her / away from home” imply that home still pulls at the cat, so only an attraction strong enough to hold her outside fits. Students who first settle whose experience the phrases describe can rule out most choices at once.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Luminous possibility” is abstract, an unnamed promise glowing in the dusk, and students must see it as what draws the cat, the counterweight to “the steady circle / of light” at home. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The phrases are the speaker's words about the cat, so students must work out that they convey the cat's pull, not the speaker's opinion or the neighbor's feelings. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The phrases are broken across lines 17–19 and set off by dashes, so “flitting before her” is separated from “possibility” by the inserted “all that would keep her / away from home.” (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Decide first who or what the phrases describe, then keep only choices about that same subject and check that the phrases themselves show what each one claims.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the cat's staying out as indifference to its owner, though “all that would keep her / away from home” implies home would win without the night's attractions.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Notices that “luminous possibility” is the speaker's lyrical phrase and takes it as the speaker's own interest, when it describes the wonder drawing the cat.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes that describing the night so warmly means the speaker approves of the cat ignoring the neighbor, an opinion the poem never states.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need to know what two phrases do in the poem. First decide who they describe. Here they describe the cat and what pulls at her.
Find the phrases in lines 17–19
The cat could go home, “or stay where she is: luminous / possibility—all that would keep her / away from home—flitting before her.”
Work out what the words mean
“Luminous” means glowing with light. “Possibility” means what might happen. “Flitting” means darting quickly about, like the fireflies near her head. So the glowing night is full of exciting chances. It is everything that “would keep her / away from home.” That sense of wonder is what holds the cat outside.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “All that would keep her / away from home” means home pulls at her too. She isn’t uncaring.
- B is wrong. The phrases describe what draws the cat, not how the speaker feels.
- C is right. The night’s glow and wonder tempt the cat to stay out. “Compelled” means strongly pulled.
- D is wrong. The speaker never says the cat is right to stay out.
Watch out: B is tempting because “luminous possibility” is the speaker’s own beautiful wording. But the speaker uses it to show what the cat sees.
Choose the answer
The phrases show a wonder strong enough to hold the cat outdoors. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. The speaker does choose these glowing words. But they describe the night that is “flitting before her,” the cat. They explain what keeps her “away from home.” C fits, because the phrases show the cat drawn by wonder to stay outside.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 31 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 23Uses the passage above: “At Dusk”.
Question
Read lines 11–13 from the poem.
toward the voice, then back
to the constellation of fireflies flickering
near her head
Which idea from the poem does the imagery in these lines help convey?
- AThe cat lacks a preference for going in or staying out.
- BThe cat is eager to see what will happen next.
- CThe cat wants to understand the unpredictable behavior of the fireflies.
- DThe cat is fascinated by the natural world and finds the indoors unremarkable.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which idea the imagery in lines 11–13 helps convey.
A. Incorrect. Line 13 includes the speaker’s observation that the cat seems “as if she can’t decide” whether to stay outside or go to the neighbor. However, the imagery of the “constellation of fireflies flickering” in line 12 suggests that the cat does have a preference for exploring the more exciting “luminous / possibility” (lines 17–18) of the outdoors.
B. Incorrect. The imagery in lines 10–11 of the cat turning “first / toward the voice, then back” might seem to suggest that the cat is eagerly watching both the neighbor and the fireflies to see what will happen next. However, line 13, in which the cat seems “as if she can’t decide,” indicates that what will happen next is actually under the cat’s control.
C. Incorrect. The imagery in lines 12–13 of the “fireflies flickering / near her head” does indicate the fireflies’ unpredictable behavior. However, the imagery in lines 10–11 of the cat turning “first / toward the voice, then back” establishes that the cat’s attention is split between the fireflies and the “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5) of the neighbor’s voice, rather than being fully captured by wanting to understand the fireflies.
D. CORRECT. The imagery in line 12 of “the constellation of fireflies flickering” suggests that the outdoors holds fascinating attractions, an idea supported by the description in lines 17–18 of the cat’s current location outdoors as one filled with “luminous / possibility.” The imagery in lines 10–11 of the cat turning “first / toward the voice, then back” indicates that the cat has considered but rejected the option of returning indoors, and the description in lines 16–17 of the indoors as offering only a “steady circle / of light” suggests that the indoors seems unremarkable to the cat in comparison to the outdoors.
Question analysis
This reading question quotes three lines from At Dusk in which a cat turns from a calling voice back to fireflies flickering near her head, and asks which idea the imagery helps convey. Students must interpret a visual image in light of the lines around it and judge how far the poem supports each reading of the cat's attention.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students explain what imagery conveys, but this image is brief and the four ideas offered for it differ in subtle ways, so ruling them out takes closer reading 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 major
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 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
The answer is the best available rather than a perfect one: its first half is plain in the image of the cat turning back to the fireflies, while its second half rests on the comparison with a steady porch light. Meanwhile the very next words say she “can't decide,” which makes indifference look like the safe reading. The question rewards seeing that being torn is not the same as having no preference, since the image shows which way she turns.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
The quoted lines never mention the indoors, so the claim that the cat finds it unremarkable has to be drawn from the contrast with “the steady circle / of light” in lines 16–17. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“The constellation of fireflies flickering” turns insects into a field of stars beside the cat's head, and that image of wonder is what students are asked to interpret. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The words right after the quotation say “It's as if she can't decide,” and the evidence that tips the balance sits in lines 16–19, outside the three lines quoted. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Picture the cat's movements in these three lines, then test each choice against the words of lines 10–19 and drop any idea the image does not actually show.
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.
- 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 Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes “as if she can't decide” in line 13 to mean the cat has no preference, but being torn means feeling two pulls, and these lines show her turning back to the fireflies.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the cat's turning back and forth as eager waiting for what will happen, though the lines show attention divided between two pulls, not suspense.
C Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Repeats the fireflies' flickering from the image and invents a wish to understand their behavior, when the lines show fascination with the lights, not curiosity about insects.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Imagery is language that helps you see, hear or feel a scene. You need the idea that the images in lines 11–13 help show.
Picture lines 10–13
The cat “turns first / toward the voice, then back / to the constellation of fireflies flickering / near her head.” A constellation is a group of stars that forms a picture. So the fireflies are like little stars blinking around her. She hears the call, but she turns back to them.
Compare outdoors and indoors
Outside, the night sparkles like stars. Lines 17–18 call it “luminous / possibility,” full of glowing chances. Home is “the steady circle / of light” on the porch (lines 16–17). Steady means it does not change. Next to the flickering stars, that light is plain. Unremarkable means not special.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The cat “can’t decide,” but that means she feels two pulls. The image shows her turning back to the fireflies.
- B is wrong. She is not waiting for something to happen. Her attention is split between two pulls.
- C is wrong. She is drawn to the fireflies’ glow, not trying to figure out how they act.
- D is right. She is fascinated by the night, and the porch light is plain next to it.
Watch out: A is tempting because of line 13. But being torn is not the same as having no preference.
Choose the answer
The poem never says the cat has made up her mind. But the images make the night magical and home ordinary. That fits D best. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, since the next words say “It’s as if she can’t decide.” But a cat with no preference would not care either way. This cat turns back to the fireflies, which shows a strong pull. D fits that pull, and the plain “steady circle / of light” shows why home seems less special.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 32 of 84
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 33 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 31Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
Which sentence from the passage best conveys the author’s perspective regarding the impact of Ederle’s accomplishment?
- A“Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again.” (paragraph 3)
- B“For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile.” (paragraph 7)
- C“Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea.” (paragraph 7)
- D“Ederle had swum into history.” (paragraph 8)
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the sentence from the passage that best conveys the author’s perspective about the impact of Ederle’s swim.
A. Incorrect. Although this option shows Ederle’s determination to accomplish her goal, it does not convey the author’s perspective. Rather, the option reinforces Ederle’s own perspective about the challenge that she was facing.
B. Incorrect. The sentence presented in this option is incorrect because it relates to Ederle’s state of mind as she came closer to achieving her goal and does not provide details about the author’s opinion of the impact of Ederle’s accomplishment.
C. Incorrect. The sentence presented in this option is incorrect because it simply presents Ederle’s emotional state as she nears her goal and does not provide information about the author’s perspective.
D. CORRECT. This option is correct because, throughout the passage, the author emphasizes that Ederle’s accomplishment was memorable and great, which is best stated in the sentence from paragraph 8.
Question analysis
What did Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim mean in the author's eyes? This point-of-view question asks which quoted sentence best shows the author's perspective on its impact, and because the quotations all come from the story of her attempts, students must tell the author's judgment apart from sentences reporting what Ederle did or felt.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Telling an author's perspective apart from a subject's actions and moods is ordinary grade 7 point-of-view work. Each choice is a single sentence with its paragraph given, so little searching is needed and the demand is typical.
- 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 moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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
Two tests apply at once: whose view a sentence gives, and whether that view concerns the swim's impact. Three sentences narrate Ederle herself, before the swim and in the water, and the word “Undeterred” can make the first sound like the author's praise. The five-word sentence that closes paragraph 8 is easy to skim past, because it states impact through an image rather than in plain terms.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks for the author's judgment, so sentences that narrate Ederle's choices and moods, her decision to try again, her “amused smile”, her happiness in the storm, have to be set aside. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The only sentence about impact states it as a figure of speech, “Ederle had swum into history”, which must be read as a claim that the swim earned a lasting place. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Ask of each quotation whether it reports Ederle's actions or feelings, or whether it is the author stepping back to judge what the swim meant. Only the second kind answers this question.
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.
- 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)
Hears the author admiring her resolve in “Undeterred”, a real touch of judgment, but it concerns her decision after the 1925 failure, not what her eventual swim meant or changed.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes Ederle's “amused smile” while dodging debris as the author's opinion, though it records her mood in the water and says nothing about the swim's impact.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “indescribably happy” as the author's enthusiasm, but the happiness is Ederle's own, felt while she fought the storm, and it says nothing about lasting effects.
Working it out, step by step
Unpack the key words
A perspective is a point of view, the way someone sees a subject. Impact means the effect something has on the world. So you need a sentence where the author judges what Ederle’s swim meant. A sentence that only tells what Ederle did or felt won’t count.
Test each sentence two ways
Ask two questions about each choice. First, is this the author’s own judgment, or does it just tell what Ederle did or felt? Second, is it about the effect of the swim, or about something else? The right sentence passes both tests.
Check each choice
- A: “Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again” (paragraph 3) tells her choice after failing in 1925, so it comes before the swim and can’t show its effect.
- B: “dodging debris with an amused smile” (paragraph 7) shows her mood in the water.
- C: “Ederle felt indescribably happy” (paragraph 7) tells her own feelings, not the author’s view.
- D: “Ederle had swum into history” (paragraph 8) is the author stepping back to judge what the swim meant.
Watch out: Undeterred means not discouraged, so A can sound like praise from the author. But it is about her decision, not the swim’s effect.
Explain the figure of speech
“Swum into history” is a figure of speech, words that mean more than they literally say. History is not a place you can swim to. The phrase means her swim was so important that people will remember it for a long time. So the sentence judges the swim’s impact.
Choose the answer
Only choice D gives the author’s own view of what the swim achieved. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, since the word “Undeterred” holds a note of praise. But the sentence reports Ederle’s choice to try again after she failed. That happened before the big swim, so it can’t show the swim’s impact. D is the author’s own claim that the swim made history.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 34 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 35Passage 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
The details in paragraph 1 convey a central idea of the passage by noting that
- Afewer people are buying e-books than printed books.
- Bprinted books have some advantages over e-books.
- Cprinted books rely on natural materials more than e-books.
- Dsome people recommend buying printed books over e-books.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the details in paragraph 1 convey a central idea of the passage. A specific central idea that needs to be identified in order to correctly answer this question is that reading a digital book “might be inferior” (paragraph 1) to reading a traditional book.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 1, the author notes that despite the popularity of e-books, their sales fell in 2015, leading to the author’s statement that “print definitely isn’t dead.” While these statements suggest that readers still purchase and enjoy printed books, sales information between print and e-books is not compared. Therefore, these details do not convey a central idea of the passage.
B. CORRECT. The author states in paragraph 1 that “according to some research,” reading a traditional book “may actually be a better choice for some readers” because “digital reading affects us differently.” The author then supports this statement throughout the passage, detailing five advantages that printed books have over e-books. This detail helps convey a central idea of the passage.
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 1, the author refers to printed books as “traditional books” and the “dead-tree cousins” of e-books. Although these references suggest that printed books rely on natural materials more than e-books do, the author does not provide additional details in the passage to convey this idea. Therefore, this detail does not help convey a central idea of the passage.
D. Incorrect. Although the author states in paragraph 1 that “traditional books still have their evangelists,” the author does not provide additional statistics or details in the passage to convey the idea that some people recommend buying printed books over e-books. Therefore, this detail does not help convey a central idea of the passage.
Question analysis
This central-idea question asks how the details in the opening paragraph of a magazine article comparing printed books and e-books convey one of the passage's central ideas. Students must connect the introduction to what the rest of the article goes on to develop, while each choice seizes on something the first paragraph mentions.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Connecting an opening paragraph to a central idea is a grade 6 and 7 skill. This article is plainly organized, with a short introduction and bold headings, so the task is lighter than typical grade 7 central-idea work.
- 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 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 46 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 packs four separate details into five sentences, and three of them become wrong choices: the falling e-book sales, print's “evangelists” and the joke about dead trees. The question rewards checking which detail the rest of the article develops, and the five bold headings that follow each name a way print beats the screen. Students who judge each choice against paragraph 1 alone can find support for all four.
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice recasts “may actually be a better choice” and “e-books might be inferior” in new words, while the wrong choices echo “sales”, “evangelists” and “dead-tree cousins”. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 1 is playful, calling print's supporters “evangelists” and paper books “dead-tree cousins”, and both phrases must be read as jokes rather than as claims. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read paragraph 1, then skim the bold headings to see which of its statements the rest of the article develops; a central idea is one the passage keeps returning to.
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.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “e-book sales have been falling” as print outselling e-books, a comparison of sales the paragraph never makes and the rest of the article never mentions.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “dead-tree cousins” as a point about what books are made of, when it is a joking name for paper books and the article never discusses materials.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Rests on the opening remark that print still has its “evangelists”, a single detail about supporters that the article drops in favor of research findings.
Working it out, step by step
Know what a central idea is
A central idea is a main point that the whole passage keeps coming back to. So you need a detail in paragraph 1 that the rest of the article develops. A detail that shows up once and is then dropped doesn’t count.
Read paragraph 1 closely
Paragraph 1 makes several points. It says e-book “sales have been falling.” It says print still has its “evangelists,” which the footnote explains means supporters. Then comes the key line: print “may actually be a better choice for some readers.” The paragraph ends by promising “five ways e-books might be inferior,” or worse, compared with paper books.
Use the headings as a map
The bold headings show what the rest of the article is about. Two of them are “E-books can reduce reading comprehension” and “They’re tiring.” Each heading names one way paper books may beat e-books. So the point the article develops is that print has some advantages.
Check each choice
- B fits: the five sections that follow each give one advantage of printed books.
- A is wrong because the paragraph says e-book sales fell, not that fewer e-books than print books are sold.
- C is wrong because “dead-tree cousins” is a joke name for paper books, and the article never discusses materials.
- D is wrong because the supporters are mentioned once, and the article reports research instead of advice.
Watch out: A starts from a real detail but adds a comparison the paragraph never makes.
Choose the answer
The article keeps returning to the ways print may be better than e-books. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes close, because paragraph 1 does say print has supporters. But the article never returns to them. Instead, every section after paragraph 1 gives research showing one way print may beat e-books. That is why B, “printed books have some advantages over e-books,” is the central idea.
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 35 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 36Uses the passage above: “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books”.
Question
Which evidence from the passage best supports the claim that “print definitely isn’t dead” (paragraph 1)?
- AMost college students prefer using paper books to using e-books.
- BScientists are still studying the effects of reading on a screen.
- CPaper books are less disruptive to sleep patterns than e-books are.
- DReading on a screen can affect both the eyes and the brain.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which evidence from the passage best supports the claim in paragraph 1 that “print definitely isn’t dead.”
A. CORRECT. In paragraph 5, the author points out that “while e-book textbooks are often cheaper (and easier to carry) than traditional door-stop textbooks, college students often don’t prefer them.” The author adds that “in some surveys of college kids, the majority of students have reported preferring print books.” As a result, this evidence from the passage supports the claim in paragraph 1 that “print definitely isn’t dead.”
B. Incorrect. In paragraph 1, the author notes that “scientists are still trying to tease out exactly how digital reading affects us differently.” This detail shows that research on reading on a screen is still going on, but it says nothing about whether people still choose print, so it does not support the claim in paragraph 1 that “print definitely isn’t dead.”
C. Incorrect. Although the main idea of paragraph 6 is supported by the 2014 study that showed that “people who used e-readers with LED screens at night slept worse and were more tired the next day,” this detail does not support the claim in paragraph 1 that “print definitely isn’t dead.”
D. Incorrect. The author states in paragraph 6 that “staring at a lit screen can be tiring for the eyes and the brain” and that “reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload.” Although these details illustrate how using e-readers can have negative physical and mental effects, they do not support the claim in paragraph 1 that “print definitely isn’t dead.”
Question analysis
This evidence question takes the claim “print definitely isn't dead” from the opening of an article comparing printed books and e-books and asks which evidence from the passage best supports it. Students must pin down exactly what the claim says before judging the evidence, since all four choices come from the article and sound related.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students judge whether evidence is relevant to a claim, but this claim is a short idiom whose precise meaning must be settled first, and every choice paraphrases a real finding, which makes the comparison finer 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 59 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation of one wrong choice discussed a different detail; it now explains that choice.
- 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 right after the claim says print “may actually be a better choice”, and the two wrong choices about sleep and tired eyes support exactly that, which makes them feel like the answer. The claim itself is narrower: print is still alive, still chosen by readers. Only one choice reports people choosing print, and its wording overstates the surveys, so students must accept an imperfect paraphrase over accurate findings that prove a different point.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
The article never ties any evidence to “Print definitely isn't dead”; the student must read it as print still being chosen and find that in paragraph 5's surveys, four paragraphs away. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Isn't dead” is an idiom, and its exact sense, still bought and read rather than still worthwhile, decides between the survey of college students and the findings about sleep and tired eyes. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice turns “in some surveys of college kids, the majority” into “Most college students prefer”, a looser paraphrase careful readers may distrust, while another choice echoes “the eyes and the brain”. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Put the claim “print definitely isn't dead” into your own words first, then ask whether each choice proves that exact point or a different one made nearby in paragraph 1.
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)
Picks the sentence nearest the claim, that scientists are still working out how digital reading differs, a true remark about unfinished research that says nothing about print surviving.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Uses the 2014 Harvard sleep finding, a real advantage of paper that backs the next sentence's “better choice” but not the claim that people still buy and read print.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Chooses the finding that a lit screen tires “the eyes and the brain”, a drawback of e-books that argues print is better, not that print remains in use.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: Choice B is “Scientists are still studying the effects of reading on a screen,” from paragraph 1 (“scientists are still trying to tease out exactly how digital reading affects us differently”). The handbook's explanation of B instead discusses the iPad reading-comprehension study of paragraph 2, apparently left over from an earlier version of the choice. The explanation now addresses B: ongoing research says nothing about whether people still choose print. The answer, A, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Pin down the claim
This asks you to find evidence for a claim. “Print definitely isn’t dead” is an idiom, a saying that doesn’t mean exactly what its words say. Books can’t really die. The claim means printed books are still being bought and read. People still choose them.
Watch for the nearby claim
The very next sentence makes a different claim. It says print “may actually be a better choice for some readers.” Being better is not the same as being alive. So you need evidence that people still choose print, not evidence that print is good for you.
Find people choosing print
Paragraph 5 says that “in some surveys of college kids, the majority of students have reported preferring print books.” A majority means more than half. They pick paper even though e-books are “often cheaper (and easier to carry).” So many readers still choose print, which shows it is still alive.
Check each choice
- A fits: most college students in those surveys prefer paper books.
- B is wrong because research still going on says nothing about whether people still choose print.
- C is wrong because better sleep is a reason print may be better, not proof that people still use it.
- D is wrong because tired eyes and brains are also a reason print may be better.
Watch out: C and D support the “better choice” sentence, not “isn’t dead.”
Choose the answer
Only A shows that many readers still choose paper books today. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the most tempting wrong answer. The finding that lit screens hurt sleep is real, and it favors paper. But it shows print may be better, not that it is still alive. A shows readers still choosing print. It says “Most college students” when the passage reports only “some surveys,” but it is still the best fit.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 36 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 43Passage Excerpt from The Highest Tide
Excerpt from The Highest Tide
by Jim Lynch
The narrator’s summer job is collecting marine specimens in Puget Sound, Washington. In this excerpt, he is looking for specimens in the mudflats before daybreak. Mudflats, or flats, are coastal landforms created when sediment and silt from tides are deposited as the tides recede.
I rounded the oyster beds, to the far side. . . . It was low tide by then, and I saw the water hesitating at its apex, neither leaving nor returning, patiently waiting for the gravitational gears to shift. Dozens of anxious clams started squirting in unison like they did whenever vibrating grains of sand warned them predators were approaching. I stopped and waited with them, to actually see the moment when the tide started returning with its invisible buffet of plankton for the clams, oysters, mussels and other filter feeders. It was right then, ankle deep in the Sound, feet numbing, eyes relaxed, that I saw the nudibranch.1
In all my time on the flats I’d never seen one before. I’d read about them, sure. I’d handled them at aquariums but never in the wild, and I’d never even seen a photo of one this stunning. It was just three inches long but with dozens of fluorescent, orange-tipped hornlike plumes jutting from the back of its see-through body that appeared to be lit from within.
Nudibranchs are often called the butterflies of the sea, but even that understates their dazzle. Almost everything else in the northern Pacific is dressed to blend with pale surroundings. Nudibranchs don’t bother, in part because they taste so lousy they don’t need camouflage to survive. But also, I decided right then, because their beauty is so startling it earns them a free pass, the same way everyday life brakes for peacocks, parade floats. . . .
The dark mudflats loomed like wet, flattened dunes stretching deep into Skookumchuck Bay in front of our house. From a distance, they looked too barren to support sea life. Up close, they still did, unless you knew where to find the hearty clams, worms and tiny creatures that flourish in mud. . . . I’m not sure why I decided to take a look. It was still an hour before sunrise, and I knew exactly what the bars2 looked like in the moonlight, but for some reason, I couldn’t resist.
I heard it long before I saw it. It was an exhale, a release of sorts, and I instantly wondered if a whale was stranded again. We had a young minke3 stuck out there two summers prior, and it made similar noises until the tide rose high enough for rescuers to help free it. . . . I looked for a hulking silhouette but couldn’t find one. I waited, but there were no more sounds. Still, I went toward what I thought I’d heard, avoiding stepping into the mud until I had to. I knew the flats well enough to know I could get stuck just about anywhere. The general rule was you didn’t venture out past the shells and gravel with an incoming tide. I sank up to my knees twice, and numbing water filled my boots.
. . . I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard, a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all. When I stopped to rest and yank up my socks, my headlamp crossed it. My first thought? A giant octopus.
Puget Sound has some of the biggest octopi in the world. They often balloon to a hundred pounds. Even the great Jacques Cousteau4 himself came to study them. But when I saw the long tubular shape of its upper body and the tangle of tentacles below it, I knew it was more than an octopus. I came closer, within fifty feet, close enough to see its large cylindrical siphon5 quiver. I couldn’t tell if it was making any sounds at that point, because it was impossible to hear anything over the blood in my ears. . . .
The creature’s body came to a triangular point above narrow fins that lay flat on the mud like wings, but it was hard to be sure exactly where it all began or ended, or how long its tentacles truly were, because I was afraid to pry my eyes off its jumble of arms for more than half a second. I didn’t know whether I was within reach, and its arms were as big around as my ankle and lined with suckers the size of half-dollars. If they even twitched I would have run. So, I was looking at it and not looking at it while my heart spangled my vision. I saw fragments, pieces, and tried to fuse them in my mind but couldn’t be certain of the whole. I knew what it had to be, but I wouldn’t allow myself to even think the two words. Then I gradually realized the dark shiny disc in the middle of the rubbery mass was too perfectly round to be mud or a reflection.
It was too late to smother my scream. Its eye was the size of a hubcap.6
From THE HIGHEST TIDE by Jim Lynch. Copyright © 2005 by Jim Lynch. Used by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved.
1nudibranch: type of sea slug
2bars: sandbars
3minke: species of small whale
4Jacques Cousteau: renowned French oceanographer
5siphon: tube-like organ that is used for drawing in or removing fluids
6hubcap: removable cap over the end of a wheel axle
Question
In paragraph 3, the phrase “the butterflies of the sea” conveys the idea that
- Anudibranchs do not have to work as hard as other animals to survive in the ocean.
- Bnudibranchs have colorful features that make them stand out.
- Cnudibranchs are delicate and have trouble adapting to their environment.
- Dnudibranchs are rare and difficult to find in the ocean.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what idea the phrase “the butterflies of the sea” in paragraph 3 conveys.
A. Incorrect. While the narrator does say that they “taste so lousy they don’t need camouflage to survive” (paragraph 3), the phrase explains that their bright appearance poses no threat to their lives.
B. CORRECT. The narrator describes the vibrant colors of the nudibranch in paragraph 2. Then in paragraph 3, the narrator says that “their beauty is so startling.” The nudibranchs are colorful and unique, just as many butterflies are.
C. Incorrect. The narrator describes the distinct appearance of the nudibranch but does not suggest that nudibranchs struggle to adapt to their environment because of this trait.
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the narrator states, “I’d handled them at aquariums but never in the wild, and I’d never even seen a photo of one this stunning.” Although this suggests that the narrator has rarely encountered a nudibranch in the wild, it does not suggest that they are rare in the wild in general.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks what the phrase “the butterflies of the sea” conveys about nudibranchs, the sea slugs the narrator spots on a Puget Sound mudflat in an excerpt from the novel The Highest Tide. Students must use the description around the phrase to decide which quality of butterflies the comparison points to.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a figurative comparison from context is standard grade 7 language work. The description around the phrase is vivid and close at hand, so the demand is typical, even though the creature itself may be unfamiliar.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- An unfamiliar subject minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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
The nickname is explained in the same sentence, where the narrator says even it “understates their dazzle”, so the question is mostly a matter of reading on a few words. The trap is reading on too far: the next sentences explain why nudibranchs can afford to be showy, a different point. Students who bring their own idea of butterflies as fragile, or who turn the narrator's first sighting into rarity, drift away from what he stresses.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The comparison's point is supplied by the clause right after it, “even that understates their dazzle”, and by paragraph 2's fluorescent, orange-tipped plumes, not by anything butterflies are usually known for. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
An unfamiliar subject minor Understanding the question
Few students have seen a nudibranch, footnoted only as a type of sea slug, so the picture of it must be built entirely from paragraph 2's description. (Recht & Leslie, 1988; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read the phrase with the sentence it sits in and the description of the nudibranch just before it, then decide which quality of butterflies the comparison is pointing to.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- 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)
Draws on the next sentences, which say nudibranchs taste too lousy to need camouflage, a real point about their survival but not what the butterfly comparison conveys.
C Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in the familiar idea that butterflies are delicate, which the passage never uses; nothing suggests nudibranchs struggle to adapt, and the comparison is about their dazzle.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Turns the narrator never having seen one in the wild into a claim that nudibranchs are rare, which reflects his experience, not the meaning of the nickname.
Working it out, step by step
Spot the comparison
This asks about figurative language, words that compare two things to make a point. In paragraph 3, nudibranchs are called “the butterflies of the sea.” You need to decide which quality of butterflies the comparison points to.
Read the rest of the sentence
The sentence goes on: “but even that understates their dazzle.” To understate means to say less than the full truth. Dazzle means bright, eye-catching beauty. So the narrator means nudibranchs are even more dazzling than butterflies.
Look back at paragraph 2
Paragraph 2 describes the one he found. It had “dozens of fluorescent, orange-tipped hornlike plumes.” Fluorescent means glowing with bright color. Plumes are feathery tufts. Its body even seemed “to be lit from within.” Like a butterfly, it is bright and colorful, and it stands out.
Check each choice
- B fits: “colorful features that make them stand out” matches the glowing plumes and the dazzle.
- A is wrong because their bad taste explains how they survive, not what the butterfly phrase means.
- C is wrong because the passage never says nudibranchs are delicate or struggle to fit in.
- D is wrong because the narrator never seeing one in the wild is his own experience, not proof they are rare.
Watch out: A uses real details from the same paragraph. But they answer a different question: why nudibranchs can afford to be showy.
Choose the answer
The butterfly comparison points to the nudibranch’s bright, eye-catching colors. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A comes closest, since the same paragraph says nudibranchs “don’t need camouflage to survive.” But that explains why they can afford to be bright. The butterfly phrase itself is about their beauty, which even the nickname “understates.” B names that beauty: colorful features that stand out.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed (pages 64–65)
Question 37 of 84
2024 Test A English, question 49Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from The Highest Tide”.
Question
Read these sentences from paragraph 8.
So, I was looking at it and not looking at it while my heart spangled my vision. I saw fragments, pieces, and tried to fuse them in my mind but couldn’t be certain of the whole.
The sensory language “spangled my vision,” “I saw fragments, pieces,” and “tried to fuse them in my mind” conveys the narrator’s
- Aextreme excitement about making a great discovery.
- Breluctant acceptance that he needs to leave the mudflats.
- Cterrified confusion about the creature in the mudflats.
- Dsudden concern about his personal safety.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks what the sensory language in the sentences from paragraph 8 conveys about the narrator.
A. Incorrect. While the narrator does not leave the mudflats and is curious about what has been found, the main emotions described in paragraph 8 are fear and confusion as the narrator tries to comprehend the size of the animal.
B. Incorrect. The language focuses on the narrator’s inability to organize what he sees into useful thoughts and conclusions, and while the narrator feels fear in paragraph 8—“I was afraid” and “I would have run”—the narrator refuses to leave the mudflats out of curiosity.
C. CORRECT. The phrase “spangled my vision” illustrates that the narrator cannot fully recognize what has appeared on the mudflats. The sight is so amazing, the narrator is trying to “fuse” together “fragments” and “pieces” because seeing the creature has created so much emotion in the narrator that he feels confused.
D. Incorrect. While the narrator is feeling some fear, as expressed in paragraph 8, the phrases actually indicate that the narrator’s amazement causes him to struggle to take in the view of the creature before him.
