SHSAT Sunset

Practice Test

Evidence in several places

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Question 1 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 10
Passage The Best Laid Plans of Ravens

The Best Laid Plans of Ravens

In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” a raven visits a lonely man’s home and responds to the man’s pleading questions with only the word “nevermore.” The poem’s narrator interprets the word as a prediction of doom for his future. A talking, prophetic raven may seem to be the wild imaginings of the poet, but a new study published in the journal Science hints that one particular idea behind the poem might not be as far-fetched as it seems. For most of human history, people assumed that animals do not understand the passage of time in the same way people do. Some people believed that animals might remember events from the past and that instinct might drive them to make preparations in order to guarantee survival, but most people did not think that animals had the ability to plan. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers argue that ravens may be able to think ahead and even plan for the future.

It can be difficult to test an animal’s ability to plan because human observers must be certain they are not mistaking instinctual behavior for intentional planning. For example, many animals hoard food so that they will not run out later, but scientists who study animals would not call hoarding a decision to plan for the future. This action is merely instinctual. Cognitive scientists argue that in order for an animal’s behavior to qualify as preparing for the future, the animal must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem.

To avoid mistaking instinctual behavior for evidence of decision-making, the Lund University researchers designed two experiments to test ravens’ ability to plan. Ravens belong to the corvid family, a group of birds known for their intelligence. A study in 2007 showed that corvids have the tendency to save only certain types of food, which suggests that they are planning for the future rather than acting on instinct. In order to investigate that theory, the researchers had to design experiments that would achieve results that could not be explained by an instinctual behavior of food hoarding. Therefore, the ravens were taught two behaviors that they do not normally perform in the wild.

For the first experiment, the researchers showed the birds how to use a small stone to open a box and get treats. Once the ravens learned the behavior, the researchers presented the birds with four stones. Only one stone was the right size to open the box. The birds learned to select that stone and set it aside until the researchers presented the box. The second experiment involved bartering. A researcher would trade the ravens a large treat for a bottle cap. Later, the researchers presented the ravens with a group of items, including small treats and the bottle cap. The ravens chose the bottle cap over the treats and waited for the original researcher to trade with them again so that they could get more treats. In both experiments, the ravens waited patiently for up to seventeen hours for the researcher to return.

The results of these experiments are exciting, but more evidence needs to be gathered before scientists can fully conclude that ravens can plan for the future. Some scientists argue that the ravens might be choosing the stone and bottle cap because the ravens have been trained to do so, not necessarily because the ravens are thinking ahead. Regardless, like other recent advances in animal science, these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed, and scientists now believe that ravens do actually think about their own future.

Question

In the first experiment described in paragraph 4, which of the ravens’ behaviors provides the strongest evidence for the claim that the birds are capable of planning?

  • AThey accepted treats from the box.
  • BThey set aside the stone that would open the box.
  • CThey learned which stone could open the box.
  • DThey waited for researchers to bring the box.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks which of the ravens’ behaviors in the first experiment described in paragraph 4 most strongly supports the claim that the birds are capable of planning.

A. Incorrect. While “the researchers showed the birds how to use a small stone to open a box and get treats” (paragraph 4), the acceptance of the treats does not demonstrate planning.

B. CORRECT. Once the ravens learned which stone would open the box, they consistently selected only that stone.

C. Incorrect. Although the birds learned which stone opened the box, this behavior demonstrates not their ability to plan but rather their intelligence.

D. Incorrect. The birds’ patience shows their anticipation for and understanding of the future gain of a treat but does not provide the strongest evidence of their ability to plan.

Question analysis

This evidence question on “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” asks which of the ravens’ behaviors in the first experiment, the one with a stone and a box of treats, gives the strongest evidence that the birds can plan. Several behaviors seem to fit, so students must weigh them against the passage’s own idea of what planning is.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions usually ask which detail supports a claim. This one asks which of the ravens’ behaviors gives the strongest support, and several seem to fit, so students must apply paragraph 2’s test for planning to paragraph 4.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 599 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 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

Every choice describes something the ravens really did, so the work is ranking, not finding. The passage’s dramatic detail, birds waiting up to seventeen hours, draws attention away from the quieter act of keeping the right stone ready, which is the behavior that most clearly prepares for the future. Students who weigh each behavior against paragraph 2’s idea of decision-making, rather than against how impressive it sounds, separate the two.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    Setting the stone aside and waiting for the box both come from one sentence, “set it aside until the researchers presented the box”; only the first is an action taken now for a later need. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The passage never says which behavior counts as planning, so students must apply paragraph 2’s test, that the animal “must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem,” to each one. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The waiting that tempts students is stressed at the end of paragraph 4, “up to seventeen hours,” well after the stone sentence, and paragraph 2 holds the standard for judging both. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Use paragraph 2’s description of what counts as planning as a yardstick, then rank the four behaviors by how well each meets it instead of taking the first that seems clever.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which thing the ravens did in the first experiment, the one with the stone and the box, is the strongest evidence that they can plan. More than one choice really happened. You must rank them and pick the best one.

  2. Decide what counts as planning

    Paragraph 2 gives a test. To count as preparing for the future, “the animal must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem.” In plain words, planning means doing something now to get ready for something later. Use that as your measuring stick.

  3. Find the key sentence

    Paragraph 4 says “The birds learned to select that stone and set it aside until the researchers presented the box.” To set something aside is to put it away to use later. When the birds did this, the box was not there yet.

  4. Explain why this is planning

    The ravens had nothing to open at that moment. Still, they picked the one stone that would work and saved it. They did this because they expected to need it later. It is like packing an umbrella in the morning because rain is coming in the afternoon. That is a choice made now to solve a future problem.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Taking treats is the reward. Any trained animal does that.
    • B fits. Saving the right stone gets the bird ready for a box that comes later.
    • C does not fit. Learning which stone works shows the birds can be taught. Knowing the right tool is not the same as keeping it ready.
    • D does not fit as well. Waiting shows the birds expected the box. But waiting is doing nothing, so it is weaker proof.

    Watch out: D is tempting because the passage stresses waiting “up to seventeen hours.” Long waiting is impressive, but it is not an action.

  6. Choose the answer

    Setting the stone aside is the clearest act of getting ready for the future. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. Waiting and setting the stone aside come from the same sentence. But while a bird waits, it does nothing. Setting the stone aside is a choice. The bird keeps the right tool ready for a box that is not there yet. That act of getting ready makes B stronger evidence.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 10 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 15 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 15, question 10.
The passage “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” as printed (page 12)The passage “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” as printed on page 12 of the DOE handbook.

Question 2 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 17
Passage 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 cinders1^1, 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.

1^1cinders: track bed made from the residue of burnt coal

From A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS by Grace Livingston Hill—Public Domain

Question

How do Margaret’s earlier interactions with the conductor, brakeman, and porter affect the plot?

  • AThey prompt Margaret to get off the train without further assistance.
  • BThey cause Margaret to think that she knows what to do once she gets off the train.
  • CThey compel Margaret to wonder whether the train has not pulled all the way into the station.
  • DThey lead Margaret to believe that train stations in rural areas lack platforms.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how Margaret’s earlier interactions with the conductor, brakeman, and porter affect the plot.

A. CORRECT. Because the conductor, brakeman, and porter have all “taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station” (paragraph 2), Margaret assumes that the next time the train stops, she will have reached her station. This assumption causes Margaret to get off the train at the next stop without waiting for help or confirmation, but the stop turns out to be just “a pause to water the engine” (paragraph 15). This mistaken assumption creates the main problem that Margaret confronts in the passage.

B. Incorrect. Although Margaret’s earlier interactions with the three railroad employees cause her to think that she knows when to get off the train, it is clear from paragraph 4 that Margaret is deeply confused and does not know what to do once she has exited the train car. She muses uneasily, “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” (paragraph 4).

C. Incorrect. Margaret wonders in paragraph 3 whether the train is “so long that her car had stopped before reaching [the station]” and speculates in paragraph 4 that “the train had not pulled into the station yet.” These thoughts reflect her assumption (based on her interactions with the three railroad employees) that the next stop is her station. However, Margaret’s speculation that the train has not fully pulled into the station does not significantly affect the plot.

D. Incorrect. Margaret wonders in paragraph 3 whether they “have platforms in this wild Western land” and is expecting to see a platform because her interactions with the three railroad employees have led her to believe that she has reached a station. However, it is unclear whether Margaret really believes that rural stations all lack platforms, and her speculation on this point is not further developed in the passage and does not affect the plot.

Question analysis

This plot question on A Voice in the Wilderness asks how Margaret’s earlier dealings with the conductor, brakeman and porter, mentioned only in passing in paragraph 2, affect what happens to her. Students must connect that brief remark to later events in the excerpt. Several choices describe things that do happen, so students must judge which one those conversations truly cause.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 plot questions ask how story elements affect one another, usually through an event and its result. Here the cause is a clause inside a long sentence of century-old prose, and students must trace its effect across the excerpt rather than within one paragraph.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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 talks with the trainmen are mentioned once, in the middle of a long sentence, and the question asks students to see them as the start of the whole plot. Several choices describe thoughts Margaret really has right after she steps down, which makes them feel connected, but those thoughts change nothing. The point goes to students who trace cause to consequence: told her stop was next, she gets off alone at a water tank.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The cause sits in paragraph 2, where all three men had told her “hers was the next station,” and the effect shows only in paragraph 15, when the stop proves to be a water tank. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The excerpt never says the men’s words made her step off; students must infer that their assurance is why she left the train at the first stop without waiting for anyone. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The interactions appear in a 66-word sentence in paragraph 2, tucked into a “when” clause after a run of commas, so they read as a passing detail rather than a cause. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Reread paragraph 2 to find what the three men told Margaret, then trace how that information shapes the events that follow, and choose the effect that matters most to the plot.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how something from earlier affects the plot. The plot is the chain of events in a story. What did the three train workers tell Margaret, and what did that cause?

  2. Find what the workers told her

    Paragraph 2 says 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.” A conductor, a brakeman and a porter are all people who work on a train.

  3. Trace what happened because of it

    Three workers told her that her stop was next. So when the train stopped, she was sure she had arrived. She got off alone, without waiting for anyone to help. But in paragraph 15 she learns it was only “a pause to water the engine.” Their words set off the whole problem: she is left alone in the dark.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. Their words led her to get off by herself.
    • B does not fit. They told her when to get off, not what to do next. In paragraph 4 she is lost: “Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.”
    • C does not fit. She does wonder this, but the thought changes nothing in the story.
    • D does not fit. She only asks a question about platforms. She never decides anything about country stations.

  5. Choose the answer

    The workers’ words made Margaret step off the train on her own at the wrong stop. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice. The workers’ words do make her guess that the train has not reached the station yet. But that guess goes nowhere. What changes the story is that she gets off alone at a stop that is not a station. That is A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 25 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 25, question 17.
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed on page 128 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed on page 129 of the DOE handbook.

Question 3 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 18

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.

Question

How does Margaret’s experience in paragraph 9 emphasize a theme of the excerpt?

  • AIt confirms Margaret’s understanding that she cannot rely on help from anyone else.
  • BIt leads Margaret to realize that her desire to change her situation is impractical.
  • CIt causes Margaret to believe that her own actions led to an unfavorable outcome.
  • DIt reinforces Margaret’s frustration about her lack of control over her surroundings.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks about the relationship between the theme and paragraph 9, where Margaret desperately tries to get someone on the train to notice her.

A. CORRECT. One important theme of this excerpt concerns Margaret’s willingness to take action to ensure that she reaches her destination. This determination, described in Option A, is why she gathers her belongings together without help, gets off the train without being assisted by employees, and then attempts to climb back on while the train employees are busy examining the engine.

B. Incorrect. While the narrator describes her screaming as useless, she does not feel that her efforts overall are useless, and she does not give up until paragraph 10.

C. Incorrect. While Margaret is feeling a sense of “failure” in paragraph 9, she does not condemn herself as the train moves away.

D. Incorrect. Margaret expresses “terror” in paragraph 9 over being unable to catch someone’s attention, not frustration about her lack of control over her surroundings.

Question analysis

This theme question asks how Margaret’s experience in paragraph 9 of A Voice in the Wilderness, as she screams and runs while the train pulls away, emphasizes a theme of the excerpt. It is a lightly reworded version of an earlier handbook question. Every choice describes a believable reaction to being left behind, so the answer depends on the excerpt’s larger pattern.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 theme questions trace a given theme through a text. Here students must decide which theme one frantic paragraph supports, and all four choices describe reactions that fit the scene, so the decision draws on the whole excerpt.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 65 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Each choice names a feeling a stranded traveler might have, and two lean on the paragraph’s own words, “useless” and “failure,” so the paragraph alone cannot decide it. Paragraph 9 must be read as the last link in a chain of trainmen, passengers and a departing train that all leave her to herself. Students who judge from that one paragraph often decide she has given up, though she soon picks up her bags and walks toward the dark shaft by the track.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    The theme is never stated; it must be drawn from paragraph 9’s cries that no one answers and from the passengers “comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need” in paragraph 8. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The pattern begins in paragraph 2, when no trainman helps her off, and runs through the train lurching away “as if it were in league against her” in paragraph 7. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Sum up in a phrase what keeps happening to Margaret from the start of the excerpt to its end, then check which choice paragraph 9’s own words most clearly add to.

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.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about a theme: a big idea a story keeps coming back to. How does what happens in paragraph 9 point to a theme? The right choice should fit a pattern across the whole excerpt.

  2. Read paragraph 9

    Paragraph 9 describes “A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure.” Margaret screams and runs, trying to get someone to notice her. No one does. The last car rolls past “as if it enjoyed her discomfort.”

  3. Find the same thing earlier

    This is not the first time. In paragraph 2, none of the workers “had come to help her off the train.” In paragraph 8, the passengers sit “comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.” That means they don’t know she needs help. Paragraph 9 is one more time when nobody comes. She will have to count on herself.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. Her cries go unanswered, just as before. She cannot rely on anyone else.
    • B does not fit. Impractical means not sensible or workable. Her screaming fails, but she never decides that trying to change things is pointless. In paragraph 14 she “picked up her baggage” and set off again.
    • C does not fit. She feels “failure,” but she never blames herself.
    • D does not fit. The paragraph shows terror at being ignored, not frustration about having no control over her surroundings.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 9 adds one more moment where no one helps Margaret. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because paragraph 9 calls her screaming “useless.” But one failed moment does not mean she gives up. Soon she takes her bags and walks toward the tall dark shape ahead. What stays true from paragraph 2 to paragraph 9 is that no one helps her. That is A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 18 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 26 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 26, question 18.

Question 4 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 19

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.

Question

How does paragraph 11 contribute to the plot of the excerpt?

  • AIt reveals that the reality of the situation is different from Margaret’s assumptions.
  • BIt illustrates that Margaret’s main problem is her own imagination.
  • CIt shows that Margaret is surprised by the unexpected adventure she is about to undertake.
  • DIt provides insight into how Margaret reacts to stressful situations.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how paragraph 11 contributes to the plot of the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. In paragraph 5, Margaret assumes there is a station (“It was probably on the other [side], but she was standing too near the cars to see”), but in paragraph 11, the station that had been “so real” in Margaret’s mind actually does not exist.

B. Incorrect. Margaret’s main problem is not that her imagination has led her astray but rather that her inexperience with this train route has caused her to misinterpret the events that have occurred. Paragraph 11 reveals that she has been acting on faulty assumptions; however, her assumptions are somewhat justified by the events that have occurred.

C. Incorrect. While Margaret seems somewhat in awe of her surroundings in paragraph 12 and she “gasped” in paragraph 11, her exclamation is one of shock at the discovery, not surprise over an unexpected adventure.

D. Incorrect. While paragraph 11 describes how Margaret responds to the distressing situation that her actions and decisions have created, the paragraph does not offer insight into how Margaret generally responds to problems or conflicts.

Question analysis

This plot-structure question asks how paragraph 11 of A Voice in the Wilderness, a single exclaiming sentence that begins “She gasped,” contributes to the plot once Margaret is alone beside the track. Students relate the paragraph to what comes before and after it. Its archaic phrasing, with “lo!” and an inverted clause, makes the plain meaning harder to see.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining what a single paragraph adds to a plot is standard grade 7 structure work. Paragraph 11 is one short sentence, but its old-fashioned exclamation has to be linked to the paragraphs around it, which adds a step.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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

Paragraph 11 is a single exclaiming sentence whose job is to overturn what Margaret, and the reader, have believed since she stepped down. Students who link it to her earlier guesses about a platform and a building see the reversal at once. Those who read it alone fasten on her gasp or on the words “so real to her mind,” and choose a reading about her character or her imagination rather than the plot.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The assumption the paragraph overturns was built earlier: in paragraph 3 she wonders about a platform, and in paragraph 5 she decides the station is “probably on the other” side. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about her imagination and the right one both describe a gap between what Margaret pictured and what is there; they differ on whether the fault lies in her mind or in the missing station. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The paragraph announces its reversal in old-fashioned words, “lo! on this side and on that there was none,” which students unused to such phrasing may read past. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Translate paragraph 11 into plain modern English, reread the paragraphs just before and after it, and judge each choice by what this paragraph itself shows.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how paragraph 11 moves the plot, the chain of events, forward. What changes for Margaret in this paragraph?

  2. Read paragraph 11

    Paragraph 11 is one sentence: “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!”

  3. Put it in plain words

    “Lo!” is an old word that means “Look!” The words “on this side and on that there was none” mean there was no station on either side of the track. Earlier, in paragraph 5, she guessed the building “was probably on the other” side. An assumption is something you believe without checking. Now she sees that her assumption was wrong. There is no station at all.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. What she assumed, a station, is different from what is real, no station.
    • B does not fit. Her imagination is not the problem. The missing station is a real problem.
    • C does not fit. Her gasp is shock, not excitement about an adventure.
    • D does not fit. She gasps, but the paragraph’s job is the discovery. It does not show how she usually handles stress.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 11 shows that the station Margaret counted on is not there. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice. Both A and B notice a gap between what Margaret pictured and what is there. But B blames her imagination. Her trouble is real: there is no station, and the train is gone. A says what the paragraph does. It shows the truth is different from what she assumed.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 19 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 27 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 27, question 19.

Question 5 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 29
Passage Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

by Dallas Lore Sharp

In this excerpt, published in 1914, author and professor Dallas Lore Sharp describes a summer cattle roundup in Oregon. The heat and dust had been relentless for three days. The cowboys were exhausted, and the cattle were restless. The ranch boss, Wade, had led the drive to a watering place, only to find it empty.

Along with the wagon had come the fresh horses—one of them being Peroxide Jim, a supple, powerful, clean-limbed buckskin, a horse, I think, that had as fine and intelligent an animal-face as any creature I ever saw. Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work. And why should he not have been saved fresh for just such a need as this? Are there not superior horses as well as superior men—a Peroxide Jim to complement a Wade?

The horse knew the cattle business and knew his rider perfectly; and though there was nothing like sentiment about the boss of the P Ranch riders, his faith in Peroxide Jim was complete. . . .

The desert, where the herd was camped, was one of the highest of a series of tablelands, or benches; it lay as level as a floor, rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below. The herd when overtaken by the dusk had been headed for a pass descending to the next lower bench, but was now halted within a mile of the rim rock on the east, where there was a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet. . . .

In the taut silence of the stirless desert night, with the tension of the herd at the snapping-point, any quick, unwonted sight or sound would stampede them. The sneezing of a horse, the flare of a match, would be enough to send the whole four thousand headlong—blind, frenzied, trampling—till spent and scattered over the plain.

And so, as he rode, Wade began to sing. The rider ahead of him took up the air and passed it on until, above the stepping stir of the hoofs rose the faint voices of the men, and all the herd was bound about by the slow plaintive measures of some old song. It was not to soothe their savage breasts that the riders sang to the cattle, but rather to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension, and so to prevent the shock of any sudden startling noise.

So they sang and rode and the night wore on to one o’clock, when Wade, coming up on the rim-rock side, felt a cool breeze fan his face, and caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it.

He checked his horse instantly, listening as the wind swept past him over the cattle. But they must already have smelled it, for they had ceased their milling, the whole herd standing motionless, the indistinct forms close to him in the dark showing their bald faces lifted to drink the sweet wet breath that came over the rim. Then they started on again, but faster, and with a rumbling now from their hoarse throats that tightened Wade’s grip on the reins.

The sound seemed to come out of the earth, a low, rumbling mumble, as dark as the night and as wide as the plain, a thick, inarticulate bellow that stood every rider stiff in his stirrups. . . .

Then the breeze caught the dust and carried it back from the gray-coated, ghostly shapes, and Wade saw that the animals were still moving in a circle. He must keep them going. He touched his horse to ride on with them, when across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning.

There was a snort from the steers, a quick clap of horns and hoofs from far within the herd, a tremor of the plain, a roar, a surging mass—and Wade was riding the flank of a wild stampede. Before him, behind him, beside him, pressing hard upon his horse, galloped the frenzied steers, and beyond them a multitude borne on, and bearing him on, by the heave of the galloping herd.

Wade was riding for his life. He knew it. His horse knew it. He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew. The cattle were after water—water-mad—ready to go over the precipice to get it, carrying horse and rider with them. Wade was the only rider between the herd and the rim. It was black as death. He could see nothing in the sage, could scarcely discern the pounding, panting shadows at his side. He knew that he was being borne toward the rim, how fast he could not tell, but he knew by the swish of the brush against his tapaderos and the plunging of the horse that the ground was growing stonier, that they were nearing the rocks.

To outrun the herd was his only chance for life. If he could come up with the leaders he might not only escape, but even stand a chance of heading them off upon the plain and saving the herd. There were cattle still ahead of him; how many, what part of them all, he could not make out in the dark. But the horse knew. The reins hung on his straight neck, where his rider had dropped them, as, yelling and firing over the wild herd, he had given this horse the race to win, to lose.

They were riding the rim. Close on their left bore down the flank of the herd, and on their right, under their very feet, was a precipice, so close that they felt its blackness—its three hundred feet of fall! . . .

. . . Then Wade found himself racing neck and neck with a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off into the swishing sage.

The steers coming on close behind followed their leader, and in, after them, swung others. The tide was turning from the rim. More and more were veering, and within a short time the whole herd, bearing off from the cliffs, was pounding over the open plains.

Whose race was it? It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade, for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run. From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit, had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock, without a false step or a tremor of fear.

From “The Spirit of the Herd” by Dallas Lore Sharp—Public Domain

tablelands: plateaus, flat areas of land sharply elevated from the surrounding area
tapaderos: leather covers for stirrups

Question

Which sentence from the excerpt best explains why Wade reserved Peroxide Jim for “emergency work” (paragraph 1)?

  • A“Are there not superior horses as well as superior men—a Peroxide Jim to complement a Wade?” (paragraph 1)
  • B“Before him, behind him, beside him, pressing hard upon his horse, galloped the frenzied steers, and beyond them a multitude borne on, and bearing him on, by the heave of the galloping herd.” (paragraph 10)
  • C“He knew that he was being borne toward the rim, how fast he could not tell, but he knew by the swish of the brush against his tapaderos and the plunging of the horse that the ground was growing stonier, that they were nearing the rocks.” (paragraph 11)
  • D“From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit, had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock, without a false step or a tremor of fear.” (paragraph 16)
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which sentence from the excerpt best explains why Wade reserved Peroxide Jim for “emergency work” (paragraph 1).

A. Incorrect. While the sentence from paragraph 1 refers to Peroxide Jim as being a superior horse, it does not tell why he would be useful in an emergency. The mention of Peroxide Jim’s superiority does not describe the attributes that would make him an appealing choice for use in an emergency.

B. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 10 does not describe the actions of Peroxide Jim. The sentence describes what Wade and the horse were experiencing, but it does not include any reference to how Peroxide Jim was responding to the situation.

C. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 11 describes Wade’s experiences and does not focus on the actions of Peroxide Jim. It reveals Wade’s awareness of the danger he was in, but the only reference to Peroxide Jim in this sentence is the description of the horse having to work harder to run on the stonier ground as they neared the edge: from “the plunging of the horse,” Wade knew “that the ground was growing stonier, that they were nearing the rocks.” This quotation does not show that Peroxide Jim was the right horse to use for emergency work because it does not indicate, at this point in the text, that he was responding in a way that saved the herd or Wade.

D. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 16 describes Peroxide Jim’s high level of skill and ability to perform in a life-and-death situation. Not only did Peroxide Jim recognize the emergency immediately (“From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit”), but the horse also proved to have the physical capability (“had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock”) and the mental toughness (“without a false step or a tremor of fear”) required to respond appropriately to the dangerous situation.

Question analysis

This evidence question on Dallas Lore Sharp’s “The Spirit of the Herd,” a 1914 account of a night stampede on an Oregon cattle drive, asks which sentence best explains why the ranch boss Wade kept his horse Peroxide Jim for “emergency work.” The four quoted sentences come from different parts of the excerpt and are long, so the choice takes careful reading.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Finding the sentence that best explains a detail is regular grade 7 evidence work. The four quotations, though, are long sentences from across a dense excerpt written in 1914, so the reading load is heavier than usual.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 160 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question links the start of the excerpt to its end, and the nearest quotation is the most tempting: the narrator’s rhetorical question about “superior horses” sits beside the phrase and seems to explain it. It praises the horse without showing what he can do. The two stampede sentences show the emergency itself, so the point goes to students who look for the horse acting on his own and find it in the final paragraph.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The phrase “emergency work” is in paragraph 1, but the proof of the horse’s worth comes only at the very end, in paragraph 16, after the stampede has been turned. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Three of the quotations run 33 to 46 words, and two of them describe the stampede in vivid detail without saying what the horse does, so sorting them takes time. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Students must decide what an emergency horse needs, speed, nerve and judgment without a rider’s guidance, before the last sentence reads as an answer to paragraph 1. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Decide what a horse saved for emergencies would need to be able to do, then pick the quotation that gives the clearest proof that Peroxide Jim can do it.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for evidence. In paragraph 1, Wade was saving Peroxide Jim for “emergency work.” Which sentence best explains why? You need a sentence that shows what this horse can do when something goes wrong.

  2. Decide what to look for

    An emergency is a sudden, dangerous event. A horse saved for one should be fast, steady and smart. It should act quickly when things go wrong. So look for the sentence that shows the horse himself doing that.

  3. Read the last sentence of the excerpt

    Paragraph 16 says “From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit, had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock, without a false step or a tremor of fear.”

  4. Put the sentence in plain words

    The bit is the metal bar in a horse’s mouth that the reins attach to. A horse that “had taken the bit” runs on its own. Perilous means dangerous. A tremor is a small shake. So the moment the stampede began, the horse took charge. He raced along a dangerous path, got ahead of the herd and turned it from the cliff. He never stumbled or showed fear.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It calls him “superior,” but it shows no skill.
    • B does not fit. It shows the stampede, but not how the horse handles it.
    • C does not fit. It is about Wade sensing the rocks ahead.
    • D fits. It shows the horse saving the herd in a real emergency.

    Watch out: A sits right next to “emergency work” in paragraph 1, so it seems to explain it. But praise is not proof.

  6. Choose the answer

    The last sentence shows exactly why the horse was worth saving for emergencies. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice. It sits beside the words “emergency work” and praises the horse. But calling a horse “superior” does not say what it can do. D shows the horse in action: fast, sure-footed and fearless in a real emergency. That explains why Wade saved him.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 29 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 42 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 42, question 29.
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed on page 41 of the DOE handbook.

Question 6 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 33

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd””.

Question

Read these sentences from the excerpt.

He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew. (paragraph 11)

It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade, for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run. (paragraph 16)

How do these sentences develop a central idea in the excerpt?

  • AThey suggest that Wade would have been unable to save the herd without Peroxide Jim.
  • BThey imply that Wade spent many hours training Peroxide Jim to herd cattle.
  • CThey show that Peroxide Jim was able to understand a situation and take action.
  • DThey indicate that Peroxide Jim was unafraid of the dangers presented by the stampede and the cliff.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the sentences from paragraph 11 and paragraph 16 develop a central idea in the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. While Peroxide Jim’s presence was critical to saving the herd, the details in paragraph 11 and paragraph 16 do not focus on this idea. The primary idea is that the horse was so intelligent and aware that he acted on his own.

B. Incorrect. The excerpt does not tell who trained Peroxide Jim. It can be inferred that Peroxide Jim had been well trained and was knowledgeable of working cattle; however, there is no indication that Wade was the person who trained Peroxide Jim, only that Wade knew of Peroxide Jim’s abilities, respected the skilled horse, and was “saving this horse for emergency work” (paragraph 1). Because the reader cannot infer from the excerpt that Wade was the trainer, this idea cannot be considered central to the excerpt.

C. CORRECT. Wade recognized that Peroxide Jim knew to turn the herd without any instruction from him. Throughout the excerpt, Wade exhibited confidence in his horse, Peroxide Jim. For example, the narrator says that Wade’s “faith in Peroxide Jim was complete” in paragraph 2. After Wade let go of the reins (paragraph 12), the horse took over, doing exactly what needed to be done to save Wade, the herd, and himself: “a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off into the swishing sage” (paragraph 14).

D. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 11 and the sentence from paragraph 16 show that Peroxide Jim acted skillfully and with the knowledge that the ride was dangerous (“Wade was riding for his life. He knew it. His horse knew it” [paragraph 11]). Neither sentence indicates whether Peroxide Jim was afraid. The excerpt does say, later in paragraph 16, that the horse turned the herd “without a false step or a tremor of fear,” but these two sentences focus on his awareness of the danger and his ability to act on his own, not on his lack of fear.

Question analysis

This question quotes two sentences from “The Spirit of the Herd,” one from the middle of the stampede and one from its end, and asks how together they develop a central idea of the excerpt. Students must see what the two sentences share and connect it to the story as a whole. Each choice sounds reasonable for this story, which makes the exact wording of the two sentences decisive.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 central-idea questions usually ask about one paragraph or the whole text. Here students must find what two sentences five paragraphs apart have in common and link it to the excerpt’s central idea, among choices that all sound believable.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 121 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate statement in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Each choice says something a reader could believe about this story, so the exact content of the two quoted sentences decides it. What they share is knowledge and independence: the horse knew the goal and ran the race undirected. Fearlessness is stated in the very next sentence of paragraph 16, which makes it easy to credit to these two, and the claim that Wade could not have managed alone sounds like a fair summary of the ending.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Neither sentence says the horse understood; that has to be read from “as the horse also knew” and from the race being his because he was not directed “by word or by touch.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question

    The second sentence is an inverted negative passive, “not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed,” and the first tucks its point into a trailing clause. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The two sentences sit five paragraphs apart, and the detail that tempts students most, “without a false step or a tremor of fear,” follows the second one in paragraph 16. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Note what the two quoted sentences have in common, then pick the option that states that shared point, making sure it comes from these sentences and not from elsewhere in the excerpt.

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.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option D says “There is no indication that Peroxide Jim was not afraid; in fact, it is likely the awareness of the danger and the fear associated with that knowledge contributed to the horse’s motivation to turn the herd.” Paragraph 16 says the opposite: the horse turned the herd “without a false step or a tremor of fear” (the handbook’s explanation of question 29 cites these words as his mental toughness). The site now says that neither of the two quoted sentences indicates whether Peroxide Jim was afraid, which is still why Option D is wrong: they focus on his awareness of the danger and his ability to act on his own.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what two quoted sentences have in common and how they build a central idea, the main idea of the excerpt. Focus on what these two sentences say, not on other parts of the story.