Question analysis
This question about sensory language asks what three phrases, including “spangled my vision,” convey about the narrator as he stares at a huge creature in the mud in an excerpt from The Highest Tide. Students must interpret unusual imagery and choose among emotions that all seem possible at such a startling moment.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Interpreting sensory language for a character's state of mind is grade 7 work, but spangled is an unusual verb, and the paragraph partly supports several of the emotions offered, so the choice must be matched precisely to the quoted phrases.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; 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 quoted phrases are about perception, not feeling: the narrator sees fragments and cannot assemble them, while his heart pounds hard enough to blur his sight. The fear is clear from the surrounding sentences, where he is afraid to look away and ready to run, and that context makes the choice about personal safety very tempting. The answer must cover both the terror and the confusion, and the word “spangled” can mislead readers into hearing excitement.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The phrases describe seeing in pieces, “looking at it and not looking at it”, a heart that “spangled” his vision, “fragments” he cannot “fuse”, and the emotion has to be read from that broken sight. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about concern for his safety both name fear; they part on what the quoted phrases show, a mind unable to piece the creature together or a worry about its reach. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Spangled”, to scatter with glittering spots, is a rare word, and its sparkle can suggest delight, which opens a reading of excitement to students who miss the fear around it. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Ask what the three quoted phrases together say about how the narrator is seeing and thinking at this moment, then choose the emotion that accounts for all three, not just one.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- 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
A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the pounding heart and glittering vision as the thrill of a great find, missing that he is afraid to take his eyes off the creature and cannot make sense of it.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns “If they even twitched I would have run”, a possibility, into an accepted need to leave, though the narrator stays and the phrases describe how he sees.
D True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Matches the fear in paragraph 8, where he wonders whether he is within reach, but the quoted phrases describe broken seeing and puzzling, and his fear has been building, not sudden.
Working it out, step by step
Know what the question asks
Sensory language describes what a character sees, hears or feels. This asks what feeling the three quoted phrases show. Your answer must explain all three phrases, not just one.
Explain the hard words
To spangle means to cover with glittering spots. His heart pounds so hard that his sight seems to sparkle and blur. Fragments are small broken pieces. To fuse means to join together.
Put the phrases together
He sees only “fragments, pieces.” He tries “to fuse them in my mind” but “couldn’t be certain of the whole.” So he is confused, unable to tell what the creature really is. The sentences around them show he is also terrified. He is “afraid to pry my eyes off” its arms, and his heart is racing.
Check each choice
- C fits: “terrified confusion” covers both his fear and his broken, puzzled seeing.
- A is wrong because “spangled” may sound happy, but he is frightened, not thrilled.
- B is wrong because he never decides to leave, and he would run only if the arms moved.
- D is wrong because the phrases show confused seeing, and his fear has been growing since paragraph 6.
Watch out: D is close, since he is afraid. But it leaves out the confusion the phrases show.
Choose the answer
The phrases show a frightened narrator who cannot piece together what he sees. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes closest, because the narrator truly fears for his safety. But the quoted phrases are about how he sees: in pieces he can’t join. That is confusion. C names both the fear and the confusion, so it fits all three phrases.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 38 of 84
2024 Test B English, question 28Passage 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
In paragraph 20, the phrases “trophies of their hunt” and “paraded around” affect the paragraph by
- Asuggesting that the hunters are rewarded for their leadership.
- Bemphasizing that The People are dependent on the hunters for food.
- Crevealing that the hunters are pleased with their success.
- Dindicating that The People have gathered specifically to welcome the hunters.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the phrases “trophies of their hunt” and “paraded around” affect paragraph 20.
A. Incorrect. The phrase “trophies of their hunt” describes the animals that the hunters have successfully found. They have already received their rewards (the animals) and are showing them to The People.
B. Incorrect. The excerpt describes many ways that The People find and prepare their own food. While they appreciate the extra food, they are not dependent on the hunters.
C. CORRECT. The hunters “paraded around” because they were proud of the animals they had been able to get while hunting. Since a trophy is a recognition of success, they consider these animals their trophies.
D. Incorrect. The phrases show the pride the hunters feel. As paragraph 20 says, the hunters want “all to see how strong their Hunting Power had been.” The phrases are focused on the hunters rather than on those who have gathered around them.
Question analysis
This word-meaning question looks at the phrases “trophies of their hunt” and “paraded around” in the scene where four Nez Perce hunters ride back into camp, and asks what the phrases add to the paragraph. Students must work out what the words suggest in this context, not just their dictionary meanings, and weigh four plausible effects on the paragraph.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze the connotations of words in context. These two phrases are familiar and sit in one short paragraph with helpful context nearby, so this is lighter than typical grade 7 word-choice work.
- 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 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 55 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A quotation in the explanation was corrected to match the passage.
- 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 20 nearly states the answer: the hunters are “proud to show off” their loads and parade “for all to see how strong their Hunting Power had been.” Errors come from neighboring details instead: the welcoming crowd in the same paragraph, the food for everyone in the next, or the everyday sense of a trophy as an award. Reading the phrases inside their own sentences settles it.
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Trophies of their hunt” turns meat and hides into prizes and “paraded around” suggests a show, and students must read both as signs of pride rather than of awards or ceremony. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice recasts “proud to show off” in new words, while one wrong choice echoes the “welcoming crowd” and another the “plenty of food” of paragraph 21. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Think about what each phrase usually suggests, then reread the whole of paragraph 20 to check that meaning against the context before looking at the choices.
Traps
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
- 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
A Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Reads “trophies” as prizes handed out for an achievement and adds leadership, but the trophies are the meat and hides, and nothing mentions leading.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Borrows paragraph 21’s point that good hunters bring food for all and inflates it into dependence, though The People gather much of their own food.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Is drawn by the “welcoming crowd” in the same paragraph, but The People came to Oyaip for the camas harvest and simply greet the hunters who arrive.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option C says the hunters “parade around.” Paragraph 20, and the question itself, say they “paraded around the encampment,” so the site now quotes “paraded around” and puts the rest of that sentence in the past tense to match.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what two phrases add to paragraph 20: “trophies of their hunt” and “paraded around.” Think about what each phrase suggests. Then check it against the whole paragraph.
Think about each phrase
A trophy is something you show off to prove you won, like a cup for a winning team. Here the trophies are the meat and hides from the hunt. To parade is to march around so people can watch, like in a parade. Both phrases suggest showing off something you are proud of.
Check the whole paragraph
Paragraph 20 says the hunters were “proud to show off the loads of meat, hides, and other trophies of their hunt.” Then “They paraded around the encampment for all to see how strong their Hunting Power had been.” An encampment is a camp. The paragraph ends “what great hunters they, themselves, were.” So the hunters are proud of how well they did.
Check each choice
- C fits. The hunters are pleased with their success.
- A: no one gives the hunters a prize. The trophies are what they caught, and nothing mentions leading.
- B: The People get much of their own food. They dig roots, pick berries and fish. They don’t depend on the hunters to eat.
- D: The People came for the camas harvest. They greet the hunters when they arrive. They did not gather just for them.
Watch out: D is tempting because the paragraph mentions a “welcoming crowd.” But the two phrases describe the hunters, not the crowd.
Pick the answer
Both phrases show the hunters proudly showing off the results of a good hunt. So the answer is C: the hunters are pleased with their success.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D and B are the closest wrong answers, because they use nearby details: the “welcoming crowd” and the food the hunters bring. But the two phrases are about the hunters themselves. They are “proud to show off” what they caught. That pride is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed (pages 177–178)
Question 39 of 84
2024 Test B English, question 45Passage 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
How does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?
- Aby describing images of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
- Bby illustrating the differences among the various ways humans can affect the natural environment
- Cby criticizing society for taking careless, harmful courses of action against nature
- Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza.
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; the wording does not illustrate different ways people impact the natural environment.
C. CORRECT. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the destructive actions of “the world” (lines 8 and 10) against the mountains—actions such as tunneling “their granite cliffs” (line 11) and destroying “the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14).
D. Incorrect. In the second stanza, the speaker does not describe a positive relationship between the mountains and the people.
Question analysis
This point-of-view question on the poem “Snowy Mountains” asks how the poet develops the speaker’s outlook in the second stanza, lines 8–14. Students must read the stanza on its own, decide what attitude its images and verbs express, and then find the choice that names both that attitude and the way it comes across.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand. Grade 7 point-of-view questions often require weighing subtle or shifting attitudes; this stanza is seven short lines with one consistent stance, carried by strong action words, so it suits grade 6.
- 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 moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 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
The speaker’s anger in lines 8–14 is plain, and most students sense that the stanza blames people. Points are lost to choices that describe the poem’s admiration of the peaks, which belongs to the stanzas around this one, or that list the stanza’s actions without their hostility. Staying inside the seven lines and reading the attitude in verbs such as “makes war” and “Destroys” settles it quickly.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the viewpoint is built, and the answer lies in what the world does in lines 10–14: it “makes war,” “Tunnels,” “Splits,” “Plasters” and “Destroys.” (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The stanza personifies the mountains as victims, ignored and robbed of “the lonely fragments of their peace,” so the criticism of people comes through sympathy for the peaks. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read lines 8–14 by themselves and put the speaker’s attitude into a few words of your own before looking at the choices.
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)
Describes the first and third stanzas, which marvel at the peaks’ height and vastness; in lines 8–14 the “granite cliffs” and “shining sides” appear only as things being damaged.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees that the stanza names several human actions, tunneling, splitting and plastering, but they are all blows in one “war,” not different kinds of effect laid side by side.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads tunnels and advertisements as people putting the mountains to use, a kind of exchange, and misses the hostility of “The world makes war on them.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about point of view. That is how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about the subject. It also asks how the poet shows that feeling. Look only at the second stanza, lines 8 to 14.
Read the second stanza closely
The stanza opens with “But the world heeds them not” (line 8). To heed something is to pay attention to it. Then “the world” starts to act. It “makes war on them,” “Tunnels their granite cliffs,” and “Splits down their shining sides.” It covers them with ads. Finally, in line 14, it “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”
Decide what the speaker thinks
Here “the world” means people in general. People ignore the mountains, yet keep hurting them. Each action is an attack: making war, tunneling, splitting, plastering, destroying. The speaker is clearly on the mountains’ side. By listing these acts, the speaker blames people for being careless and harmful. Blaming someone for what they do wrong is called criticism.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Size and strength fill the first and third stanzas, as in “Higher and still more high” and “Vaster and still more vast.” In lines 8 to 14, the mountains are only victims.
- B does not fit. The stanza lists several acts, but it does not compare them. They are all part of one “war.”
- C fits. The stanza blames society for ignoring and harming the mountains.
- D does not fit. The stanza shows no give-and-take. People only harm the mountains, and the mountains get nothing back.
Choose the answer
The speaker’s view comes through a list of careless, harmful acts that the poem plainly condemns. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because the stanza really does name several ways people affect the mountains. But the speaker is not studying how they differ. Each one is another blow in the same attack, and the speaker is upset by all of them. C names that anger as criticism, which is what the stanza does.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 40 of 84
2024 Test B English, question 48Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
How do the details in the third stanza (lines 15–26) most contribute to the development of a theme of the poem?
- Aby reflecting nature’s capacity to resist change
- Bby showing that nature is capable of influencing human will
- Cby exposing how a lack of awareness leads to nature’s ruin
- Dby explaining why people must respect nature
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the details in the third stanza most contribute to the development of a theme of the poem.
A. CORRECT. In the third stanza, phrases such as “Wilderness still untamed” (line 17), “time-resisting storm-worn stone” (line 22), and “The mountains swing along” (line 23) convey the message that in spite of the destruction described in the second stanza, the mountains manage to maintain their wild magnificence.
B. Incorrect. While the phrase “Barrier broken down” (line 21) conveys the idea that people can have some effect on the natural landscape, it does not convey how nature affects people.
C. Incorrect. The phrase “those who do not need” (line 21) implies a choice to damage nature and not a lack of awareness or understanding.
D. Incorrect. The third stanza is not a call to humanity to respect the mountains but a description of the untamed, welcoming mountains and the joy they provide for those who appreciate them.
Question analysis
Students trace how the details of the third and final stanza of “Snowy Mountains,” lines 15–26, most contribute to developing a theme of the poem. Because the stanza is a single sentence that runs from line 15 to the poem’s last word, students must keep its whole movement in mind before deciding what it adds.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 theme questions usually rest on a few clear details. Here students must hold a twelve-line stanza of inverted, piled-up phrases in mind and pick among four reasonable lessons about nature, a heavier load closer to grade 8.
- 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
- Complex sentences moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 55 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 final stanza holds both endurance and damage, and the stem’s “most” asks which of the two its details build. Students who fix on the broken barrier choose ruin, a reading the second stanza seems to confirm, while those who tally the stanza’s details find untamed wilderness, time-resisting stone and mountains swinging at ease. Because the stanza is one long, inverted sentence, that tally is slow, which is what makes the question hard.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
Lines 15–26 are one sentence in which phrase after phrase, from “Vaster and still more vast” to “storm-worn stone,” comes before its subject, “The mountains,” in line 23. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The message of endurance is carried by personification: the peaks have “shining foreheads,” are “spread by Gods,” and “swing along” the horizon welcoming the mists. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The theme has to be assembled from details scattered over twelve lines, “Wilderness still untamed,” “the future is as was the past,” “time-resisting,” and weighed against the single line of damage. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Read lines 15–26 as one long sentence, find its main subject and verb, and sum up its message in a phrase; then check each choice against the whole stanza, not a single line.
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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Reversed relationship: Cause and effect, or the order of events, turned around.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reversed relationship (King et al., 2004)
Turns the influence around: in this stanza people break down the barrier while the peaks endure, and nothing shows the mountains shaping what people want.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds on line 21’s “Barrier broken down,” the stanza’s one line of damage, and lets it stand for twelve lines that mostly celebrate the mountains as wild and lasting.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
States the lesson a nature poem is expected to teach, that people must respect nature, but the stanza describes the mountains and never tells readers what to do.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about theme, the big message of the poem. You need to see what the details of the third stanza, lines 15 to 26, add to that message. The word “most” matters. Pick the idea that most of the details support, not just one line.
Gather the details in lines 15 to 26
The peaks grow “Vaster and still more vast” (line 15). They are a “Wilderness still untamed” (line 17). For them, the future is “as was the past” (line 18). Their stone is “time-resisting” (line 22). In the last four lines, “The mountains swing along” the sky and welcome the mists. Only line 21 shows damage: the barrier is “broken down.”
Find what the details share
Untamed means still wild, not controlled by people. If the future is the same as the past, the mountains are not changing. Time-resisting means they hold out against the years. And at the end of the stanza, they are still moving along at ease. Nearly every detail shows the same thing. The mountains last and stay wild, which is nature’s power to resist change.
Check each choice
- A fits. Wild, unchanging, time-resisting mountains show nature holding out against change.
- B does not fit. It turns things around. In this stanza, people affect the mountains. Nothing shows the mountains changing what people want.
- C does not fit. Line 21 shows damage, but it is one line out of twelve. The stanza does not end in ruin either: the mountains still swing along and welcome the mists.
- D does not fit. These lines paint a picture of the peaks. They give readers no orders and no reasons to behave a certain way.
Choose the answer
Most of the third stanza shows mountains that stay wild and lasting. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap, because line 21 does show the barrier “broken down,” and the second stanza is full of harm. But this question is about the third stanza, and it asks what the details most add. Most of the other lines there show mountains that are vast, wild and lasting. That builds A, not ruin.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 41 of 84
2024 Test B English, question 49Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
Read lines 23–26 from the poem.
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.
The personification in these concluding lines of the poem suggests that the mountains are
- Agracious hosts who are untroubled by the actions of people.
- Bunaware of their coming destruction.
- Clively entertainers who are amused by the everyday concerns of people.
- Dtoo proud to reveal their pain.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what the personification in the concluding lines of the poem suggests about the mountains.
A. CORRECT. Line 25’s use of the word “Welcoming” suggests that the mountains are kind hosts. Lines 23 and 26, with language such as “The mountains swing along” and “The mists that dance and drive before the sun,” imply the carefree nature of the mountains as they resist the destructive work of humanity.
B. Incorrect. The personification in the lines conveys a sense of optimism and endurance, with no language to suggest coming destruction.
C. Incorrect. Although the lines mention that “the mountains swing along” (line 23) and “the mists . . . dance” (line 26), the personification is used to describe the mountains’ perseverance, rather than to suggest that the mountains are amused by the concerns of others.
D. Incorrect. Although the second stanza develops the idea that the mountains have been mistreated by humans, which might be a source of pain, the concluding lines emphasize the joy and perseverance of the mountains as they “swing along” (line 23) despite significant adversity.
Question analysis
Students interpret the personification in the closing lines of “Snowy Mountains,” lines 23–26, and decide what it suggests about the mountains on the south horizon. They need to see which human actions the poet gives the mountains and what kind of character those actions create, and then choose among four quite different personalities.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 readers routinely interpret personification, and here the four lines are printed with the question. The images are concrete and the choices give the mountains clearly different roles and moods, so careful matching settles it.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences 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, 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
The closing lines are calm and generous, and the task is to turn their personification into a character. Students who give the mists’ dancing to the mountains see performers, but the performer choice also has the mountains amused by people’s concerns, which nothing here supports, so a careful reader rejects it. The remaining losses come from carrying the second stanza’s damage into lines that show only ease and welcome.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The human traits must be sorted by who has them: the mountains “swing along” and are “Welcoming,” while the mists are the ones that “dance and drive before the sun.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
In “Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice / The mists,” the object of “Welcoming” comes after a long phrase and a line break, so who welcomes whom is easy to lose. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Underline each verb or describing word in lines 23–26 that gives the mountains a human trait, then check every choice against all of them.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the mountains’ carefree swinging as ignorance and adds the earlier stanzas’ damage to it, but these four lines are serene and hint at no destruction to come.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Gives the mists’ dancing to the mountains and so makes them performers, then adds amusement at people’s concerns, though here the mountains only swing along and welcome the mists.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines a brave face hiding the wounds of the second stanza, but the lines show the mountains at ease and welcoming, with no sign of pride or pain.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about personification. That is when a writer describes a thing as if it were a person, with human actions or moods. You need to decide what kind of character the mountains seem to be in lines 23 to 26.
Find who does each action
The four lines are one sentence. In line 23, “The mountains swing along” the edge of the sky. Line 25 shows them “Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice.” The guests arrive in line 26: “The mists that dance and drive before the sun.” The mountains do two things here, swing along and welcome. The dancing belongs to the mists.
Decide what the actions suggest
Welcoming guests is what a host does. A host invites others in and makes them comfortable. Gracious means warm and polite. To swing along is to move in a relaxed, easy way. The second stanza was full of harm, yet here the mountains seem calm. They are untroubled, or not worried or upset.
Check each choice
- A fits. The mountains welcome the mists like gracious hosts, and they move at ease.
- B does not fit. Nothing in these lines hints at harm to come. The mood is calm and bright.
- C does not fit. Line 26 gives the dancing to the mists. And nothing shows the mountains laughing at people’s daily worries.
- D does not fit. There is no sign of pride or hidden pain. The mountains seem relaxed and open.
Choose the answer
Like kind hosts, the mountains greet their guests and stay calm. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C may tempt you, because swinging and dancing both sound lively. But check who dances: line 26 gives the dancing to the mists. The mountains are the ones “Welcoming” them, so they are hosts, not entertainers. C also says the mountains are amused by people, and these lines never show that.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 42 of 84
2024 Test B English, question 50Passage 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
What is the effect of comparing groups of bristlecone pines to “a city within a cemetery” (paragraph 2)?
- AIt illustrates that the new tree’s appearance is markedly different from that of mature bristlecone pines.
- BIt emphasizes the new tree’s ability to use resources left by prior generations of bristlecone pines.
- CIt highlights the tree’s capacity for a long life if it is able to survive to maturity.
- DIt reveals that the tree’s dense growth patterns are unusual in arid conditions.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the effect is of comparing groups of bristlecone pines to “a city within a cemetery” (paragraph 2).
A. Incorrect. The reference to “a city within a cemetery” describes how new trees use the remnants of their “ancestors” (paragraph 2) and makes no comment on the appearance of young versus mature trees.
B. CORRECT. The “cemetery” contains “the bones of their ancestors” (paragraph 2)—“ancestors” being earlier generations of bristlecone pines—which provide some of the nutrients that the new trees need.
C. Incorrect. The reference to “a cemetery” is not a comment on how long bristlecone pines can live; rather, it illustrates that the new pines are using remnants of their “ancestors” (paragraph 2) to grow.
D. Incorrect. Although the climate is mentioned in paragraph 2, it is not the reason for the comparison to “a city within a cemetery.” The comment is intended to illustrate how the new trees use nutrients left behind by the old ones.
Question analysis
This figurative language question on Alex Ross’s article about the bristlecone pine, one of the Earth’s oldest trees, asks what effect the author creates by comparing groups of these trees to “a city within a cemetery.” Students must interpret a metaphor in context, and the choices raise ideas the excerpt discusses elsewhere, so they must stay with what this comparison itself conveys.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a metaphor from nearby context is standard grade 7 work. The phrase closes a paragraph whose earlier sentences give the needed context, so the demand is typical, though the excerpt’s rich vocabulary adds some reading load.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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
The comparison closes paragraph 2, and the sentence just before it explains it: the dead wood may hold nutrients and fungi that help seedlings grow. Students who read the image on its own reach for ideas from elsewhere in the excerpt, such as the trees’ great age, the look of young and old trees, or the dry climate. The question rewards reading the metaphor against its neighbors, which makes it fairly quick.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Both halves of the metaphor need decoding: the “city” is the living bristlecones, and the “cemetery” is the dead trunks, limbs and roots littering the slope, “the bones of their ancestors.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The sentence that explains the image, “The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow,” depends on “remnants” and on “harbor” in its less familiar sense of hold. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Work out what the “city” and the “cemetery” each stand for by rereading the sentences just before the phrase, then choose the effect that both halves of the comparison support.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- 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)
Reads the city and the cemetery as young and old trees that look different, a contrast drawn between paragraphs 3 and 6, though here the cemetery is dead wood.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Applies the excerpt’s main idea, the trees’ great age, to this phrase, but a city in a cemetery shows living trees rising from dead ones, not how long they last.
D Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “city” at face value as crowded growth and pairs it with the paragraph’s “arid” conditions, though paragraph 4 says bristlecones grow some distance apart.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about a comparison. In paragraph 2, the author calls groups of bristlecones “a city within a cemetery.” You need to figure out what this picture helps the reader understand about the trees.
Read the sentences around it
Paragraph 2 says the forest floor is “littered with fragments of dead trees—trunks, limbs, roots, and smaller chunks.” Next it says, “The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow.” Then comes the comparison: “Bristlecones rise from the bones of their ancestors—a city within a cemetery.”
Decode the two halves of the picture
Remnants are leftover pieces. To harbor something here means to hold it. Fungi are living things such as mushrooms and molds. A cemetery is a place for the dead, so it stands for the dead wood. A city is full of life, so it stands for the living trees. Their ancestors are the trees that lived and died before them. So new trees grow out of the old ones’ remains and use what those remains hold.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The image is about living trees and dead wood. It says nothing about how young and old trees look.
- B fits. New trees use the nutrients and fungi left behind by earlier generations.
- C does not fit. The excerpt does show that bristlecones live long, but this image is about growing from dead wood.
- D does not fit. A city may sound crowded, but paragraph 4 says the trees “grow some distance from one another.”
Choose the answer
The comparison shows living trees rising from, and feeding on, the remains of their ancestors. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is tempting, because long life is what the whole excerpt is about. But the sentence just before the comparison explains it: the dead wood may hold nutrients that help new trees grow. The picture is about the living drawing on the dead, which is what B says.
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 43 of 84
2024 Test B English, question 54Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees””.
Question
The phrases “clings to life” and “stripped of bark” in paragraph 6 are used to highlight
- Athat the tree is fragile and needs help to avoid becoming extinct.
- Bhow the tree can be misunderstood because of its appearance.
- Chow the tree interests observers with its unusual appearance.
- Dthat the tree manages to survive even when partially fossilized.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks what the phrases “clings to life” and “stripped of bark” in paragraph 6 are used to emphasize.
A. Incorrect. While these two phrases are suggestive of the tree’s fragility, nothing in this paragraph suggests that the tree needs help to avoid extinction.
B. Incorrect. While the tree may be misunderstood to be dead because it is “stripped of bark,” the phrase “clings to life” emphasizes the fact that the tree is not dead but manages to survive.
C. Incorrect. The paragraph says that far from being interested in the tree’s unusual appearance, “most people march past it without giving it a second glance” (paragraph 6).
D. CORRECT. The phrase “clings to life” emphasizes that the tree is still surviving even though it is partially fossilized, as shown by its “marbled hulk stripped of bark” (paragraph 6).
Question analysis
This word meaning question asks what the phrases “clings to life” and “stripped of bark” highlight in paragraph 6 of an article about a forty-five-hundred-year-old bristlecone pine. Students must interpret figurative and descriptive language in context, read the phrases against the rest of the paragraph, and find the idea the author uses them to stress.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what figurative phrases emphasize is everyday grade 7 work. Both phrases sit in one short paragraph of concrete description and the choices are brief, so the demand is typical, though vocabulary such as “unprepossessing” adds some load.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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
One phrase points to death and the other to life, and the question asks what the pair stresses together. The strongest lure explains only the bark phrase: paragraph 6 does say the tree may look dead, so a choice about being misunderstood seems well grounded. Students who give “clings to life” equal weight see a tree that survives even as its trunk turns to fossil.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Clings to life” personifies the tree as holding on by a thread, and “stripped of bark” belongs to the image of a “marbled hulk” like driftwood, so the pair sets death beside survival. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The key’s “partially fossilized” is never said of this tree; it comes from linking “stripped of bark” to the paragraph’s earlier statement that “Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Decide what each phrase suggests by itself, then what the two say when read together within paragraph 6, and choose the idea that both phrases support.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- 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 Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears fragility in “clings to life,” which the phrase does suggest, but adds a need for help against extinction that paragraph 6 never mentions and paragraph 7 plays down.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Rests on a real point of paragraph 6, that the tree “may look dead” at first glance, but “clings to life” stresses its survival, not how people misjudge it.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Assumes an odd-looking tree draws attention, reversing the paragraph, which says “most people march past it without giving it a second glance.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about two phrases in paragraph 6, “clings to life” and “stripped of bark.” You need to see what they point out when you read them together. Look for the idea that both phrases support.
Find the phrases in paragraph 6
In very old bristlecones, “Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils” (paragraph 6). Next the author describes one 4,500-year-old tree “that clings to life near the tourist path” (paragraph 6). Its “trunk is a marbled hulk stripped of bark,” like driftwood. Still, “A ribbon of live bark runs up one side,” carrying water and nutrients to green needles high above.
Work out what each phrase means
To cling to life is to hold on to it hard, like gripping a rope. A fossil here is wood so old and dead that it has hardened, almost like stone. A hulk is a big, empty shell. Stripped of bark means the bark is gone. So one phrase shows a bare, fossil-like trunk, and the other shows a tree that is still alive. Together they show a tree that survives even though much of it has turned to fossil.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The phrase “clings to life” does hint that the tree is fragile. But nothing in paragraph 6 says it needs help to avoid dying out.
- B does not fit. The paragraph says the tree “may look dead.” But “clings to life” stresses that it survives, not that people misjudge it.
- C does not fit. Paragraph 6 says the opposite: “most people march past it without giving it a second glance.”
- D fits. The bare, fossil-like trunk and the tree’s grip on life together show survival.
Choose the answer
The two phrases set a dead-looking trunk beside a tree that refuses to die. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest trap, because the tree really can look dead. But B explains only the bark phrase. The phrase “clings to life” tells you the tree is still living. D uses both phrases: a trunk that has turned to fossil, and a tree that survives anyway.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 44 of 84
2023 Test B English, question 36Passage 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 similar construction of line 1 and line 8 contribute to the meaning of the poem?
- AIt introduces the intended permanence of the structure and the ever-changing fluidity of the water.
- BIt shows that the structure can bridge the gap caused by the water.
- CIt suggests that the inflexible structure has more limitations than the adaptable water does.
- DIt contrasts the stability of the structure with the instability of the water.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contributes to the meaning of the poem.
A. CORRECT. In line 1, the first speaker asserts, “What I am is built: concrete and steel,” and in line 8 the second speaker states, “What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older.” The similarity in the construction of these lines contributes to the meaning of the poem by establishing each speaker’s defining feature.
B. Incorrect. The focus of the lines is defining the speakers’ individuality, not how one speaker resolves a problem created by the other.
C. Incorrect. The structure is not stating in line 1 that it is limited because it was built to stand in place; on the contrary, the structure is stating that this sense of purpose and permanence is its strength.
D. Incorrect. Although in these lines the first speaker asserts “I am . . . built: concrete and steel” (line 1) and the second speaker asserts “I am . . . motion” (line 8), the construction of these lines does not contrast the stability and instability of the speakers. Rather, each speaker highlights its own features.
Question analysis
In “Cross-Purposes,” a poem in which a human-made structure and a body of water take turns speaking, line 1 and line 8 open the first two stanzas with the same words, “What I am is.” This question asks how that similar construction contributes to the poem’s meaning, and several choices describe the two speakers in nearly the same terms, so every word counts.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 A typical grade 7 poetry question asks what a repeated phrase emphasizes. This one asks what two parallel lines from personified speakers set up, and the choices turn on abstract words with fine shades of meaning, which goes beyond grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 71 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Students who notice that both lines begin “What I am is” usually see the opposition between something built and something moving, and then face two choices that state it in near-synonyms. The deciding question is whether either speaker is being judged, and lines 1 and 8 only declare, each speaker naming its nature with pride. Words like “instability,” “limitations” and “bridge the gap” bring in criticism or later stanzas, so every word of a choice has to be weighed against the two lines alone.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about stability both set the built structure against moving water; they part only on “instability,” which turns the water’s motion into a weakness the proud water never admits. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the shared opening “What I am is” contributes, so students must see that it gives each speaker a matching self-definition, “built” in line 1 and “motion” in line 8. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The structure never says it is a bridge; students must infer that from “concrete and steel” and the traffic crossing its “broad back,” then read both personified speakers’ boasts as self-portraits to compare. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices turn on abstract words the poem never uses, “permanence,” “fluidity,” “instability,” “inflexible” and “adaptable,” and their shades of judgment decide the question. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Set line 1 beside line 8 and name, in a word of your own, what each speaker says it is; then test every word of each choice against those two lines alone.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- 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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps ahead to the fifth stanza’s “We stitch across the rip you make,” but lines 1 and 8 only introduce the two speakers, and neither mentions a gap or crossing it.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Accepts the fair labels “inflexible” and “adaptable” and draws a verdict from them, that the structure is more limited, which the water argues later but lines 1 and 8 never state.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure’s stability right, but “instability” makes the water’s motion a flaw, while line 8 offers motion as the water’s defining strength, followed by its claim to be older than anything.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is about the poem’s structure, or how it is put together. Lines 1 and 8 are built the same way. You need to see what that matching pattern adds to the poem’s meaning.
Set the two lines side by side
Line 1: “What I am is built: concrete and steel.”
Line 8: “What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older”Both lines begin with the same four words: “What I am is.” Line 1 opens the first stanza, and line 8 opens the second. (A stanza is a group of lines, like a paragraph in a poem.) So each speaker begins by naming what it is.