  2. Read the first sentence

    Paragraph 11 says “He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew.” To turn the herd is to make it change direction. The words “as the horse also knew” mean the horse understood the goal too.

  3. Read the second sentence

    Paragraph 16 says the race was the horse’s, “for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run.” Directed means told where to go. Riders guide a horse with their voice, their hands on the reins and their knees. Wade did none of that. The horse ran the race on his own.

  4. Put the two together

    Both sentences show the same thing. The horse understood what was happening. Then he acted on his own, with no one telling him what to do. This builds the central idea that Peroxide Jim is a smart horse who saves the herd by himself.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The sentences do not say whether Wade could have done it alone. They focus on what the horse knew and did.
    • B does not fit. The excerpt never says who trained the horse.
    • C fits. The horse understood the situation and took action.
    • D does not fit. The horse was fearless, but neither quoted sentence says so.

  6. Choose the answer

    The two sentences show a horse that understood the danger and acted on his own. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice, because the horse really was fearless. But that comes from a later sentence in paragraph 16: “without a false step or a tremor of fear.” The two quoted sentences say nothing about fear. They show that the horse knew the goal and acted with no one guiding him. That is C.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 33 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 46 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 46, question 33. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 7 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 37
Passage Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park

Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question

A central idea that Lowell was “one of America’s most significant industrial cities” (paragraph 1) is conveyed in the passage primarily through a description of the

  • Acanals, mills, and boardinghouses that were built by immigrants.
  • Bmill girls and immigrants who comprised Lowell’s workforce.
  • Cdevelopment of the mills and the workforce established to support them.
  • Dcultural diversity of the people who lived in the area.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks which description conveys the central idea that Lowell was “one of America’s most significant industrial cities” (paragraph 1).

A. Incorrect. While the passage does state that the city’s canals, mills, and boardinghouses were built by early immigrants from Ireland, these details do not contribute to the development of the overall idea that Lowell was a significant industrial city.

B. Incorrect. The details about the women and immigrants who worked in the mills are important to the passage, but these details alone do not show that Lowell was a significant industrial city.

C. CORRECT. The details throughout the passage about the development of the mills and the people who worked in them convey the significance of Lowell in early American industry. Paragraph 2 shares details about the businesses that started in the 1800s and contributed to the development of industry in the region (“The most recognized of these buildings are the Lowell Manufacturing Company chartered in 1821, the Suffolk or Wannalancit Mill completed around the 1880s, the Boott Mill Company established in 1835, and the Boott Mill Boardinghouse that opened in 1838”). Then paragraphs 3–6 provide specific details about the people who worked in the mills at different points in time.

D. Incorrect. Although the passage references Lowell’s culturally diverse community (“Young Yankee women, immigrant families, and European tourists all flocked to Lowell to find work at one of the many textile mills” [paragraph 1]), these groups alone are not what marked Lowell as a significant industrial city.

Question analysis

This central idea question asks which kind of description in an article about the Massachusetts mill city of Lowell does most to show that it was one of America's most significant industrial cities. Students need a map of all six paragraphs, because every choice names something the passage really describes, and the question turns on which description does the main work.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace how a central idea is developed, usually through a few supporting details. Here the strands to weigh run through six dense paragraphs of dates, mills and worker groups, and the stem is long and passive, so it asks more than typical.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 63 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A grammatical error in the explanation was corrected.
  • An inaccurate detail in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice names something the passage really describes, so truth rules nothing out; the question turns on which description carries the claim that Lowell mattered as an industrial city. Because four of the six paragraphs follow the workers, the workforce alone looks like the passage's main thread, and students who forget paragraph 2's mills take the half for the whole. Diversity and the immigrant builders are real themes too, but neither says anything about Lowell's industrial standing.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The workforce choice is the key with one half removed: both describe the people who worked the mills, but only the key also names the development of the mills, which paragraph 2 builds with dates and numbers. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The industrial picture is built in two stages, the canals and mills of paragraph 2 and the successive workforces of paragraphs 3 to 6, so each choice must be measured against the whole passage. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Six paragraphs pack in mill names, dates from 1821 to the 1950s and a string of worker groups, from Yankee mill girls to Irish, French-Canadian and Greek immigrants. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  4. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The stem is a long passive sentence that quotes paragraph 1 inside it and holds the real question, “primarily through a description of the,” until its last words. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Note in a phrase what each of the six paragraphs is about, then test each choice against the stem's claim: would that description make a reader see Lowell as a major industrial city?

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.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option B says “The details about the women and immigrants who worked in the mills is important to the passage.” The subject is “details,” so the site now says “are important.”
  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option C says paragraph 2 describes “the businesses that started in the early 1800s,” but the sentence it then quotes includes “the Suffolk or Wannalancit Mill completed around the 1880s,” late in the century. The site now says “the businesses that started in the 1800s.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a central idea question. A central idea is a main point that the whole passage builds. The point here is that Lowell was “one of America’s most significant industrial cities.” Significant means important. You need the description that does the most to show this.

  2. Map the six paragraphs

    • Paragraph 1: Lowell grows from a farm town into a famous industrial city.
    • Paragraph 2: The mills: canals, huge brick buildings, mills started across the 1800s, and by the 1850s, “40 textile mills employing over 10,000 workers.”
    • Paragraphs 3 and 4: The Yankee “mill girls” who worked in the mills.
    • Paragraphs 5 and 6: The Irish and other immigrants who took their place.

  3. See how the picture is built

    The passage shows Lowell’s importance in two parts. First it describes the mills: how they were built and how big they grew. Then it follows the workers who ran them, group after group. Together, the mills and the workforce show a major industrial city. Workforce means all the people who do the work. Either part alone tells only half the story.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Paragraph 5 does say the Irish built the canals, mills and boardinghouses. But that is one fact in one sentence, not the main description.
    • B is wrong. The mill girls and immigrants fill paragraphs 3 to 6. But this choice leaves out the mills themselves, the heart of paragraph 2.
    • C is right. It covers both parts: how the mills grew and the workers who kept them running.
    • D is wrong. Lowell did become an “ethnic melting pot.” But a mix of cultures doesn’t show that a city was an industrial leader.

    Watch out: Four of the six paragraphs are about workers, so B looks like the main thread. It is only half of it.

  5. Choose the answer

    The central idea is carried by the growth of the mills plus the workforce gathered to run them. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer. It matches the second half of C, the people who worked in the mills. But it drops the mills, with their six miles of canals and, by the 1850s, 40 mills. Workers alone don’t make a city an industrial giant. C keeps both halves, so it fits the whole passage.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 37 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 52 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 52, question 37. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park” as printed (page 50)The passage “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.

Question 8 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 39

Uses the passage above: “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 3.

From the early to mid-1800s, women left the constricted lifestyle of small rural towns and rural areas for independent industrial city life.

Which statement best describes how the sentence fits into the overall structure of the passage?

  • AIt provides a transition from a description of the mills to a description of the workforce in those mills.
  • BIt indicates a shift in tone from positive and hopeful to negative and dissatisfied with working conditions at the mill.
  • CIt summarizes a challenge that led many women to leave their hometown and seek work in urban areas.
  • DIt begins a comparison of the mill workforce between the mid-1800s and the late 1800s.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks which statement best describes how the sentence in paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the passage.

A. CORRECT. The sentence in paragraph 3 provides a transition from the overall description of the city and the mills to a description of the women who made up the workforce in the mills. The idea that women left domestic life in favor of working in the mills is important in the passage, and the sentence serves to connect that idea to the previous discussion about the mills.

B. Incorrect. While the mill girls’ dissatisfaction with their working conditions is addressed later in the passage (“These wage cuts, deteriorating working conditions, and long workdays led the ‘mill girls’ to protest and organize strikes” [paragraph 4]), the sentence in paragraph 3 does not indicate a shift in tone from positive to negative. The sentence provides a transition to the discussion of the women who worked in the mills.

C. Incorrect. Although the sentence in paragraph 3 mentions that women became interested in working in the mills because of the “constricted lifestyle of small rural towns,” structurally the sentence does not function as a summary because, instead of expanding on the idea of the difficulties or challenges of life in small rural towns and rural areas, the paragraph goes on to describe the advantages and disadvantages of life in the city for these women.

D. Incorrect. The sentence in paragraph 3 focuses on the choices women made to leave rural towns to work in the city in the early to mid-1800s, not the mid-1800s to the late 1800s. The sentence does not create a comparison between the workforce in the mid-1800s and that in the late 1800s.

Question analysis

A sentence from the start of paragraph 3 of the Lowell article, about women leaving the limited life of rural towns for the city, is the focus of this text-structure question. Students decide how it fits into the structure of the passage as a whole, so they must place it within the order of all six paragraphs instead of judging it by itself.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 structure questions often ask what a paragraph does. This one asks how a single sentence serves a six-paragraph history and offers four abstract roles, so the student must hold the passage's whole plan in mind, more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 116 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The answer depends on seeing the passage's plan, mills first and then the people who ran them, and placing this sentence at the seam. Its wording invites a content answer instead, since it really does describe a hardship that drove women to the city, and the later strikes tempt students to see a darker tone beginning here. The fit of the key is also imperfect, because the paragraph's opening sentence starts the turn, so students must choose the best description rather than an exact one.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks what the sentence does in the passage, and its content, women escaping a “constricted lifestyle,” is easy to restate, which makes a summary of that content feel like an answer. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The sentence's role shows only from its neighbors: paragraph 2 ends with 40 mills and 10,000 workers, and paragraph 3 then follows the women who left rural towns to work in them. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Paragraph 3's first sentence, “The city's female workforce was significant,” already names the new subject, so students must see this second sentence as part of the turn rather than a fresh point. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Sum up each paragraph in a few words, then look at what comes just before and just after this sentence and decide what role it plays at that point in the passage.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a structure question. Structure is how a passage is put together. You need to say what job this sentence does in the whole passage. Don’t just restate what it says. Ask what comes before it and what comes after it.

  2. Look at what comes before

    Paragraph 2 is all about the mills. It ends with “40 textile mills employing over 10,000 workers.” Then paragraph 3 begins: “The city’s female workforce was significant in the history of Lowell.” Workforce means the people who do the work. The sentence in the question comes right after that: “From the early to mid-1800s, women left the constricted lifestyle of small rural towns and rural areas for independent industrial city life.”

  3. Look at what comes after

    Constricted means tight and limited. So women left small, limited farm towns to live on their own in the city. After this, the passage stays with the workers. Paragraphs 3 and 4 tell about the mill girls’ wages, rules, strikes and leaving. Paragraphs 5 and 6 tell about the immigrants who replaced them. So the passage turns here, from the mills to the people who worked in them.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The sentence helps carry the reader from the mills to the workforce in those mills.
    • B is wrong. The tone isn’t negative here. “Independent industrial city life” sounds hopeful. The protests and strikes don’t come until paragraph 4.
    • C is wrong. It tells what the sentence says, not what it does. And the paragraph goes on to life in Lowell, not to more about hard times back home.
    • D is wrong. The passage never compares workers of the mid-1800s with workers of the late 1800s.

    Watch out: C sounds right because the sentence really does describe a limited life that women wanted to leave. But the question asks about its role, not its content.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 3’s first sentence names the new subject. This sentence carries it forward by telling where the workers came from. Together they move the passage from mills to people. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer. It is true that women wanted to escape a “constricted lifestyle.” But C describes what the sentence says, not the job it does. The paragraph then moves on to life in Lowell. A names the job: the sentence links the story of the mills to the story of the mill workers.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 39 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 54 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 54, question 39.

Question 9 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 40

Uses the passage above: “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 5.

Although Lowell received an influx of Irish families during this time, the Irish were a part of the city’s history from its birth, and before the “mill girls” arrived, they built Lowell’s historic canals, mills, and boardinghouses.

How does this sentence contribute to the development of ideas in the passage?

  • AIt implies that Lowell was founded by early Irish immigrants.
  • BIt emphasizes the important role Irish immigrants played in Lowell’s history.
  • CIt suggests that the new Irish immigrants were readily accepted into the community.
  • DIt highlights the working relationship between the mill girls and the new Irish immigrants.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the sentence in paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage.

A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 5 does not imply that Lowell was founded by early Irish immigrants. The sentence explains how Irish immigrants had been settling in Lowell since the city was established and that they contributed to the construction of the city, which allowed it to become an industrial center several decades later.

B. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 5 shows that early Irish immigrants were critical to the success of Lowell as an industrial city. This information supports the development of the idea that the work of Irish immigrants and immigrants from other places is an important element in the historical significance of industry in Lowell.

C. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 5 does not suggest that new Irish immigrants were readily accepted into the community. Paragraph 5 states that “initially, Lowell’s Protestant community was slow to welcome Irish immigrants, but the hostility between Yankee Protestants and Irish Catholics eventually disappeared.”

D. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 5 does not highlight the relationship between the mill girls and the new Irish immigrants. Paragraph 4 explains how the mill girls left Lowell, and paragraph 5 states that the mill girls were replaced by “predominantly Irish Catholics, who traveled to America during the Great Potato Famine” but does not discuss a relationship between them.

Question analysis

This question quotes a sentence from paragraph 5 of the Lowell article about Irish families, who arrived in large numbers in the 1840s but had been part of the city since its birth. Students explain how the sentence contributes to the development of the passage's ideas, and because it packs several groups and periods into one line, they must keep straight who did what and when.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how one sentence develops a passage's ideas is a core grade 7 skill. The sentence is long but its meaning is direct, and the text around it settles most of the choices, so the demand is typical.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 103 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Once the long sentence is untangled, its point is plain: the Irish were in Lowell from the start and built its canals, mills and boardinghouses. The likeliest slip is reading “from its birth” as founding the city, which paragraph 2 credits to Boston merchants. The other wrong choices invent a welcome or a partnership that the surrounding sentences contradict or never mention, so a quick check of paragraph 5 settles them.

  1. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The 37-word sentence moves through three times at once, the influx “during this time,” the city's birth and the years before the mill girls arrived, so who did what and when must be sorted out. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Ruling out the founding choice needs paragraph 2's “Boston merchants who founded Lowell,” and ruling out a warm welcome needs the next sentence's “slow to welcome Irish immigrants.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Put the quoted sentence into your own words, then check each choice against the sentences around it in paragraph 5 and against what earlier paragraphs say about the city's beginnings.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This structure question asks what one sentence adds to the passage’s ideas. First you need to understand the sentence. It is long and jumps between three times, so take it apart piece by piece.

  2. Break the sentence into parts

    The sentence is in paragraph 5. Here are its three parts:

    • “Although Lowell received an influx of Irish families during this time”: an influx is a big wave of people arriving, and “this time” means the 1840s.
    • “the Irish were a part of the city’s history from its birth”: its birth means the city’s very beginning.
    • “they built Lowell’s historic canals, mills, and boardinghouses”: this happened before the mill girls came.

  3. Say it in your own words

    Put together, the sentence says: Many Irish families came in the 1840s, but the Irish had been in Lowell from the start. They built its canals, mills and boardinghouses. Without those canals and mills, there would be no industrial city. So the sentence shows how much the Irish mattered to Lowell’s story.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Being there “from its birth” is not the same as founding the city. Paragraph 2 names the founders: “The Boston merchants who founded Lowell in 1821.”
    • B is right. The Irish were there from the start and built the city’s mills and canals. That is an important role.
    • C is wrong. The very next sentence says “Lowell’s Protestant community was slow to welcome Irish immigrants.” So they were not readily, or easily, accepted.
    • D is wrong. The passage never says the Irish and the mill girls worked together. Later, the Irish replaced them.

    Watch out: “From its birth” can sound like they started the city, which leads to A. Check paragraph 2 to see who founded Lowell.

  5. Choose the answer

    The sentence makes clear that the Irish helped build Lowell from its first days. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because the sentence links the Irish to the city’s “birth.” But being part of a city from the start is different from founding it. Boston merchants founded Lowell. The Irish built its canals and mills. B fits, because it names that important role without stretching it.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 55 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 55, question 40.

Question 10 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 41

Uses the passage above: “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”.

Question

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

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

Correct answer: D

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

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

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

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

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

Question analysis

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

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

Why it is hard

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

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

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

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

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

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

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

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

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

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

  2. Find the beginning of their story

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

  3. Find the middle and the end

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

  4. Check each choice

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

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

  5. Choose the answer

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

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

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

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 41 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 56 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 56, question 41.

Question 11 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 42

Uses the passage above: “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”.

Question

The reason Lowell lost its status as an industrial leader is best illustrated through the

  • Adescription of poor living and working conditions.
  • Bexplanation for why some immigrant groups struggled to live together.
  • Ccomparison with other mills that used modern methods.
  • Dinformation about the mills opening temporarily during World War II.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the reason that best illustrates why Lowell lost its status as an industrial leader.

A. Incorrect. While the passage discusses the “long work hours, low wages, and poor living conditions in the city’s crowded tenements” (paragraph 6) in Lowell, these details highlight the living and working conditions of immigrant groups. The author does not state that poor living and working conditions are the reason Lowell lost its status as a “model of industry.”

B. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 in the passage acknowledges that there was some tension between the different ethnic and religious groups in Lowell, but this idea is not what led to Lowell’s decline as a “model of industry.”

C. CORRECT. When Lowell was initially established, the mills in the city thrived because of their advanced manufacturing methods (“gaining global recognition for its state-of-the-art technology, innovative canal and dam system, [and] mill architecture” [paragraph 1]). However, manufacturing technology changed and improved over time, and many mill owners chose to close the mills rather than modernize them, resulting in Lowell’s loss of status as a “model of industry” (“The city officially began to close down its mills in the 1920s and ’30s after Lowell’s outdated mills could no longer compete against the state-of-the-art cotton mills in other communities” [paragraph 6]).

D. Incorrect. The details about the temporary revival of the mills during World War II do not show why Lowell is no longer considered a “model of industry.” The mills were used briefly during wartime because of an increased need for supplies, but this use of the mills was short-lived.

Question analysis

Why did Lowell lose its place as an industrial leader, a decline that ended with its last mill closing by the mid-1950s? This evidence question asks which part of the article best illustrates the reason, so students must find where the passage explains the cause and match it to a choice worded in general terms, while other late details compete for attention.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Using a text to explain a cause is typical grade 7 work. The reason is stated directly near the end of the passage, but the choices name it in abstract terms, so a careful match is needed, as in ordinary grade 7 reading.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 50 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 reason is stated, but in a sentence that pairs it with worsening working conditions, and conditions get far more space in the passage, from paragraph 4's wage cuts to paragraph 6's crowded tenements. Students who match the choices to familiar words land on the conditions, which the passage presents as a result of companies not reinvesting. The key has to be recognized in new wording, as a comparison with modern mills elsewhere.

  1. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The key's “comparison with other mills that used modern methods” rewords “could no longer compete against the state-of-the-art cotton mills,” while wrong choices repeat the text's “poor living conditions,” “working conditions” and “World War II.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The 47-word sentence that gives the reason joins two clauses under one “after,” outdated mills that “could no longer compete” and working conditions that “continued to decline,” so both can look like causes. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The cause echoes earlier hints, paragraph 1's “state-of-the-art technology” and paragraph 4's trouble competing with “other New England communities,” which confirm that competition is the passage's explanation. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Find the sentence that tells why Lowell's mills shut down, restate the cause in your own words, then choose the description that matches that cause rather than a detail that merely appears nearby.

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.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This evidence question asks why Lowell lost its place as an industrial leader. First find where the passage gives the reason. Then pick the choice that matches it, even if it uses different words.

  2. Find the reason in paragraph 6

    Look near the end of the passage, where the mills close. Paragraph 6 says the city began to close its mills “after Lowell’s outdated mills could no longer compete against the state-of-the-art cotton mills in other communities.” This is the reason the passage gives.

  3. Put the reason in plain words

    Outdated means old-fashioned. State-of-the-art means the newest and best. To compete is to keep up with rivals. So mills in other places had newer machines, and Lowell’s old mills couldn’t keep up. That is a comparison: Lowell’s mills next to more modern mills elsewhere. It is a big change, too. In paragraph 1, Lowell was famous for its own “state-of-the-art technology.”

  4. Rule out the working conditions

    Choice A is the hard one to rule out. The same sentence says working conditions got worse “as Lowell’s companies stopped reinvesting in their mills.” Reinvesting means putting money back in, for repairs and new machines. Mills that get no new money also fall out of date. So the worse conditions came along with the decline. Falling behind modern mills elsewhere is what cost Lowell its lead. The passage’s longer descriptions of poor conditions, in paragraphs 4 and 6, tell how hard life was for workers. They don’t explain why the mills closed.

  5. Check the other choices

    • B is wrong. The passage tells of tension between Yankee Protestants and Irish Catholics, which “eventually disappeared.” It never links this to the mills closing.
    • C is right. It matches the reason: Lowell’s mills fell behind more modern mills.
    • D is wrong. The World War II “brief resurgence” was a short comeback. It doesn’t explain why Lowell fell behind.

    Watch out: A repeats words from the passage, so it feels safe. But matching the words is not the same as matching the reason.

  6. Choose the answer

    The passage says Lowell’s outdated mills could not keep up with modern mills in other places. Choice C names that comparison. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because the closing sentence also says “working conditions continued to decline.” But the passage ties that to the companies no longer spending on their mills. A leader loses its place when others get ahead. C names that: other mills used modern methods, and Lowell’s did not.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 42 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 57 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 57, question 42.

Question 12 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 43
Passage The Benefits of Indoor Plants

The Benefits of Indoor Plants

(1) In an age of endless media content, it is easy to see why people might prefer to stay inside. (2) According to a study sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spend an average of 87 percent of their time indoors. (3) Scientists say that this separation between people and nature puts people at risk for physical and psychological issues.

(4) During the process of photosynthesis, plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and remove many harmful toxins from the air. (5) Spending prolonged periods of time indoors, away from plants, deprives people of these benefits. (6) Air that is not regularly detoxified can lead to a condition known as sick building syndrome. (7) This disorder first came to light in the 1970s when many office workers in the United States began to complain of unexplained flu-like symptoms. (8) Researchers determined the cause to be volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. (9) VOCs are harmful chemicals that are emitted by everyday objects such as carpet, furniture, cleaning products, and computers. (10) The NASA Clean Air Study found a simple way to remove a significant number of VOCs within a 24-hour period: add plants to indoor spaces.

(11) Adding plants to indoor spaces has psychological benefits too. (12) Research has long linked time spent in natural environments with increased energy and feelings of contentment. (13) While being outdoors is an excellent option for improving a person’s mental health, recent research has indicated that encountering natural elements while indoors can also help. (14) To experience the maximum benefit of natural elements, experts suggest placing at least one live plant per 100 square feet of home or office space.

(15) Connecting with nature, even just by being near an indoor plant, is a significant factor in a person’s well-being. (16) Sitting in front of an electronic screen all day isn’t natural, and today’s workers need to get up and get outdoors. (17) Richard Ryan, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, puts it this way: “Nature is something within which we flourish, so having it be more a part of our lives is critical, especially when we live and work in built environments.”

Question

Which sentence should follow sentence 3 to best introduce the topic of the passage?

  • APlacing plants in homes and offices can provide a healthy bridge between nature and the indoors.
  • BIt is important for people to realize that they need to spend more time near plants, whether indoors or out in nature.
  • CFor their personal health and well-being, people need to spend more time outdoors or bring the outdoors in.
  • DIndividuals with little connection to nature can experience illness, depression, and higher levels of stress.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks which sentence should follow sentence 3 to best introduce the topic of the passage.

A. CORRECT. The sentence introduces the overall topic by previewing the main ideas in the passage. It introduces the connection between natural elements and well-being (“a healthy bridge”) and sets up the main argument of the passage (“Placing plants in homes and offices” can increase people’s well-being).

B. Incorrect. Although sentence 3 mentions the connection between “people and nature,” this sentence references the importance of spending time near plants while both indoors and outdoors. However, the passage focuses specifically on the benefits of having indoor plants.

C. Incorrect: Though the sentence describes a reason why indoor plants are important (“For [people’s] personal health and well-being”), the topic of the passage is related to the need for indoor plants, not the need for people to spend more time outdoors.

D. Incorrect. While the sentence refers to how time away from nature can affect health and well-being, the vague wording (“little connection to nature”) makes this sentence too broad to introduce the topic of the passage, and thus, it should not follow sentence 3.

Question analysis

This revising question works with the four-paragraph passage “The Benefits of Indoor Plants” and asks which sentence should follow sentence 3 to introduce the passage's topic. The opening paragraph ends on the health risks of time spent away from nature, and every choice continues that thought in some way, so students must judge which one prepares a reader for what the passage goes on to cover.

NYS standards
  • 7W2a introducing and organizing a topic
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Introducing a topic so that it previews what follows is a grade 7 writing standard, practised often in class. The passage is short and plainly worded, and the choices differ in focus rather than in grammar, typical grade 7 revision.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 346 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 84 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The first paragraph ends on a problem, and all four choices continue it plausibly, so the decision is about scope. The passage is about plants indoors, and the near miss offers outdoor time as an equal remedy, while another widens the subject to plants anywhere and a third simply restates the danger. Students who skim the topic sentences of the later paragraphs before choosing see that only an indoor solution introduces what follows.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice ending “or bring the outdoors in” sounds like the key's “bridge between nature and the indoors,” but it adds spending more time outdoors, a remedy the passage does not develop. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The topic only emerges from the later paragraphs: plants cleaning indoor air in sentences 4–10, their psychological benefits in 11–14, and nature brought indoors in 15–17. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    The new sentence must follow sentence 3's warning about “separation between people and nature” and lead into sentence 4's photosynthesis, so it has to name plants as the remedy. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Skim the first sentence of each later paragraph to see what the passage actually covers, then test each choice: would it set up those paragraphs without promising something they never discuss?

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.
  • Says it twice: Repeats an idea that the sentence or passage already states.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This revising question asks you to add a sentence that introduces the topic. Such a sentence tells the reader what the passage will be about. For example, an essay about why dogs make good pets might start: Dogs make loyal, loving pets. The new sentence goes after sentence 3, so it must also follow from it.

  2. Find the passage’s topic

    Skim the rest of the passage. Sentences 4–10 tell how plants clean indoor air. Sentences 11–14 say plants indoors help the mind. Sentences 15–17 say even an indoor plant connects you with nature. So the topic is plants inside homes and offices. The title says it too: “The Benefits of Indoor Plants.”

  3. Connect it to sentence 3

    Sentence 3 names a problem: “this separation between people and nature puts people at risk for physical and psychological issues.” Psychological means having to do with the mind and feelings. The best next sentence should name the fix the passage talks about: bringing plants indoors.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. It names plants “in homes and offices” as “a healthy bridge between nature and the indoors.” A bridge connects two things, so plants bring nature inside. That sets up every later paragraph.
    • B is wrong. “Whether indoors or out in nature” widens the topic to plants anywhere. The passage only discusses plants inside.
    • C is wrong. It offers two fixes: more time outdoors, or bringing the outdoors in. The passage develops only the second. C never even mentions plants.
    • D is wrong. It just repeats sentence 3’s problem in new words. It never brings up plants, the subject of the passage.

  5. Look closely at choice C

    Watch out: C sounds close because of “bring the outdoors in.” But the passage gives no tips for spending more time outside. Sentence 13 mentions being outdoors only on its way to the indoor point. So half of C promises something the passage never delivers.

  6. Choose the answer

    Only one choice moves from sentence 3’s problem to the passage’s answer, plants inside. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because “bring the outdoors in” sounds like A. But C gives equal weight to spending more time outdoors, and the passage never develops that idea. A points only to plants indoors, which is exactly what the rest of the passage is about.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 43 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 61 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 61, question 43.
The passage “The Benefits of Indoor Plants” as printed (page 60)The passage “The Benefits of Indoor Plants” as printed on page 60 of the DOE handbook.

Question 13 of 112

2026 Practice Test A English, question 47

Uses the passage above: “The Benefits of Indoor Plants”.

Question

Which concluding sentence should follow sentence 17 to best support the information presented in the passage?

  • ABecause indoor plants absorb the carbon dioxide in our air and release the oxygen we need to breathe, they are vital to our wholeness and wellness.
  • BExperts say that adding a Boston fern, a spider plant, or an aloe vera plant is a good place to start if you want to begin to incorporate nature into your home or office.
  • CMore people should consider bringing natural elements inside to improve general wellness and reverse some of the negative effects of an indoor-centered society.
  • DAs one study has confirmed, houseplants are a wise investment because they can remove almost 90 percent of the toxins in the air within the span of 24 hours.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the concluding sentence that should follow sentence 17 to best support the information presented in the passage.

A. Incorrect. Although the sentence describes plants as “vital to our wholeness and wellness,” the detail about the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air is overly specific and does not capture the broader argument presented in the passage (that placing plants indoors “is a significant factor in a person’s well-being” [sentence 15]).

B. Incorrect. The sentence’s reference to particular types of plants suitable for indoor spaces supports the idea of incorporating nature into a home or office, but the sentence does not address the benefits people can experience for doing so and thus does not present a logical conclusion for the information in the passage.

C. CORRECT. The sentence directly presents the argument of the passage (“More people should consider bringing natural elements inside”) and supports the central ideas in the second and third paragraphs relating to the health and psychological benefits of having indoor plants.

D. Incorrect. Although the sentence notes the positive impact that houseplants can have on air quality, the sentence does not logically follow the preceding information about the overall benefits to a person’s health and well-being.

Question analysis

This conclusion question asks which sentence should follow the last line of the indoor-plants passage, a quotation from a psychology professor about nature and people who live and work in built environments. Students must choose an ending that fits the passage as a whole, not only its last paragraph, and every option sounds like a reasonable closing line when read on its own.

NYS standards
  • 7W2e concluding informative writing
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing a concluding sentence that reflects a whole passage is standard grade 7 writing work. The passage is seventeen plain sentences, so keeping its main points in view is manageable, and the task matches typical grade 7 revision.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 346 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 125 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Three of the endings sound like conclusions: one praises plants as “vital,” one offers practical first steps, and one cites a striking statistic. Only one, though, restates the passage's whole argument, that people should bring nature indoors for their health. Students lose the point when an ending repeats a single fact, such as photosynthesis or toxin removal, or adds new specifics, and the question rewards weighing each ending against all four paragraphs.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    A fitting ending must gather the air-cleaning benefits of sentences 4–10, the psychological benefits of 11–14 and the closing case for keeping nature near, ideas that lie across three paragraphs. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The key speaks of “natural elements” and “an indoor-centered society,” new wording for the passage's argument, while two wrong endings repeat its carbon dioxide, oxygen and toxins. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: List what each paragraph contributes, then choose the ending that sums up the passage's message rather than repeating a single fact or adding a new one.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a concluding sentence, the last line of the passage. A good conclusion sums up the main point of the whole passage. It doesn’t add new facts. For example, an essay about recess might end: Recess helps kids’ bodies and minds, so schools should keep it.

  2. Sum up the passage

    • Sentences 1–3: People spend most of their time indoors, away from nature, and that puts their health at risk.
    • Sentences 4–10: Indoor plants clean the air.
    • Sentences 11–14: Indoor plants help the mind.
    • Sentences 15–17: Being near nature, even one plant, matters for well-being.