Name what each speaker is
The first speaker is a structure, most likely a bridge, since traffic and trains “make their way across my broad back.” It is “built” of concrete and steel, so it is meant to stand for many years. The second speaker is water. It is “motion,” always flowing and changing shape. The matching lines introduce the two speakers side by side: one made to last, one always moving.
Check each choice
- A is right. Permanence means lasting without change. Fluidity means flowing easily. These words fit “built” and “motion.”
- B is wrong. A gap first shows up in line 33: “We stitch across the rip you make.” Lines 1 and 8 say nothing about it.
- C is wrong. Inflexible means unable to bend. Adaptable means able to change. But lines 1 and 8 never call either speaker more limited. In line 2, the structure even brags, “I defy gravity.”
- D is wrong. Instability means being shaky or likely to fail. It turns the water’s motion into a flaw. Yet the water boasts that it is “older / than anything else you know.”
Watch out: D sets up the same pairing as A. The one word that sinks it is “instability.”
Choose the answer
The matching openings introduce a structure built to last and water that never stops moving. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. It also pairs the steady structure with the moving water. But “instability” suggests the water is weak or can’t be trusted. The water is proud of its motion. A describes both speakers the way they see themselves.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
Question 45 of 84
2023 Test B English, question 38Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
The use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys the idea that the
- Aforms water can take are less diverse than the types of structures that exist.
- Bnumber of human-made structures is rapidly increasing.
- Cwater passes under many similar-looking structures as it flows.
- Dstructure is powerful because it is one of many.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which idea the use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys in the poem.
A. Incorrect. Although in line 29 the structure refers to itself as “being rebuilt” or taking on new forms, this idea is expressed to reinforce the idea that the structure’s presence is eternal (“a friend of time,” line 30). The use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 does suggest that a variety of structures exist, but no comparison is drawn to suggest that the varieties of structures are more diverse than the forms of water.
B. Incorrect. While the use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys the idea that structures can be replicated by being built, it does not convey the idea that the number of human-made structures is rapidly increasing.
C. Incorrect. Although in line 33 the structure states, “We stitch across the rip you make,” suggesting that water passes under structures, the use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 does not convey the idea that the structures that the water passes under are similar-looking.
D. CORRECT. The use of the words “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32 conveys the idea that the structure is powerful because it is one of many and because these structures “stitch across the rip” (line 33) that water makes.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks what idea the structure in “Cross-Purposes” conveys when it calls other structures its “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers” in lines 31–32. The words come in the fifth stanza, where the structure takes up the water’s word “clumsy,” so students must decide what this family language adds to the structure’s side of the exchange.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a metaphor in a poem is standard grade 7 work, and the family words themselves are simple. Students must still decide what the comparison means coming from a personified structure in the middle of an argument, a typical grade 7 step.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 57 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The family words answer the water’s taunt in the stanza before, that the structure’s makers will replace it with “yet another clumsy structure,” and the structure turns replacement into kinship. Students who read lines 31–32 alone may stop at the picture of a family, and the strongest wrong choice reads that family as look-alikes. The point arrives only in the next lines, where the structures act as one to bind the water, which makes their number a source of strength.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The structure calls other structures “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers,” a family metaphor followed at once by a sewing one, “We stitch across the rip you make,” so two figures must be read together. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Nothing in lines 31–32 says the structure is powerful; students must infer it from the switch to “We” in the lines that follow, where the many structures together “bind” and “sew” the water. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The choice about similar-looking structures shares the right one’s idea of many structures; it differs in what their number means, a matter of looks rather than strength. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Reread the whole fifth stanza, not just lines 31–32, and say what the structure is arguing there; then choose the idea that the family words add to that argument.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- 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 Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Notes that rebuilding and siblings imply many kinds of structures but adds a comparison with the forms water takes, which the fifth stanza never draws.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes rebuilding and a whole family of siblings as a sign that structures are multiplying fast, though rebuilding replaces one structure with another over time and adds none.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “siblings” as structures that resemble one another, as real siblings might, and adds the water flowing under them from line 33, but the family words stress kinship and number, not looks.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about figurative language, words that mean more than their plain meaning. In lines 31–32 the structure calls other structures “siblings” and “my sisters and brothers.” You need to decide what idea those family words give.
Read what the water said first
The family words answer an insult. In lines 26–28 the water says, “Those who made you will break you, / in time, replacing you with yet another / clumsy structure.” Clumsy means awkward and poorly made. The water means the structure won’t last.
Read the structure’s reply
In lines 29–32, the structure turns the insult around. Being rebuilt makes it “a friend of time.” It has “siblings,” other structures, which it calls “my sisters and brothers.” Then, in lines 33–35, it switches from “I” to “We.” It says, “We stitch across the rip you make.” It adds, “We bind you up. We sew you.” To stitch is to sew. The rip is the gap water cuts through the land.
Work out the idea
A family is a group that sticks together. Working as one, the many structures “bind” the water, like thread holding cloth. One bridge may be replaced, but the family goes on. So being one of many is what makes the structure strong.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The lines never compare kinds of structures with forms of water.
- B is wrong. Being rebuilt swaps one structure for another. It doesn’t mean their number is growing fast.
- C is wrong. Real siblings may look alike, but that isn’t the point here. The family words show the structures are many and connected.
- D is right. The “We” lines show the many structures acting together, which gives them power.
Watch out: C is tempting if you picture siblings who look alike. Read on to line 35 to see what the family does.
Choose the answer
The family words show the structure gets its strength from being one of many. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. It also sees many structures, and in line 33 they do cross the water. But C makes the family words about looks. Lines 33–35 make them about strength: “We bind you up.” That is why D fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 46 of 84
2022 Test A English, question 48Passage 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
How do lines 23–28 contribute to a central idea of the poem?
- AThey suggest that the speaker is aware of what has been lost in the winter.
- BThey imply that the birds sing the most in the summer.
- CThey reveal that the birds are subject to the cycles of nature.
- DThey emphasize that the speaker enjoys observing nature.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
This question asks how the description of the “bird talk” contributes to the central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. The birds’ conversations may center around “who is here” and “who is not here and who used to be here” (lines 23–24), but the lines do not convey that the speaker feels a sense of loss, only that the birds have such figurative conversations in a direct way.
B. Incorrect. Though the birds are described by the speaker as “talking bird talk” (line 22), it is not suggested that this talk occurs more frequently in one season versus another, only that it occurs year after year because birds encounter seasonal changes as a constant.
C. CORRECT. In these lines, the birds gather, and some birds are not present but “used to be here” (line 24). These birds have likely succumbed to another of nature’s cycles: death, which affects all living things.
D. Incorrect. Though the description in these lines is a vivid one and includes anthropomorphism in the birds asking about “who is here” (line 23) and “counting up last year as against / this year” (lines 25–26), it gives no indication of the speaker’s level of enjoyment in observing nature.
Question analysis
This poetry question points to lines 23–28 of Carl Sandburg’s “Bird Talk,” where birds sitting in circles talk over who is here, who is not here and who won’t be here next year, and asks how those lines contribute to a central idea of the poem. Students must untangle Sandburg’s long, loosely joined lines and connect the birds’ chatter to the rest of the poem.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students often explain what a stanza adds to a poem. Here six lines of loosely punctuated free verse must first be decoded and then tied to a central idea the question leaves unnamed, more than typical grade 7 poetry 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 major
- Complex sentences moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 57 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation said a quoted phrase was in the lines the question asks about, though it comes just before them; 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 lines are hard to untangle, and the meaning that matters, that some birds have died or gone and others will by next year, is only implied. Students who catch the sense of loss can still go wrong by handing it to the speaker and tying it to the first stanza’s winter, while others fall back on safe statements about enjoying nature or summer birdsong. The question rewards reading the birds’ count of last year, this year and next year as a cycle that repeats.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
The lines never name death or the seasons; students must work out that birds “who used to be here” and birds “who won’t be here next year” stand for losses that come round year after year. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
Lines 23–28 are one unfinished sentence of stacked “if” clauses, “as to who is here / and as to who is not here,” with a count of “this year as against next” broken across two lines. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The birds are pictured as a meeting that will “ask in their circles” and keep a yearly tally, so the census has to be read as the speaker’s playful image of what nature does. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks what the lines add to “a central idea” without naming one, so students must first decide which idea of the poem the birds’ tally serves. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Put lines 23–28 into plain words, noting who is talking and what they keep track of, then ask what that adds to the poem as a whole before you look at the choices.
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.
- 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)
Rightly hears loss in “who used to be here,” but gives that awareness to the speaker and pins it on winter, though the birds keep the count and look ahead to next year too.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “bird chatter” as song and joins it to the poem’s summer setting, but the lines compare who is present from year to year, not how much birds sing in each season.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Remembers the first stanza’s pleasure in dandelions, buttercups and talking leaves, but lines 23–28 are given over to the birds’ count and show nothing of the speaker’s enjoyment.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The question asks about lines 23–28. The DOE’s explanation of Option B begins “Though the birds are described in these lines by the speaker as ‘talking bird talk’ (line 22).” That phrase is in line 22, just before the lines the question asks about, as the explanation’s own line number shows. The site drops “in these lines,” so the sentence now says that the speaker describes the birds as “talking bird talk” (line 22). The reason Option B is wrong is unchanged: the poem does not suggest that the birds talk more in one season than in another. The answer, C, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what lines 23–28 add to a central idea of the poem. A central idea is a big message the whole poem gets across. So you need to do two things. First, put the six lines into plain words. Then see how they connect to the rest of the poem.
Read lines 20 to 29
Lines 20–22 show birds that “talk there, sitting in circles talking bird talk.” Lines 23–24 say they ask “as to who is here / and as to who is not here and who used to be here.” Lines 25–28 say they count “this year as against next / year.” They talk “about who is here / this year who won’t be here next year.” Line 29 ends: “We shall never blame the birds.”
Put the lines in plain words
The birds are pictured like people at a meeting, taking a count. Some birds from last year are missing. They may have died or flown off. And some birds here now won’t be back next year. This happens again every year. Some birds arrive and some are lost. A pattern that repeats like this is called a cycle. The seasons are a cycle too.
Connect the lines to the poem
The first stanza (group of lines) shows a pattern that repeats too. Winter is over, and the leaves say again that summer is beginning. Line 18 says they spoke “as they said one time before.” So a central idea is that nature moves in cycles that come back again and again. Lines 23–28 show that the birds’ lives follow those cycles too. To be “subject to” something is to be ruled by it.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The birds keep the count, not the speaker (the voice talking in the poem). The lines never mention winter, and they look ahead to next year too.
- B does not fit. Line 22 calls it “talking bird talk,” but lines 23–28 never compare seasons or say when birds sing most.
- C fits. Birds come and go year after year, as part of nature’s cycles.
- D does not fit. These lines are about the birds’ count. They show nothing about whether the speaker enjoys watching.
Choose the answer
Watch out: A is the most tempting, because “who used to be here” does hint at loss. But the birds are the ones counting, and the count goes on every year. The lines show a cycle, not one sad winter. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because the lines do hint at loss. But it is the birds who count who is missing, not the speaker. The lines also look ahead to next year instead of back at winter. That yearly count of who comes and who goes shows birds living by nature’s cycles, which is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Bird Talk” as printed (page 32)
Question 47 of 84
2022 Test B English, question 11Passage 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
Read this sentence from paragraph 1.
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.
The words “twisted,” “doomed,” and “unrelenting” most affect the sentence by
- Aemphasizing that discarded devices are condemned to an unfortunate fate.
- Bexpressing a sense of desperation about the amount of waste from discarded devices.
- Cimplying that discarded devices are often disposed of in an inappropriate manner.
- Dsuggesting a feeling of doubt about solving the problem of discarded devices.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks about the effect of the words “twisted,” “doomed,” and “unrelenting” on the last sentence of paragraph 1.
A. CORRECT. Paragraph 1 first describes the problem of discarded devices in terms of the scope of the problem (“about 6 million pounds . . . processed monthly”). The author then elaborates on the problem with a vivid description of the actual process; it is unfortunate that this process is necessary because, even though they are relatively new, these devices are no longer useful. These particular words emphasize the process of a once-useful device becoming a part of a “twisted . . . movie,” and “doomed” to be recycled by going through an “unrelenting” or never-ending conveyor belt.
B. Incorrect. In the excerpt, the author does express concern about the amount of waste from discarded devices, but this particular sentence is about what happens to the devices and the perspective that one has while watching the devices as they are being processed. In this description, the once-beloved devices have been destroyed, with only some useful parts being retained.
C. Incorrect. Although there is an indication in paragraphs 4–6 that some obsolete devices are disposed of inappropriately, this description is of an appropriate disposal—a recycling center developed specifically for these types of devices.
D. Incorrect. At this juncture in the excerpt, the author has not yet mentioned solving the problem of discarded devices; rather, the author is describing what happens to discarded devices that are appropriately recycled.
Question analysis
This word-choice question quotes the last sentence of the opening paragraph of “The World Has an E-Waste Problem,” in which old gadgets ride a conveyor belt into a shredder at a recycling plant. Students decide how the words “twisted,” “doomed” and “unrelenting” most affect the sentence. Each choice reads something negative into the words, so their connotations have to be matched to what this sentence describes.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how word choices shape a sentence’s meaning and tone is everyday grade 7 work. The three words are quoted and sit in one sentence, though it comes from adult magazine prose and its comparison has a word cut by an ellipsis.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 760 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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 three words share one job: they cast once-loved gadgets as victims on a one-way ride to the shredder. Each wrong choice keeps the gloom but points it somewhere else, at the amount of waste, at improper dumping, or at the chances of fixing the problem. Students who ask what the words describe in this one sentence, rather than what the article worries about overall, settle on the gadgets’ fate quickly.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The sentence likens the plant to “a twisted . . . movie,” with a word cut by the ellipsis, and the effect lives in connotation: “doomed” and “unrelenting” turn gadgets on a conveyor belt into victims bound for a shredder. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Unrelenting” has to be known as never letting up, and the right choice restates “doomed” as “condemned to an unfortunate fate,” so the match is one of meaning, not of sound. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Ask what the three words describe in this one sentence and what feeling they share, then check each choice against the sentence itself rather than against the article as a whole.
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.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears despair in the grim words and ties “unrelenting” to the six million pounds a month, but the sentence follows the gadgets’ fate on the belt and voices no desperation about volume.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Takes “twisted” as a sign of wrongdoing and recalls the trash and landfills of paragraphs 4–6, though this scene is a recycling plant, the proper place for old devices.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears hopelessness in “doomed” and stretches it to the whole e-waste problem, though the sentence never turns to solutions, which the excerpt reaches only in paragraph 7.
Working it out, step by step
Find what the question asks
This is a word-choice question. Three words in one sentence work as a team: “twisted,” “doomed” and “unrelenting.” You need to find the feeling they create and what they describe. Stay inside this one sentence, not the whole article.
Read the last sentence of paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 ends: “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.” The dots (. . .) mean some words were left out. A conveyor belt is a moving belt that carries things along, like the one at a grocery checkout. The “scene” is the recycling plant.
Work out each word
Each word adds something dark.
- Twisted means strange in a creepy way. A twisted movie is a dark one.
- Doomed means sure to meet a bad end, with no escape.
- Unrelenting means it never stops or slows down.
Put together, the gadgets sound like movie characters on a one-way ride. The belt keeps moving, and the shredder waits at the end.
Test the four choices
- A fits. “Condemned to an unfortunate fate” means sentenced to a bad ending. That is just what “doomed” says.
- B does not fit. The amount of waste, 6 million pounds a month, comes earlier. This sentence follows the gadgets, and no one sounds desperate.
- C does not fit. This is a recycling plant, the right place for old devices. Trash and landfills come later, in paragraphs 4–6.
- D does not fit. The sentence says nothing about fixing the problem. Solutions first come up in paragraph 7.
Pick the answer
Watch out: B is tempting because the words sound gloomy, and the plant handles a lot of waste. But gloom is not desperation, which means feeling out of hope. These words make you feel sorry for the gadgets themselves. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. The paragraph does show a huge pile of waste. But “doomed” and “unrelenting” point at what happens to each gadget: it rides the belt to the shredder and can’t get off. That is a sad fate, which is A, not a worry about how much waste there is.
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 48 of 84
2022 Test B English, question 25Passage 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
The phrases “166,000 floating solar panels are strung together atop the rippling surface of a lake” and “an immense blanket of renewable energy” in paragraph 1 convey that the solar-power farm
- Aproduces the maximum amount of energy possible for its size.
- Bmeets and exceeds the energy needs of the area.
- Cblends in with the surrounding landscape.
- Dproduces a large amount of energy and is in an unusual location.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for an explanation of the effect of two phrases in paragraph 1 that describe the solar panels on the lake.
A. Incorrect. The phrases describe the size of the solar panels, but they do not provide any information about the amount of energy that the solar panels produce in relation to the size of the solar farm.
B. Incorrect. Despite the descriptions of the size of the solar-power farm, the phrases quoted do not indicate how much power is produced by the farm or how much energy is required by the surrounding area.
C. Incorrect. The description of the floating solar panels on the “rippling surface of a lake” provides a sense of the landscape, but it does not necessarily suggest that the solar panels blend into the landscape.
D. CORRECT. The number of solar panels suggests that the solar farm produces a great deal of energy, and the description of the solar panels floating on the lake shows that the solar farm is in a unique or unusual location.
Question analysis
This word-choice question quotes two phrases from the first paragraph of “Going Solar in China,” an article about a solar-power farm in China’s Anhui province. Students decide what the description of 166,000 panels on a lake and “an immense blanket of renewable energy” conveys about the farm. The language is vivid but plain, so each choice must be checked against what the phrases actually say.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Interpreting the effect of descriptive phrases is grade 6 and 7 work. Both phrases are quoted from one short opening paragraph in everyday words, so one careful reading is enough, lighter than most grade 7 word-choice tasks.
- 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 13, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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
The right choice has two parts, and each phrase supplies one: the count of panels and the “immense blanket” give the amount of energy, the lake gives the setting. Students who catch only the energy part look for a choice about output and find two that overstate it, one claiming the most possible and one claiming more than the area needs. Checking that both phrases are accounted for leaves the only choice that pairs the energy with the farm’s place on the water.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Neither phrase says the location is unusual; that has to be read from panels floating “atop the rippling surface of a lake,” where paragraph 3 says panels usually sit on rooftops or in open fields. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“An immense blanket of renewable energy” is a metaphor for size and coverage, and students must take from it a large amount of energy, not a smooth covering or a measure of efficiency. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Decide what a reader learns about the farm from each quoted phrase, then test each choice by finding the exact words in the phrases that would support it.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Gets the sense of large output from “immense” and pushes it to the most energy possible for the farm’s size, an efficiency claim the phrases never make.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads on to “strong enough to power 15,000 homes” and concludes the farm meets and exceeds the area’s needs, though the passage never says what the area needs.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Pictures a blanket lying flat on the “rippling surface” and takes the panels as blending into the lake, when the image stresses how much they cover.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out the task
This asks what two phrases from paragraph 1 tell you about the solar-power farm. A solar-power farm is a large group of solar panels that turn sunlight into electricity. Each phrase gives you a clue. The right answer must use both clues.
Read the first phrase
The first phrase is “166,000 floating solar panels are strung together atop the rippling surface of a lake.” Atop means on top of. Strung together means joined, like beads on a string. Rippling means moving in small waves. The panels are not on land. They float on water.
Read the second phrase
The second phrase calls the farm “an immense blanket of renewable energy.” Immense means huge. Renewable energy comes from a source that does not run out, like sunlight. Comparing the farm to a blanket shows it spread across the lake. So this phrase is about size and the energy it gives.
Put the two clues together
The huge number of panels and the word “immense” point to a lot of energy. The lake points to an unusual place. Paragraph 3 backs this up. It says panels are “typically placed on rooftops or in open fields.” Typically means usually. A lake is not the usual spot.
Test the four choices
- A does not fit. The phrases show size. They don’t compare the farm’s power with the most it could make.
- B does not fit. The article never says how much energy the area needs, so you can’t tell if the farm goes beyond it.
- C does not fit. A blanket covers things, but nothing says the panels blend in or are hard to notice.
- D fits. It names both clues: lots of energy and a spot on the water.
Pick the answer
Watch out: A and B both catch the idea of lots of energy, but each claims more than the phrases say. Only D also uses the lake. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B comes closest, because the sentence ends by saying the farm could power 15,000 homes. But that number doesn’t tell you what the area needs. D sticks to what the phrases show: a huge farm that makes a lot of energy, floating on a lake instead of sitting on land.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Going Solar in China” as printed (page 174)
Question 49 of 84
2022 Test B English, question 43Passage 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
Read lines 25–26 from the poem.
until everything we think we know
bangs against everything else we know.
The lines help develop a central idea in the poem by suggesting that
- Acreative methods for researching particles are frequently being invented.
- Bongoing research continues to add to our knowledge of particles.
- Cour understanding of particles is limited by the equipment available to study them.
- Dcompeting theories about particles provoke scientific debate.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how lines 25–26 help develop a central idea in the poem.
A. Incorrect. Lines 25–26 illustrate the collision of old and new information about particles, but they do not describe “creative methods” that are currently being invented to research subatomic particles.
B. CORRECT. The lines “until everything we think we know / bangs against everything else we know” (lines 25–26) are about how the old knowledge about particles interacts with newfound knowledge.
C. Incorrect. While lines 20–22 describe the Large Hadron Collider as “long, / deep circular tunnels beneath the surface / of this Earth” where scientists “race particles,” lines 25–26 refer to the collision of old and new ideas about particles, not the limitations of the Large Hadron Collider.
D. Incorrect. Lines 25–26 focus on what “we think we know” about subatomic particles and how new discoveries challenge “everything else we know.” However, the challenge is not a result of scientists debating one another but rather what the Large Hadron Collider reveals about particles.
Question analysis
Lines 25–26 of the poem “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” end a long sentence about racing particles through underground tunnels: “until everything we think we know / bangs against everything else we know.” This question asks what central idea the lines help develop. Students must interpret a figurative collision, and several choices offer reasonable-sounding ideas about how science works.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students interpret figurative lines and connect them to a central idea, but these two lines play on the collisions in a particle accelerator, state nothing directly, and end a seven-line sentence, above 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 69 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A missing period in the explanation was restored.
- 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 lines use the collider’s own action, a crash, as a picture of what the research does to knowledge, and nothing in them says plainly what that is. The strongest pull reads the crash as people clashing, rival theories in a debate, which turns the image into a quarrel the poem never describes. Students who follow the sentence into the next stanza, where new particles appear in the explosion, see that the collisions add to what we know.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
“Bangs against” moves the collision from the particles racing in the tunnel to “everything we think we know,” so the lines must be read as a picture of knowledge being tested, not of machines. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
What the collision does to knowledge is never stated; it follows from “until,” which makes the crash the goal of the work, and from the next stanza, where the quarks and leptons “appear.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Lines 25–26 close a seven-line sentence that starts at “Or we can build long,” runs through a parenthesis about racing cars, and only then reaches its “until” clause. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Read lines 20–26 as one sentence, decide what is literally colliding in the tunnels, then ask what the poet suggests is happening to “everything we think we know.”
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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Recalls the two ways of searching in lines 17–22, deep-space wavelengths and underground tunnels, though lines 25–26 describe what the collisions do to knowledge, not methods being invented.
C Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Draws on the familiar idea that science is held back by its tools, though the poem presents the long, deep tunnels as a way of finding out, not a limit.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads knowledge banging against knowledge as rival theories argued over by scientists, though the lines echo the particles’ collisions and no debate or competing camps appear in the poem.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option B ends “…are about how the old knowledge about particles interacts with newfound knowledge” with no closing period. The site adds the period.
Working it out, step by step
Make sense of the question
This asks what lines 25–26 add to a central idea of the poem. The lines use a picture, not plain facts. So first see what is really happening in the lines before them. Then ask what the picture means.
Read the whole sentence
Lines 25–26 end a long sentence that starts in line 20: “Or we can build long, / deep circular tunnels beneath the surface / of this Earth and race particles.” The racing goes on “until everything we think we know / bangs against everything else we know.” In the real machine, particles speed around and smash into each other.
Work out the picture
The poet swaps the particles for “everything we think we know.” So it is our knowledge that crashes. Picture old ideas being tested against new findings. The word “until” shows the crash is the goal of the racing. The next stanza shows the result. In the explosion, tiny particles “appear,” and the poet names them. Each crash teaches scientists more.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The ways of searching come earlier, in lines 17–22. Nothing says new methods are often invented.
- B fits. The research keeps going, and each crash adds to what we know about particles.
- C does not fit. The tunnels are shown as a way to find things out, not as a limit.
- D does not fit. The banging stands for particles colliding. No scientists argue, and no sides compete.
Give the answer
Watch out: D is tempting, because things banging together can sound like people clashing in a debate, an argument between sides. But the poem never shows anyone arguing. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, since “bangs against” can sound like an argument. But the crash copies what the particles do in the tunnel. Right after it, particles appear in the explosion. The lines picture knowledge growing as the experiments go on, which is B, not a fight between theories.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed (pages 32–33)
Question 50 of 84
2022 Test B English, question 47Uses the passage above: “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything”.
Question
The last stanza (lines 33–44) concludes the poem by emphasizing which central idea?
- AThe exciting work that physicists conduct provides information about fundamental aspects of the universe.
- BThe unusual work of physicists is carried out in unconventional locations and in special conditions.
- CPhysicists are learning about the unpredictable behavior of particles that break up matter in the universe.
- DPhysicists enthusiastically share the discoveries their research yields because most people can relate to their findings.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks which central idea is emphasized in the last stanza (lines 33–44).
A. CORRECT. Throughout the poem, the speaker describes how everything in our universe and in our everyday lives is made up of these tiny particles. The last stanza allows us to picture the scientists working “in the darkness” (line 40), jotting down notes. Phrases like “wild dancing” (line 43) and “combusting to the music” (line 44) describe the activity of the particles and communicate the idea that the findings are exciting.
B. Incorrect. While the Large Hadron Collider is in an unconventional location that is important in the poem, it is the only location described in the poem: “it is only down there / in the darkness—in the vast garage” (lines 39–40). While the darkness is a special condition, the poem does not describe other conditions where the same type of research is being carried out. The poem does mention that “we can listen for it / in the wavelengths from deep space, / talking back to us from unimaginable / distances” (lines 17–20), but this description implies the use of a tool (a satellite), not a location.
C. Incorrect. The last stanza states that “The one thing we know for sure / is that they spin” (lines 33–34). This detail is one aspect of the particles’ behavior that is known; therefore, the particles are not completely unpredictable. In addition, the poem never describes the particles breaking up matter in the universe; the poem describes only their movements and collisions.
D. Incorrect. While the “physicists jot down / what they can, whatever seems most real” (lines 41–42), the research they share with the world is complicated and difficult to understand, making it unlikely that their findings are relatable to most people.
Question analysis
This central-idea question asks which idea the last stanza of “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” (lines 33–44) emphasizes as it concludes the poem. The stanza moves from the particles’ spin and gravity to a pencil and Jupiter, then to physicists in an underground “vast garage,” so students must follow long, winding sentences and decide what the ending stresses.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Identifying the central idea a closing stanza emphasizes is grade 7 work. This twelve-line stanza mixes physics with images of dancing and music in long sentences, but each choice can be tested against it directly, 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 13, 73 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 stanza joins two ideas: what the particles do for the whole world, holding a pencil together and apart from Jupiter, and the excitement of glimpsing them. The wrong choices each seize a vivid piece: the dark garage becomes the point, the wild dancing becomes unpredictable destruction, the pencil becomes findings people can relate to. Students who ask what the stanza says the research reveals, and how it sounds, pair the importance with the excitement.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The stanza’s second sentence runs from “This is how gravity” through three clauses to “Jupiter,” and its last builds to “it is only down there … that they let us perceive,” broken by a clause between dashes. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The particles’ “wild dancing,” “combusting to the music they make,” and the lab as “the vast garage” have to be read for excitement and wonder, not as reports of chaos or of a strange workplace. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The choice about physicists learning how particles behave mirrors the right one, physicists gaining knowledge of the universe, and parts from it only on what is learned, unpredictable particles breaking matter up. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Paraphrase the last stanza sentence by sentence, ask which idea it shares with the rest of the poem, and check every part of each choice against the lines.
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.
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Fixes on the setting, “down there / in the darkness” of “the vast garage,” and makes the unusual workplace the central idea, though the stanza stresses what the physicists perceive there.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the “wild dancing” and “combusting” into unpredictable behavior that breaks matter up, though the one sure thing is that the particles spin, which holds things together and keeps them separate.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links “the pencil in your hand” to findings people can relate to and imagines physicists eagerly sharing them, though the stanza shows them only jotting down what they can.
Working it out, step by step
Find what the question wants
This asks which central idea the last stanza stresses as the poem ends. A central idea is a main message of the whole poem. The stanza is lines 33–44. Put it in plain words a piece at a time. Then see which choice matches all of it.
Read lines 33–39
The stanza opens, “The one thing we know for sure / is that they spin.” “They” are the tiny particles. Their spin is “how gravity / enters our world.” Gravity is the pull that keeps your feet on the ground. The spin keeps “the pencil in your hand” in one piece. It also keeps it separate from the planet Jupiter. So these particles shape how the whole universe works.
Read lines 39–44
We can see the particles only “down there / in the darkness,” in the huge underground lab the poet calls “the vast garage.” There, physicists, scientists who study matter and energy, “jot down / what they can.” The particles show “their wild dancing, / combusting to the music they make.” Combusting means bursting into flame. These images are lively and thrilling.
Put the stanza in one sentence
The stanza joins two ideas. The particles explain basic facts about the universe, such as gravity and why things hold together. And the physicists who study them get to glimpse something exciting. Fundamental means basic, at the root of everything. So the stanza stresses exciting work that reveals fundamental parts of the universe.
Check each choice
- A fits. It joins the exciting work with what the work reveals about the universe.
- B does not fit. The dark lab is just the setting. Most of the stanza is about what spin does and how thrilling the sight is.
- C does not fit. The one sure fact is that particles spin. “Apart” in line 36 means kept separate, like the pencil and Jupiter, not broken into pieces.
- D does not fit. The physicists only take notes. The stanza never shows them sharing findings or says most people relate to them.
Settle on the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because “wild dancing” and “combusting” sound out of control. But those words show excitement, not particles breaking matter apart. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, because the particles do seem wild. But the stanza begins with what is known for sure: they spin, and that spin holds our world together and apart. C turns a thrilling dance into destruction. A keeps both parts of the stanza: exciting research that shows how the universe is put together.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 51 of 84
2021 Test A English, question 37Passage Ode to Fireworks
Ode to Fireworks
In autumn my mother drove us to the edge of the field
where the fair was set up year after year:
the carousel, the bumper cars, the long, low sheds
filled with prizewinning animals.
We—my sister, my cousin, and I—were ready for bed,
already in our pajamas. This was a treat we waited
all year for. We waited in the darkness
for the first low, dull thwumps, like someone
beating an old, filthy rug hung on a wash line.