    So the main point is: bring nature indoors to help both body and mind.

  3. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It rests on one fact from sentence 4, about carbon dioxide and oxygen. It leaves out the benefits for the mind.
    • B is wrong. It adds new details, three kinds of plants. It doesn’t say why plants help.
    • C is right. “Bringing natural elements inside” is the passage’s fix. Wellness means good health, of body and mind. “An indoor-centered society” recalls sentences 1 and 2, about people staying inside.
    • D is wrong. It brings back only the toxins, with a new number, “almost 90 percent.” It drops the benefits for the mind.

    Watch out: A sounds like an ending because it calls plants “vital to our wholeness and wellness.” But its reason covers only the air we breathe.

  4. Choose the answer

    Only one ending sums up the whole passage: people should bring nature inside for their health. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because it sounds like a strong ending. But it repeats one fact, that plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. The passage also argues that plants help the mind. C covers the whole argument: bring nature inside to improve wellness.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 47 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 65 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 65, question 47.

Question 14 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 10
Passage A Miracle Mile

A Miracle Mile

In the 1950s people compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest and nicknamed the feat a “dream mile.” Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier. One of them was a twenty-five-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister.

Roger Bannister had tasted failure during the 1952 Olympics. There, he was favored to win the 1,500-meter competition, a distance slightly shorter than a mile, but he finished in a dismal fourth place instead. Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain. Determined to redeem himself, Bannister postponed his plans to retire from racing and focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.

Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning. The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed. For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap. In between intervals, he let his body recover for two minutes.

By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target. Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days. The rest from running permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed. When Bannister returned to the track, he completed ten quarter-mile-long intervals at fifty-nine seconds each. He finally felt prepared to attempt to break the world record.

As a member of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), Bannister joined the AAA team for a track meet against Oxford University. The event took place on a cinder track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Bannister and his two AAA teammates, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, were close friends and frequent running partners. Chataway and Brasher agreed to help Bannister accomplish his goal by being his “rabbits.”

In track and field, rabbits are runners who enter the race solely to pace a teammate for a segment of the course. Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo. Additionally, by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort. When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.

Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted “Faster!” at Brasher. Brasher, however, remained composed and maintained his current steady but grueling pace, completing the first two laps in a desirable one minute and fifty-eight seconds. Then Chataway surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half. At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway. Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.” Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. The ecstatic crowd erupted the moment the timekeeper announced the word “three.”

Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners. Over the years, the record continued to fall. However, the current record, 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, has stood unbroken since 1999. Some question whether this record represents the limits of human ability. But perhaps there is another Bannister, an athlete who, with willpower and dedication, will accomplish the miraculous.

Question

Which sentence best supports the idea that Bannister needed an alternative to “logical planning” (paragraph 3) in order to accomplish his goal?

  • A“Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain.” (paragraph 2)
  • B“The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed.” (paragraph 3)
  • C“For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap.” (paragraph 3)
  • D“Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days.” (paragraph 4)
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which sentence best supports the idea that Bannister needed an alternative to “logical planning” (paragraph 3) in order to accomplish his goal.

A. Incorrect. The outcome of the 1952 Olympics, referenced in the sentence from paragraph 2, is what prompted Bannister to seek a new goal: “Determined to redeem himself, Bannister . . . focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier” (paragraph 2).

B. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 3 does not show an alternative to Bannister’s training plan to “develop endurance and speed” (paragraph 3) and his focus on using logical planning in order to accomplish his goal.

C. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 3 focuses on details of his training plan, explaining the “intensive interval training” (paragraph 3) that Bannister used to build his endurance and speed, not an alternative form of preparation.

D. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 4 explains that Bannister reached a point where he could not improve his time despite the strict training plan he had created. Taking a break from his training to spend time mountain climbing “permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed” (paragraph 4).

Question analysis

This textual evidence question on “A Miracle Mile” asks which sentence best supports the idea that Roger Bannister needed an alternative to the “logical planning” described in paragraph 3. Students must understand what his plan was before they can recognize a departure from it. The four sentences come from paragraphs 2 to 4, which cover his Olympic loss and his training.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Matching a sentence to an idea is standard grade 7 evidence work, and the four sentences come from three short, plain paragraphs. The idea itself is worded abstractly, so students must first decide what an alternative to “logical planning” would look like.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 92 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A wrong paragraph number in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question turns on one decision: the interval training is the logical plan, so a sentence describing it cannot show an alternative to it. Once that is settled, three days of mountain climbing stand out as the only break from the plan. Students lose the point when they read “alternative” loosely and pick the sentence that introduces the training, or when they treat the Olympic disappointment as the moment his methods had to change.

  1. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The stem never says what the “logical planning” was; students must see that it is the interval training of paragraph 3, so the alternative has to be a step away from that training. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The stem points to paragraph 3, where two of the four sentences sit, but the departure from the plan comes in paragraph 4, after Bannister stalls at sixty-one seconds a lap. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: First reread paragraph 3 to see what Bannister’s “logical planning” was, then ask of each sentence whether it shows that plan or something different from it.

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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option C begins “The sentence from paragraph 4 focuses on details of his training plan.” Option C quotes a sentence from paragraph 3 (“For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap”) and labels it “(paragraph 3),” and the explanation goes on to describe the “intensive interval training” of paragraph 3. The site now says “The sentence from paragraph 3.” The DOE’s 2021–2022 guide, where this question first appeared, has the same slip.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for evidence: the sentence that best supports an idea. The idea is that Bannister needed an alternative to his “logical planning.” An alternative is a different way of doing something. So first find out what his plan was. Then look for a sentence where he steps away from it.

  2. Find the logical plan in paragraph 3

    Paragraph 3 says “Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning.” The next sentence tells what the plan was: “The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed.” Interval training means running hard for a set stretch, resting, then running hard again.

  3. Find where the plan stopped working

    Paragraph 4 says he got down to sixty-one seconds a lap, but he needed sixty. Then “Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days.” A plateau is a point where you stop getting better. Climbing was not part of his plan. Afterward, he ran each lap in fifty-nine seconds.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It is from paragraph 2. It tells why he chose the goal, before he had any plan.
    • B does not fit. Interval training is the logical plan, not an alternative to it.
    • C does not fit. It is from paragraph 3. It gives details of the same plan: ten laps, sixty seconds each.
    • D fits. He stops training, does something else, and it works.

    Watch out: B is tempting because it describes a choice Bannister made. But that choice was the plan itself.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only D shows Bannister trying something outside his plan. So the answer is D, “Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice. It names a decision Bannister made. But that decision, interval training, was his logical plan. The question asks for a step away from the plan. Only D shows him leaving training behind. The rest “permitted his muscles to recuperate,” which means recover.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 10 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 16 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 16, question 10. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed on page 13 of the DOE handbook.

Question 15 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 11

Uses the passage above: “A Miracle Mile”.

Question

Which sentence from the passage indicates that Bannister nearly made a mistake that would have cost him the world record?

  • A“By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target.” (paragraph 4)
  • B“When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.” (paragraph 6)
  • C“Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted ‘Faster!’ at Brasher.” (paragraph 7)
  • D“At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway.” (paragraph 7)
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks which sentence indicates that Bannister nearly made a mistake that would have cost him the world record.

A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 4 describes a challenge Bannister faced during his training period, when he used “intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed” (paragraph 3). Bannister ran laps on a “quarter-mile track” (paragraph 3) and was able to control his pace at this time—unlike during the actual race to break the record.

B. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 6 describes the start of the race and Brasher’s role as “first rabbit” for Bannister. Bannister was behind Brasher, following their plan for breaking the record.

C. CORRECT. If Bannister had begun running faster than the “steady but grueling pace” (paragraph 7) set by his “rabbit,” he would likely not have had enough energy to finish the race. As paragraph 6 notes, “the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort” by allowing the rabbit to set the pace. Bannister had “lost his instinctive feel for his pace” (paragraph 7) in the excitement of the race. If he had given in to his impulse to run faster and bypassed the rabbit at that point in the race, it would have cost him energy, and, in turn, the record.

D. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 7 describes how Bannister leaped ahead of Chataway, his second “rabbit,” at the appropriate time in the effort to break the record. Chataway had “surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half” (paragraph 7) before Bannister moved past him.

Question analysis

This textual evidence question asks which sentence from “A Miracle Mile” shows that Roger Bannister nearly made a mistake that could have cost him the world record. The passage never says outright that he slipped, so students must use what it explains about running a race to judge which moment was a real danger. The four choices span both his training and the race itself.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions usually match a sentence to an idea the text states. This mistake is never named as one, so students must infer which moment put the record at risk, a typical grade 7 inference within a short, clear passage.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 102 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The near mistake is easy to miss because it never happens: Brasher ignores the shout, and the race goes on at the planned pace. Students must see that losing his feel for the pace put the record at risk, using what paragraph 6 explains about rabbits. The sudden surge past Chataway sounds rash and the training plateau sounds like a near failure, so students who look for drama or for falling short land on the wrong moment.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The passage never calls the shout of “Faster!” a mistake; students must infer it from “lost his instinctive feel for his pace” and from Brasher’s refusal to change his steady pace. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Why running faster would have cost the record is explained a paragraph earlier, in paragraph 6, where following a rabbit saves a runner about 15 percent of his or her effort. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Each sentence shows a setback or a bold move, from the training plateau to the final surge, so each has to be judged against the idea of a near mistake. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: For each quoted sentence, ask whether it shows Bannister doing something that could have hurt his chances, and use what the passage explains about racing to judge how serious it was.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for a sentence that shows a near mistake. That is something that almost went wrong. It would have cost Bannister the record. So look for a moment when he did something that could have ruined the race.

  2. Learn how a rabbit helps

    Paragraph 6 explains rabbits. They are teammates who run in front to set the speed. It says “Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo.” Tempo means speed. Also, “by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort.” Conserves means saves.

  3. Find the moment that went wrong

    Paragraph 7 begins “Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted” at Brasher to go faster. He lost his natural sense of how fast to run. If Brasher had sped up, Bannister could have used up his energy too soon. But Brasher “remained composed,” which means calm. He kept the steady pace, and that saved the race.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The training plateau was a setback, not a mistake. A rest fixed it.
    • B does not fit. Following a rabbit was the plan. Paragraph 6 shows that it saves effort.
    • C fits. Bannister wanted to go faster too early, which could have worn him out.
    • D does not fit. Passing Chataway near the end was the right move. It won him the record.

    Watch out: D is tempting because “bolted” sounds wild. But he waited until his rabbits had paced him for three and a half laps.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only C shows Bannister almost doing something that could have cost him the record. So the answer is C, “Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted ‘Faster!’ at Brasher.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice, since bolting past Chataway was a bold, sudden move. But it came at the right time, and it led to the record. In C, Bannister lost his sense of pace and wanted to speed up too early. Only his rabbit’s calm saved him. That is a near mistake.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 11 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 17 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 17, question 11.

Question 16 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 15
Passage 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

Read this sentence from paragraph 3.

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.

What does the phrase “a faint trace of apology” convey about the professor?

  • AIt indicates that the professor feels bad that he has to call the narrator to his office after work.
  • BIt shows that the professor is hesitant to share his opinions with the narrator.
  • CIt implies that the professor is uncomfortable criticizing the narrator’s work.
  • DIt suggests that the professor knows that the conversation will be frustrating for the narrator.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks what the phrase “a faint trace of apology” in paragraph 3 conveys about the professor.

A. Incorrect. The fact that the narrator had intended to leave the office for the day is not the source of the professor’s faintly apologetic manner, which is instead caused by the professor’s understanding that their conversation about the letter and the expedition is likely to cause an argument (“with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, annoyance” [paragraph 3]). In paragraph 29, the professor asks the narrator if he can leave on an expedition that same evening, which indicates that the professor does not feel bad about taking up the narrator’s time after work.

B. Incorrect. The paragraphs that follow the sentence from paragraph 3 show the professor sharing his opinions without pause, even when his opinion of the narrator is unflattering (“ ‘Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to—do you?’ ” [paragraph 17]).

C. Incorrect. The professor knows that the narrator will push back regarding the letter, but the professor is not uncomfortable challenging the narrator. Professor Farrago seems perfectly at ease and comfortable as he begins the discussion with the narrator.

D. CORRECT. The professor is both amused and annoyed by the narrator’s dismissal of the possibility that great auks still exist, and the professor knows that the narrator is likely to react negatively to being sent on what the narrator considers a “fool’s errand” (paragraph 25).

Question analysis

This question focuses on a single phrase in the excerpt from Robert W. Chambers’s In Search of the Unknown: as the professor looks up from a pile of letters, his whimsical smile shows “a faint trace of apology.” Students must work out what that hint of apology says about him. The phrase is brief and old-fashioned, and several explanations for it seem natural.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students often infer a character’s feelings from a description. Here the phrase ends a 46-word sentence of early-1900s prose, follows three other moods, and has to be interpreted from the scene as a whole, beyond typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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 phrase comes before a word of the conversation is spoken, so the reason for the apology lies ahead in the text. Two natural guesses compete with it: the professor has called the narrator back just as he was leaving, and he is about to question one of the narrator’s replies. Only a reader who follows the scene to the narrator’s scorn for the letter and the errand sees that the professor, at ease throughout, is sorry for what he is about to put the narrator through.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    Nothing explains the apology; students must reason from the talk that follows, in which the professor sends the narrator after birds the narrator believes extinct, that the professor expects resistance. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about criticizing the narrator’s work and the right one both tie the apology to the coming talk about a letter; one places discomfort in the professor, the other frustration in the narrator. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    What the professor anticipates appears only later: the narrator’s scorn for the letter in paragraphs 5–14 and his view of the trip as a “fool’s errand” in paragraph 25. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  4. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The phrase closes a 46-word sentence, after a clause about the pile of letters and a run of three other moods, “amusement, impatience, annoyance.” (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Read the full sentence and then the conversation it opens, and test each choice against how the professor actually speaks and acts in that conversation.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what one phrase shows about the professor: “a faint trace of apology.” Faint means slight, and a trace is a small sign. So his smile looks a little bit sorry. Why would he feel sorry? You find out from the talk that follows.

  2. Read the whole sentence

    Paragraph 3 says the professor looked at the narrator “with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, annoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology.” Whimsical means playful. He is amused by the narrator and a bit annoyed with him. Then he picks up a letter the narrator has already turned down.

  3. See what the professor is about to do

    The professor is about to defend that letter. Then he sends the narrator after the birds in it. The narrator thinks the birds are extinct, or all dead. In paragraph 25 he calls the trip “this fool’s errand,” a pointless job. The professor seems to know the narrator will hate this. That is why his smile looks a little sorry.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. He later asks, “Can you leave to-night?” (paragraph 29). He is not sorry about taking the narrator’s time.
    • B does not fit. He shares his opinion plainly: “He isn’t—in mine” (paragraph 11).
    • C does not fit. He does challenge the narrator, but calmly. He speaks “placidly” and “coolly,” with no sign of being uneasy.
    • D fits. He knows the talk will annoy the narrator.

    Watch out: C is tempting because the professor is about to disagree with the narrator. But nothing shows that he is uncomfortable about it.

  5. Choose the answer

    The slight apology shows that the professor expects the narrator to be frustrated. So the answer is D, “It suggests that the professor knows that the conversation will be frustrating for the narrator.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice. Both C and D link the apology to the talk about the letter. But C puts the bad feeling in the professor, as if he were nervous. He is not. He speaks “placidly,” which means calmly. D puts the bad feeling in the narrator, and the narrator does get upset.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 15 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 23 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 23, question 15.
The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed (page 21)The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed on page 21 of the DOE handbook.

Question 17 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 22

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown”.

Question

How does the author develop the contrast between the narrator’s point of view and the professor’s point of view?

  • Aby providing both the narrator’s and professor’s thoughts on how age and experience influence each other’s reasoning
  • Bby using the conversation between the narrator and the professor to emphasize their reactions to the letter
  • Cby describing the professor’s persistent efforts to change the narrator’s mind about the letter
  • Dby including dialogue that explains why the professor is the supervisor and the narrator is his subordinate
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the author develops the contrast between the narrator’s point of view and the professor’s point of view.

A. Incorrect. The excerpt does not describe the narrator’s thoughts about how age and experience influence the professor’s reasoning in enough detail to fully contrast them against the thoughts about the narrator that the professor expresses in paragraphs 15–17. The narrator’s idea that the professor might be “on the verge of dotage” (paragraph 24) is meant in a humorous way.

B. CORRECT. The primary conflict of the excerpt revolves around the narrator’s disagreement with the professor about whether the letter about the great auks could be true. As the two men converse, their contrasting attitudes toward the letter become clear: the narrator dismisses the possibility of great auks out of hand (“ ‘of course the man is mistaken’ ” [paragraph 5]; “ ‘here is a man . . . who wants you to send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn’t exist!’ ” [paragraph 12]), while the professor calmly admits that although “ ‘nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter aside and condemn the writer’ ” (paragraph 9), he himself believes that the writer could be telling the truth (“ ‘How do you know,’ asked Professor Farrago, ‘that the bird in question does not exist?’ ” [paragraph 13]).

C. Incorrect. The professor explains why he disagrees with the narrator (paragraphs 19–21), but he does not make persistent efforts to convince the narrator to change his mind about the letter. Instead he states that the narrator will go on an expedition to retrieve “ ‘whatever it is that our correspondent has’ ” (paragraph 23), thereby requiring the narrator to go collect the great auks whether the narrator believes in them or not.

D. Incorrect. The point of the dialogue is not to explain the subordinate-supervisor relationship between the narrator and the professor but rather to contrast what each character believes about the contents of the letter.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks how Robert W. Chambers develops the contrast between the narrator’s outlook and Professor Farrago’s in the excerpt from In Search of the Unknown. Students must step back from single lines and judge the author’s method across the whole excerpt. The choices describe techniques in general terms, and several connect to real moments in the story.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Analyzing how an author contrasts two characters’ points of view is the grade 7 standard itself, but here students must judge the main method across the whole excerpt, and each choice names an abstract method that touches something in the text.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 84 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The right choice is plain enough to seem too obvious, so students look for something more specific. The excerpt offers a candidate: the professor teases “you young fellows,” and the narrator decides the old man is near “dotage,” which makes age look like the method. Those remarks are passing jokes, while the men’s opposite reactions to Halyard’s letter run through the whole conversation. The question rewards judging what carries the contrast from start to end rather than what is most striking.

  1. How, not what major Working it out

    The question asks for the author’s method across the whole excerpt, and every choice names an abstract technique, so students must step back from single lines to see that the dialogue carries the contrast. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about age and experience and the right one both describe the two men’s opposed views as they come out in the excerpt; they part on the subject, their ages or the letter. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The contrast builds from the narrator’s “of course the man is mistaken” in paragraph 5 to the professor’s appeal to “instinct” in paragraph 33, so no single passage shows the method. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: For each choice, find where the excerpt does what the choice describes, and ask whether that method carries the contrast through the whole excerpt or appears only once or twice.

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.
  • Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about the author’s method. How does the author show that the two men see things differently? Look at how the whole excerpt is built, not just one line.

  2. Notice how the excerpt is told

    Most of the excerpt is a conversation. The two men talk back and forth about the letter. Each answer shows how one man reacts to it. So their reactions to the letter are where the contrast shows up. A contrast is a clear difference between two things.

  3. Find the two reactions

    The narrator says “of course the man is mistaken” (paragraph 5). He laughs at the idea of “a bird that doesn’t exist!” (paragraph 12). The professor stays open. In paragraph 13 he asks how the narrator can be sure “that the bird in question does not exist.” In paragraph 23, he is “daring to believe” it is the great auk.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Age comes up only twice: “you young fellows” and the narrator’s thought about “dotage.” Two short remarks do not build the contrast.
    • B fits. The talk about the letter shows their opposite reactions.
    • C does not fit. The professor asks a few calm questions and then simply sends the narrator. He does not keep trying to change his mind.
    • D does not fit. No line explains how either man got his job.

    Watch out: A is tempting because those remarks about age are real. But they are passing moments, not the author’s main method.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author builds the contrast through the two men’s talk about the letter. So the answer is B, “by using the conversation between the narrator and the professor to emphasize their reactions to the letter.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice. The professor does tease “you young fellows,” and the narrator does think of “dotage.” But those are two quick remarks. From paragraph 5 to paragraph 33, the two men keep reacting to the letter in opposite ways. That steady back-and-forth builds the contrast, so B fits.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 22 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 30 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 30, question 22.

Question 18 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 41
Passage 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

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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 41 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 56 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 56, question 41.
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.

Question 19 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 42

Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.

Question

The speaker’s thoughts throughout the poem develop a theme by showing that

  • Aalthough people may hold expectations for the future, some people long for present experiences while they are still happening.
  • Bthough people come from different places, most people feel drawn to the special charm a city holds.
  • Calthough people can make decisions about their life, there will always be some things beyond their control.
  • Dthough general expectations exist, people have no way of knowing what a given day will actually bring.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the speaker’s thoughts throughout the poem develop a theme.

A. CORRECT. The speaker’s thoughts develop some tension because seasonal change will inevitably come: “The weather will turn cold” (line 5). However, the speaker is still able to enjoy the present experience because “that all happens later” (line 6). In lines 21–22, the speaker begins to describe experiences that create a longing for the present, even while it is still happening (“How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of”), developing a theme of the poem.

B. Incorrect. The speaker’s thoughts reveal an appreciation for the city, but this appreciation is highly personal and individual. These thoughts do not indicate that most people will feel drawn to cities.

C. Incorrect. Some things, such as seasons, are beyond human control, as the speaker concedes: “I can already see how this will end” (line 1). However, the theme of the poem is not that certain things are inevitable, but that one can live in the present moment and enjoy that experience before change occurs.

D. Incorrect. The speaker’s thoughts are not showing that people are surprised by what the days bring; the thoughts of the speaker suggest that people experience many seasons in Brooklyn and have reasonable expectations about what these days will bring.

Question analysis

This theme question asks what theme the speaker's thoughts develop across all of “Letter from Brooklyn,” from the opening line about how things will end to the closing lines about loneliness on late afternoons. Each choice is a broad statement about people in two parts, so students must check both halves against the speaker's reflections.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Stating a theme is a grade 7 standard, often tested with one clearly fitting choice. Here every choice is a two-part general statement about people, and students must test both halves of each against a whole poem of abstract reflection, more than typical.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 82 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The four themes are broad statements about people, each in two halves, and every one can borrow something from the poem: the seasons are beyond control, the city has charm, the future brings surprises. The right one matches the speaker’s double vision, knowing what is coming and longing for the present while it lasts. The strongest pull is the theme about things beyond control, whose second half fits the turning seasons and whose first half the poem never raises.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The poem never states its theme; it must be built from the speaker’s forecasts in lines 1–6 and the paradox of being “nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    Every choice is a two-part “although” or “though” statement about people, and three have one plausible half, so each half must be checked against the poem on its own. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The theme draws on the whole poem, from the opening “I can already see how this will end” to the lonely late afternoons of lines 23–26. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Sum up in a sentence what the speaker keeps thinking about from the first line to the last, then test both halves of each choice against the poem and reject any half it does not support.

Traps

  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks for the theme of the whole poem. A theme is a big message about life. Each choice has two halves, joined by although or though. Both halves must fit the poem. If one half doesn’t, the choice is wrong.

  2. Trace the speaker’s thoughts

    The poem opens by looking ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker expects to tire of the bridge, and “The weather will turn cold.” Then the speaker turns to now: “But that all happens later.” Most of the poem enjoys the fall walk. Lines 21–22 sum it up: “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.”

  3. Put it in your own words

    Nostalgic means longing for the past. Yet the speaker longs for the present, while it is still going on. So the speaker does two things at once. The speaker expects what the future will bring. And the speaker treasures, or deeply values, the present. That is the theme.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. First half: the speaker expects cold weather and boredom. Second half: the speaker longs for the walk while it is still going on.
    • B is wrong. Only one person speaks in the poem. Nothing says most people feel drawn to cities.
    • C is wrong. The weather is beyond anyone’s control, so its second half fits. But the poem never talks about people making decisions about their lives.
    • D is wrong. The speaker knows what is coming. The future isn’t a mystery here.

    Watch out: C is tempting because the speaker can’t stop the cold. But test both halves. Its first half, about making decisions, isn’t in the poem.

  5. Choose the answer

    So the answer is A: “although people may hold expectations for the future, some people long for present experiences while they are still happening.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because the seasons are beyond the speaker’s control. But the poem never mentions people making decisions about their lives. A matches both halves: the speaker expects what is coming, and longs for the present while it lasts.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 42 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 57 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 57, question 42.

Question 20 of 112

2026 Practice Test B English, question 43
Passage The End of an Era

The End of an Era

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

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

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

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

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

Question

Which sentence should follow sentence 3 to best introduce the topic of the passage?

  • ADespite the challenges of operating on the surface of another planet, the Opportunity rover made many valuable contributions to the field of space research.
  • BThe Opportunity rover mission was a success because it informed NASA scientists about how water might have existed on Mars.
  • CThroughout the historic mission of the Opportunity rover, NASA scientists had to overcome challenges created by the flaws in the rover’s design.
  • DThe Opportunity rover mission surpassed the original timeline of the assignment and allowed scientists to collect additional data about the planet Mars.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for the sentence that should follow sentence 3 to best introduce the topic of the passage.

A. CORRECT. This sentence best introduces the passage’s topic: the Opportunity rover had many accomplishments on its mission, despite numerous challenges. Some of those accomplishments include providing high-resolution photographs (paragraph 2), traveling long distances (paragraph 3), and providing data about craters and other surface features (paragraph 3).

B. Incorrect. Although paragraph 2 discusses how photographs taken by the rover showed rocks that may have been shaped by water, this idea alone is not the topic of the entire passage.

C. Incorrect. While this sentence incorporates ideas about difficulties the scientists encountered because of the Opportunity rover’s design (paragraph 4), the main topic of the passage is not the design flaws and obstacles scientists encountered throughout the mission. The passage primarily focuses on the achievements of the mission.

D. Incorrect. While it is true that the Opportunity rover mission lasted much longer than planned (sentence 3), this fact is a supporting detail of the passage, not the main topic of the passage; surpassing the original timeline is only one of the rover’s many achievements mentioned in the passage.

Question analysis

This revising question works with “The End of an Era,” a passage about NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars, and asks which sentence should follow sentence 3 to best introduce the topic. Students must keep the whole passage in view, from the rover's photographs and travels to the dust storms that ended its mission, and judge which choice previews it best.

NYS standards
  • 7W2a introducing and organizing a topic
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing a sentence that introduces a passage's topic is a standard grade 7 writing task. The passage is twenty plain sentences about one rover mission, and every choice draws on that mission, so it calls for a typical careful comparison.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 337 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 101 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Sentence 3 already tells a striking story, a 90-day mission that lasted nearly fifteen years, and the most tempting continuation simply repeats it in new words. The other near misses each pick one part of the passage, the water evidence or the dust problems, and make it the whole. The question rewards skimming every paragraph first and choosing the sentence that covers both the achievements and the hardships, the pairing the final paragraph makes.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The topic only emerges from the later paragraphs: the “blueberries” of sentences 4–7, the 28.06 miles of paragraph 3, the dust storms of paragraph 4 and NASA’s praise in sentence 19. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    The new sentence follows sentence 3’s surprise that a 90-day mission lasted nearly 15 years, so it must turn from that fact to what the mission achieved. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Skim the opening sentence of each later paragraph to see what the passage covers, then ask which choice would prepare a reader for all of it.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Says it twice: Repeats an idea that the sentence or passage already states.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This revising question asks for a sentence to add after sentence 3. It should introduce the topic of the whole passage. A good introduction gives a preview, a quick look at everything coming. It doesn’t repeat one fact or zoom in on one part. For example, a report on a soccer season might begin: The team lost two stars but still won the title. That previews both the struggles and the wins.

  2. Skim each paragraph

    • Paragraph 2 (sentences 4–7): The rover’s camera found small round rocks that hinted at water.
    • Paragraph 3 (sentences 8–11): It sent data and traveled 28.06 miles. Then a huge dust storm stopped it.
    • Paragraph 4 (sentences 12–17): Dust had covered its solar panels before. After the 2018 storm, NASA could not reach it.
    • Paragraph 5 (sentences 18–20): It “returned valuable data about our neighbor planet and survived powerful dust storms.”

  3. Name the topic

    So the passage covers two things. One is what the rover achieved: photos, data and miles. The other is its challenges, mainly the dust storms. Challenges are hard problems. Sentence 18 puts both together. The new sentence should preview both.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. It names the challenges and the “many valuable contributions.” That covers the whole passage.
    • B is wrong. Water is only paragraph 2. It leaves out the travel and the dust storms.
    • C is wrong. The passage never blames flaws in the rover’s design. It mostly praises the rover.
    • D is wrong. Sentence 3 already says the mission lasted far past 90 days. D repeats it instead of looking ahead.

    Watch out: D follows sentence 3 smoothly, so it sounds right. But it only restates sentence 3 in new words.

  5. Choose the answer

    So the answer is A: “Despite the challenges of operating on the surface of another planet, the Opportunity rover made many valuable contributions to the field of space research.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because it flows right after sentence 3. But it only repeats that the mission lasted longer than planned. A previews both halves of the passage: the rover’s achievements and the challenges it survived. Sentence 18 sums up the same two ideas.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 43 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 61 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 61, question 43.
The passage “The End of an Era” as printed (page 60)The passage “The End of an Era” as printed on page 60 of the DOE handbook.

Question 21 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 20
Passage Bird Talk

Bird Talk

by Carl Sandburg

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

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

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

“Bird Talk” by Carl Sandburg—Public domain.

Question

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.

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

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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
Question 20 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 33 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 33, question 20.
The passage “Bird Talk” as printed (page 32)The passage “Bird Talk” as printed on page 32 of the DOE handbook.

Question 22 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 24

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 point-of-view questions often ask what a speaker thinks. This one asks how the poet conveys that view across all three stanzas of a long free-verse poem, and the choices name methods in general terms, closer to grade 8 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 54 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The first stanza takes up 19 of the poem’s 32 lines and moves steadily from branches to frogs, birds, flowers and leaves, so a choice that describes it alone feels right. The point of view shows only when the poem turns to “We” and then to “I” addressing a child, and that third stanza is three hard lines. Students must keep the whole poem’s course in mind and choose the method that holds from first line to last.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

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

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

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

  3. How, not what moderate Working it out

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

  4. Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question

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

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

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

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

  2. Follow the speaker through the stanzas

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

  3. Name the change in focus

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

  4. Check each choice

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

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

  5. Choose the answer

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

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

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

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 24 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 37 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 37, question 24.

Question 23 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 25

Uses the passage above: “Bird Talk”.

Question

Over the course of the poem, a central idea is developed mainly through the speaker’s

  • Asense of eager anticipation as winter ends.
  • Bdescription of the changes in nature as the seasons transition.
  • Cobservation of the birds’ behavior as summer begins.
  • Dprediction of future alterations in the physical landscape.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the central idea about the natural acceptance of change by nature is developed by the speaker of the poem.