Then we counted the seconds between the lightning
and thunder, as we also used to do, until the sky
lit up: red, blue, green, gold. In my mind’s eye
I can still see the straggly, ancient oak whose branches
reached up past the exhibition halls, silhouetted
against the spectrum of stars that cascaded behind it.
It was one thing to look up into the sky
and imagine yourself in it or to make out pictures
among the clouds, which my sister liked to do.
No, I would tell her, that cloud
does not look like an elephant, a hat, an umbrella.
But it was another thing to see
the sky at night written upon
with those jewels. (We lived in the country:
night was night.) All around us, crickets
stridulated in the stubble of what had been
somebody’s cornfield, their song rising and falling.
You could smell winter on the air’s edge.
Now, in the city, when the sky dips into shadow
at New Year’s or on the Fourth of July, I find myself
craning my neck upward at odd moments.
The city sky is always lit up. This is where we live now,
and it is how we live now, awash in light
of every hue. Everything is a constant celebration:
picking up washing at the cleaner’s or stopping by
the corner market for a loaf of heavy bread.
And the music around me is the music of people,
their voices rising and falling in a hundred languages.
But beneath the yellowish glow deep in the sky
of all our city lights pelting out into the universe,
I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping
across the ridged field, as I kept waiting for those
childhood bursts, watching as they escorted us home.
Question
What impact does the phrase “Everything is a constant celebration” (line 33) have in the poem?
- AIt reveals that the speaker finds the city more pleasurable than the country.
- BIt suggests that the persistent brightness of the city can be overwhelming to the speaker.
- CIt implies that what is normal in the city was unusual in the country.
- DIt emphasizes the hectic pace of daily life in the city.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks what impact the phrase “Everything is a constant celebration” (line 33) has in the poem.
A. Incorrect. The speaker describes a sense of happiness and contentment in both the city and the country and does not indicate that one setting is more pleasurable than the other.
B. Incorrect. The word “celebration” has a positive association and does not imply that the speaker is overwhelmed in the city. Throughout the third stanza (lines 28–42), the speaker conveys appreciation for the elements of the city that make it different from the country (“And the music around me is the music of people, / their voices rising and falling in a hundred languages” [lines 36–37]).
C. CORRECT. From the speaker’s perspective, the constant light (“awash in light” [line 32]) contributes to the speaker’s feeling that, in the city, celebratory fireworks are ever present. In comparison, fireworks lit up the country sky only for celebratory occasions or annual events (“In autumn my mother drove us to the edge of the field / where the fair was set up year after year” [lines 1–2]).
D. Incorrect. While the speaker observes many things going on in the city at a given moment, the “constant celebration” in line 33 is intended to convey a comparison to the speaker’s previous experience in the country rather than emphasize the hectic pace of life in the city. The continual light and sounds in the city remind the speaker of lights and sounds experienced only on occasion in the country.
Question analysis
This question about word choice in a poem asks what impact the phrase “Everything is a constant celebration,” from line 33, has in “Ode to Fireworks.” The speaker, grown up and living in a city, looks back on watching fireworks at a fair in the countryside. Students must interpret a sweeping statement about city life whose tone can be heard in more than one way.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how a phrase shapes a poem’s meaning, often from the nearby lines alone. This one sits in a 42-line poem, and the choices read its tone in sharply different ways, so it must be weighed against the whole poem.
- 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 major
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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 line can be heard in several moods, and three choices each take one: delight in the city over the country, strain from too much light, or a hurried pace. None of them needs the earlier stanzas, which is why they tempt; the line’s impact comes from the contrast with a childhood in which the sky lit up once a year. Students who ask what a celebration meant to the child at the fair, rather than how a city feels to them, reach the reading the poem supports.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
Line 33 never mentions the country; that city life feels like a nonstop version of something once rare must be inferred by setting it against the fair the family “waited / all year for” in stanza 1. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Constant celebration” is a metaphor: errands at the cleaner’s and the corner market become a festival because the city sky is “always lit up,” as the country sky was only on fireworks nights. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The contrast spans the poem, the yearly fair and “night was night” in the first two stanzas against the city “awash in light / of every hue” in lines 32–33. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Reread lines 31–35 aloud, decide how the speaker feels about the city at this point, and keep only a choice that fits both that feeling and the rest of the poem.
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 Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “celebration” as praise of the city and ranks it above the country, though the speaker never compares the two for pleasure and ends the poem lingering fondly on the country drive home.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “always lit up” and “awash in light” as too much brightness, but “celebration” is a happy word, and the stanza enjoys the city’s light and its voices in a hundred languages.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Links “constant” to the errands that follow and pictures a rushed city, but the line turns picking up washing and buying bread into festive moments, not hurried ones.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the impact of one phrase in the poem. Impact means the effect it has on the poem’s meaning. To see it, compare the city in stanza 3 with the speaker’s childhood in the country. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph.
Read the phrase in its lines
Lines 31–33 say “The city sky is always lit up. This is where we live now, / and it is how we live now, awash in light / of every hue. Everything is a constant celebration.” Awash means covered all over. Hue means color. Constant means all the time. The next lines name plain errands, like “picking up washing at the cleaner’s.”
Compare it with the country
In the country, the fireworks were rare. Lines 6–7 say “This was a treat we waited / all year for.” Lines 23–24 add “(We lived in the country: / night was night.)” That means the night sky was dark. A celebration is a special event that happens once in a while. In the city, the sky is always bright. So everyday city life feels like a fireworks night, which used to come once a year.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The speaker never says the city is better. The poem ends with a fond memory of the country.
- B does not fit. “Celebration” is a happy word. The speaker enjoys the light and “the music of people.”
- C fits. A bright sky is normal in the city. In the country, it came only on fireworks night.
- D does not fit. Hectic means busy and rushed. Buying bread sounds calm, and the phrase makes it feel festive, not rushed.
Watch out: B is tempting because “always lit up” and “awash in light” can sound like too much. But the speaker’s words are warm, not tired or upset.
Choose the answer
The phrase makes city life sound like a fireworks night that never ends. What the city has every day was rare in the country. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. Both B and C notice that the city is full of light. But B says the light is too much for the speaker. The word “celebration” shows joy, not stress. The phrase gets its meaning from the contrast with the country, where “night was night.” That contrast is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed (page 32)
Question 52 of 84
2021 Test A English, question 50Passage Excerpt from “Research Riddle Resolved”
Excerpt from “Research Riddle Resolved”
For centuries, scientists were confounded by an animal that seemed to look and act like a combination of a bird, a reptile, and a mammal. It has a bill like a duck and lays eggs but produces milk for its young. It lives in a burrow, has fur, and can make venom. We now know that this animal is called a duck-billed platypus. A platypus is a monotreme, a type of egg-laying mammal.
Hundreds of years after the first sightings of the platypus, the animal still captures our imagination anew and irresistibly attracts the attention of science writers everywhere. The May 2008 Nature report detailing the DNA insides of the duck-billed platypus invited colorful tales from just about every mainstream media outlet.
But cuteness and weirdness aside, the platypus research results are a gold mine for medical researchers. The findings cement what may have seemed totally obvious but turned out to be a bit of a scientific surprise: platypus DNA is a patchwork of genes from reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Evolution Fusion
In other words, the platypus heritage is laid out in an evolutionary DNA tapestry that marks the time, hundreds of millions of years ago, when reptiles and mammals branched off the evolutionary tree.
So what? The platypus is nothing like a human, so what can its DNA tell us about people and the diseases we get?
Plenty, says an international team of scientists who did this work.
The platypus genome results are far more than confirmation of a scientific oddity. They provide researchers a window into a time in history when mammals became unique—gaining the ability to bear live young, produce milk for them, and grow a warm, furry coat.
That’s important because our own, modern-day genomes are still a big mystery and researchers need much more information to be able to translate our genetic language into useful health knowledge.
One of the ways scientists can decipher meaning from within our 3 billion DNA “letters,” or nucleotides, is to compare human genes with those from animals, to see what has been kept the same and what has evolved to be different. . . .
Same and Different
In an approach called comparative genomics, scientists compare the genome sequences of several species: human, mouse, and a wide variety of other organisms from single-celled fungi to elephants and, now, the platypus.
The goal of this research is to find regions of similarity and difference in order to better understand the structure and function of human genes.
Comparative genomics is directly related to evolution because all living things share a common ancestor. By using computer tools to examine genes that have been kept the same in many organisms over millions of years, researchers can locate signals that control how genes work. This information may translate into ways to understand, treat, and prevent human diseases. . . .
Chicken or Egg?
When researchers analyzed platypus DNA and compared it to that of chickens, snakes, and lizards, the findings traced the evolutionary path from birds and reptiles to mammals. They learned that the platypus lost most of its genetic ability to produce egg yolk—as compared to chicken genes. This suggests its departure from “chicken-ness.”
But, through evolutionary change, the platypus gained the ability to make milk that is rich in nutrients. Platypuses have genes that make the milk protein casein: just like we do.
A male platypus can, like its ancestral snake and lizard cousins, produce venom. The platypus ejects this venom through special glands in its back legs. The evolutionary reason for maintaining such molecular weaponry isn’t yet clear, but what is fascinating is that it appears nature mixed and matched together DNA pieces separately to create the venom genes in reptiles and monotremes like the platypus.
The scientific value of pinning genetics to physiological function—like milk production—is high. Such investigations may help medical researchers understand health issues related to reproduction and lactation. Although lactation is an ancient reproductive trait, mammals—including the platypus—are unique in their ability to produce milk that is extraordinarily nutritious, containing a rich blend of sugars, fats, and proteins.
More generally, though, studying how nature cuts and pastes gene modules gives scientists an inside scoop on how genetic changes relate to health and disease risk.
One thing is clear—the stunning blend of reptile, bird, and mammal puts the platypus in a class of its own, and it gives researchers much more: information about how mammals like us came about.
[Scientists’] genetic sleuthing of platypuses, chimps, fish, sunflowers—you name it—continues to teach scientists how millions of years of evolution progressed. This provides vital information to understanding the role of genes in the health and disease of mammals like us and our pets, and can also help preserve our rich and diverse planet.
From “Research Riddle Resolved”—Public Domain/National Institutes of Health
Question
The phrase “evolutionary DNA tapestry” in paragraph 3 conveys the idea that the platypus
- Ahas a rich and diverse genetic history linked to reptiles, birds, and other mammals.
- Bwas able to develop its mammalian and reptilian traits at different points in time.
- Ccontinues to be the best resource for studying the evolution of animal genomes.
- Dis especially useful to researchers because its genes have never been altered.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what the phrase “evolutionary DNA tapestry” in paragraph 3 conveys about the platypus.
A. CORRECT. In the excerpt, the term “tapestry” conveys the sense of a rich history; the “platypus heritage” described in paragraph 3 is woven together with “threads” from mammals, birds, and reptiles in its genetic background.
B. Incorrect. While paragraph 3 does mention mammals and reptiles, it does not discuss when the platypus developed traits from those classifications. Rather, it refers in general to “hundreds of millions of years ago, when reptiles and mammals branched off the evolutionary tree.”
C. Incorrect. The excerpt never claims that, compared with other animals, the platypus is the best resource for studying the evolution of animal genomes. The excerpt indicates that the platypus’s status as a “scientific oddity” provides “a window into a time in history when mammals became unique—gaining the ability to bear live young, produce milk for them, and grow a warm, furry coat” (paragraph 6).
D. Incorrect. The excerpt states that the platypus genome is a “scientific oddity” (paragraph 6) that is useful to researchers, but the reason it is useful is because of DNA evidence that shows “a window into a time in history when mammals became unique” (paragraph 6), not because its genes have never been altered. Because the platypus genome, like that of all animals, has evolved over time, the statement that platypus genes have never been altered is inaccurate (“They learned that the platypus lost most of its genetic ability to produce egg yolk—as compared to chicken genes. This suggests its departure from ‘chicken-ness’ ” [paragraph 12]).
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks what the phrase “evolutionary DNA tapestry” in paragraph 3 of “Research Riddle Resolved” conveys about the platypus. Students must work out what calling the animal’s heritage a tapestry suggests in an article about its genes, and the choices make different claims about its genetic history and its value to science.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a metaphor from context is regular grade 7 work. The word “tapestry” may be unfamiliar and sits in a long, technical sentence, but the sentences around it give enough clues for one careful reading to settle it.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 809 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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
The phrase is a restatement, so the sentence before it nearly settles the question for students who notice “In other words.” The risk lies in the rest of paragraph 3’s sentence, whose talk of time and branching invites a choice about traits arriving at different dates. The other wrong choices praise the platypus as a research subject, which the article does elsewhere, but the tapestry image says nothing about its rank or about genes that never changed.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
A tapestry is a picture woven from many threads, and paragraph 3 opens “In other words,” so the image restates paragraph 2’s “patchwork of genes from reptiles, birds, and mammals.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The 33-word sentence hangs a long clause on the image, “that marks the time, hundreds of millions of years ago, when reptiles and mammals branched off,” which pulls attention toward dates. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Tapestry” and “heritage” are uncommon words for many students, and a reader who does not know what a tapestry is has only the “In other words” link to go on. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Paragraph 3 begins “In other words,” so reread the sentence just before it and ask what the tapestry image restates; then choose the option that fits both sentences.
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.
- 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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Seizes on “marks the time … when reptiles and mammals branched off” and turns it into a timeline of the platypus’s own traits, which the paragraph never gives.
C Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Stretches the article’s interest in the platypus into the best resource for all genome research, a ranking the excerpt never makes among the many species scientists compare.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Draws on the popular idea of the platypus as an unchanged living fossil, though paragraph 12 says it lost most of its genetic ability to make egg yolk.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a figure of speech means. A figure of speech is words used in a special way, not just for their plain meaning. Here the phrase is “evolutionary DNA tapestry.” You need to decide what it says about the platypus.
Learn what a tapestry is
A tapestry is a large cloth picture. It is woven from many threads of different colors. Each thread is small, but together they make one rich picture. Evolutionary means having to do with how living things change over a very long time.
Use the clue before the phrase
Paragraph 3 starts with “In other words.” That phrase means the writer is saying the same thing again in a new way. So look at the last sentence of paragraph 2. It says “platypus DNA is a patchwork of genes from reptiles, birds, and mammals.” A patchwork is also made of many pieces. So the tapestry is the platypus’s DNA, woven from reptile, bird and mammal parts.
Check each choice
- A fits. Like threads in a tapestry, the platypus’s genes come from reptiles, birds and mammals. That history is rich and mixed.
- B does not fit. Paragraph 3 mentions the time “when reptiles and mammals branched off the evolutionary tree.” But it never says when the platypus got each trait.
- C does not fit. The excerpt never calls the platypus the best animal to study.
- D does not fit. Paragraph 12 says the platypus “lost most of its genetic ability to produce egg yolk.” So its genes did change.
Watch out: B is tempting because the same sentence talks about time and branching. That part tells when two groups split apart. It is not a timeline of the platypus’s traits.
Choose the answer
The tapestry stands for the platypus’s DNA. It is woven from the genes of several kinds of animals. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. Its talk of time comes from the same sentence. But a tapestry is about many threads woven together, not about dates. The phrase restates the “patchwork of genes from reptiles, birds, and mammals.” That mixed history is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Research Riddle Resolved”” as printed (pages 66–67)
Question 53 of 84
2021 Test B English, question 37Passage 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
The phrase “a new mindset had taken root” in paragraph 8 conveys the idea that
- Arunners recognized that running a mile in under four minutes was physically possible.
- Bbreaking the four-minute-mile barrier was no longer considered an impressive feat for elite runners.
- Crunners understood how hard they would have to train in order to run a mile in under four minutes.
- Delite runners entered races in an attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what idea is conveyed by the phrase “a new mindset had taken root” in paragraph 8.
A. CORRECT. After Bannister ran the mile in under four minutes, it became clear to other runners that this goal was within the realm of human ability, and “soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance” (paragraph 8).
B. Incorrect. While the passage states that runners broke the four-minute-mile barrier after Bannister initially broke it (“Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance” [paragraph 8]), running a four-minute mile is still impressive and a challenge for elite runners.
C. Incorrect. Although runners most likely knew that the training needed in order to break the four-minute-mile barrier was difficult and intensive, the phrase “a new mindset had taken root” focuses on their belief in the possibility of breaking the four-minute-mile barrier, which had been viewed as a “supposedly impenetrable barrier” (paragraph 1), not the idea that the training was difficult.
D. Incorrect. Even though “four other athletes matched his performance” and “the record continued to fall” (paragraph 8), the phrase “a new mindset had taken root” does not refer to the idea that there was an increase in the number of runners entering races just to try breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.
Question analysis
This word-meaning question on “A Miracle Mile” asks what the phrase “a new mindset had taken root,” in the article’s final paragraph, conveys about runners after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954. Students must interpret a figurative phrase about a change in thinking, and each choice proposes a different change among runners that sounds believable.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting a figurative phrase from context is regular grade 7 work. The article is short and plain and the image of an idea taking root is familiar, but the passage never says what the new mindset is, so it must be inferred.
- 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 between the lines moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 72 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 phrase is familiar and the paragraph is short, but the passage leaves the mindset unnamed, so the choices offer four guesses about what changed. The tempting ones describe things runners might plausibly have done after 1954, such as racing for the record or training harder, rather than what they believed. Students who connect the phrase to the barrier everyone had thought unbreakable see that the change was in what runners thought possible.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The article never says what the new mindset is; it must be worked out from the sentence before it, four athletes matching Bannister soon after, set against paragraph 1’s “humanly impossible.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Taken root” likens an idea to a plant that has settled in and will keep growing, so the phrase describes a lasting change in belief rather than a single event or a new plan. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The old mindset is described seven paragraphs earlier, where the four-minute mile was “considered humanly impossible” and a “supposedly impenetrable barrier,” and the new one makes sense only against it. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Think about what happens when an idea “takes root,” then reread the sentences around the phrase in paragraph 8 and decide what Bannister’s run changed for the runners after him.
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
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the four runners who soon matched Bannister as a sign the feat had become ordinary, though the article never calls it unimpressive and ends by hoping for another runner who will “accomplish the miraculous.”
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the interval training and the rest from running of paragraphs 3 and 4, but the phrase describes what runners came to believe, not how hard they knew they must train.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes the new mindset to be racing for the record, but paragraph 1 says “several elite runners aimed to break” the barrier before Bannister did, so that aim was not new.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a figure of speech means. A figure of speech is words used in a special way, not just for their plain meaning. The phrase is “a new mindset had taken root.” A mindset is a way of thinking. You need to decide what new way of thinking runners had.
Work out the plant image
A plant takes root when its roots settle into the soil. Then it stays and keeps growing. So an idea that has taken root has settled firmly into people’s minds. It is not a passing thought.
Find the old way of thinking
Paragraph 1 shows how people thought before Bannister’s run. A mile in four minutes “was considered humanly impossible.” It was a “supposedly impenetrable barrier.” Impenetrable means impossible to break through. So most people believed no one could do it.
See what changed in paragraph 8
Paragraph 8 says “Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners.” Bannister showed that it could be done. Then other runners did it too. So the new mindset is the belief that a mile in under four minutes is possible.
Check each choice
- A fits. Runners now knew a mile in under four minutes was physically possible.
- B does not fit. The article never says the feat stopped being impressive. It ends by hoping for someone who will “accomplish the miraculous.”
- C does not fit. Training comes up in paragraphs 3 and 4. The phrase is about what runners believed, not how hard they trained.
- D does not fit. Paragraph 1 says “several elite runners aimed to break” the barrier before Bannister did. So that goal was not new.
Watch out: D sounds likely, since runners kept racing for the record. But the word “new” rules it out. Runners were already trying before 1954.
Choose the answer
The new mindset was the belief that the four-minute mile could be beaten. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. It describes something runners did, racing to break the barrier. But in paragraph 1, runners were already trying, so that was not new. What changed was what they believed. After Bannister, they knew it could be done. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 54 of 84
2020 Test B English, question 20Passage Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad
Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad
by Mark Twain
Now and then, while we rested, we watched the laborious ant at his work. I found nothing new in him—certainly nothing to change my opinion of him. It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be a strangely overrated bird. During many summers now I have watched him, when I ought to have been in better business, and I have not yet come across a living ant that seemed to have any more sense than a dead one. I refer to the ordinary ant, of course; I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, . . . and dispute about religion. Those particular ants may be all that the naturalist paints them, but I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham.
I admit his industry, of course; he is the hardest working creature in the world—when anybody is looking—but his leather-headedness is the point I make against him. He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do? Go home? No; he goes anywhere but home. He doesn’t know where home is. His home may be only three feet away; no matter, he can’t find it. He makes his capture, as I have said; it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else; it is usually seven times bigger than it ought to be; he hunts out the awkwardest place to take hold of it; he lifts it bodily up in the air by main force, and starts—not toward home, but in the opposite direction; not calmly and wisely, but with a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength; he fetches up against a pebble, and, instead of going around it, he climbs over it backwards, dragging his booty after him, tumbles down on the other side, jumps up in a passion, kicks the dust off his clothes, moistens his hands, grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then that, shoves it ahead of him a moment, turns tail and lugs it after him another moment, gets madder and madder, then presently hoists it into the air and goes tearing away in an entirely new direction; comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top—which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple; when he gets up there he finds that that is not the place; takes a cursory glance at the scenery, and either climbs down again or tumbles down, and starts off once more—as usual, in a new direction. At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from, and lays his burden down. Meantime, he has been over all the ground for two yards around, and climbed all the weeds and pebbles he came across. Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever. He traverses a good deal of zig-zag country, and by and by stumbles on his same booty again. He does not remember to have ever seen it before; he looks around to see which is not the way home, grabs his bundle, and starts. He goes through the same adventures he had before; finally stops to rest, and a friend comes along.
Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it. Evidently the proprietor does not remember exactly where he did get it, but thinks he got it “around here somewhere.” Evidently the friend contracts to help him freight it home. Then, with a judgment peculiarly antic (pun not intentional), they take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions. Presently they take a rest, and confer together. They decide that something is wrong, they can’t make out what. Then they go at it again, just as before. Same result. Mutual recriminations follow. Evidently each accuses the other of being an obstructionist. They warm up, and the dispute ends in a fight. They lock themselves together and chew each other’s jaws for a while; then they roll and tumble on the ground till one loses a horn or a leg and has to haul off for repairs. They make up and go to work again in the same old insane way, but the crippled ant is at a disadvantage; tug as he may, the other one drags off the booty and him at the end of it. Instead of giving up, he hangs on, and gets his shins bruised against every obstruction that comes in the way. By and by, when that grasshopper leg has been dragged all over the same old ground once more, it is finally dumped at about the spot where it originally lay. The two perspiring ants inspect it thoughtfully and decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all, and then each starts off in a different direction to see if he can’t find an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it. . . .
Science has recently discovered that the ant does not lay up anything for winter use. . . . He does not work, except when people are looking, and only then when the observer has a green, naturalistic look, and seems to be taking notes. This amounts to deception, and will injure him for the Sunday schools. He has not judgment enough to know what is good to eat from what isn’t. This amounts to ignorance, and will impair the world’s respect for him. . . . He cannot stroll around a stump and find his way home again. This amounts to idiocy, and once the damaging fact is established, thoughtful people will cease to look up to him. It is strange beyond comprehension that so manifest a humbug as the ant has been able to fool so many nations and keep it up so many ages without being found out.
we: the author and his fictional travel companion
From A TRAMP ABROAD by Mark Twain—Public Domain
Question
The description at the end of paragraph 2 of the ant repeating his actions conveys the idea that
- Amistakes are necessary in order to make progress.
- Brushing to reach a goal may lead to an undesirable outcome.
- Cbreaking out of a familiar pattern of events is difficult.
- Dindustriousness and foolishness is an unfortunate combination.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which idea the description at the end of paragraph 2 conveys about the repetition of the ant’s actions.
A. Incorrect. The description at the end of paragraph 2, in which the ant “goes through the same adventures” to no avail, does not convey the idea that mistakes are necessary in order to make progress.
B. Incorrect. The description at the end of paragraph 2, in which the ant runs away in a “violent” hurry and “traverses a good deal of zig-zag country, and by and by stumbles on his same booty again . . . not remember[ing] to have ever seen it before,” does not convey the idea that rushing to meet a goal may lead to an undesirable outcome, because the last line in paragraph 2 refers to the ant’s repetitive actions as an adventure (“He goes through the same adventures he had before”).
C. Incorrect. The description at the end of paragraph 2, in which the ant repeatedly “stumbles on his same booty again,” does not convey the idea that breaking out of a familiar pattern of events is difficult, because the industrious ant “does not remember” (paragraph 2) and is thus unaware that he is repeating his actions.
D. CORRECT. The description at the end of paragraph 2 says that the ant “traverses a good deal of zig-zag country, and by and by stumbles on his same booty again. He does not remember to have ever seen it before; he looks around to see which is not the way home, grabs his bundle, and starts. He goes through the same adventures he had before,” thus indicating that the ant is both industrious and foolish in his actions.
Question analysis
In this theme question on Mark Twain's “A Tramp Abroad,” students decide what idea is conveyed by the end of paragraph 2, where an ant sets down his load, wanders off, stumbles on it again without recognizing it, and repeats the whole journey. The choices are general life lessons, more than one of them linked to something the ant really does.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 theme questions draw on a short story's plain events. Here the idea must come from the close of a very long, sarcastic nineteenth-century paragraph, and the choices are abstract morals that echo real details, above grade 7.
- 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 major
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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
All four choices are general morals, and two borrow real features of the scene, the ant's hurry and his repeated route, so the question turns on why the ant repeats himself. He forgets the booty and starts over with the same frantic energy, which joins the paragraph's opening concession about his industry to its charge of leather-headedness. Students who read the description as a warning about haste, or about being stuck in a rut, give the ant motives and awareness he never shows.
Reading between the lines major Working it out
No sentence states a lesson; students must join the ant's tireless restart, grabbing his bundle for “the same adventures,” with the fact that he “does not remember” the booty, to see effort wasted by stupidity. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Twain narrates the ant as a mock-heroic laborer who “wipes the sweat from his brow” and has “adventures,” so the idea arrives through irony and exaggeration rather than plain statement. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The two halves of the idea are named at the start of paragraph 2, “I admit his industry” and “his leather-headedness,” well above the closing description the question points to. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The passage's “traverses” and “booty” and the choices' “industriousness” must be understood, and the key uses that abstract noun rather than the passage's own word, “industry.” (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Work out from the surrounding sentences why the ant repeats his trip, then test each lesson against what the ant actually does and knows, word by word.
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)
Brings in the familiar saying that mistakes lead to progress, but the ant's blunders get him nowhere: he forgets his booty, finds it again and repeats the same trip.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Fastens on the march “in as violent a hurry as ever,” but the ant moves “aimlessly,” with no goal to rush toward, and repeats himself because he forgets, not because he hurries.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Sees the repeated journey as a rut the ant struggles to escape, but he “does not remember to have ever seen” the booty, so he never knows he is repeating anything.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks for the idea, or message, behind a scene. At the end of paragraph 2, the ant does the same things all over again. Work out why he repeats himself. Then pick the lesson that fits.
Find the end of paragraph 2
Near the end, the ant “marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever.” Then he “stumbles on his same booty again. He does not remember to have ever seen it before.” He grabs it and starts off. “He goes through the same adventures he had before.”
Aimlessly means with no goal. Booty is the thing he captured.
Work out what it means
The ant works hard and moves fast. But he forgets his own load, so he does the whole useless trip again. Twain names these two traits at the start of paragraph 2. He says, “I admit his industry,” and industry means hard work. But “his leather-headedness is the point I make against him.” Leather-headed means thick-headed, or foolish. Twain is joking that all that hard work is wasted.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The ant’s mistakes get him nowhere. After half an hour, he is “within six inches of the place he started from.”
- B is wrong. The ant does hurry, but he has no goal to rush toward. He repeats himself because he forgets, not because he rushes.
- C is wrong. The ant doesn’t remember his booty, so he doesn’t know he is repeating anything. He isn’t trying to break a habit.
- D is right. Industriousness means being hardworking. An unfortunate combination is a bad mix. Hard work plus foolishness adds up to wasted effort.
Choose the answer
The scene shows a hard worker with no sense, doing the same useless job twice. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B comes closest, because the ant moves “in as violent a hurry as ever.” But hurrying is not why he repeats his trip. He repeats it because he forgets his booty. D names both of his traits: he works hard, and he is foolish.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed (pages 62–63)
Question 55 of 84
2020 Test B English, question 24Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it.
Which statement best describes how the sentence fits into the overall structure of the excerpt?
- AIt indicates a shift to the realization that the ants place great importance on an item that has little value.
- BIt emphasizes a shift from an analysis of the actions of the individual ant to an interpretation of the interaction between ants.
- CIt introduces a transition to the idea that specific observations about one ant allow for generalizations about all ants.
- DIt provides a transition to the observation that the ant’s friend is just as purposeful in his efforts toward a futile ending as the first ant is.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for an explanation of how the sentence from paragraph 3, which highlights the second ant’s interest in the grasshopper leg, fits into the structure of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. The idea that the ant seeks out worthless items is established in paragraph 2 (“it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else”) and in paragraph 3 (“valueless enough to make an ant want to own it”), but the sentence does not indicate a shift to a realization that the ants place great importance on an item that has little value.
B. CORRECT. This statement best describes how the sentence from paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt because the sentence emphasizes a shift from paragraph 2, which analyzes the actions of the first ant alone, to paragraph 3, which comments on the interaction between the two ants and the ensuing efforts of the two ants together as they “take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions” (paragraph 3).
C. Incorrect. While the author states in paragraph 3 that the ants “take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions” and they “go to work again in the same old insane way,” this statement does not best describe how the sentence from paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt, because the sentence does not create a transition to the idea that specific observations allow for a generalization about all ants.
D. Incorrect. Although the author states in paragraph 3 that “the friend contracts to help him freight [the grasshopper leg] home,” the author does not suggest that the ants’ actions are purposeful. Rather, the author describes their actions and their “judgment [as] peculiarly antic” (paragraph 3). Thus, the statement does not best describe how the sentence from paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt, because the sentence does not provide a transition to the observation that the ant’s friend is just as purposeful in his efforts toward a futile ending as the first ant is.
Question analysis
This structure question quotes the first sentence of paragraph 3 in Mark Twain's ant excerpt, where the ant's friend calls a grasshopper leg “a very noble acquisition,” and asks how the sentence fits the excerpt's overall structure. All four answers describe the sentence as a turning point of some kind, so the task is pinning down what is genuinely new here and what came earlier.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 In grade 7, structure work typically centers on the role of a whole section. Here students must place one sentence within a long nineteenth-century satire and choose among four abstract accounts of a shift, a heavier demand 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 129 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 is worded as a structural move, so all of them sound plausible, and the sentence's content, praise for a worthless grasshopper leg, draws students toward describing what it says. What is new here is a second ant: paragraph 2 followed one ant alone, and from this sentence on the excerpt imagines what two ants say and do together. The ants' taste for useless loot, by contrast, was established well before this point.
How, not what major Working it out
The stem asks how the sentence fits the excerpt's structure, so students must compare paragraph 2's lone ant with paragraph 3's pair rather than restate what the friend says about the grasshopper leg. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice names a shift or transition in abstract terms, so each must be tested against paragraphs 2 and 3: is its idea present at all, and is it new at this sentence? (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
Twain's “Evidently,” repeated through paragraph 3, marks the ants' conversation as his comic guess, and “very noble acquisition” is mock praise; the key's word “interpretation” depends on seeing that. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Sum up what paragraph 2 does and what paragraph 3 does, then test each choice: is the change it names real, and does it begin with this sentence rather than earlier or later?
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.
- 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 Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Restates what the sentence says, that ants prize a worthless leg, and calls it a shift, though paragraph 2 already had the ant hauling captures “of no sort of use.”
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the sentence as widening one ant's story into a rule for all ants, but paragraph 3 follows two particular ants; the sweeping verdicts come in paragraphs 1 and 4.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly sees the friend joining a futile effort, but the excerpt never measures his purposefulness against the first ant's, and Twain calls their judgment “peculiarly antic.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about structure, the way a text is put together. It asks what role one sentence plays in the whole excerpt. So look at what comes before it and after it, and ask what is new.
Find where the sentence sits
The sentence opens paragraph 3. Just before it, paragraph 2 ends with the ant. He “finally stops to rest, and a friend comes along.” All of paragraph 2 follows this one ant on his own. Twain picks apart each thing he does.
See what changes in paragraph 3
From this sentence on, there are two ants. They “take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions.” Then they argue, fight and make up.
Twain also keeps saying “Evidently.” He is guessing at what the ants say to each other. That is his interpretation, his own explanation of what he sees.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Ants prizing worthless things is not new here. Paragraph 2 already said the ant’s capture “can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else.”
- B is right. The focus moves from one ant’s actions to two ants together. Interaction means how they act with each other.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 3 follows two particular ants, not ants in general. Twain’s claims about all ants are in paragraphs 1 and 4.
- D is wrong. Twain never says the friend is as purposeful, or set on a goal, as the first ant. He calls their judgment “peculiarly antic,” or silly.
Choose the answer
The sentence brings in the second ant. It turns the excerpt from one ant alone to Twain’s take on two ants together. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the strongest trap, because in this sentence the friend calls an old leg “a very noble acquisition.” But a shift needs something new. Worthless loot was already in paragraph 2. The new thing is the friend, and B names that change.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 56 of 84
2020 Test B English, question 34Passage 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 similar construction of the sentence in line 1 and the sentence in line 8 contribute to the meaning of the poem?
- AIt introduces the intended permanence of the structure and the ever-changing fluidity of the water.
- BIt shows that the structure can bridge the gap caused by the water.
- CIt suggests that the inflexible structure has more limitations than the adaptable water does.
- DIt contrasts the stability of the structure with the instability of the water.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contributes to the meaning of the poem.
A. CORRECT. In line 1, the first speaker asserts, “What I am is built: concrete and steel,” and in line 8 the second speaker states, “What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older.” The similarities in the construction of these lines contribute to the meaning of the poem by establishing each speaker’s defining feature.
B. Incorrect. The focus of the lines is defining the speakers’ individuality, not how one speaker resolves a problem created by the other.
C. Incorrect. The structure is not stating in line 1 that it is limited because it was built to stand in place; on the contrary, the structure is stating that this sense of purpose and permanence is its strength.
D. Incorrect. Although in these lines the first speaker asserts “I am . . . built: concrete and steel” (line 1) and the second speaker asserts “I am . . . motion” (line 8), the construction of these lines does not contrast the stability and instability of the speakers. Rather, each speaker highlights its own features.
Question analysis
“Cross-Purposes” is a poem in two voices, one a structure of concrete and steel and the other water, and line 1 and line 8 both start their sentences with “What I am is.” Students explain what this parallel construction adds to the poem's meaning. The choices characterize the two speakers in closely related terms, so one word can decide between them.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 poetry work often asks what a repeated phrase stresses. Here students must see what matching sentence openings set up for two personified speakers, then choose among abstract choices separated by single words, well above typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 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
Seeing that one speaker is built and the other moves is the easy part, and two choices state that contrast in near-synonyms. What decides between them is judgment: in lines 1 and 8 each speaker simply announces what it is, proudly, and neither line weighs one against the other. A choice that calls the water unstable, ranks the speakers' limitations or jumps ahead to bridging a gap adds something those two lines do not say, so each word must be checked against them.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The key and the stability choice draw the same contrast, built structure against moving water; they part only on “instability,” which turns the water's proud motion into a defect neither line admits. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the matching “What I am is” openings do, so students must see that they give each speaker a parallel self-definition, “built” in line 1 and “motion” in line 8. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Both speakers are personified and the bridge is never named; students infer it from “concrete and steel” and the traffic crossing its “broad back,” then read the water's claim to be “older than anything” as a boast. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices rest on abstract words the poem never uses, “permanence,” “fluidity,” “inflexible,” “adaptable” and “instability,” whose shades of judgment decide between them. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Copy the two sentences side by side, note what follows “What I am is” in each, and check every descriptive word in the choices against what those two sentences actually claim.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- 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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Borrows the fifth stanza's “We stitch across the rip you make,” where the structures span the water, but lines 1 and 8 only introduce the speakers and mention no gap.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Accepts the fair labels “inflexible” and “adaptable” and then the ranking built on them, a verdict the water argues in its later stanzas but lines 1 and 8 never make.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure's stability right, but “instability” makes the water's motion a flaw, while line 8 offers motion as its very identity and adds that it is older than anything.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about how the poem is built. The sentences in lines 1 and 8 start the same way. You need to see what that matching pattern adds to the poem’s meaning.
Set the two sentences side by side
Line 1: “What I am is built: concrete and steel.”
Line 8: “What I am is motion.”Both begin with the same four words, “What I am is.” Line 1 opens the first stanza, and line 8 opens the second. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph. So each speaker starts by telling you what it is.
Name the two speakers
The first speaker is a structure, most likely a bridge. Traffic and trains “make their way across my broad back.” It is “built” of concrete and steel, so it is meant to last. The second speaker is water. It is “motion,” always flowing and changing. So the matching lines bring in two very different speakers: one made to stay, one always moving.
Check each choice
- A is right. Permanence means lasting. Fluidity means flowing. Intended means planned, and the bridge was built to last.
- B is wrong. A gap first comes up in line 33: “We stitch across the rip you make.” Lines 1 and 8 say nothing about it.
- C is wrong. Inflexible means unable to bend, and adaptable means able to change. But neither line says one speaker has more limits. In line 2, the bridge even boasts, “I defy gravity.”
- D is wrong. Instability means being shaky or likely to fail. That makes the water’s motion sound like a weakness. But the water boasts that it is “older / than anything else you know.”
Watch out: D sets up the same pair as A. The one word that sinks it is “instability.”
Choose the answer
Each matching line names what its speaker is: one built to stay, one always on the move. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because it also sets the steady bridge against the moving water. But “instability” calls the water weak or unsafe. In line 8, the water names its motion with pride. A describes each speaker the way it sees itself.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
Question 57 of 84
2019 Test A English, question 14Passage 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
The phrase “a new mindset had taken root” in paragraph 8 conveys the idea that
- Arunners recognized that running a mile in under four minutes was physically possible.
- Bbreaking the four-minute-mile barrier was no longer considered an impressive feat for elite runners.
- Crunners understood how hard they would have to train in order to run a mile in under four minutes.
- Dentering races in an attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier became commonplace for elite runners.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what idea is conveyed by the phrase “a new mindset had taken root” in paragraph 8.
A. CORRECT. After Bannister ran the mile in under four minutes, it became clear to other runners that this goal was within the realm of human ability, and “soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance” (paragraph 8).
B. Incorrect. While the passage states that runners broke the four-minute-mile barrier after Bannister initially broke it (“Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance” [paragraph 8]), running a four-minute mile is still impressive and a challenge for elite runners.
C. Incorrect. Although runners most likely knew that the training needed in order to break the four-minute-mile barrier was difficult and intensive, the phrase “a new mindset had taken root” focuses on their belief in the possibility of breaking the four-minute-mile barrier, which had been viewed as a “supposedly impenetrable barrier” (paragraph 1), not the idea that the training was difficult.
D. Incorrect. Even though “four other athletes matched his performance” and “the record continued to fall” (paragraph 8), the phrase “a new mindset had taken root” does not refer to the idea that there was an increase in the number of runners entering races just to try breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.
Question analysis
The final paragraph of “A Miracle Mile” says that after Roger Bannister ran his record mile, “a new mindset had taken root” among runners. This word-meaning question asks what that figurative phrase conveys, and since the article never spells out the new way of thinking, students must infer it from the events that follow Bannister’s run.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Working out what a figure of speech means from nearby sentences is a core grade 7 skill. Here the phrase sits in a short final paragraph of simple sentences, and only one step of inference is needed, as in typical grade 7 work.
- 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 between the lines moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 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 paragraph is short and the phrase familiar, but the passage leaves the mindset unnamed, so the choices amount to four guesses about what changed after 1954. The tempting guesses describe what runners did or how they rated the feat: record attempts becoming routine, the mile no longer impressing, harder training. Students who tie the phrase back to a barrier everyone had thought unbreakable see that the change was in what runners believed a body could do.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The article never says what the new mindset is; it has to be worked out from the four athletes who matched Bannister soon after, set against a feat that paragraph 1 says was “considered humanly impossible.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Taken root” pictures an idea as a plant that has settled into the soil and will keep growing, so the phrase points to a lasting change in belief, not a single event or a new plan. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The old way of thinking appears seven paragraphs earlier, a “supposedly impenetrable barrier,” and the new mindset makes sense only when paragraph 8 is read against it. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Think about what it means for a way of thinking to take hold, then test each option against the sentences near the phrase, keeping only a change in runners that the article actually supports.
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
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the four runners who soon matched Bannister as proof the feat had become ordinary, though the article never belittles it and ends by hoping for an athlete who will “accomplish the miraculous.”
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the interval training and the mountain-climbing break of paragraphs 3 and 4, but the phrase follows the record run and concerns what runners believed, not how hard they knew to train.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes the new mindset to be a wave of record attempts, but paragraph 1 already has “several elite runners” aiming at the barrier, and the article counts no races after 1954.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a phrase means in the article. The phrase is “a new mindset had taken root.” A mindset is a way of thinking. So you need to find out what new way of thinking runners had.
Picture the plant image
This is a figure of speech, words that paint a picture instead of saying something plainly. A plant takes root when its roots grow into the soil. Then it stays put and keeps growing. So an idea that has taken root has settled firmly in people’s minds.
Find the old way of thinking
Paragraph 1 shows what people thought before Bannister. Running a mile in four minutes “was considered humanly impossible.” It was a “supposedly impenetrable barrier.” Impenetrable means impossible to break through. So most people believed no one could do it.
See what changed in paragraph 8
Paragraph 8 says “Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners.” Bannister proved it could be done. Then four more runners did it too. So the new way of thinking is a belief: a mile in under four minutes is possible.
Check each choice
- A fits. Runners now saw that the feat was physically possible.
- B does not fit. Nothing says the feat stopped being impressive. The article ends by hoping for someone who will “accomplish the miraculous.”
- C does not fit. Training comes up in paragraphs 3 and 4. The phrase is about what runners believed after the record, not how hard they trained.
- D does not fit. Commonplace means ordinary. But a mindset is a way of thinking, not a habit of entering races.
Choose the answer
Watch out: D is tempting because the record “continued to fall.” But paragraph 1 says “several elite runners aimed to break” the barrier even before 1954. Trying was not new. Believing was. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. It describes something runners did: entering races to break the record. But runners were already trying before Bannister, so that was not the new part. A mindset is what people believe. After Bannister, runners believed the four-minute mile could be beaten. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 58 of 84
2019 Test A English, question 46Passage 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
How does paragraph 34 help develop the plot of the excerpt?
- AIt shows that the narrator is beginning to consider the possibility of finding the great auks.
- BIt demonstrates that the narrator is struggling to understand why the professor thinks the great auks exist.
- CIt establishes that the narrator is willing to let the professor overrule him about the great auks.
- DIt emphasizes that the narrator feels a sense of urgency to begin an expedition to locate the great auks.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 34 helps develop the plot of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. Despite his initial disbelief, the narrator admits in paragraph 34 that he is starting to feel the “same strange hope” the professor feels, which is to find the great auks (paragraph 33).
B. Incorrect. While the narrator does make an effort in paragraphs 11–22 to understand the professor’s thinking, paragraph 34 reveals that the narrator has been affected by the professor’s “strange hope” for the auks and is beginning to share this hope “in spite of” himself.
C. Incorrect. The narrator describes a feeling of hope in paragraph 34 that would not be present if he had simply been overruled by the professor and did not share any of the professor’s belief in the possibility that the auks exist.
D. Incorrect. The narrator does not express a sense of urgency in paragraph 34 to begin the expedition. Instead, he expresses hope that the great auks might really exist.
Question analysis
This plot question centers on paragraph 34 of the excerpt from In Search of the Unknown, the narrator’s reply when Professor Farrago supposes he is shocked that a scientist would trust a hunch about the great auks. Students must work out what the paragraph reveals about the narrator and why that matters to the story.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 students often explain how a paragraph advances a story. This one is a single sentence and the options are plainly worded, so the main hurdle is the narrator’s elaborate style, with words like “cherished.”
- 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
- Complex sentences minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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
In plain words the paragraph has the narrator admitting that the professor’s hope is taking hold of him, the turn the question asks about. Points are lost by reading it through other scenes: his obedience in paragraph 25 makes giving way look like the point, the word “strange” suggests puzzlement, and the quickened pulse suggests haste. What changes here is what he believes, not what he does.
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 34 is one 31-word sentence that turns on “on the contrary” and splits its main clause with “in spite of me,” so its point, a hope beginning to stir, comes late. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“To stir my pulses” means to excite him, and a student who pictures a racing heart may take it for impatience to set off rather than hope that the birds are real. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Put paragraph 34 into everyday words, then check each option against that paragraph alone, making sure the option describes the narrator’s feeling there rather than at an earlier or later moment.
Traps
- 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.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “the same strange hope” as something the narrator is trying to make sense of in the professor, though the sentence says that hope is beginning to stir in him.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in paragraph 25, where the narrator pulls up a chair because he must obey, but paragraph 34 shows him starting to share the hope, not yielding to an order.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the stirring pulses as eagerness to get the expedition started, though the trip is already set for that night in paragraph 29 and the excitement concerns the birds possibly being real.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraph 34 moves the plot forward. The plot is the chain of events in a story. Read the paragraph closely. Then decide what has changed for the narrator.
Read paragraph 34 closely
Paragraph 34 says “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.” On the contrary means the opposite is true. Cherished means held dear. To stir his pulses means to make his heart beat faster with excitement.
Put it in your own words
The professor hopes the great auks are real. Now the narrator feels the same hope starting in himself. “In spite of me” means he didn’t want to feel it, but he does. Earlier, he called the letter writer a liar or a fool. Now he is starting to think the birds might really be found.
Check each choice
- A fits. He begins to think the great auks might be found.
- B does not fit. He asked the professor why he believed the letter (paragraph 32), and the professor answered. In paragraph 34, the narrator isn’t puzzling over that belief. He is starting to share it.
- C does not fit. Giving in came earlier, in paragraph 25: “there was nothing to do but to obey.” Paragraph 34 is about hope, not obeying.
- D does not fit. He had already agreed to leave that night (paragraphs 29 and 30). Paragraph 34 says nothing about hurrying.
Choose the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because the narrator does follow the professor’s orders. But that is not new in paragraph 34. What is new is his hope. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. The narrator did agree to obey the professor. But that happened in paragraph 25, and he called the trip a fool’s errand. In paragraph 34, something new happens. He feels “the same strange hope” as the professor. A names that change from doubt to hope.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed (page 21)
Question 59 of 84
2019 Test B English, question 45Passage 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“so Ma told me to lead the men / into the marshy low grounds.” (lines 7–8)
- B“It being winter, / there was little underbrush to speak of—” (lines 8–9)
- C“but the winter silence of the creek pressed / down on all of us like a weight.” (lines 14–15)
- D“The humps in the ground were all but / invisible until you were right up on them.” (lines 16–17)
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which lines reveal how the setting affects the speaker and the men from the museum.
A. Incorrect. Although lines 7 and 8 do describe the setting, the lines do not describe how the setting affects the speaker and the men.
B. 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.
C. 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” (lines 14–15).
D. Incorrect. Although the words “the humps in the ground were all but / invisible” (lines 16–17) describe how the setting appears to the speaker and the men, lines 16 and 17 do not describe how the setting affects them.
Question analysis
Set beside an icy Ohio creek in the winter of 1846, the poem “Serpent Mound” follows a young narrator guiding men from a museum to an ancient earthwork. Students must find the lines that reveal how that setting affects the narrator and the visitors, and all four short quotations, from the poem’s first seventeen lines, touch on the winter landscape.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Matching lines of a poem to a claim is a routine grade 7 task; these four quotations are brief, numbered and plainly worded. The main demand is reading the stem precisely, since it asks about an effect on two named parties.
- 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, 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
All four quotations involve 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 shows the place doing something to them, in the words “on all of us.” The lines in which Ma sends the speaker to lead the men tempt because they name both parties the stem names, yet the marsh there is only a destination.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each quotation touches the place, from the “marshy low grounds” and thin winter underbrush to humps hidden in the ground, so each must be asked whether the setting acts on the people or only appears. (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 that weight as a mood the winter quiet lays on the whole group. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Paraphrase each quotation, then ask two questions of it: is the setting doing something here, and are the people in the scene on the receiving end?
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)
Matches the only lines that name both the speaker and the men, but they report Ma’s instruction to guide them into the marsh, which is a destination here, not a force on anyone.
B 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 the lines only describe the ground and say nothing of how anyone feels or acts.
D Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Sees that the humps stay hidden 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.
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. The speaker is the person telling the poem. What does the place do to them, or make them feel?
Find the setting acting on people
In lines 11–13, the speaker listens for animal sounds, like a beaver’s tail or a hawk’s cry. Then 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. So the silent winter creek made the whole group feel weighed down and gloomy.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Lines 7–8 say Ma sent the speaker to lead the men into the marsh, or soggy ground. The marsh is only where they are going. It does nothing to them.
- B does not fit. Lines 8–9 say there was little underbrush, or low bushes. That describes the ground, not how anyone felt.
- C fits. The silence “pressed / down on all of us,” so the place acts on the whole group.
- D does not fit. Lines 16–17 tell how hard the humps are to see. They describe the land, not its effect on the group.
Watch out: A names both the speaker and the men, just as the question does. But naming the people does not show the place affecting them.
Choose the answer
Only lines 14–15 show the winter creek acting on the speaker and the men. So the answer is C: “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
A is a close wrong choice, because it names both the speaker and the men. But in lines 7–8 the marsh is just where they are headed. C is different. The silence “pressed / down on all of us like a weight.” Only C 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 60 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 21Passage 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 problem-and-solution in paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?
- ADetailing the challenges that the cold channel waters presented highlights how effective Ederle’s training was.
- BDescribing Ederle’s physical difficulties during her swim provides evidence of the team effort required in order to ensure her safety.
- CExplaining the difficulties that arose early in the effort helps predict the additional problems 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 answer is (D)
The question asks how a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the ideas presented in the passage.
Option D is correct because 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 (paragraph 5: “. . . the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.”).
Option A is incorrect because the details in paragraph 5 do not provide a connection between the cold temperature of the water and the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
Option B is incorrect because 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.
Option C is incorrect because 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.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the problem-and-solution structure of one paragraph about Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim helps develop the passage's ideas. Students must identify the difficulties she faced at the start of the swim and how she overcame them, then judge which abstract statement describes that pattern without adding details the paragraph lacks.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Analyzing how a paragraph's structure develops ideas is grade 7 content, but the choices are abstract claims about purpose, the paragraph's problems and solutions must be identified first, and every choice mentions real difficulties, 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
- 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.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar 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
The first halves of the choices are all true, which pushes the whole judgment onto what each says the paragraph accomplishes. The paragraph's solution is mental, clearing her mind until the noise faded, so a reading that sees only physical problems reaches for training, teamwork or foreshadowing. Students who list the problems and the fixes before reading the choices see that only one statement accounts for both.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks how a problem-and-solution pattern in paragraph 5 develops the passage's ideas, so the student must name the pattern's effect, not retell the cold and the stiffness. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Every choice opens with an accurate phrase about paragraph 5's difficulties, the cold water or the early struggle, so only each choice's second half can be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The solution is told in images, finding her “sphere”, where “the sea became her only companion”, which must be read as a mental strategy. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: List the problems paragraph 5 names and how Ederle got past each one, then choose the statement that accounts for the problems and the solutions alike.
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 getting through the cold shows good training, a natural idea from sports, but paragraph 5 never mentions training and credits her mind and stroke instead.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Imports the support team from paragraph 6's tugboats, while paragraph 5 centres on Ederle's own body and mind and says nothing about a team or her safety.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads the early stiffness and shivering as foreshadowing of the later storm, a structural link the paragraph never makes, while ignoring how she overcame the cold.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook reads “her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety is not explained”. It now reads “are not explained”, since the subject is “efforts”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
In a problem-and-solution pattern, the author shows a problem and then how someone deals with it. You need to say what this pattern in paragraph 5 adds to the passage. So first find the problems. Then find the solutions.
Find the problems
At first Ederle “shivered in the bone-chilling water.” Then: “Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular.” Limbs are arms and legs. Irregular means uneven. These are problems with her body.
Find the solutions
Next, “she fought to clear her mind” and find her “sphere.” Her sphere was “a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.” That is a calm place in her mind. She shut out the noise and her discomfort. Then, with the American crawl, she “settled into a steady pace.”
Decide what the pattern shows
The problems are in her body: cold, stiff, and uneven. Much of the solution is in her mind: focusing and shutting out the world. So the paragraph shows that the swim tested both her body and her mind.
Check each choice
- D: blocking out her discomfort shows the swim was “both a mental and a physical challenge.” Mental means of the mind.
- A: paragraph 5 never mentions her training.
- B: the team on the tugboats is in paragraph 6. Paragraph 5 is about Ederle alone.
- C: paragraph 5 doesn’t use the early trouble to hint at later problems. It shows her getting past it.
Watch out: A storm does come later, in paragraph 7, so C can seem right. But paragraph 5 ends with her solving the problem, not with a warning.
Pick the answer
Only D explains both the problems and the way she solved them. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because more trouble does come later, in the storm. But paragraph 5 doesn’t hint at the storm. It ends with Ederle “briskly breaking through waves.” D explains the whole pattern: body problems solved partly by the mind.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
Question 61 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 24Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
Which sentence from the passage best conveys the author’s perspective regarding the impact of Ederle’s accomplishment?
- A“Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.” (paragraph 1)
- B“For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile.” (paragraph 7)
- C“Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea.” (paragraph 7)
- D“Ederle had swum into history.” (paragraph 8)
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks for the sentence from the passage that best conveys the author’s perspective about the impact of Ederle’s swim.
Option D is correct because, throughout the passage, the author emphasizes that Ederle’s accomplishment was memorable and great, which is best stated in the sentence from paragraph 8.
The sentence presented in Option A is incorrect because it focuses on Ederle’s personal attributes that allowed her to successfully complete her swim, not the author’s perspective about the impact of her achievement.
The sentence presented in Option B is incorrect because the details in the sentence relate to Ederle’s state of mind as she came closer to achieving her goal and do not provide details about the author’s opinion of the impact of Ederle’s accomplishment.
The sentence presented in Option C is incorrect because it simply presents Ederle’s emotional state as she nears her goal and does not provide information about the author’s perspective.
Question analysis
This reading question asks which quoted sentence best conveys the author's own perspective on the impact of Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim. Every quotation shows the swim in a positive light, so students must tell the author's judgment apart from description and keep the question's focus on impact in mind.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Identifying an author's own perspective is typical grade 7 point-of-view work. The quotations are short and labeled, and the main demand is attending to the word impact in the question.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 66 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar 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
Two tests apply at once: whose view a sentence gives and whether that view concerns impact. The thesis sentence passes the first and fails the second, which makes it the main trap, while the two sentences from paragraph 7 report Ederle's feelings, not the author's judgment. The short sentence in paragraph 8 is easy to skim past because it states impact in five words and a figure of speech.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks for the author's perspective, so narration of Ederle's own feelings, her “amused smile” and being “indescribably happy”, has to be set apart from the author's judgment. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Ederle had swum into history” states the impact through a figure of speech, so the student must read it as a claim that the swim earned a lasting place. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Ask two questions of each quotation: whose view does it express, and is it about the swim's impact or about something else? Only one quotation passes both tests.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- 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
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Picks the passage's thesis, a real statement of the author's view, but it praises her determination and passion rather than saying what the swim meant or changed.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes Ederle's “amused smile” while dodging debris as the author's opinion, but it describes her mood mid-swim, not any judgment about the swim's impact.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “indescribably happy” as the author's enthusiasm, but the sentence reports how Ederle felt during the storm, not how the author sees her achievement's impact.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In the reason for rejecting F (B on this site), the handbook reads “the details in the sentence relate to … and does not provide details”. It now reads “do not provide”, to agree with “details”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A perspective is a point of view. Impact means the effect something has. So you need a sentence that shows the author’s opinion about what Ederle’s swim meant. A sentence about how Ederle felt does not count.
Ask two questions of each quote
For each choice, ask: Whose view is this, the author’s or Ederle’s? Then ask: Is it about the effect of the swim, or about something else? Only one choice will pass both tests.
Check each choice
- A: the swim was “a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.” This is the author’s view, but it is about her qualities, not the swim’s effect.
- B: “dodging debris with an amused smile” describes Ederle’s mood during the swim.
- C: “Ederle felt indescribably happy” describes her feelings, not the author’s judgment.
- D: “Ederle had swum into history” (paragraph 8). This is the author speaking about what the swim meant.
Explain the key phrase
“Swum into history” is a figure of speech, words that mean more than their exact sense. She didn’t really swim into a history book. It means her swim was so important that people will remember it for a long time. That is a judgment about its impact.
Pick the answer
Watch out: A is the author’s main claim, so it is tempting. But it explains what made her succeed, not what her success meant. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because it is also the author’s own opinion. But it tells what the swim showed about Ederle: her determination and passion. D tells what the swim meant: it made history. Only D is about impact.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 62 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 26Passage Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad
Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad
by Mark Twain
Now and then, while we rested, we watched the laborious ant at his work. I found nothing new in him—certainly nothing to change my opinion of him. It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be a strangely overrated bird. During many summers now I have watched him, when I ought to have been in better business, and I have not yet come across a living ant that seemed to have any more sense than a dead one. I refer to the ordinary ant, of course; I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, . . . and dispute about religion. Those particular ants may be all that the naturalist paints them, but I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham.
I admit his industry, of course; he is the hardest working creature in the world—when anybody is looking—but his leather-headedness is the point I make against him. He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do? Go home? No; he goes anywhere but home. He doesn’t know where home is. His home may be only three feet away; no matter, he can’t find it. He makes his capture, as I have said; it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else; it is usually seven times bigger than it ought to be; he hunts out the awkwardest place to take hold of it; he lifts it bodily up in the air by main force, and starts—not toward home, but in the opposite direction; not calmly and wisely, but with a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength; he fetches up against a pebble, and, instead of going around it, he climbs over it backwards, dragging his booty after him, tumbles down on the other side, jumps up in a passion, kicks the dust off his clothes, moistens his hands, grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then that, shoves it ahead of him a moment, turns tail and lugs it after him another moment, gets madder and madder, then presently hoists it into the air and goes tearing away in an entirely new direction; comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top—which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple; when he gets up there he finds that that is not the place; takes a cursory glance at the scenery, and either climbs down again or tumbles down, and starts off once more—as usual, in a new direction. At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from, and lays his burden down. Meantime, he has been over all the ground for two yards around, and climbed all the weeds and pebbles he came across. Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever. He traverses a good deal of zig-zag country, and by and by stumbles on his same booty again. He does not remember to have ever seen it before; he looks around to see which is not the way home, grabs his bundle, and starts. He goes through the same adventures he had before; finally stops to rest, and a friend comes along.
Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it. Evidently the proprietor does not remember exactly where he did get it, but thinks he got it “around here somewhere.” Evidently the friend contracts to help him freight it home. Then, with a judgment peculiarly antic (pun not intentional), they take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions. Presently they take a rest, and confer together. They decide that something is wrong, they can’t make out what. Then they go at it again, just as before. Same result. Mutual recriminations follow. Evidently each accuses the other of being an obstructionist. They warm up, and the dispute ends in a fight. They lock themselves together and chew each other’s jaws for a while; then they roll and tumble on the ground till one loses a horn or a leg and has to haul off for repairs. They make up and go to work again in the same old insane way, but the crippled ant is at a disadvantage; tug as he may, the other one drags off the booty and him at the end of it. Instead of giving up, he hangs on, and gets his shins bruised against every obstruction that comes in the way. By and by, when that grasshopper leg has been dragged all over the same old ground once more, it is finally dumped at about the spot where it originally lay. The two perspiring ants inspect it thoughtfully and decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all, and then each starts off in a different direction to see if he can’t find an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it. . . .
Science has recently discovered that the ant does not lay up anything for winter use. . . . He does not work, except when people are looking, and only then when the observer has a green, naturalistic look, and seems to be taking notes. This amounts to deception, and will injure him for the Sunday schools. He has not judgment enough to know what is good to eat from what isn’t. This amounts to ignorance, and will impair the world’s respect for him. . . . He cannot stroll around a stump and find his way home again. This amounts to idiocy, and once the damaging fact is established, thoughtful people will cease to look up to him. It is strange beyond comprehension that so manifest a humbug as the ant has been able to fool so many nations and keep it up so many ages without being found out.
we: the author and his fictional travel companion
From A TRAMP ABROAD by Mark Twain—Public Domain
Question
The phrase “those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, . . . and dispute about religion” in paragraph 1 shows that the author
- Abelieves that the behavior of the ants is reflected in other living creatures.
- Backnowledges that his observations of a few do not necessarily apply to all.
- Cknows that disproving a commonly held belief is challenging.
- Daccepts that there are flaws in his interpretation of the behavior of the ants.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks about the phrase, which highlights the behavior of ants from different parts of the world, and about what the inclusion of the phrase shows about the author.
Option B is correct because the phrase is meant to communicate a caution that while the author believes most ants are foolish, his observations in the excerpt do not apply to all types of ants.
Option A is incorrect because, in the excerpt, the author is comparing species of ants to one another and not to other living creatures.
Option C is incorrect because the author never comments in the excerpt that challenging common or strongly held beliefs is, in general, difficult.