A. Incorrect. The speaker is an observer of the changes in nature as propelled by the seasons and shows no personal eagerness for the end of winter. Further, even though nature rejoices at the end of winter as exemplified by “the shrilling of the frogs” (line 4), the speaker merely records this and does not share in this display.

B. CORRECT. The response of nature to the “beginning of summer” (line 3) is the primary focus of the poem as revealed by the speaker through vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, movements, and attitudes of the natural world.

C. Incorrect. The second stanza of the poem begins a reflection on birds “sitting in circles talking bird talk” (line 22) and taking a sort of attendance of who is present, but this behavioral description is largely figurative and meant to illustrate a point about the way the birds adapt quickly to change, not to develop a central idea of the poem in terms of how nature responds generally.

D. Incorrect. Seasonal changes are inevitable and cyclical per the speaker, but the speaker does not predict future changes to the landscape as a method of developing the central idea. Rather, the speaker describes nature’s response to changes that have already occurred.

Question analysis

Students decide how the speaker of Carl Sandburg’s “Bird Talk” mainly develops a central idea of the poem. The question does not name the idea, so students must work it out across the poem’s three stanzas and then weigh four accounts of what the speaker does, each tied to a different part or feature of the poem.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Tracing how a central idea develops is core grade 7 work. Here the idea is never stated, so students must first infer it from 32 lines of free verse and then judge what the speaker mainly does to build it.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 48 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The title “Bird Talk” and the whole second stanza push students toward the birds, and the key differs from that choice only in taking in all of nature. Two other choices credit the speaker with something the poem gives elsewhere: the eagerness belongs to the frogs and birds, and the only look ahead is the birds’ talk of next year. Weighing what the speaker does across all 32 lines points to the description of nature changing.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about the birds’ behavior as summer begins matches the key’s frame, the speaker watching nature at the turn of the season; it differs only in narrowing nature to birds. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The central idea is never stated, so students must first work out that the poem is about nature meeting the year’s turn calmly, then judge which of the speaker’s acts builds it most. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Birds appear in lines 6–7, 10–11, 20–29 and 31–32, so the title and the second stanza make them look central until the branches, frogs, flowers and leaves are counted too. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Put the poem’s central idea into a sentence of your own, then ask which choice describes something the speaker really does and does the most to build that idea.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how a central idea is mainly built. A central idea is a big point the whole poem makes. First, put that idea in your own words. Then ask what the speaker does most, across the whole poem, to build it.

  2. Find the central idea

    The poem shows nature at “the beginning of summer.” The branches grow heavy, the frogs quiet down, the flowers spread and the leaves come out. In stanza 2, the birds calmly count who has come and gone. A central idea is that nature moves through the seasons, and living things accept the change as natural.

  3. See how the speaker builds it

    Most of the poem is description. Stanza 1 fills 19 of the 32 lines with changes in nature. It shows “The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups” and “the green leaves trickling out the gaunt nowhere / of winter.” Trickling out means coming out slowly, a little at a time. Gaunt means thin and bare. Detail by detail, the speaker shows the season turning. That description is the main way the idea is built.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The frogs and birds are stirred up, but the speaker describes them calmly. The poem also starts after winter is over.
    • B fits. The speaker describes nature changing as the seasons turn.
    • C does not fit. Birds are only one part. The poem also covers branches, frogs, flowers and leaves.
    • D does not fit. The speaker predicts nothing about the land. The birds’ talk of next year is about who will be gone.

    Watch out: C is tempting because the poem is called “Bird Talk” and stanza 2 is all about birds. But the central idea is about all of nature.

  5. Choose the answer

    The speaker builds the idea mostly through details of nature changing as summer begins. So the answer is B, “description of the changes in nature as the seasons transition.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice. It also has the speaker watching nature as summer begins. But it narrows nature to birds. The poem’s changes come from many living things: branches, frogs, dandelions, buttercups and leaves. Only B takes in all of them, so only B describes how the whole poem builds its idea.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 25 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 38 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 38, question 25.

Question 24 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 28
Passage 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

Lines 1–2 contribute to the development of ideas in the poem by

  • Asuggesting that the men are too busy with their work to talk to the speaker.
  • Bhelping establish the reason for the men’s visit and purposeful behavior.
  • Chinting that the men have hidden motives for studying the mound.
  • Dindicating why the speaker is fascinated by the men and wants to help them.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how lines 1–2 contribute to the development of ideas in the poem.

A. Incorrect. The idea that the men are too busy with their work to talk to the speaker is not conveyed in the poem, and, in fact, one of the museum men discusses the oval mound with the speaker (“as if swallowing the sun, one of the museum / men suggested” [lines 32–33]).

B. CORRECT. The lines, with their mention of measuring tapes and sketchbooks, indicate that the reasons the museum men came were to measure the mound and to draw sketches of it.

C. Incorrect. There is little indication in the poem that the museum men have a hidden motive for studying the mound. Lines 1–2 present a straightforward description of the men and their equipment, which emphasizes the men’s academic interest in studying the mound.

D. Incorrect. While the speaker displays some curiosity about the work the museum men are doing (“one of the museum / men suggested, taking notes with his quill pen, / an old-style inkhorn slung at his side. / I liked that” [lines 32–35]), lines 1–2 focus on introducing the idea that the mound is a formation that is worth formal study and examination by experts.

Question analysis

This question asks how the opening lines of “Serpent Mound,” in which museum men arrive at a low winter creek with measuring tapes and sketchbooks, contribute to the development of ideas in the poem. The lines are short and plain, but the choices credit the men or the speaker with motives and feelings, and students must check each against the rest of the poem.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand: the two opening lines are short and concrete, and checking the choices takes one reading of the poem, much like grade 6 questions on how a single sentence fits into a text.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 62 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 lines are short and concrete, and their tools, measuring tapes and sketchbooks, plainly say why the men came. The wrong choices each add something: men too busy to talk, a hidden motive, or a fascinated speaker, and the last borrows the speaker’s later delight in “swallowing the sun.” Checking each against the rest of the poem, rather than against first impressions of strangers arriving, is what the question rewards.

  1. How, not what minor Working it out

    The stem asks what lines 1–2 do in the poem, so students must see the measuring tapes and sketchbooks as setting up the visit’s purpose, not only as a description of the men. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Ruling out two wrong choices takes later lines: a museum man offers the speaker an idea in lines 32–33, and the speaker leads the men in line 7 because Ma says to. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Say in your own words what lines 1–2 tell you about the men, then reject any choice that depends on something the poem never shows.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what lines 1–2 do for the poem’s ideas. They are the poem’s first lines, so they set things up. You need to decide what they tell you about the museum men, and why that matters.

  2. Read lines 1–2

    Lines 1–2 say “Brush Creek stood low when the museum men came / with their measuring tapes and sketchbooks.” A measuring tape is for measuring lengths. A sketchbook is for drawing. So the men came to measure the mound and draw it. They have a job to do. Purposeful means acting with a clear goal. Their tools show that goal from the very start.

  3. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Nothing says the men were too busy to talk. Later, one of them shares an idea: “as if swallowing the sun.”
    • B fits. The tools show why the men came and that they came to work.
    • C does not fit. The men carry their tools in plain view. The poem never hints at a hidden motive, or secret reason.
    • D does not fit. The speaker leads the men because “Ma told me to lead the men.” The speaker’s liking for a man’s idea comes much later, in line 35.

    Watch out: D borrows a feeling from later in the poem, “I liked that.” In lines 1–2, the men have only just arrived.

  4. Choose the answer

    Lines 1–2 use the men’s tools to show why they came and what they plan to do. So the answer is B, “helping establish the reason for the men’s visit and purposeful behavior.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. The speaker does later like a museum man’s phrase, “swallowing the sun.” But that comes in line 35. Lines 1–2 say nothing about the speaker’s feelings. They name only the men’s tools. Tapes and sketchbooks tell you why the men came: to measure and draw the mound.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 28 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 43 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 43, question 28.
The passage “Serpent Mound” as printed (page 40)The passage “Serpent Mound” as printed on page 40 of the DOE handbook.

Question 25 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 29

Uses the passage above: “Serpent Mound”.

Question

Read line 28 from the poem.

At the mouth end, there was an oval mound

How does the line contribute to the development of ideas in the poem?

  • AIt describes a feature of the mound that the men from the museum need to document.
  • BIt introduces a comparison of the body of the mound with the head of the mound.
  • CIt introduces a feature of the mound that has a different meaning to different people.
  • DIt describes a part of the mound that is difficult to see from far away.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how line 28 contributes to the development of ideas in the poem.

A. Incorrect. Although the museum men are documenting the shape of the mound in line 33, lines 29–32 and 35–41 focus on what the oval mound represents as interpreted by the museum men, the speaker, and the speaker’s sister.

B. Incorrect. While the lines preceding line 28 describe the body of the snake in detail (“you could climb / a tree and get some idea of the whole thing: / the serpent’s body undulating, slithering / silently across the ancient / earth” [lines 24–28]), the purpose of line 28 is to begin the development of the ideas about the oval shape at the end of the mound: the serpent’s mouth.

C. CORRECT. Line 28 introduces the presence of the oval mound at the mouth of the snake. The meaning of this oval is of great interest to the museum men and the speaker. Line 28 leads to the idea that there is speculation about the oval mound (“as if the snake were about to swallow an egg” [line 29], “as if swallowing the sun” [line 32], and “It is singing to the sun” [line 38]).

D. Incorrect. The speaker does not say that the oval shape near the end of the mound is difficult to see. Earlier, the speaker says that the ridges of earth are difficult to see unless you are near them, but the speaker does not say this about the oval shape.

Question analysis

Students explain how line 28 of “Serpent Mound,” which introduces an oval mound at the serpent’s mouth end, contributes to the development of ideas in the poem. The line is a plain piece of description in a poem about museum men surveying the mound, so students must work out what part it plays in the poem as a whole.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how one line contributes to a poem is standard grade 7 structure work. The line is a plain description, but its role depends on how it connects to the lines around it.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 89 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Because the museum men came to measure and sketch, a line naming a new feature looks like a note for their records, and that reading is the strong pull. Others see a comparison with the serpent’s body described just before, or carry over the earlier point about humps that are hard to see. The line’s job shows in what follows it: the oval is where Pa, a museum man and Ruth each see something different.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The documenting choice and the key both say line 28 presents a feature of the mound; they differ in what follows, the men’s records or the egg, sun and singing readings in lines 29–41. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The line is plain description, so its role shows only in what it sets up: the oval becomes the egg, the swallowed sun and the open singing mouth that the rest of the poem weighs. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The readings are spread over thirteen lines and three people, Pa in lines 29–31, a museum man in lines 32–33 and Ruth in lines 37–41, so students must gather them. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Read line 28 together with the lines on either side of it, then test each choice against what those lines actually show.

Traps

  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how one line helps build the poem’s ideas. Line 28 is a plain description: “At the mouth end, there was an oval mound.” Oval means egg-shaped. To see the line’s job, look at what comes right after it.

  2. Read what follows line 28

    The next lines give three ideas about the oval mound.

    • Pa always said it was “as if the snake were about to swallow an egg,” as snakes did in the family’s henhouse (lines 29–31).
    • A museum man says “as if swallowing the sun” (line 32).
    • Ruth says “It is singing to the sun” (line 38).

  3. Name the line’s job

    Line 28 brings in the oval mound. Then each person sees something different in it: an egg, the sun being swallowed, or a song. Each idea comes from that person’s own life. Pa thinks of his henhouse. Ruth thinks of what she seems to hear on summer nights. So the line sets up a feature that means different things to different people.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The men did come to measure and sketch. But the lines after 28 are about what the oval means, not about recording it.
    • B does not fit. Line 28 moves on from the body to the mouth. It never compares the two.
    • C fits. The oval gets three different meanings from three people.
    • D does not fit. Lines 16–17 say the humps are hard to see. The poem never says that about the oval.

    Watch out: A is tempting because the men came “with their measuring tapes and sketchbooks.” But the poem spends its last 13 lines on meanings, not measurements.

  5. Choose the answer

    Line 28 brings in the oval mound that Pa, a museum man and Ruth each see in their own way. So the answer is C, “It introduces a feature of the mound that has a different meaning to different people.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice. The museum men are there to document, or record, the mound, and one is taking notes. But the lines after 28 are not about notes. They give an egg, a swallowed sun and a singing snake. That is a feature with a different meaning to different people, just as C says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 29 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 44 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 44, question 29.

Question 26 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 32

Uses the passage above: “Serpent Mound”.

Question

How does the speaker’s interaction with Ruth in lines 37–41 convey a central idea of the poem?

  • AIt suggests that the most accurate interpretations of the mound come from knowing the purpose of the mound.
  • BIt emphasizes that there are multiple interpretations of the mound based on feelings and experiences.
  • CIt reveals the benefit of considering different interpretations of the mound’s significance.
  • DIt implies that scientific study of the mound’s purpose will affect what the mound symbolizes to people.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the interaction between the speaker and Ruth in lines 37–41 conveys a central idea of the poem.

A. Incorrect. While there are many different interpretations of the mound’s meaning, there is no way to determine which of the interpretations is most accurate, and there is no way to know the mound’s true purpose.

B. CORRECT. The interaction references Ruth’s interpretation of the open-mouth shape as a serpent singing to the sun. This interpretation creates a joyful mood. The speaker contrasts this perspective with the idea that the mound is swallowing the sun, which creates a more aggressive feeling. These various interpretations of a physical shape arise out of what the individuals feel when they look at the mound.

C. Incorrect. The speaker does not describe any benefit to considering what different people imagine when they see the mound. Instead, the speaker is simply describing different interpretations.

D. Incorrect. Ruth’s interpretation of the mound’s shape is fanciful and symbolic. It is unlikely that scientific study would change the minds of people such as Ruth about the meaning of the mound.

Question analysis

This central idea question asks how the speaker’s conversation with a sister, Ruth, in lines 37–41 of “Serpent Mound” conveys a central idea of the poem. Ruth explains the serpent’s open mouth in her own way, and students must connect this short exchange to the rest of the poem before choosing among four claims about what it shows.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Linking a short exchange between two characters to a poem’s central idea is standard grade 7 work. The language is plain, though the choices differ in what they claim the exchange shows, so each must be checked closely.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 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

Ruth’s “Not swallowing, singing” makes the disagreement plain, so most students see that the mound is read in more than one way. The difficulty is in what the choices add to that: a lesson about the benefit of differing views, a ranking of readings by the mound’s purpose, or a role for science. The poem only sets the readings side by side, each rooted in what its speaker has lived or felt.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about the benefit of considering different interpretations shares the key’s subject, several readings of the mound, and differs only in adding a lesson, that weighing them is worthwhile. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The exchange is a plain disagreement, swallowing against singing, and students must infer the central idea it serves, that people see the mound through their own feelings and experiences. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Ruth’s reading answers earlier ones, Pa’s egg from the henhouse in lines 29–31 and the museum man’s sun in line 32, so her lines must be read against them. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Sum up what Ruth says and how the speaker reacts, compare it with the earlier ideas about the oval mound, and pick the claim the poem shows rather than one it might only suggest.

Traps

  • 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the talk between the speaker and Ruth, in lines 37–41, shows a central idea. A central idea is a big point the whole poem makes. Compare Ruth’s idea about the mound with the speaker’s, and with the ideas that come before.

  2. Read the talk with Ruth

    The speaker liked a museum man’s idea that the snake was “swallowing the sun.” But when the speaker told Ruth, “she disagreed. It is singing to the sun, / she insisted.” Ruth explains, “That is why its mouth / is wide open.” Then she says, “Sometimes I think / I hear it on summer nights. Not swallowing, singing.”