Option D is incorrect because the author never expresses in the excerpt the idea that the conclusions drawn about the ants’ behavior are flawed; the reference to Swiss and African ants is meant to show that those ants are an exception.
Question analysis
In this Mark Twain excerpt about ants, students must decide what a mocking aside about Swiss and African ants that “vote” and “keep drilled armies” reveals about the author's point of view. The tricky part is reading past the sarcasm to see what the aside does for his larger case against ants.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 readers usually judge a narrator's stance from direct statements. Here the stance sits inside a sarcastic aside in long nineteenth-century sentences, so students must separate what Twain means from what he mocks, which goes beyond 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 72 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 misses come from reading the aside as a sincere comparison or as a confession. Twain mocks the naturalists' stories of voting, warring ants while making clear that his verdict covers only the ordinary ant he has watched, so the phrase narrows his claim without weakening it. The key's wording, “observations of a few,” is abstract and does not echo the text, and students who catch the concession but not its limits drift to the choice about flaws in his interpretation.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The aside is mock praise: “wonderful” ants that “vote” and “dispute about religion” poke fun at the naturalists, so students must see that the joke also fences off which ants his verdict covers. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
B and D both read the aside as a concession about his conclusions; they part only on its kind, since B narrows which ants his verdict covers while D admits the verdict itself is flawed. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The phrase says nothing about the author directly; his stance comes from its frame, “I refer to the ordinary ant, of course” before it and “the average ant is a sham” after. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Reread the whole sentence the quoted phrase sits in, not just the quoted words, and decide what job the aside does there; then drop any choice describing an idea the paragraph never expresses.
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.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the voting, army-keeping ants at face value as a likeness between ants and people, though the aside mocks those claims and compares only kinds of ants.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Carries the closing complaint that the ant has fooled “so many nations” into this sentence and decides the author finds disproving the belief hard, which he never says.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly hears a concession in “I have had no experience,” but turns a limit on which ants he means into an admission that his reading of ants is wrong.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about the author’s point of view. In paragraph 1, Twain mentions some very special ants. You need to decide what that mention shows about Twain himself.
Read the whole sentence
Don’t read only the quoted words. Read the whole sentence in paragraph 1: “I refer to the ordinary ant, of course; I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, . . . and dispute about religion.”
Then read the next sentence: “Those particular ants may be all that the naturalist paints them, but I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham.”
Work out what the phrase means
Twain is joking. No ant really votes or argues about religion. He is poking fun at wild stories told by naturalists (people who study nature).
But the joke also does a job. Twain says his opinion is about the “ordinary ant,” the kind he has watched. He has never seen those other ants. So he limits his claim to the ants he knows. He does not say his claim is wrong.
Check each choice
- A says ant behavior shows up in other creatures. No. Twain compares kinds of ants, not ants and other animals.
- B fits. He has watched only some ants, so his verdict may not fit every ant.
- C says he finds it hard to disprove a common belief. He never says that.
- D says he admits his view of ants is flawed. He doesn’t. He stays sure the ant is a sham.
Choose the answer
The phrase shows that Twain knows what he saw in the ants he watched may not be true of all ants. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap. Both B and D hear Twain admitting something. But D says he admits he is wrong. B says only that he limits which ants he means. Right after the phrase he writes, “I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham.” He is not backing down.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed (pages 62–63)
Question 63 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 28Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
In paragraph 2, how do the words “grabs,” “yanks,” and “tearing away” contribute to the meaning of the excerpt?
- AThey highlight the ant’s belief that his work is important.
- BThey illustrate that the ant is more efficient working on his own.
- CThey indicate the speed with which the ant completes his tasks.
- DThey emphasize the ant’s anxious efforts to be productive.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks for an explanation of how the words “grabs,” “yanks,” and “tearing away” (paragraph 2) contribute to the meaning of the excerpt.
Option D is correct because these words convey sudden movements as the ant becomes more upset in his efforts to transport the grasshopper leg.
Option A is incorrect because the ant is never described in the excerpt as believing his work to be important.
Option B is incorrect because the ant’s inability to make progress while transporting the grasshopper leg by himself demonstrates the ant’s inefficiency (paragraph 2: “At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from”).
Option C is incorrect because the ant does not complete his tasks despite moving in a hurried and determined way (paragraph 2: “not calmly and wisely, but with a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength”).
Question analysis
This word-choice question asks how three action words from Mark Twain's ant story, “grabs,” “yanks” and “tearing away,” add to the excerpt's meaning. The verbs are buried in one very long sentence that lists dozens of actions, so students must find them and decide what their connotations add to the picture of the ant.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 word-choice items usually ask about one word in a short passage. This one asks for the shared effect of three verbs scattered through a very long sentence, though their tone is fairly clear once found, which keeps it 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
- Complex sentences moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 60 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A wrong option letter in the explanation was corrected.
- A missing comma in the explanation was restored.
- 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 verbs themselves are easy words; the difficulty is deciding what they add. Their speed is obvious, which is why the choice about how fast the ant finishes his tasks catches readers who stop at speed and miss that nothing gets finished. The key reads the verbs together with “in a passion” and “madder and madder” around them, so it rewards looking at the words' surroundings rather than the words alone.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
All three verbs are buried in one 183-word sentence of paragraph 2, strung through semicolons among about twenty other actions, so students must find them before judging them. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The verbs' force reads as a comic tantrum, “grabs his property viciously” soon after he “jumps up in a passion,” so their connotation of agitation, not skill, carries the meaning. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
A and D both tie the verbs to the ant caring about his work; they differ in one part, since the verbs show his anxious efforts, as D says, but never reveal a belief, as A claims. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Locate the three verbs in paragraph 2, read the clauses around each one, and describe their effect in your own words before looking at the choices.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the ant's vigor as proof that he thinks his work important, a belief the excerpt never gives him; the verbs show agitation, not conviction.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears the forceful verbs as signs of a capable worker and contrasts him with the bickering pair, though alone he ends six inches from where he began.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly senses speed in “tearing away,” but the ant completes nothing; Twain calls it “a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength.”
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s last reason begins “Option H is incorrect because the ant does not complete his tasks despite moving in a hurried and determined way”, but H is its correct answer. The reason is about G, “They indicate the speed with which the ant completes his tasks,” so this site reads Option C (G relettered). This was already corrected on the site before this review.
- Explanation: The handbook quotes the words as “grabs” “yanks,” and “tearing away”. The comma after “grabs” is restored, as in the question.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a word-choice question. It asks what three action words add to the excerpt. Think about how the words feel, not just what they mean.
Find the words in paragraph 2
All three words are in the very long sentence in paragraph 2. Look at the words around them. The ant “jumps up in a passion,” then “grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then that.” Soon he “gets madder and madder” and goes “tearing away in an entirely new direction.”
Work out what the words show
“In a passion” means in a fit of anger. “Viciously” means fiercely. So the words show a worked-up, frantic ant. He moves fast and rough, like a kid having a tantrum. He badly wants to get his job done.
But Twain also says the ant moves “with a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength.” All that rushing gets him nowhere.
Check each choice
- A The excerpt never tells us what the ant believes about his work. The words show he is upset, not what he thinks.
- B Working alone, he ends up six inches from where he started. That is not efficient (getting a lot done without waste).
- C The words do show speed. But the ant never finishes anything.
- D fits. The words show anxious, frantic effort to get the job done.
Choose the answer
The rough, fast verbs show an upset ant trying hard to be productive. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap, because “tearing away” does sound fast. But C says the ant completes his tasks, and he never does. D keeps the speed and the worry but does not claim success. That is why D fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 64 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 29Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
Read this text from paragraph 2.
He . . . comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top—which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple;
These details convey the central idea in the excerpt by showing that the ant
- Aoften wastes his strength when working on a task.
- Bis surprised by the effort he needs in order to move the object.
- Cis oblivious to the most practical solution to his problem.
- Dfocuses more on obtaining the object than getting it back home efficiently.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks for an explanation of how the details in the sentence convey the central idea, which is that the ant makes poor choices because of his lack of intelligence and his inability to understand even the most basic problem or obstacle.
Option C is correct because the author’s description of the ant climbing up and over the weed rather than simply going around the weed supports the central idea.
Option A is incorrect because, although the ant does waste much of his strength, the idea conveyed in the sentences is more related to the ant’s inability to solve a problem in the simplest way (paragraph 2: “which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple”).
Option B is incorrect because the idea that the ant is surprised by the amount of effort needed to carry the object is not a central idea of the excerpt; nor does the excerpt suggest that the ant is surprised by this in the first place.
Option D is incorrect because the ant has already acquired the object, and the details in the sentence do not convey an idea about the ant’s unnecessary effort.
Question analysis
Students read Mark Twain's description of an ant hauling its load up and over a weed and must explain how these details support the excerpt's central idea. The comparison to carrying flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of a church steeple is unfamiliar, and one choice is true of the ant elsewhere without being the point of these lines.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a quoted detail to a central idea is routine grade 7 work, and the lines are printed in the question. The extra hurdle is decoding an old comparison about lugging flour between European cities over a steeple.
- 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
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 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 lines are printed in the question, so the challenge is interpreting them rather than finding them. Students who know the ant wastes his strength will find that idea here too and stop, while the comparison actually mocks choosing the hardest route: going up and over instead of around. The question rewards asking what the weed and the steeple have in common before reading the choices.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The point hides in sarcasm: climbing the weed is “as bright a thing to do” as hauling flour from Heidelberg to Paris “by way of Strasburg steeple,” so “bright” means foolish. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The joke lands faster for readers who know that a steeple is a church's tall spire and that Strasbourg lies on the road from Heidelberg to Paris. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Work out what the flour-and-steeple comparison mocks by picturing the route it describes, then match that judgment to what the ant does at the weed.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Recalls that his “frantic haste” is “wasteful of his strength,” true earlier in paragraph 2, but these lines mock his route over the weed, not his spent energy.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines the ant startled by how heavy his load is, but no line shows surprise; he climbs because going around “never occurs to him.”
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly sees the ant failing to get the load home efficiently, but he already holds the object, so nothing here is about obtaining it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how a few printed lines support the central idea. The central idea is that the ant is not as smart as people think.
Find the key words
The lines are from paragraph 2. The ant “comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it.” Instead, he climbs it. Then Twain says this is “as bright a thing to do” as carrying “a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple.”
Picture the comparison
A steeple is the tall, pointed tower on top of a church. Heidelberg, Strasburg and Paris are cities, and Strasburg is on the way. Picture carrying a heavy sack between cities. Now picture climbing up and over a church tower on the way, instead of walking around it. That is silly.
So when Twain calls the climb “bright,” he means the opposite. This is sarcasm (saying the opposite of what you mean, to poke fun).
Check each choice
- A The ant does waste strength elsewhere in paragraph 2. But these lines mock his choice of route.
- B Nothing shows the ant is surprised. Going around just never occurs to him.
- C fits. Going around the weed is the easy fix, and the ant never thinks of it. Oblivious means not noticing.
- D He already has the object, so these lines are not about getting it.
Choose the answer
The lines show an ant who misses the simple solution right in front of him. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap, since the ant really does waste his strength. But the weed and the steeple share one point: each is climbed when you could simply walk around it. That is about missing the easy solution, which is choice C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 65 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 34Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
The two perspiring ants inspect it thoughtfully and decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all, and then each starts off in a different direction to see if he can’t find an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it.
How does the word choice in the sentence contribute to the overall meaning of the excerpt?
- AIt creates a humorous critique of the ants’ intense attitude toward their pointless work.
- BIt illustrates the ants’ confusion over their lack of positive results compared with their level of effort.
- CIt highlights the ants’ frustration as they repeatedly chose a difficult task over one that could be accomplished more easily.
- DIt illustrates the ants’ stubborn determination to hold on to the worthless object.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks for an explanation of how the word choice in the sentence adds to the meaning of the excerpt. The image the author creates of two sweating ants abandoning the grasshopper leg to look for “an old nail,” which an ant would want because it is “valueless,” is comical, as suggested in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because it is a misinterpretation of the excerpt, as the ants are not confused but are acting decisively (paragraph 3: “Then they go at it again, just as before”).
Option C is incorrect because the ants find moving heavy objects to be an amusing way to spend their time and are not aware enough to feel frustrated (paragraph 3: “something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it”).
Option D is incorrect because the ants are willingly giving up on their object (paragraph 3: “decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all”).
Question analysis
This question asks how Mark Twain's word choice in one long sentence, where two sweating ants give up on a grasshopper leg and go looking for something else to carry, shapes the excerpt's meaning. Students must judge the tone of words such as “thoughtfully,” “entertainment” and “valueless” and relate it to the excerpt as a whole.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly judge how word choice shapes tone, so the skill is familiar. What adds demand is one very long sentence whose effect depends on reading its adjectives against the situation they describe.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- Complex sentences moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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 sentence comes after a brawl, so readers expect frustration or confusion, and two wrong choices supply exactly those moods from earlier in paragraph 3. Here, though, the ants are calm and deliberate, and the joke is that their calm reasoning picks the heaviest, most worthless thing to haul. Students who judge the words of this sentence, not the paragraph's general mood, see that it mocks the ants' earnest attitude toward pointless work.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The humor is ironic logic: the ants inspect “thoughtfully,” then seek something “heavy enough to afford entertainment” and “valueless enough” to own, praising the very qualities that make their work pointless. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The effect builds across one 67-word sentence whose key phrases come at the very end, after a chain of clauses about inspecting, deciding and setting off. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Underline the words that describe the ants' thinking and goals, decide what effect they have in this sentence, and then compare that effect with each choice.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries over “they can't make out what” from earlier in the paragraph, but in this sentence the ants inspect the leg thoughtfully and decide calmly.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Correctly sees the ants choosing heavy loads, but the frustration belongs to the earlier fight; here they want heavy things “to afford entertainment,” not out of anger.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Recalls the crippled ant who “hangs on” earlier in the paragraph, missing that here both ants drop the leg as “a poor sort of property.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a word-choice question. It asks how the words in one sentence add to the meaning of the excerpt. Pay attention to the tone, which is the feeling the words give.
Find the key words
The sentence ends paragraph 3. First the ants “inspect it thoughtfully.” Then each one looks for “an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it.”
Work out the joke
“Afford entertainment” means give them fun. “Valueless” means worth nothing. Twain makes the ants sound careful and wise. Then they decide to look for something heavy and worthless.
That is the joke. The very things that make their work pointless are what they want most. Twain is making fun of how seriously the ants take their silly work.
Check each choice
- A fits. The words make a funny critique (a judgment) of the ants’ serious attitude toward pointless work.
- B In this sentence the ants are not confused. They think it over and decide calmly.
- C They do pick heavy things, but for fun, not out of frustration.
- D They give the leg up. They decide it is “a poor sort of property after all.”
Choose the answer
The sentence pokes fun at how hard the ants work at nothing. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap, since the ants really do choose heavy loads. But the anger came earlier in the paragraph, during the fight. In this sentence the ants are calm. They want something heavy to have fun with. Fun, not frustration, is the point, and Twain makes it funny. That matches A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 66 of 84
2018 Test A 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 similar construction of the sentence in line 1 and the sentence in line 8 contribute to the meaning of the poem?
- AIt introduces the intended permanence of the structure and the ever-changing fluidity of the water.
- BIt shows that the structure can bridge the gap caused by the water.
- CIt suggests that the structure has more limitations than the water.
- DIt contrasts the stability of the structure with the instability of the water.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contributes to the meaning of the poem. By beginning lines 1 and 8 with “What I am is,” each speaker establishes its defining feature, both of which are stated in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because the focus of the lines is defining the speakers’ individuality, not how one speaker resolves a problem created by the other.
Option C is incorrect because the structure is not stating in line 1 that it is limited because it was built to stand in place; on the contrary, the structure is stating that this sense of purpose and permanence is its strength.
Option D is incorrect because, in these lines, each speaker is trying to establish its stability, which for the structure is based on strength and for the water is based on longevity.
Question analysis
In the poem “Cross-Purposes,” a built structure and a body of water speak in turn, and both of their opening stanzas begin “What I am is.” This question asks how that matching sentence pattern adds to the poem's meaning. Students must judge precisely how each speaker describes itself, since the choices differ in small but important words.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 poetry questions often ask what a repeated phrase emphasizes. Here the repetition sets up two opposed speakers, and the choices hinge on fine distinctions of connotation, which pushes the task above typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 74 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar 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
Two choices describe the same contrast, built versus moving, and differ only in the judgment their words carry. Students who see the contrast quickly can still lose the point by choosing the version that calls the water unstable, since nothing in the water's stanza treats motion as a weakness; it boasts of being older than anything. The question rewards weighing the connotation of each word in a choice, not just its overall direction.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
A and D describe the same contrast in near-synonyms, permanence and stability against fluidity and instability; they differ only in the word “instability,” a weakness the proud water never claims. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the shared opening “What I am is” does, so students must see that it sets up two self-definitions, “built” and “motion,” as rival claims. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The speakers are personified and the structure is never named, so students must infer from “concrete and steel” and the trains on its “broad back” that a bridge is speaking. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices turn on abstract words such as “permanence,” “fluidity” and “instability” that never appear in the poem. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Read the opening sentences of the first two stanzas side by side, name each speaker's defining quality in a word, and test every choice's wording against what the speakers actually claim.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps to the fifth stanza, where the structures “stitch across the rip you make”; lines 1 and 8 only define each speaker and mention no gap.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Infers from “built” versus “motion” that the structure is the more limited, a judgment the water makes later but these parallel lines do not.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure's stability right, but “instability” casts the water's motion as a flaw, while the water presents motion as a strength.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook reads “how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contribute”. It now reads “contributes”, to agree with “similarity”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a question about the poem’s structure. Lines 1 and 8 are built the same way. You need to see what that sameness does for the meaning.
Compare lines 1 and 8
Line 1 opens the first stanza (a group of lines in a poem): “What I am is built: concrete and steel.”
Line 8 opens the second stanza: “What I am is motion. I am water.”
Both start with the same words, “What I am is.” Each speaker is telling you the one thing that defines it.
Work out who is talking
Two things talk in this poem. The first is a structure, most likely a bridge. It is made of “concrete and steel,” and trains cross its “broad back.” The second is water. Giving human traits, like speech, to things that are not human is called personification.
The bridge is “built”: made to stay in place for a long time. The water is “motion”: always moving and changing.
Check each choice
- A fits. “Built” suggests permanence (lasting). “Motion” suggests fluidity (flowing like a liquid).
- B The bridge closing a gap comes later, in lines 33–35. Lines 1 and 8 mention no gap.
- C The bridge is proud of being built. It admits no limits here.
- D “Instability” makes moving sound like a weakness. The water is proud of its motion.
Choose the answer
The matching lines set the structure’s lasting strength against the water’s constant flow. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap, because it describes the same contrast. But instability means being shaky or weak. The water never sees itself that way. It brags that it is “older / than anything else you know.” A uses “fluidity,” which treats motion as a strength.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
Question 67 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 43Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
Read lines 2–4 and lines 12–14 from the poem.
I am what every athlete
wants: to remain at the apex of the leap,
up in the air.
I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest,
and I catch everything: from the hills,
the mountains.
How do the lines contribute to the development of a central idea of the poem?
- AThey establish that both the structure and the water have endurance and control.
- BThey highlight that both the structure and the water are powerful and impressive.
- CThey suggest that the structure and the water are unaware of how similar they are.
- DThey reveal that the structure and the water are surprised that they are interrelated.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks how the lines contribute to the development of a central idea in the poem. The lines “I am what every athlete / wants” (lines 2–3) and “I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest” (line 12) communicate that each speaker is an object of admiration and a powerful force, so Option B is correct.
Option A is incorrect because nothing in the language of the lines communicates control.
Option C is incorrect because the lines describe opposing characteristics: the structure’s description conveys stillness—remaining “up in the air” (line 4)—while the water’s description conveys movement—“flowing in the runner’s chest” (line 12). Additionally, the idea that the speakers fail to recognize similarities is not part of a central idea.
Option D is incorrect because there is no evidence in the poem that the two speakers understand that they are interrelated.
Question analysis
Students compare two sets of lines from the poem “Cross-Purposes” in which the structure and the water each describe themselves through athletes, one leaping and one running. The question asks how these lines develop a central idea, which means comparing two images that seem opposite and deciding what the pairing adds.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 work asks what one image suggests. This question pairs images from two speakers in a two-voice poem and asks for a shared idea, with abstract choices that all sound plausible, which is above grade 7.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- Combines ideas moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 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 athlete images point in opposite directions, one frozen in the air and one in motion, so students may look for a contrast when the question wants what the two share. Both speakers are borrowing the glamour of athletes to boast, which is what makes them powerful and impressive. The other choices either add a quality, control, that neither image carries, or credit the speakers with feelings the poem never shows.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
Both claims are metaphors: the bridge is the athlete's dream of staying “at the apex of the leap,” and the water is “the blood flowing in the runner's chest,” so each image must be translated into a quality. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Combines ideas moderate Working it out
The two sets of lines come from rival speakers in different stanzas, and the answer has to name one idea true of both, not of either alone. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
A and B share the frame “both the structure and the water” plus two qualities; A's endurance is close to B's power, and only its added “control” finds no support in the lines. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: For each set of lines, ask what the speaker claims about itself through the athlete image; then keep only a choice that fits both speakers and these exact words.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears stamina in the runner and in staying aloft, which is defensible, but nothing in either set of lines suggests control.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Notices that both speakers use athletes and assumes they miss the likeness, an idea the poem never develops; the images actually set stillness against motion.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads surprise into lines whose tone is boastful; neither speaker shows any sign of noticing a connection, let alone being surprised by it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how two sets of lines build a central idea. The structure speaks one set, and the water speaks the other. You need one idea that fits both.
Read both sets of lines
The structure says, in lines 2–4: “I am what every athlete / wants: to remain at the apex of the leap, / up in the air.”
The water says, in lines 12–14: “I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest, / and I catch everything.”
Work out what each speaker claims
The apex is the very top. Every athlete wishes they could stay at the top of a jump. The structure stays up there all the time. So it brags that it does what athletes dream of.
The water says it is the blood that keeps a runner going. Both speakers compare themselves to strong athletes. Both are showing off how powerful and impressive they are.
Check each choice
- A Endurance (lasting a long time) could fit. But nothing in the lines shows control.
- B fits. Both speakers boast of being powerful and impressive.
- C The poem never says they don’t notice how alike they are.
- D Neither speaker shows surprise. Their tone is proud.
Choose the answer
Both sets of lines show the speakers bragging about their power. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest choice. Like B, it says something good about both speakers. But A adds “control,” and neither set of lines shows either speaker controlling anything. Every part of B fits both sets of lines, with nothing extra.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 68 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 44Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
Read line 7 from the first stanza.
Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.
How does the line contribute to the development of ideas in the stanza?
- AThe line supports the structure’s claim that it is beneficial to nature.
- BThe line reveals that the structure secretly envies the water’s importance in nature.
- CThe line emphasizes that the structure is more valuable to nature than the water is.
- DThe line reveals the kinship that nature shares with the structure.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks how the line contributes to the development of ideas in the stanza. The line mentions swallows and ospreys, birds that use the structure’s trusses as their home; this reference supports the claim that the structure is beneficial to nature, so Option A is correct.
Option B is incorrect because the line doesn’t hint at jealousy in the tone or language, but rather the line is promoting the structure’s helpful characteristic.
Option C is incorrect because, in the line, the structure is not making a comparison with the water.
Option D is incorrect because, in the line, the structure is not implying that it is related to nature but rather that it is helpful to nature.
Question analysis
This question focuses on the first stanza of “Cross-Purposes,” in which a built structure describes itself, and asks what the line about swallows and ospreys nesting in its trusses adds. The line is short and plain, but students need to read it as part of the whole stanza and know that trusses are a structure's load-bearing framework.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Explaining what one line adds to its own stanza matches the grade 6 standard on how a sentence fits into a text. The line is plain and the stanza short, so this is below 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
- Figurative or literary language minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 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
The line is plain and follows directly from the stanza's claim that the structure is useful, so most students who read the stanza in order find the key. The wrong choices import the poem's later rivalry with the water, or a sense of family that comes later and refers to other structures. Students who keep to the first stanza, where the water has not yet spoken, avoid them.
How, not what minor Working it out
The line follows “And yet I am useful, too,” so its job is to extend the structure's usefulness from cars and trains to birds. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The speaker is a personified bridge boasting about itself, and the birds in its “trusses” are offered as one more reason to admire it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
A and C both say the line shows the structure's value to nature; C differs only in adding “than the water is,” a comparison the first stanza, where the water has not yet spoken, never makes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Read the stanza's sentences in order and note what each says about the speaker; then ask what the line about the birds adds to that picture.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines envy of the water, but the first stanza never mentions the water and its tone is proud, not jealous.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the later contest over usefulness to nature, when the water says its flow “nourishes grasses”; the first stanza makes no comparison.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads nesting birds as a family bond, a step beyond the line, which shows the structure helping nature; the “siblings” come later and are other structures.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one line adds to the first stanza. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, a bit like a paragraph. Read the whole stanza to see where the line fits.
Read the stanza in order
Line 4 says: “And yet I am useful, too.” Lines 5–6 list who uses the structure: “cars, trucks, people, even trains.” Then line 7 says: “Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.”
The footnote says ospreys are large birds. Swallows are small birds. Trusses are the frame of beams that holds up a bridge.
Work out what the line adds
Lines 4–7 list ways the structure is useful. First it helps people and their cars and trains get across. Line 7 adds that it helps animals too: birds make their homes in it. So the line shows the structure is good for nature, not just for people.
Check each choice
- A fits. Birds nesting there support the claim that the structure helps nature.
- B The water isn’t even mentioned yet, and the tone is proud, not jealous.
- C This stanza makes no comparison with the water.
- D Kinship means being family. The line shows help, not family. The “siblings” come later, and they are other structures.
Choose the answer
The line backs up the structure’s claim that it is good for nature. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap. Like A, it says the structure helps nature. But C adds “than the water is.” In the first stanza the water has not spoken yet, so no comparison is made. A says only what the line shows.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 69 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 45Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
Read lines 18–20 from the poem.
You are some tears dribbling from a mountain’s
eye, running down the pavements
of small towns, into the cities, to the sea.
What impact do the phrases “some tears dribbling” and “running down” have on the meaning of the poem?
- AThey suggest that naturally flowing water is a problem in populated areas.
- BThey highlight the different types of naturally flowing water.
- CThey imply that the flow of water is weak and influenced by the landscape.
- DThey highlight that the flow of water from the mountains is minimal compared with that of the seas.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks for the impact that the phrases have on the meaning of the poem. The phrases “some tears dribbling” and “running down” (lines 18–19) imply weakness in form and being influenced by the landscape, making Option C correct.
Option A is incorrect because, while the lines do describe the water in populated areas, they do not describe the water as a problem for the people living there.
Option B is incorrect because the lines do more than bring attention to different types of water; the lines make a judgment about the strength and importance of the water.
Option D is incorrect because a comparison is not made based on the volume of water streaming from the mountains and the volume of water in the seas.
Question analysis
In this question about figurative language in “Cross-Purposes,” students explain the impact of the phrases “some tears dribbling” and “running down,” used to describe the water. They must first work out which of the poem's two speakers is talking, then judge the connotations of the words rather than only the picture they paint.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Judging the connotation of a few words is standard grade 7 work. The two-voice format adds one step, since the speakers are never named, but the lines are quoted and short, so the demand stays 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 98 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 lines can be read as a simple picture of water running from mountains to the sea, and that reading leads to choices about kinds of water, flooding or volume. The phrases matter for what they say about the water's strength: it dribbles, it runs downhill, it goes where the land sends it. Students who ask how the speaker feels about the water, and remember the stanza's “path of least resistance,” arrive at the key.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Some tears dribbling from a mountain's eye” turns a river into a weak trickle of tears, so the judgment lies in the connotation of “some” and “dribbling,” not in the picture. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
C and D both say the water's flow is weak, D's “minimal” matching “dribbling”; they differ in the second part, where D adds a comparison with the seas that the lines never make. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The stanza is unlabeled, so students must work out from its roman type and its “you” that the structure is speaking and belittling the water. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Compare “dribbling” with a neutral word such as “flowing,” and ask what the difference suggests about how this stanza's speaker regards the water.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads water “running down the pavements” of towns and cities as literal flooding, a problem for people, though the speaker is belittling the water, not warning of harm.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Lists what the lines show, tears, streets and sea, as kinds of water, describing the content instead of the judgment the phrases make.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Catches the weakness in “dribbling,” but the lines never set the mountain trickle against the sea's volume; the sea is simply where the water ends up.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a word-choice question. It asks what two phrases suggest about the water. Notice how the words make the water seem.
Work out who is speaking
Lines 15–21 are spoken by the structure. It talks to the water as “you.” It starts: “What you are is an accident.” It ends: “You are the path of least resistance.” The path of least resistance is the easiest way, the one that takes no effort.
Look closely at the phrases
Lines 18–19 say the water is “some tears dribbling from a mountain’s eye, running down the pavements.”
To dribble is to drip a little at a time. “Some tears” sounds small and weak. “Running down” means the water just goes downhill, wherever the land sends it. So the structure is putting the water down. It calls the water weak and pushed around by the land.
Check each choice
- A The lines mention towns, but they never call the water a problem for people.
- B The lines do more than list kinds of water. They judge the water.
- C fits. The water is weak and goes where the landscape sends it.
- D The lines never compare how much water is in mountains and in seas.
Choose the answer
The phrases make the water seem weak and controlled by the land. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap, since “dribbling” does sound small, like “minimal.” But D adds a comparison with the seas. The sea is just where the water ends up. C keeps the weakness and adds the land, which matches “running down” and “the path of least resistance.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 70 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 46Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
The comparison to sewing in lines 33–35 helps show that the structure
- Aenhances the beauty of the natural landscape.
- Bbrings people together more effectively than nature does.
- Cprovides clear boundaries for natural environments.
- Dserves as a means for people to overcome an obstacle created by nature.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks what the comparison in lines 33–35 shows about the structure. The speaker states, “We are steel thread to the human needle” (line 34), which illustrates that the structure (and others like it) is a tool used by humans to “bind . . . up” (line 35) or overcome “the rip” (line 33) that the water creates in the earth, making Option D correct.
Option A is incorrect because the language in the lines is used only to imply the flaw that the water creates—“the rip you make” (line 33).
Option B is incorrect because, while the water states that it enables “empires to rise” (line 25), implying that it is needed for society to thrive, it never shares a purpose of bringing people together through its existence.
Option C is incorrect because the language used for sewing (“We stitch across the rip you make” [line 33]) indicates the repair of a flaw and not the establishment of boundaries.
Question analysis
This figurative language question asks what the comparison to sewing, “We stitch across the rip you make,” shows about the structure in the poem “Cross-Purposes.” Students must work out what the speaker and the rip stand for, since the poem never names either, before the thread-and-needle metaphor makes sense.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting an extended metaphor is standard grade 7 work, and the sewing words are concrete and familiar. One inference about what the speaker really is comes first, which keeps the task typical rather than hard.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 45 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misstatement of the question in the explanation was corrected.
- Two small typos 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 who see that the structure is a bridge usually find the metaphor's sense: a river tears the land, and bridges stitch it closed for people to cross. The danger is the choice that also talks about connecting people, which matches the general idea of bridges but slips in a comparison with nature. The other choices treat stitching as decoration or as drawing lines, which a reader who pictures a needle closing a tear will not accept.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The sewing image runs over three lines: the river is a “rip,” bridges are “steel thread,” builders are “the human needle,” so each part must be mapped before the meaning appears. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The poem never says the structure is a bridge or the rip a river gorge; students must infer both from earlier clues such as trains crossing its “broad back.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Use the earlier stanzas to work out what kind of structure is speaking and what the rip is, then translate the thread-and-needle comparison into plain terms.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes bridges beautify a landscape, a common real-world view, but the lines describe repairing a tear, not adding beauty.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly sees bridges joining people across water, but adds that they do it better than nature does, a comparison these lines never draw.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Treats stitches as lines that divide, while stitching across a rip pulls its two sides together rather than marking a boundary.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook says the question asks what the comparison “shows about the structure of the poem.” The question asks what it shows about the structure that speaks in the poem, not about the poem’s form, so “of the poem” was removed.
- Explanation: “(lines 25)” now reads “(line 25)”, and a stray closing parenthesis after “establishment of boundaries.” was removed.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a comparison means. In lines 33–35 the structure compares itself to sewing. You need to turn that picture into plain words.
Read the sewing lines
The lines say: “We stitch across the rip you make. / We are steel thread to the human needle. / We bind you up. We sew you.”
“We” means the structure and its “siblings,” other structures like it. “You” is the water.
Match each part to the real thing
- The “rip” stands for the gap a river cuts through the land.
- The “steel thread” stands for the bridges.
- The “human needle” stands for the people who build them.
When you sew a rip, you pull the two sides back together. Bridges do the same. They join the land on both sides of a river, so people can cross.
Check each choice
- A The lines are about fixing a tear, not about adding beauty.
- B Bridges do bring people together, but the lines never say they do it better than nature.
- C Stitching across a rip pulls the sides together. It does not mark boundaries (lines that divide).
- D fits. The structure helps people get past the gap the water made.
Choose the answer
The sewing picture shows the structure helps people get past an obstacle the water created. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest trap, because bridges really do connect people. But B says they do it “more effectively than nature does.” The lines never compare the two that way. D sticks to what the picture shows: a tear made by water, closed by the structure so people can cross.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 71 of 84
2018 Test A English, question 47Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
The last stanza (lines 36–42) conveys a central idea of the poem by
- Ademonstrating that both the structure and the water depend on each other to fulfill their functions.
- Bimplying that a stronger structure would be able to resist the degradation caused by the water.
- Crevealing that the passage of time will render both the structure and the water obsolete.
- Dsuggesting that the water will eventually weaken the structure and will continue to exist after the structure is gone.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks how the last stanza conveys a central idea of the poem. In lines 36–38, the speaker (the water) describes how its “vapors cling” to the structure, bringing out the structure’s “softness” and “rust,” thus destroying the structure over time. Also, in line 42, the speaker says it is “patient” and “will wait for you,” suggesting that the speaker will be around after the structure is gone. These phrases in the last stanza indicate that Option D is correct.
Option A is incorrect because the last stanza includes no indication that the structure and the water depend on each other.
Option B is incorrect because the last stanza refers to the opposing speaker (the structure) and not to any other structure.
Option C is incorrect because the last stanza addresses only the idea that the structure will grow weak and obsolete over time.
Question analysis
Students must explain how the final stanza of “Cross-Purposes,” spoken by the water, conveys a central idea of the poem. The stanza mixes a pun on sewing and sowing, images of vapor and rust, and a taunt about boasting, so students must read past the wordplay to the stanza's main claim.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a stanza to a poem's central idea is standard grade 7 work. The stanza's wordplay takes some decoding, but each choice can be checked against the stanza itself, so the overall demand 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 analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 78 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 stanza's meaning is a quiet threat: moisture works into the structure, rusts it, and the water simply waits. Students who decode the rust and the waiting usually reach the key, but one wrong choice gets the decay right and then sweeps the water into it too. The taunt to “boast better yet” is the other snare, since read straight it sounds like an invitation to build a stronger structure.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The stanza works through wordplay and images: “I sow into you” puns on the structure's “We sew you,” vapors cling to bring out “your rust,” and “I will wait for you” is a threat. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
C and D agree that time will wear the structure down; they differ only in the water's fate, which D says outlasts the structure and C says becomes obsolete too, against “above all else, patient.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Cranny” and “superstructure” in the stanza, and “degradation” and “obsolete” in the choices, are words a seventh grader may not know. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Paraphrase each sentence of the last stanza in plain words, then check both halves of every choice, since a choice can fit one speaker and not the other.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the sew-and-sow echo as mutual need, but the last stanza shows the water acting on the structure, with no dependence either way.
B Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the taunt “boast better yet” at face value, as if a stronger structure could resist, though the water's answer to any boast is that it will wait.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure's decline right but makes the water obsolete as well, though it is “patient” and plans to outlast the structure.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the last stanza shows a central idea. The water is speaking. You need to work out what it is really saying to the structure.
Read the last stanza
Lines 36–38 say: “And I sow into you; in every cranny / of your superstructure my vapors cling. / They bring out your softness, your rust.”
Lines 41–42 end the poem: “Because I am, / above all else, patient. I will wait for you.”
Work out the hidden threat
A cranny is a small crack. Vapors are tiny drops of water in the air, like mist. The superstructure is the main body of the structure. So the water’s mist creeps into every crack and makes the steel rust and weaken.
“Sow” sounds like “sew,” but it means to plant seeds. The water plants rust. Then it says it will wait. It expects to still be here after the structure is gone.
Check each choice
- A The stanza shows the water harming the structure, not needing it.
- B No stronger structure is mentioned. “Boast better yet” is a dare, not advice.
- C The structure will wear down, but the water won’t. It is patient and waiting.
- D fits. The water will rust the structure and outlast it.
Choose the answer
The water will slowly weaken the structure and still be around after it is gone. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap. C and D agree that time will wear down the structure. But C says the water will become obsolete, or useless, too. The water says the opposite: “I will wait for you.” Only D gets both speakers right.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 72 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 19Passage 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
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
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.
The simile used in the sentence affects the tone of the paragraph by emphasizing a
- Afeeling of comfort as Margaret connects her unfamiliar surroundings with familiar images.
- Bsense of lonesomeness as Margaret realizes that she is on her own in the wilderness.
- Csense of tranquility as Margaret is distracted from the urgency of her situation by the beauty of the night.
- Dfeeling of dread as Margaret regards the desolation of the land that surrounds her.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the simile in the sentence from paragraph 4 reflects the tone of the paragraph. The image of two or three fireflies creating small specks of light in the darkness creates a sense of isolation or loneliness in Margaret, as shown in the sentence, “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her” (paragraph 4). Therefore, Option B is correct.
Option A is incorrect because Margaret is confused and indecisive, showing her discomfort with her situation.
Option C is incorrect because Margaret expresses distress in her situation, questions her decision, and worries about being labeled a “fool” (paragraph 4).
Option D is incorrect because the simile is meant to show how far away things are from Margaret, not create a feeling of dread, which develops later in paragraph 9.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question asks how a simile comparing distant lights to fireflies affects the tone of paragraph 4 in A Voice in the Wilderness. Students connect the image to Margaret’s state of mind as she stands beside the stopped train in the dark. The choices range from calm to fear, so the answer must rest on what Margaret is thinking.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a simile shapes tone is regular grade 7 work with figurative language, and this one is typical. Students must read the comparison in the light of the paragraph around it, since the image alone could suggest several moods.
- 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 very close wrong answer moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 109 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 simile itself is gentle, which is why the comforting reading tempts some students, but the paragraph around it is not: two sentences later, “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.” That sentence decides the question. The harder choice is between loneliness now and the dread and desolation that come after the train has gone, so the question rewards keeping to paragraph 4.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The dread choice is built like the lonesomeness choice, a feeling plus Margaret alone in empty country, “the desolation of the land” beside “on her own in the wilderness”; only the feeling named, dread rather than loneliness, separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Fireflies are usually a cheerful, homey image, so students must read the simile through its setting, “two or three specks of light” far off in the dark, to see that it stresses distance. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices hinge on near-synonyms for feelings, “lonesomeness,” “tranquility,” “dread” and “desolation,” whose shades of meaning have to be weighed against one paragraph. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Picture the scene the comparison creates, then reread paragraph 4 around it and choose the feeling that the paragraph itself supports.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes fireflies at face value as a cozy, familiar image, but Margaret is straining to see and wondering whether she should have left the train, hardly comforted.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the beauty of the night, which belongs to paragraph 12’s stars and sky after the train has gone, not to this anxious moment beside it.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Moves ahead to the dread and desolate land of paragraphs 9 to 13, after the train leaves; here the faraway lights stress distance and a first feeling of isolation.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about a simile: a comparison that uses “like” or “as.” How does this simile shape the tone, or feeling, of paragraph 4?
Find the simile
Margaret looks into the dark and sees “two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance.” The far-off lights are compared to fireflies.
Picture what it shows
Fireflies are tiny lights. Here there are only two or three, and they are far away. Everything else is dark. The picture makes Margaret seem small and far from other people. A few lines later, the paragraph says it: “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.” Isolation means being alone and cut off.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Fireflies can seem cozy, but Margaret is straining to see. She feels alone, not comforted.
- B is right. The tiny, faraway lights stress that she is on her own.
- C is wrong. The beauty of the night comes later, in paragraph 12. Here she is worried.
- D is wrong. Dread and the empty land come later, after the train leaves.
Watch out: D jumps ahead. Her terror starts in paragraph 9, and the empty land appears in paragraphs 12 and 13. Both come after the train is gone.
Choose the answer
The few faraway specks of light in the dark make Margaret feel small and alone. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because Margaret does feel dread later in the story. But in paragraph 4 the train is still there, and the land has not been described yet. The paragraph names the feeling itself: “a sudden feeling of isolation.” Lonesomeness matches that.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
Question 73 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 20Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.
Question
Read paragraph 9 from the excerpt.
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.
The imagery in this sentence conveys the
- Agrowing irritation Margaret feels as she is ignored by people on the train.
- Beffort Margaret is making despite being physically unable to keep up with the train.
- Canger that Margaret is experiencing as she watches the train leave without her.
- Dvulnerability Margaret feels as the train leaves her behind.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for an explanation of what the imagery in the excerpt from paragraph 9 conveys. The words “useless” and “failure” in the sentence indicate that Margaret’s best efforts do not help her. The phrase “the last car slatted itself past” shows that Margaret is helpless to stop the train from departing, which leaves her completely vulnerable, as described in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because describing Margaret’s “sickening sense of terror” indicates that she is extremely afraid of being left behind rather than increasingly irritated with the other passengers.
Option B is incorrect because Margaret spends her time “screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention” in an effort to be noticed so that the train will stop, not attempting to run as fast as the train.
Option C is incorrect because while Margaret’s screaming and running could easily suggest feelings of anger, descriptions of her “sickening sense of terror and failure” indicate otherwise.
Question analysis
This imagery question quotes paragraph 9 of A Voice in the Wilderness, a single long sentence describing the moment the last car of the train rattles past Margaret. Students decide what feeling the imagery conveys. The scene is full of action and noise, so it is easy to name an emotion that fits her behavior but not the words used.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Reading imagery for a character’s feelings is everyday grade 7 work. Paragraph 9 is a single sentence with strong emotional words, so the task stays inside one sentence rather than ranging across the story.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 97 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misspelling of the main character’s name 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 sentence names Margaret’s feelings outright, “terror and failure,” and calls her screaming “useless,” so the question is mostly about trusting those words over the noisy action around them. Students who read the actions alone tend to name anger or irritation. Seeing that a train which seems to enjoy her distress makes her look powerless, not angry, is what leads to the right reading.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The last car “slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort,” and students must see that the personified mockery stresses her helplessness, not her temper. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 9 is one 36-word sentence that lists fragments, “useless screaming, running” and “a sickening sense of terror and failure,” before its only main verb arrives. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The anger choice shares the right one’s frame, a feeling as the train leaves her behind, and differs only in the feeling named, which the sentence’s “terror and failure” settle. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Pick out the words in the sentence that name feelings, along with what the personified train seems to do, and match the choice to those words.
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.
- 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 Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly sees that no one notices her, but names irritation, a mild and growing annoyance, where the sentence speaks of a “sickening sense of terror.”
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Treats her running as a race to keep pace with the train, though she runs and screams only “to attract some one’s attention” so the train will stop.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the screaming and the train’s “mocking clatter” as signs of anger, overlooking “terror and failure,” the words the sentence uses for what she feels.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook spells the name “Margret” once, in the reason Option C is wrong. The passage and the rest of the explanation spell it “Margaret,” as the site now does.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about imagery: words that help you see, hear or feel a scene. What do the images in paragraph 9 show about Margaret?
Find the key words
Paragraph 9 describes “useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention.” She feels “a sickening sense of terror and failure.” Then “the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.”
Work out what the words mean
“Useless” and “failure” tell you nothing she does works. “Terror” is great fear. The train even seems to mock her, like a mean person laughing. Giving human traits to a thing is called personification. All of this shows she is helpless. That feeling is vulnerability: being open to harm, with no way to protect yourself.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Irritation is mild annoyance. The sentence says “terror.”
- B is wrong. She runs to get someone’s attention, not to keep up with the train.
- C is wrong. Screaming might suggest anger, but the sentence names “terror and failure.”
- D is right. She is helpless as the train leaves her behind.
Watch out: The train is “mocking,” which might make you think of anger. But it is the train that seems mean. Her own feelings are fear and failure.
Choose the answer
The images show a girl who can do nothing as the train leaves. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because screaming and a mocking train can suggest anger. But the sentence names her feelings directly: “a sickening sense of terror and failure.” Those are the feelings of someone who is helpless, not angry. D matches those words.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 74 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 22Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.
Question
Read paragraph 10 from the excerpt.
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.
What does the figurative language in this sentence emphasize?
- Athe sense of doubt that Margaret experiences when she is deciding what to do next
- Bthe anger that Margaret feels toward the people on the train who she expected to help her
- Cthe embarrassment that Margaret feels when she imagines what others will think of her
- Dthe hopelessness that Margaret feels when she accepts that the train is continuing on
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for what the figurative language illustrates in the sentence. As Margaret stands and reaches out “helpless hands,” the language used to describe the train as “swinging tauntingly” and having “a leer in its eye” confirms Margaret’s fears of being left alone and feeling foolish; there is nothing she can do to change the situation, as expressed in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because, while the image of Margaret’s helpless hands dropping at her sides could suggest a sense of doubt, the figurative language in the sentence emphasizes a different feeling about her situation and does not indicate her intentions.
Option B is incorrect because, while the figurative language seems to give a malevolent quality to the train, it is not referring to the people onboard, who are described in paragraph 8 as “comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.”
Option C is incorrect because, while Margaret is worried in paragraph 4 about embarrassing herself, she now feels “dazed” because she is overwhelmed with the seriousness of what has just happened.
Question analysis
This figurative-language question quotes paragraph 10 of A Voice in the Wilderness, where Margaret watches the train disappear and its light seems to taunt her. Students decide what the personification of the train emphasizes about her situation. The image is vivid but brief, so students need to link it to the feeling the whole paragraph builds.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting personification is part of grade 7 work on figurative language. This sentence gives the train a leer and a taunting light, so students must decide whose feeling the image reflects, a step beyond naming the figure of speech.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; 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 figurative language belongs to the train, so students have to translate a taunting, leering light into a statement about Margaret’s state. Some read the taunt as the cause of an emotion, embarrassment or anger, instead of as a picture of how powerless she is. Her “helpless hands,” dropped to her sides as the light vanishes, confirm that she has accepted the train is gone.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The train’s light is personified, “swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye,” and students must decide what a mocking machine says about Margaret rather than about the train. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 10 is a single 48-word sentence that strings together participle phrases, “reaching out,” “swinging tauntingly,” “rapidly vanishing,” so the figurative part arrives only after her gestures. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Find the phrases that give the train human traits, then ask what they add to the picture of Margaret standing by the track, using only this sentence.
Traps
- 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)
Reads “dazed” and the dropped hands as doubt about her next step, though the sentence shows her watching the train vanish, not weighing what to do.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Transfers the train’s taunting leer to the people aboard, though paragraph 8 says the passengers were “unconscious of her need,” and nothing here shows anger at them.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries over paragraph 4’s worry that the conductor would “blame her for a fool,” a feeling the taunting light seems to echo, though she is now dazed rather than embarrassed.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about figurative language: words that mean more than their plain meaning. What feeling does it stress in paragraph 10?
Find the figurative language
Paragraph 10 describes the train’s last light “swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye.” Margaret stands “reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides.”
Work out what it means
“Tauntingly” means in a teasing, mean way. A leer is a nasty, sly look. A light can’t really tease anyone. The author gives the train human traits to show it is leaving her, and she can do nothing. When she drops her hands, she stops trying. She accepts that the train is gone. That feeling is hopelessness.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. She is not deciding what to do next. She is just watching the train go.
- B is wrong. The mean look belongs to the train, not the people. The passengers did not even know she needed help.
- C is wrong. She worried about looking foolish back in paragraph 4. Now she is “dazed.”
- D is right. Her dropped hands and the mocking light show she has lost hope.
Watch out: The teasing light may remind you of her fear of being called a fool. But that was earlier. Here she has lost all hope of stopping the train.
Choose the answer
The figurative language shows Margaret giving up as the train disappears. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because a teasing train seems to fit embarrassment. But Margaret is not thinking about what others will say. She stands “dazed” and drops her “helpless hands.” The mocking light shows the train is gone for good. That is hopelessness, so D fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 75 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 24Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.
Question
How do the details in paragraphs 12–13 about the setting help support the theme of the excerpt?
- AThey show that Margaret is overwhelmed by the darkness that surrounds her.
- BThey suggest that the situation is frustrating but that Margaret is hopeful.
- CThey reveal that the landscape is beautiful and that Margaret is alone.
- DThey demonstrate that Margaret is easily discouraged and frightened.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the details about the setting support the theme of the excerpt. In paragraph 12, phrases such as “vast dome of curving blue” and “the beauty of the lonely night” describe the beauty of the place. However, in paragraph 13, the author writes, “no building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart” to express how alone Margaret really is. These phrases demonstrate that Option C is correct.
Option A is incorrect because positive phrases such as “largest, most wonderful stars” show that Margaret is not overwhelmed by the darkness.
Option B is incorrect because, while Margaret is feeling helpless and alone at the recent realization that there is no station (paragraph 11), the descriptions of the landscape, which focus on the beauty and mysteriousness of the place, do not signify hope but rather how quiet and isolated the location is.
Option D is incorrect because, while Margaret has expressed fear in paragraphs 9–11, the details in paragraphs 12–13 do not show that she is discouraged but rather that she is aware of her situation because she sees no buildings or light.
Question analysis
This theme question asks how the description of the night landscape in paragraphs 12 and 13 of A Voice in the Wilderness supports the excerpt’s theme. Students interpret details of sky, stars and plain and decide what they show about Margaret’s situation after the train leaves. Several choices sound reasonable for a stranded traveler, so students must stick to what the paragraphs actually show.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking setting details to a theme is typical grade 7 literary analysis. What raises the load is the language: two paragraphs of dense, old-fashioned description with words like unfathomable and greasewood.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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
These two paragraphs pull in opposite directions, wonder at the starry sky and emptiness on the plain, and the right answer is the one that keeps both. Students who notice only the dark imagery overstate her fear, and those who notice only that her situation is hard may add a hope the text denies when no “friendly light” comes to cheer her. Checking each half of a two-part choice separately is the safest way through.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Paragraph 12 calls the sky “a low, vast dome of curving blue” and the land a “secret nesting-place of mysteries,” beauty and menace mixed, so students must hold both feelings at once. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
Words such as “unfathomable,” “greasewood” and “sage-brush” slow the reading of two descriptive paragraphs where every detail matters to the theme. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: List the main details in paragraphs 12 and 13, decide what they suggest about Margaret’s situation, then test every part of each choice against that list.
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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Fixes on the inky outlines and heavy shadows and overlooks the “largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen,” so it reports only the darker half of the description.
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Accepts that her situation is hard but adds hope, which paragraph 13 denies when no “friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart.”
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Judges her character as easily discouraged, though these paragraphs describe the setting she sees, and in paragraph 14 she sets off at once toward the dark shaft.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the setting in paragraphs 12 and 13 supports the theme. The setting is where and when a story happens. You need a choice that fits all the details, not just some.
List the details in paragraph 12
Paragraph 12 describes the sky and the land. It has “the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen.” It ends with “the beauty of the lonely night.” These details are beautiful. But notice the word “lonely,” too.
List the details in paragraph 13
Paragraph 13 says: “No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart.” It adds, “Not even a tree was in sight.” There are no houses, no lights and no people. She is completely alone.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. There is darkness, but the wonderful stars show she also sees beauty. A leaves that half out.
- B is wrong. No friendly light comes to cheer her, so nothing here shows hope.
- C is right. The land is beautiful, and she is alone in it.
- D is wrong. These paragraphs describe the place, not her character. Right after them, she sets off on her own.
Watch out: A notices only the dark half of the description.
Choose the answer
The setting is lovely and empty at the same time. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because the paragraphs do mention dark shadows and “inky outlines.” But A leaves out the beauty: the wonderful stars and the blue sky. The phrase “the beauty of the lonely night” holds both halves together, and so does C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 76 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 25Passage Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”
Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”
by Rupert Brooke
The real secret of the beauty and terror of the Falls is not their height or width, but the feeling of colossal power and of unintelligible disaster caused by the plunge of that vast body of water. If that were taken away, there would be little visible change, but the heart would be gone.
The American Falls do not inspire this feeling in the same way as the Canadian. It is because they are less in volume, and because the water does not fall so much into one place. By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile. They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam. Seen from opposite, when the sun is on them, they are blindingly white, and the clouds of spray show dark against them. With both Falls the colour of the water is the ever-altering wonder. Greens and blues, purples and whites, melt into one another, fade, and come again, and change with the changing sun. Sometimes they are as richly diaphanous as a precious stone, and glow from within with a deep, inexplicable light. Sometimes the white intricacies of dropping foam become opaque and creamy. And always there are the rainbows. If you come suddenly upon the Falls from above, a great double rainbow, very vivid, spanning the extent of spray from top to bottom, is the first thing you see. If you wander along the cliff opposite, a bow springs into being in the American Falls, accompanies you courteously on your walk, dwindles and dies as the mist ends, and awakens again as you reach the Canadian tumult. And the bold traveller who attempts the trip under the American Falls sees, when he dare open his eyes to anything, tiny baby rainbows, some four or five yards in span, leaping from rock to rock among the foam, and gambolling beside him, barely out of hand’s reach, as he goes. One I saw in that place was a complete circle, such as I have never seen before, and so near that I could put my foot on it. It is a terrifying journey, beneath and behind the Falls. The senses are battered and bewildered by the thunder of the water and the assault of wind and spray; or rather, the sound is not of falling water, but merely of falling; a noise of unspecified ruin. So, if you are close behind the endless clamour, the sight cannot recognise liquid in the masses that hurl past. You are dimly and pitifully aware that sheets of light and darkness are falling in great curves in front of you. Dull omnipresent foam washes the face. Farther away, in the roar and hissing, clouds of spray seem literally to slide down some invisible plane of air.
Beyond the foot of the Falls the river is like a slipping floor of marble, green with veins of dirty white, made by the scum that was foam. It slides very quietly and slowly down for a mile or two, sullenly exhausted. Then it turns to a dull sage green, and hurries more swiftly, smooth and ominous. As the walls of the ravine close in, trouble stirs, and the waters boil and eddy. These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible. Close in its bands of rock the river surges tumultuously forward, writhing and leaping as if inspired by a demon. It is pressed by the straits into a visibly convex form. Great planes of water slide past. Sometimes it is thrown up into a pinnacle of foam higher than a house, or leaps with incredible speed from the crest of one vast wave to another, along the shining curve between, like the spring of a wild beast. Its motion continually suggests muscular action. The power manifest in these rapids moves one with a different sense of awe and terror from that of the Falls. Here the inhuman life and strength are spontaneous, active, almost resolute. . . . A place of fear.
One is drawn back, strangely, to a contemplation of the Falls, at every hour, and especially by night, when the cloud of spray becomes an immense visible ghost, straining and wavering high above the river, white and pathetic and translucent. The Victorian lies very close below the surface in every man. There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara. I could not get out of my mind the thought of a friend, who said that the rainbows over the Falls were like the arts and beauty and goodness, with regard to the stream of life—caused by it, thrown upon its spray, but unable to stay or direct or affect it, and ceasing when it ceased. In all comparisons that rise in the heart, the river, with its multitudinous waves and its single current, likens itself to a life, whether of an individual or of a community. A man’s life is of many flashing moments, and yet one stream; a nation’s flows through all its citizens, and yet is more than they. In such places, one is aware, with an almost insupportable and yet comforting certitude, that both men and nations are hurried onwards to their ruin or ending as inevitably as this dark flood. Some go down to it unreluctant, and meet it, like the river, not without nobility. And as incessant, as inevitable, and as unavailing as the spray that hangs over the Falls, is the white cloud of human crying. . . . With some such thoughts does the platitudinous heart win from the confusion and thunder of a Niagara peace that the quietest plains or most stable hills can never give.
From LETTERS FROM AMERICA by Rupert Brooke—Public Domain
diaphanous: sheer, translucent
platitudinous: clichéd, common
Question
The central idea that the Falls communicate a feeling of “unintelligible disaster” (paragraph 1) is conveyed in paragraph 2 through a description of
- Athe glow of the precious stones visible within the water.
- Bthe dynamic flow of the colors that are visible in the water.
- Cthe sudden appearance and disappearance of rainbows.
- Dthe sounds associated with a sense of falling.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for a specific detail from paragraph 2 that conveys the central idea that the Falls communicates a feeling of “unintelligible disaster” (paragraph 1). The sound of falling is described in paragraph 2 as “a noise of unspecified ruin,” so Option D is correct because it best connects with the idea of “unintelligible disaster” mentioned in paragraph 1.
Option A is incorrect because, although the water is described as “diaphanous as a precious stone” in paragraph 2 because of the “glow” coming from the interaction of the light, there are no stones within the water.
Option B is incorrect because the details in paragraph 2 about the flow of colors in the water are described as an “ever-altering wonder,” which conveys a sense of beauty and not a sense of disaster.
Option C is incorrect because the rainbows in paragraph 2 are described as “vivid” and accompanying someone “courteously” while he or she walks, which contributes to the idea that the appearance and disappearance of the rainbows are a pleasant experience and not disastrous.
Question analysis
This question on Rupert Brooke’s essay “Niagara Falls” asks which descriptive detail in paragraph 2 conveys the central idea that the Falls feel like an “unintelligible disaster.” Students must connect an idea from the opening paragraph to supporting evidence in a very long paragraph packed with vivid images, and judge the feeling each image creates.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a detail to a central idea is standard grade 7 work, but the evidence sits inside a paragraph of several hundred words of century-old prose, with words like “diaphanous” and “gambolling,” and must be matched by meaning rather than wording.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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
The challenge is to find, in the essay’s longest paragraph, the one image that feels like disaster rather than beauty. Most of the paragraph is lovely, colors and rainbows that change and return, and the wrong choices draw on those passages. Students who keep the feeling of “unintelligible disaster” in mind, rather than just looking for things that appear and disappear, will find it in the sound of the water near the end.
A lot to read moderate Understanding the question
Paragraph 2 runs 407 words through colors, rainbows and a trip behind the water, and the sentence that matters, ending “a noise of unspecified ruin,” comes near its end. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Students must judge the feeling each image creates, and only the sound “not of falling water, but merely of falling” carries a sense of disaster; the colors and rainbows are wonders. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The key phrase “unintelligible disaster” must be matched to “unspecified ruin,” and words such as “diaphanous” and “intricacies” crowd the images around it. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Keep the words “unintelligible disaster” in mind, find each choice’s detail in paragraph 2, and ask what feeling the author’s words give that detail.
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.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the simile “as richly diaphanous as a precious stone” to mean stones in the water, and links its “inexplicable light” to “unintelligible,” though the image is lovely.
B Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Picks the shifting greens, blues and purples, hard to pin down like something unintelligible, but the author calls the color “the ever-altering wonder,” delight rather than disaster.
C Supports only part of the claim (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Notices that a rainbow “dwindles and dies” and “awakens again,” which sounds unsettling, but the bows are vivid and keep the walker company “courteously,” so nothing suggests disaster.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Paragraph 1 says the Falls give a feeling of “unintelligible disaster.” “Unintelligible” means impossible to understand. You need the detail in paragraph 2 that feels like a disaster you can’t understand.
Find the matching words
Near the end of paragraph 2, the author goes behind the Falls. He says “the sound is not of falling water, but merely of falling; a noise of unspecified ruin.”
Work out what the words mean
“Merely” means just. The noise is not of water but of falling itself, as if everything were crashing down. “Ruin” means destruction, much like disaster. “Unspecified” means not named or not clear. So the sound is a crash of destruction you can’t explain. That matches “unintelligible disaster.”
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The water is only compared to a precious stone. There are no stones, and the image is lovely, not scary.
- B is wrong. The colors are called “the ever-altering wonder.” That is beauty, not disaster.
- C is wrong. The rainbows are “very vivid” and walk beside you “courteously,” which means politely. They are pleasant.
- D is right. The sound of falling is the “noise of unspecified ruin.”
Watch out: A rainbow that “dwindles and dies” sounds sad. But it “awakens again,” and the rainbows are a delight.
Choose the answer
Only the sound of falling carries the sense of a disaster. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because a rainbow that “dwindles and dies” might seem gloomy. But the author makes the rainbows friendly and beautiful. “A noise of unspecified ruin” almost repeats the words “unintelligible disaster,” so D is the best match.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed (pages 134–135)
Question 77 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 26Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls””.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 2.
They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.
What is the effect of comparing the American Falls to a “long curtain of lacework and woven foam”?
- AIt demonstrates the timelessness of the American Falls.
- BIt conveys the secretive nature of the American Falls.
- CIt illustrates the elegant uniformity of the American Falls.
- DIt communicates the intense strength of the American Falls.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the effect of the comparison being made in the sentence in paragraph 2. The word “lacework” in the sentence suggests an elegant piece of craftsmanship, and the “one long curtain” and “extraordinarily level” aspects of the Falls mean that the Falls are uniform or consistent; therefore, Option C is correct.
Option A is incorrect because neither “lacework and woven foam,” nor the quality of being extremely level, are related to timelessness.
Option B is incorrect because, while a curtain may suggest the idea of something being hidden or secret, the description of a delicate “lacework” curtain does not suggest this purpose.
Option D is incorrect because “lacework” is generally fragile and does not suggest great strength.
Question analysis
In this figurative language question, students explain the effect of a comparison in Rupert Brooke’s “Niagara Falls”: the American Falls as “one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.” They need to picture the image and read the sentences around it, since a curtain, lace and foam can each call up quite different qualities.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining the effect of a metaphor in a quoted sentence is routine grade 7 work. The older prose is harder than most grade 7 texts, but the sentences around this one give direct context clues.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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
The image is clear once pictured, and the sentences around it, about the American Falls being “delicate and fragile” and “extraordinarily level,” confirm what it means. Students go wrong by bringing in what they associate with curtains or with Niagara in general, hiding or power, instead of what this curtain is made of. The right choice also uses an abstract word that has to be connected back to “level.”
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
Students must translate “one long curtain of lacework and woven foam” into qualities: lace is delicate and finely made, and one long level curtain is even from end to end. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The right choice uses “uniformity,” which students must link to “extraordinarily level” and “one long curtain,” just as “elegant” must be linked to the lacework. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Picture the image first, then reread the few sentences around it about the American Falls and keep only the choice that both the image and those sentences support.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Little reason to choose it (Haladyna & Downing, 1993; Rodriguez, 2005)
Nothing in lace, foam or a level edge suggests lasting through time, so this attracts mainly students guessing that a natural wonder must seem timeless.
B Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Uses the common sense of a curtain as something that hides, but this curtain is lacework, open and decorative, and nothing behind it is concealed.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries over the “colossal power” of paragraph 1, though paragraph 2 says the American Falls do not inspire that feeling as the Canadian do and calls their beauty fragile.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the effect of a comparison. The author compares the American Falls to “one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.” What quality does that picture give them?
Read the sentence and its neighbor
The full sentence is “They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.” The sentence just before it says, “By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile.”
Picture the comparison
Lacework is fancy cloth with fine, delicate patterns. It looks elegant, which means graceful and beautiful. “Extraordinarily level” and “one long curtain” mean the Falls are even all the way across, with no breaks. That evenness is uniformity: being the same all the way through. So the picture shows elegant uniformity.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Nothing about lace or foam suggests lasting forever.
- B is wrong. A curtain can hide things, but lace is open and see-through. Nothing is hidden.
- C is right. Lace is elegant, and a level curtain is uniform.
- D is wrong. Lace is fragile, not strong.
Watch out: Paragraph 1 talks about “colossal power,” so D can seem right. But paragraph 2 says the American Falls “do not inspire this feeling” the way the Canadian Falls do.
Choose the answer
The lace curtain makes the American Falls look graceful and even. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because the Falls seem powerful in other parts of the essay. But this sentence is about the American Falls, whose beauty is “delicate and fragile.” Lace is delicate, not strong. A smooth, level curtain of lace shows grace and evenness, as C says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 78 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 29Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls””.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara.
The sentence most contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt by
- Asuggesting that viewing the Falls can be a life-changing experience.
- Bshowing that the cliffs of the Falls are a good place for self-examination.
- Cemphasizing that the grandeur of the Falls seems impossible to grasp.
- Dhighlighting the type of reflection that is inspired by a visit to the Falls.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
The description of “cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires” in the sentence refers to the types of thoughts a person might have while observing the Falls, as stated in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because the sentence focuses on the idea that the Falls are a place of great contemplation but does not clarify that these thoughts are life-changing.
Option B is incorrect because the sentence does not describe focused thoughts of a personal nature; the grand, sweeping nature of the Falls inspires thoughts of the same caliber as “the passage of empires.”
Option C is incorrect because the sentence is about how the Falls inspire great thoughts but is not about how difficult it is to grasp the grandeur of the Falls.
Question analysis
This question asks how a sentence near the end of Rupert Brooke’s “Niagara Falls” contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt. Students must make sense of abstract phrases such as “cloudy thoughts of destiny” and “the passage of empires” and then decide exactly what the sentence adds, since several choices sound close.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a sentence develops ideas is a grade 7 skill, and this sentence is quoted in full. The challenge is its abstract, old-fashioned wording, which a grade 7 reader must translate before comparing the choices.
- 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 very close wrong answer moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 94 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar 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
The sentence is about thinking, and most of the choices describe thinking too, so the difference lies in what kind of thought and how much the sentence claims. Students lose the point by inflating daydreams into a life-changing experience or by turning thoughts about empires into self-examination. Paraphrasing the sentence before reading the choices, people sit by the Falls and think about destiny and history, keeps the right one in view.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The self-examination choice and the right one both say the Falls prompt reflection; they differ in one detail, what the thoughts are about, and the sentence’s “destiny and the passage of empires” is not the self. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Great cloudy thoughts” drifting through the mind borrow the image of the Falls’ spray, and “such dreams are at home by Niagara” treats the Falls as the natural home of this kind of daydream. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“The passage of empires” and “destiny” are abstract, and students who cannot pin them down may not see that the thoughts concern history, not the thinker. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Paraphrase the sentence in plain words first, then test each choice against your paraphrase, rejecting any that adds a claim the sentence does not make.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- 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 Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Inflates the sentence’s daydreaming into a life-changing experience, though the author says only that great thoughts drift through the mind, not that they change anyone.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the reflection inward, but the thoughts named are of “destiny and the passage of empires,” history on a grand scale, and the sentence says nothing about cliffs.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Borrows the earlier idea that the Falls and rapids are hard to understand, from paragraphs 1 and 3, but this sentence is about the thoughts they inspire.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook writes “the grand, sweeping nature of the falls inspire thoughts.” The subject “nature” takes “inspires,” and the passage always capitalizes “the Falls,” so the site now reads “the grand, sweeping nature of the Falls inspires thoughts.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one sentence adds to the essay’s ideas. Put the sentence in plain words first, then test each choice against it.
Read the sentence closely
The sentence says: “There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara.”
Put it in plain words
“Destiny” means what is meant to happen in the future. “The passage of empires” means great nations rising and falling over time. “At home by Niagara” means these dreams fit naturally at the Falls. So sitting by the Falls makes you think big thoughts about fate and history. The sentence names the kind of reflection, or deep thinking, the Falls bring on.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Thoughts drift by, but nothing says they change a person’s life.
- B is wrong. The thoughts are about history and fate, not about yourself. The sentence doesn’t mention cliffs.
- C is wrong. This sentence is about the thoughts the Falls inspire, not about how hard they are to grasp.
- D is right. It names the type of thinking a visit to the Falls brings on.
Watch out: B is close, since both B and D are about reflection. Check what the thoughts are about: empires, not yourself.
Choose the answer
The sentence shows what kind of thoughts the Falls inspire. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because both B and D say the Falls make people reflect. The difference is the topic. Self-examination means thinking about yourself. The sentence names “thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires.” Those are big ideas about history, not about the self.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 79 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 38Passage 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
The description in the first stanza (lines 1–7) helps establish a central idea of the poem by
- Acomparing the length of time the mountains have existed with the length of time the city has existed.
- Bcontrasting the grandeur of the mountains with the structures in the city below them.
- Cimplying that the mountains are a source of inspiration to the people in the city below.
- Dsuggesting that the mountains are larger than the people in the city realize.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the description in the first stanza helps establish a central idea of the poem. The poem is mostly about the grandeur of the mountains in spite of the spread of civilization. The first stanza contrasts these two elements, which is stated in Option B.
Option A is incorrect because it is a detail that is referenced later in the poem.
Option C is incorrect because the poem actually communicates the message that people do not recognize the greatness of the mountains.
Option D is incorrect because, although the first stanza mentions the size of the mountains, it does not imply that people cannot see how large the mountains are.
Question analysis
This question about John Gould Fletcher’s poem “Snowy Mountains” asks how the first stanza’s description helps establish a central idea of the poem. Students must interpret images such as palaces, pillars and angels, decide what the opening lines do with them, and judge which choice states that role without adding ideas.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking one stanza to a poem’s central idea is a common grade 7 task, and these images are vivid and concrete. The inverted, century-old syntax adds a little challenge but no unusual 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
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences 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, 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
The first stanza sets its majestic images directly against “the dingy city-roofs,” so students who read it as a picture find the contrast without much trouble. The losses come from importing ideas from later in the poem, people’s neglect in stanza 2 or the passing of time, into seven lines that contain neither. The inverted word order slows a first reading but does not hide the meaning.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The contrast is carried by images, not statements: “Palaces made for cloud” and “angels with broad wings” rise “Above the dingy city-roofs,” and students must read grandeur and drabness from those pictures. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The stanza is one inverted sentence: five lines of images come before its subject, “The mountains,” in line 6 and its verb, “Uprise,” in line 7. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Reread lines 1–7 and sum up in a phrase what the stanza does, then check each choice against those seven lines.
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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in time, which the poem raises only in line 9 and line 18; the first stanza sets mountains against city by height and splendor, not by age.
C Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that majestic mountains inspire the people below them, a common idea about nature, but the stanza shows no reaction from the city, and the next stanza says the world “heeds them not.”
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Combines line 1’s “Higher and still more high” with the poem’s later charge that people ignore the mountains, but nothing in lines 1–7 says the city misjudges how large they are.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how the first stanza helps build a central idea of the poem. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph. A central idea is a main message. Only lines 1 to 7 matter here, from “Higher and still more high” to “Uprise.”
Read the pictures in lines 1–7
The mountains are called “Palaces made for cloud” in line 2. In line 4 they are “Blue-white like angels with broad wings.” In line 5 they are “Pillars of the sky at rest.” Palaces, angels and pillars are all grand, high and beautiful. But line 3 places them “Above the dingy city-roofs.”
Explain what the pictures show
“Dingy” means dull and dirty. So the stanza sets two things side by side. Up high are the shining, noble mountains. Down below are the drab roofs of the city. This is a contrast: two things put together to show how different they are. Grandeur means greatness and splendor. The stanza shows the mountains’ grandeur next to the plain city.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Time is not in lines 1–7. It first comes up in line 9, “They have been here now for too long a time.”
- B fits. Grand mountains rise over dingy city roofs.
- C is wrong. The stanza never shows people being inspired. In fact, line 8 says “the world heeds them not,” or pays them no attention.
- D is wrong. Line 1 says the mountains are high. But nothing says the city misjudges their size.
Choose the answer
The first stanza puts splendid mountains above a dull city. So the answer is B, “contrasting the grandeur of the mountains with the structures in the city below them.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap. It mixes line 1 with an idea from later in the poem, that people ignore the mountains. But the question is about lines 1–7 only. Those lines show a contrast in looks: high and splendid against low and dingy. They say nothing about what people think.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 80 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 39Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
Read line 1 and line 15 from the poem.
Higher and still more high,
Vaster and still more vast,
The parallel structure of the two lines
- Aemphasizes how the sense of wonder the speaker has at the beginning of the poem changes to a fear of the mountains.
- Breinforces the sense of awe the speaker experiences when considering the magnificence of the expansive mountains.
- Creveals that the mountains are continually expanding both in height and land mass.
- Dstresses a contrast between the height of the mountains and the area of land the mountains cover.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the parallel structure of lines 1 and 15 affects the poem. Lines 1 and 15 communicate the feeling that the mountains are even higher and vaster than can be comprehended upon first view. This observation reflects the awe that the speaker feels, which is reinforced by the parallel structure of the lines, as stated in Option B.
Option A is incorrect because the speaker never hints at fear when describing the mountains.
Option C is incorrect because it reflects a literal interpretation of the figurative language in the two parallel lines: the mountains do not actually grow larger but are simply larger than can be understood at first.
Option D is incorrect because the parallel structure of lines 1 and 15 is not meant to stress any sort of contrast between height and area but to reinforce the speaker’s feeling by complementing each other.
Question analysis
Students analyze the effect of parallel structure in the poem “Snowy Mountains,” where line 1, “Higher and still more high,” and line 15, “Vaster and still more vast,” echo each other. The question asks what that repeated pattern adds to the poem, so noticing the echo is only the first step.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Analyzing how a poetic device such as parallelism shapes meaning is solid grade 7 work. The lines are short and quoted, but students must move from a structural pattern to what it contributes to the 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
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 92 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar 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
Seeing the parallel lines is easy because the stem quotes them; deciding what the echo achieves is the real task. The strongest wrong answer rests on a true difference between height and breadth, and another takes the comparative phrases literally. Students who ask how the speaker feels in both stanzas, rather than what each line measures, arrive at awe.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the shared pattern of lines 1 and 15 does, so students must move from noticing “still more” twice to naming the feeling the echo strengthens. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Still more high” and “still more vast” express how the mountains seem to an awed viewer, not a measurement, and a literal reading makes them sound like mountains that keep growing. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Say what each line describes and what it suggests, then ask what using the same pattern twice adds, and check every part of each choice against the poem.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Senses that the mood shifts after the first stanza, but the shift is to criticism of people in stanza 2, and the echo in line 15 returns to admiration, not fear.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “still more high” and “still more vast” as physical growth, when the comparatives express how the mountains’ size keeps impressing the speaker.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Correctly notes that line 1 is about height and line 15 about breadth, but the parallel wording joins the two dimensions in one feeling rather than setting them against each other.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook writes “how the parallel structure of lines 1 and 15 affect the poem.” The subject “structure” takes “affects,” as the site now reads.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about parallel structure. That means using the same pattern of words twice. Here, line 1 says “Higher and still more high,” and line 15 says “Vaster and still more vast.” You need to say what repeating this pattern does.
Look at where the lines sit
Line 1 opens the first stanza. Line 15 opens the third stanza. In between, stanza 2 shows people harming the mountains. Line 1 is about height. Line 15 is about vastness, which means huge size that spreads far. “Still more” means even more. Each line seems to say the mountains are bigger than you can take in.
Name the feeling the pattern shows
Both lines sound like a person staring up in amazement. That feeling is awe: wonder mixed with deep respect. Repeating the pattern brings the feeling back after the angry second stanza. So the echo reinforces, or makes stronger, the speaker’s awe. It is not a measurement. The mountains are not really growing.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never shows fear. Line 15 brings back the same wonder as line 1.
- B fits. The repeated pattern stresses the speaker’s awe at the huge mountains.
- C is wrong. It reads the lines literally, as if the mountains keep growing. The words express a feeling, not a fact.
- D is wrong. Height and spread are different. But the matching pattern joins them in one feeling. It does not set them against each other.
Choose the answer
The same pattern, used twice, repeats the speaker’s sense of wonder. So the answer is B, “reinforces the sense of awe the speaker experiences when considering the magnificence of the expansive mountains.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is tempting because it is half true: one line is about height and one is about spread. But parallel structure makes two things sound alike, not opposite. Matching words link ideas. That is why B, which names one shared feeling, fits better than a contrast.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 81 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 40Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
Read line 5 from the poem.
Pillars of the sky at rest
The line helps develop the theme of the poem by suggesting that the mountains
- Aserve a noble and supportive purpose in the world.
- Battract the clouds with their strength and permanence.
- Cremain untamed through the ages.
- Dprovide protection for the people.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the line from the poem helps develop the theme of the poem. Line 5 helps develop the theme that the mountains are more important than people realize by suggesting that the mountains serve a noble, foundational purpose in the world, as explained in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because, while the poem does describe the strength and permanence of the mountains, the line does not suggest that these traits attract the clouds.
Option C is incorrect because, while the line states that the highest peaks are “at rest,” that phrase describes stillness, not wildness; the poem calls the mountains “still untamed” only later (line 17), and line 5 does not suggest it.
Option D is incorrect because, while pillars are strong and may indicate shelter, there is no suggestion in the line that the mountains are protecting the people. Additionally, this concept is not a theme of the poem.
Question analysis
This figurative language question asks how the metaphor “Pillars of the sky at rest” in “Snowy Mountains” helps develop the poem’s theme. Students must work out what calling mountains pillars of the sky suggests about them, and it is tricky because every choice sounds like something this poem could say.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students interpret metaphors, but here they must also connect a short image to the poem’s theme and choose among abstract options, a step closer to grade 8 work on figurative meaning and theme.
- 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
- Figurative or literary language major
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- Combines ideas minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 3, 52 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A claim in the explanation that the poem contradicts 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 is hard because every choice says something the poem could plausibly mean, and two of them borrow real phrases from other lines. Students who test choices against the poem as a whole find support for the wrong ones; the question rewards testing them against the single image of pillars holding up the sky. Seeing that pillars both support and ennoble a structure leads directly to the key.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The answer depends on unpacking one metaphor: pillars hold up a roof, so “Pillars of the sky” casts the mountains as supports of the heavens, and “at rest” adds a calm, dignified strength. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The key uses words the poem never does, “noble” and “supportive,” while wrong choices echo “cloud” from line 2 and “untamed” from line 17 and so look anchored in the text. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Combines ideas minor Working it out
Students must interpret the image and then link it to the poem’s theme, that the mountains matter more than the world below recognizes. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
Strategy: Ask what a pillar is and why a poet might call mountains “pillars of the sky,” then test each choice against line 5 alone before thinking about the rest of the poem.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Strength and permanence fit both pillars and the poem, but attracting clouds comes from line 2’s “Palaces made for cloud,” and line 5 says nothing about drawing clouds in.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Takes “Wilderness still untamed” from line 17, a genuine idea of the third stanza, and attaches it to line 5, whose pillars “at rest” suggest calm support, not wildness.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Follows the pillar image one step too far, from pillars to a roof to shelter for people, though neither the line nor the poem shows the mountains protecting anyone.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook rejects Option C by saying the mountains “do not remain untamed or untouched,” but line 17 calls them “Wilderness still untamed,” and the handbook’s own explanation of the third-stanza question relies on that line. The site now says that “at rest” describes stillness, not wildness, and that the poem calls the mountains “still untamed” only later, in line 17, so line 5 does not suggest it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one image, line 5, adds to the poem’s theme. A theme is the big message of a poem. Here the theme is that the mountains are great and important, even though people ignore them. You need to decide what “Pillars of the sky” says about the mountains.
Look closely at line 5
Line 5 reads “Pillars of the sky at rest.” It is part of the first stanza’s list of grand pictures. The list also has “Palaces made for cloud” in line 2. Line 5 is a metaphor. A metaphor calls one thing by the name of another to compare them, without using “like” or “as.”
Explain what pillars do
A pillar is a tall, strong column that holds up a roof. Big, important buildings, like temples and courthouses, have pillars. So calling the mountains “Pillars of the sky” makes them seem to hold up the sky. That is a supporting job. It is also a grand, noble one. “At rest” adds calm. The pillars stand still and steady.
Check each choice
- A fits. Holding up the sky is a noble, supportive job.
- B is wrong. Clouds come from line 2. Line 5 says nothing about pulling clouds in.
- C is wrong. “Wilderness still untamed” is line 17, not line 5. Pillars “at rest” suggest calm, not wildness.
- D is wrong. Pillars hold up roofs, and roofs can shelter people. But the line never shows the mountains protecting anyone.
Choose the answer
Pillars hold things up and make a building grand. So the answer is A, “serve a noble and supportive purpose in the world.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the strongest trap, because the poem really does call the mountains untamed. But that is line 17. Test each choice against line 5 alone. A pillar is a support, and a pillar of the sky is a grand one. Only A comes straight from that picture.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 82 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 42Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
How does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?
- Aby describing images of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
- Bby illustrating the differences among the various ways humans can impact the natural environment
- Cby criticizing society for taking careless, destructive courses of action against nature
- Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the destructive actions of “the world” (lines 8 and 10) against the mountains—actions such as tunneling “their granite cliffs” (line 11) and destroying “the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14)—as described in Option C.
Option A is incorrect because the speaker’s descriptions of the mountains’ grandeur 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.
Option B is incorrect because 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; the wording does not illustrate different ways people impact the natural environment.
Option D is incorrect because no benefit to the mountains is described by the speaker in the second stanza.
Question analysis
Students explain how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza of the poem “Snowy Mountains,” the seven lines about what “the world” does to the mountains. The main challenge is staying focused on these lines and their word choice while the four choices range across the poem’s ideas.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Easier than typical grade 7 work: the stanza is short and its attitude comes through plainly in its verbs, so the task resembles grade 6 questions that ask how a point of view is developed.
- 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 moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 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
The speaker’s disapproval is loud in lines 8–14, so most students identify the criticism quickly. The wrong choices work by describing the poem rather than this stanza, or by describing the stanza’s list neutrally and missing its anger. The question rewards staying inside the seven lines and reading the attitude in their verbs.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the point of view is built, and the answer is in the verbs: the world “makes war,” “Tunnels,” “Splits,” “Plasters” and “Destroys,” each casting people as attackers. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The stanza personifies the mountains as victims, with “the lonely fragments of their peace,” so the speaker’s criticism of people comes through sympathy for the mountains. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Underline the verbs in lines 8–14 and ask what attitude toward people they show, then match both that attitude and the way it is expressed to a 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.
- 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)
Describes the first and third stanzas, which admire the mountains’ height and vastness; stanza 2 mentions “granite cliffs” and “shining sides” only as things people damage.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees the list of actions, tunneling, splitting, plastering, but these are all attacks in one “war,” not different kinds of impact laid side by side for comparison.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the tunnels and advertisements as people making use of the mountains, a kind of benefit, and misses the hostility of “makes war on them.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the poet shows the speaker’s point of view in lines 8 to 14, the second stanza. Point of view here means the speaker’s attitude, or feelings and opinion. Stay inside these seven lines.
Find the action words
Line 8 says, “But the world heeds them not.” “Heeds” means pays attention to. Then come the verbs, the action words. The world “makes war on them,” “Tunnels their granite cliffs,” “Splits down their shining sides,” and “Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.” Line 14 ends, “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”
Name the speaker’s attitude
Every verb shows people attacking the mountains. “War” is a strong, angry word. The mountains even seem to have feelings. They are lonely, and their peace is broken. So the speaker is criticizing people, or pointing out what they do wrong. People hurt the mountains without caring. That is careless and destructive.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Awe at the mountains’ size is in stanzas 1 and 3, not stanza 2.
- B is wrong. The stanza lists several harms, but they are all part of one “war.” It does not compare different kinds of impact.
- C fits. The speaker blames people for destroying the mountains.
- D is wrong. No one benefits here. People attack, and the mountains lose their peace.
Choose the answer
The second stanza blames people for attacking the mountains. So the answer is C, “by criticizing society for taking careless, destructive courses of action against nature.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest trap, because the stanza does list several actions. But a list of differences would treat them calmly, side by side. These lines are angry. Words like “war” and “Destroys” show blame, which is exactly what C says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 83 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 45Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
How do the details in the third stanza (lines 15–26) contribute to the development of the theme of the poem?
- Aby reflecting nature’s capacity to resist change
- Bby showing that nature is capable of influencing human will
- Cby exposing how a lack of awareness leads to nature’s ruin
- Dby explaining why people must respect nature
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the details in the third stanza contribute to the development of the theme of the poem. In the third stanza, phrases such as “Wilderness still untamed” (line 17), “time-resisting storm-worn stone” (line 22), and “The mountains swing along” (line 23) convey the message that in spite of the destruction described in the second stanza, the mountains manage to maintain their wild magnificence. This message is communicated in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because, while the phrase “Barrier broken down” (line 21) conveys the idea that people can have some effect on the natural landscape, it does not convey how nature affects people.
Option C is incorrect because the phrase “those who do not need” (line 21) implies a choice to damage nature and not a lack of awareness or understanding.
Option D is incorrect because the third stanza is not a call to humanity to respect the mountains but a description of the untamed, welcoming mountains and the joy they provide for those who appreciate them.
Question analysis
This theme question asks how the details in the third stanza of “Snowy Mountains” contribute to the poem’s message. The stanza piles up images of peaks, gods, ice and mist alongside a line about a barrier broken down, so students must weigh all of its details and decide which idea about nature and people they add up to.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace how a theme develops, but this stanza is one long, layered sentence that mixes praise with loss, and the choices offer different, believable messages about nature, which makes it closer to grade 8 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
- Complex sentences moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 54 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misquotation of the poem 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 third stanza holds both endurance and damage, and the question asks which one its details mostly build. Students who fix on the broken barrier choose ruin, which the poem’s second stanza seems to confirm, while those who count the stanza’s details find untamed wilderness, time-resisting stone and mountains swinging along the horizon. The long, inverted sentence makes that count slow, which is why the question is hard.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
Lines 15–26 form one sentence in which a string of descriptive phrases precedes the subject, “The mountains,” in line 23, so the stanza’s overall point is hard to hold together. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The mountains are given “shining foreheads,” said to be “spread by Gods,” and shown to “swing along” and welcome mists, and these personifications carry the stanza’s message of endurance. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The theme has to be built from details scattered through twelve lines, “Wilderness still untamed,” “the future is as was the past,” “time-resisting storm-worn stone,” and weighed against the one line of damage. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: List what the third stanza says about the mountains and what it says about people, then pick the choice that fits most of those details, not just one line.
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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Reversed relationship: Cause and effect, or the order of events, turned around.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reversed relationship (King et al., 2004)
Reverses who acts on whom: the stanza shows people breaking down the barrier and the mountains enduring, with no sign that nature shapes what people want.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds on line 21’s “Barrier broken down,” a single line of damage among many lines of endurance, and so mistakes one detail for the stanza’s contribution.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
States a familiar environmental lesson, that people must respect nature, but the stanza describes the mountains and never argues or explains what people should do.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook quotes line 21 as “those who do not heed.” The line reads “Barrier broken down by those who do not need,” so the site now quotes “those who do not need.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the third stanza, lines 15 to 26, adds to the poem’s theme, or big message. You need to look at all the details in those twelve lines and see what most of them say. Don’t build your answer on just one line.
Collect the stanza’s details
The stanza calls the mountains a “Wilderness still untamed” in line 17. Line 18 says “the future is as was the past,” so they do not change. Line 22 speaks of “time-resisting storm-worn stone.” Line 23 says “The mountains swing along.” Only line 21 shows harm: “Barrier broken down.”
Explain what the details add up to
“Untamed” means still wild and not controlled by people. “Time-resisting” means holding out against time. “Storm-worn” means worn by storms but still standing. Even after the harm in stanza 2, the mountains are still wild. They still swing along the edge of the sky. So the stanza shows that nature can resist change. Capacity means ability.
Check each choice
- A fits. Most details show the mountains lasting and staying wild.
- B is wrong. It flips who acts. People act on the mountains. The mountains do not change what people want.
- C is wrong. Line 21 shows some damage, but it is one line. The rest of the stanza shows the mountains enduring, not ruined.
- D is wrong. The stanza describes the mountains. It never tells people what they must do.
Choose the answer
Most of the third stanza shows the mountains staying wild and strong over time. So the answer is A, “by reflecting nature’s capacity to resist change.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the strongest trap, because stanza 2 really is about harm. But this question is about stanza 3. Count its details. Untamed wilderness, an unchanging future, time-resisting stone and mountains swinging along all show endurance. Only one line shows damage, so A fits the stanza as a whole.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 84 of 84
2018 Test B English, question 47Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
Read lines 23–26 from the poem.
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.
The personification in these concluding lines of the poem suggests that the mountains are
- Agracious hosts who are untroubled by the actions of people.
- Bunaware of their coming destruction.
- Clively entertainers who are not bothered by the everyday concerns of people.
- Dtoo proud to reveal their pain.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks what the personification in the lines suggests in the poem. Line 25’s use of the word “Welcoming” suggests that the mountains are kind hosts. Lines 23 and 26, with language such as “The mountains swing along” and “The mists that dance and drive before the sun,” imply the carefree nature of the mountains as they resist the destructive work of humanity. Therefore, Option A is correct.
Option B is incorrect because the wording in the lines is positive and victorious, with no language to suggest coming destruction.
Option C is incorrect because, although the lines mention that “the mountains swing along” (line 23) and “the mists . . . dance” (line 26), the personification is used to describe the mountains’ perseverance, rather than to suggest that the mountains are entertaining others.
Option D is incorrect because the lines refer to the joy of the mountains as they “swing along” (line 23) and do not suggest pride.
Question analysis
This personification question asks what the final four lines of the poem “Snowy Mountains” suggest about the mountains, which “swing along” the south horizon of the sky. Students must interpret human qualities given to nature, and the trick is that several choices assign the mountains feelings or roles that only partly match the lines.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Interpreting personification is a familiar grade 7 skill, and these lines are short and quoted. The challenge is choosing among character descriptions that each match part of the imagery, a typical rather than unusual 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 understand
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Complex sentences 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, 78 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 closing lines are calm and generous, and the question asks students to turn their personification into a character. The trap is assigning actions to the wrong actor: the dancing belongs to the mists, and taking it for the mountains’ makes them performers rather than hosts. Students who carry the destruction of earlier stanzas into these lines also misjudge the mountains’ ease.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The personification has to be sorted by actor: the mountains “swing along” and are “Welcoming,” while it is the mists that “dance and drive before the sun.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The hosts choice and the entertainers choice share one frame, mountains unbothered by people; they differ only in the role, and line 26 settles it, since the mists, not the mountains, “dance.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
In “Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice / The mists,” the object comes after a long phrase and a line break, so who welcomes whom is easy to miss. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Note each human action in lines 23–26 and who performs it, then choose the description that fits every one of those actions.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the mountains’ carefree “swing along” as obliviousness and adds the earlier stanzas’ damage, but these lines are serene and say nothing about destruction to come.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the mountains’ unconcern about people nearly right, but takes “swing” and “dance” as entertaining when the mists do the dancing and the mountains welcome them as hosts.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines hidden suffering behind the calm, perhaps from “storm-worn stone,” but the lines show the mountains at ease and welcoming, with no hint of pride or pain.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about personification in lines 23 to 26. Personification means giving human actions or feelings to something that is not human. You need to decide what kind of person the mountains seem to be.
Sort the actions by who does them
Line 23 says “The mountains swing along.” Line 25 says the mountains are “Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice.” Whom do they welcome? Line 26 answers: “The mists that dance and drive before the sun.” So the mountains swing and welcome. The mists are the ones that dance.
Explain what the actions suggest
To swing along is to move in an easy, carefree way. Welcoming guests onto your floors is what a host does. A host is a person who has guests over. The mountains are kind hosts to the mists. Gracious means kind and polite. They also seem calm. After all the harm in stanza 2, they are untroubled, or not bothered.
Check each choice
- A fits. The mountains welcome guests and stay calm.
- B is wrong. These lines say nothing about harm still to come.
- C is wrong. The mists dance, not the mountains. The mountains are hosts, not entertainers.
- D is wrong. The lines show ease and welcome. Nothing hints at pride or hidden pain.
Choose the answer
The mountains swing along and welcome the mists like hosts. So the answer is A, “gracious hosts who are untroubled by the actions of people.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is very close, since it also says the mountains don’t worry about people. The difference is the role. An entertainer performs for others. A host welcomes others in. In line 26 it is the mists that “dance,” and the mountains are “Welcoming” them. That makes the mountains hosts.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