  3. See where each idea comes from

    Each person sees the same oval mound in a different way. Pa always said it was like a snake about to swallow an egg, as snakes did in the family’s henhouse. A museum man saw it swallowing the sun. Ruth hears it singing on summer nights. Each idea grows out of that person’s own feelings and experiences, or what they have lived through. That is a central idea: people see the mound in many ways.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. No one in the poem knows the mound’s purpose, and no idea is called the most accurate.
    • B fits. Ruth and the speaker see the mound differently, each from what they feel and have lived.
    • C does not fit. The poem never says that thinking about other ideas helps anyone. Ruth and the speaker just disagree.
    • D does not fit. Nobody says the men’s study will change what the mound means to people.

    Watch out: C starts out right, since there are different ideas. But it adds a lesson, a “benefit,” that the poem never gives.

  5. Choose the answer

    The disagreement shows more than one way to see the mound, each rooted in a person’s own feelings and experiences. So the answer is B, “It emphasizes that there are multiple interpretations of the mound based on feelings and experiences.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice. It also says there are different ideas about the mound. But it claims there is a benefit, or gain, in thinking them over. The poem shows no one gaining anything. Ruth keeps her own idea, and the poem never says who is right. It simply sets the ideas side by side, each from a person’s own life.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 32 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 47 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 47, question 32.

Question 27 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 34
Passage Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”

Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”

by Melanie Canales

The author, Melanie Canales, is a first-generation Peruvian American farmer and beekeeper based in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, on lands of the indigenous Monacan and Manahoac tribes. Her work focuses on creating healthy relationships between people and their surrounding ecosystems.

Unburdened by the constraints of gravity, red and green peppers jut out at 45-degree angles inside the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a sort of space terrarium not much larger than a microwave. Four chile pepper plants stand effortlessly upright, despite the dozens of glossy fruits weighing them down. These plants have lived entirely in space; their leaves have never been chewed on by insects or rustled by a summer breeze, [and] their stems are unfamiliar with bending toward the sun’s arc across the sky. Scissors glint under the tank’s white and blue lights as astronaut Mark Vande Hei and his team snip the stems of those that are ready for harvest. The peppers whirl around their heads until the astronauts catch them and tape them against a board to photograph.

Back on Earth, the Plant Habitat-04 team of engineers and plant scientists are observing and conferring with the astronauts. Of the 26 peppers in this batch, only the 14 finest will stay on the International Space Station [ISS] for consumption. The rest will be wrapped in foil, sealed in a Ziploc bag, then frozen at a brisk −80 degrees, until they can come roaring back to Earth in the next cargo capsule to be studied later. Now, after a 137-day growth cycle, the astronauts remove the plants from the module and trash them. Project Plant Habitat-04 is complete. It’s taco night on the ISS.

Since 2014, NASA1 has experimented with growing lettuces, brassicas,2 and zinnias3 in space, an endeavor that relies on highly specialized technology over 50 years in the making. [Fall 2021’s] two successful pepper harvests . . . will provide data on the nutritional and psychological benefits of growing vegetables on-craft, as well as a crop’s ability to reliably produce long-term in microgravity. While controlled environmental agriculture is not new, the APH experiment represents an evolution in specialized growth habitats. It doesn’t aim to re-create Earth’s conditions, but to perfect each isolated variable of plant growth in the clinical environment of a spaceship.

“The Advanced Plant Habitat is the most complex plant growth system on orbit today,” says Lashelle Spencer, a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Its more than 180 sensors control and monitor temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide. The astronauts can adjust the color and intensity of the light, and how much moisture the plants’ roots are getting. It waters itself.

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and Spencer has been at Kennedy since 5 a.m. to facilitate the peppers’ final harvest. As part of the project team, she played a crucial role in preparing the seeds that were sent hurtling into space in June and guiding the astronauts through maintaining the plants in orbit. . . . Though astronauts can spend upwards of 100 days in space, their on-mission meals come dehydrated and pre-packaged; their vitamins and minerals are isolated in supplements, which lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored. Spencer’s goal is to create the conditions necessary for cultivating healthy plants in space, so those plants can sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions. Astronaut food is great, she says—“especially the shrimp cocktail. But you’re missing that crunch. You’re missing that fresh pop of flavor, the green flavor that’s not there in that packaged food.”

The sensory experience of growing productive crops can also help mitigate4 the psychological effects of long-term space travel. . . . Spencer says the team cracked open the door of the APH every day to observe their vegetable companions with all the tenderness of home gardeners. When harvest day came, they batted their bounty around the ISS, taking selfies and delighting in watching the fruits pirouetting around the spacecraft. . . .

“We were thinking no heat, so that [the peppers] wouldn’t be dangerous, but maybe the astronauts need a little spice in their life,” says Paul Bosland, who along with his colleagues at the Chile Pepper Institute genetically engineered5 the NuMex Española Improved chile pepper seeds grown in Plant Habitat-04. . . .

Working with NASA, Bosland cultivated a variety that could accommodate both the nutritional needs of astronauts as well as the logistics of growing a plant in space. . . .

. . . The experiment is helping gather the data necessary to determine the nutritional content of crops grown in space, and therefore how many people they can feed, and for how long. Though much is still unknown, Spencer is certain of one thing that future astronauts will need to do: “I think in an optimal world, a scientist like me would say that they would be growing plants from day one. From the day they left to the day they came back, they would be growing them.”

From “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming” by Melanie Canales from WIRED, December 21, 2021. Copyright © 2021 Condé Nast. All rights reserved.

1NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

2brassicas: a large genus of herbs, such as broccoli and cabbage

3zinnias: a genus of herbs and low shrubs that have flowers at their heads

4mitigate: to make something less severe or harmful

5genetically engineered: combined parts of DNA from different plants to produce a new plant

Question

What is the best summary of the astronauts’ process for Project Plant Habitat-04?

  • AAfter a 137-day growth cycle, the astronauts harvest the peppers while being observed and advised by plant scientists. The astronauts remove the peppers from the APH and photograph them before eating the most nutritious ones.
  • BThe astronauts confer with plant scientists and engineers before selecting the 14 finest peppers to keep aboard the ISS for consumption. The remaining peppers are wrapped in foil and sent back to Kennedy Space Center to be studied.
  • CWith the help of plant scientists, the astronauts carefully control and monitor the growing conditions in the APH, ultimately harvesting the peppers after a 137-day growth cycle. The astronauts choose 14 of the peppers for consumption and send the rest back to be studied.
  • DAstronauts use specialized tools to plant and maintain genetically modified peppers aboard the ISS. After harvesting the fruit, the astronauts tape the peppers to a board to prevent them from floating around the module.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the best summary of the astronauts’ process for Project Plant Habitat-04.

A. Incorrect. Although this summary mentions the pepper harvest and photographing and eating the peppers, it leaves out an important part of the process: the team’s preparation for growing the peppers and the return to Earth of some harvested peppers for study.

B. Incorrect. This summary includes the selection of some peppers for consumption and the return of some peppers for research; however, it omits important information about the previous steps required to develop the process for growing peppers.

C. CORRECT. This summary accurately and completely summarizes the astronauts’ process for Project Plant Habitat-04: collaborating with plant scientists, controlling the APH conditions, completing the 137-day growth cycle, harvesting the peppers, choosing 14 peppers to eat, and sending the remaining peppers back for study.

D. Incorrect. This summary focuses on information incidental to the process of growing peppers for Project Plant Habitat-04, mentioning the use of genetically modified peppers and the taping of harvested peppers to a board to keep them from floating, while omitting important steps such as the monitoring of growth and the selection of peppers for consumption and study.

Question analysis

This summary question asks which of four two-sentence summaries best captures the astronauts’ process for Project Plant Habitat-04, the chile pepper experiment aboard the International Space Station described in a WIRED article on space farming. Every choice repeats real details from the excerpt, so students must check each one for accuracy and for completeness instead of stopping at the first familiar fact.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summarizing a process is regular grade 7 work. These choices are long and two-part, and the steps are spread over several paragraphs of a technical article, but the excerpt tells the process in order, so the overall demand stays typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 162 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every summary is built from real details of the experiment, so the decision rests on completeness and accuracy rather than on recognition. Students who remember paragraph 2 best are drawn to the version that reports only the selection and the frozen peppers, while those who trust vivid details accept a meal of “the most nutritious” peppers or tape that stops them floating. The question rewards listing the stages, tending, harvesting, choosing and returning, before reading the choices.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The process has to be pieced together out of order: the harvest opens paragraph 1, the 14 kept and the rest frozen come in paragraph 2, and the adjustable light and moisture only in paragraph 4. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The summary about the 14 finest peppers and the frozen remainder is the key’s second sentence on its own; only the key adds the controlled growing conditions and the 137-day cycle before the harvest. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Each choice is two sentences of 34 to 44 words, so four summaries that mix accurate and inaccurate details must be read and compared one step at a time. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, list in order what happens to the pepper plants across the opening paragraphs, then test each summary for details the excerpt does not support and for stages it leaves out.

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.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks for the best summary. A summary retells the main steps in order, in a few words. It leaves out small details. It must also be accurate, with no facts the article doesn’t give. Here you sum up what the astronauts did in Project Plant Habitat-04, from start to finish.

  2. Find the steps in the article

    The steps are spread over several paragraphs, and not in order.

    • Growing: Spencer guided “the astronauts through maintaining the plants in orbit” (paragraph 5). The astronauts “can adjust the color and intensity of the light” (paragraph 4).
    • Harvest: the crew snips the ripe peppers (paragraph 1) “after a 137-day growth cycle” (paragraph 2).
    • Choosing: “only the 14 finest will stay” on the station “for consumption” (paragraph 2). Consumption means eating.
    • Sending back: the rest are frozen and sent “back to Earth in the next cargo capsule to be studied later” (paragraph 2).

  3. Put the process in plain words

    So the whole process has four parts. First, the astronauts tend the plants for months, with help from scientists on Earth. Second, they harvest the peppers after 137 days. Third, they keep the 14 best peppers to eat. Fourth, they send the rest back to Earth to be studied. A good summary needs all four parts.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It skips the months of growing and the peppers sent back. It also says they ate “the most nutritious ones,” but the article says “the 14 finest.”
    • B is wrong. It covers only harvest day and leaves out the 137 days of growing. The article also never says the peppers go to Kennedy Space Center.
    • C is right. It has all four parts: tending the plants with the scientists’ help, harvesting after 137 days, keeping 14, and sending the rest back.
    • D is wrong. It strings together side details. The peppers were taped to a board “to photograph,” not to stop them floating.

    Watch out: B closely repeats paragraph 2, so it feels right. But a summary of the process must include the growing, too.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one summary covers the whole process, from tending the plants to sending peppers home. So the answer is C, “With the help of plant scientists, the astronauts carefully control and monitor the growing conditions in the APH, ultimately harvesting the peppers after a 137-day growth cycle. The astronauts choose 14 of the peppers for consumption and send the rest back to be studied.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer. Its facts come from paragraph 2. But it starts on harvest day, so a reader would never learn that the astronauts tended the plants for 137 days. C keeps B’s ending and adds that growing stage. That makes C complete.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 34 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 52 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 52, question 34.
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed on page 51 of the DOE handbook.

Question 28 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 36

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.

Question

Which statement best explains why Lashelle Spencer is a relevant source of information for the excerpt?

  • AShe works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
  • BShe is part of the APH project team.
  • CShe is sensitive to the astronauts’ need for healthy food in space.
  • DShe witnessed how astronauts aboard the APH responded when harvesting their food.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks which statement best explains why Lashelle Spencer is a relevant source of information for the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. While paragraphs 4 and 5 do mention that Lashelle Spencer works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, that fact does not explain her direct expertise on growing plants in space.

B. CORRECT. In paragraph 4, Spencer is identified as a “plant scientist” at NASA, and paragraph 5 states that she is directly involved with the Advanced Plant Habitat as “part of the project team,” making her a relevant source of information for the excerpt’s discussion of growing plants in space.

C. Incorrect. Although the details in paragraph 5 do indicate that Spencer is interested in providing better food choices to astronauts, her empathy toward the astronauts’ needs does not make her a relevant source of information for the excerpt.

D. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does mention that Spencer helped facilitate the harvest from the Kennedy Space Center, so she likely did witness the astronauts’ reactions as they harvested the peppers; however, this inference does not explain Spencer’s relevance as a source of information for the excerpt.

Question analysis

Why is Lashelle Spencer, the NASA plant scientist quoted throughout the article on growing peppers in space, a relevant source of information? This question asks students to judge what qualifies a person quoted in an informational text to speak on its subject. Several choices state facts about her, so students must decide which one actually explains her value as a source.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 readers often judge whether evidence is relevant, though asking why a quoted expert deserves trust is a less common form of the task. The facts about Spencer sit in two neighboring paragraphs, so the reading demand itself is typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 55 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A wrong paragraph number in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The pull of this question is that the first thing the excerpt says about Spencer, her job at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, sounds like a credential. Paragraph 5 gives the stronger one: she helped prepare the seeds and guided the crew, so she knows this experiment firsthand. Students lose the point by stopping at the job title, or by treating her sympathy for the astronauts or a harvest she supposedly watched as expertise.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    Her Kennedy workplace, her concern for well-fed astronauts and her role on the project all come from paragraphs 4 and 5, so truth rules out little; each must be weighed as a qualification. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The excerpt never says why Spencer is quoted; a reader must connect “part of the project team” and “guiding the astronauts” to her firsthand knowledge of this particular experiment. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Spencer is introduced in paragraph 4 as a NASA plant scientist, but her place on the pepper project appears only in paragraph 5, after a sentence about Thanksgiving. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Find every detail paragraphs 4 and 5 give about Spencer, then ask of each choice whether it explains why her statements about this experiment deserve a reader’s trust.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option A says “paragraphs 5 and 8 do mention that Lashelle Spencer works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.” Spencer is introduced in paragraph 4 as “a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center,” and paragraph 5 says she “has been at Kennedy since 5 a.m.” Paragraph 8 is about Paul Bosland and does not mention her. The site now says “paragraphs 4 and 5.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A source is a person whose words an article uses. A relevant source is one who really knows the topic. This question asks why Lashelle Spencer is worth quoting in an article about growing peppers in space. Several choices are true facts about her. You need the one that shows why she knows this subject.

  2. Find what the article says about her

    Paragraph 4 introduces her as “a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.” Paragraph 5 says she “has been at Kennedy since 5 a.m. to facilitate the peppers’ final harvest.” To facilitate means to help make something happen. Then comes the key sentence: “As part of the project team, she played a crucial role in preparing the seeds that were sent hurtling into space in June and guiding the astronauts through maintaining the plants in orbit.”

  3. Explain what that tells you

    Spencer didn’t just watch this project from far away. She helped run it. She got the seeds ready. She coached the astronauts as they cared for the plants. So she has firsthand knowledge, meaning she learned it by doing it herself. That is what makes her a good source for this article.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It is true, and paragraphs 4 and 5 both say it. But many people work at Kennedy. A job there doesn’t make someone an expert on growing plants in space.
    • B is right. Being on the project team means she helped plan and guide this exact experiment.
    • C is wrong. She does care about healthy food for astronauts. But caring is not the same as knowing.
    • D is wrong. The article never says she watched how the crew reacted. Even if she did, watching a harvest wouldn’t make her an expert.

    Watch out: A is the first fact you learn about her, so it feels like her main qualification. Paragraph 5 gives a stronger one.

  5. Choose the answer

    Spencer helped prepare and guide the pepper experiment herself. So the answer is B, “She is part of the APH project team.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sounds impressive, and it is true. But a job at a big space center doesn’t prove she knows this experiment. B does. Being on the project team means she prepared the seeds and guided the crew.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 36 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 54 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 54, question 36. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 29 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 39

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.

Question

The description in paragraph 5 of Lashelle Spencer’s goal develops a central idea of the excerpt by

  • Aillustrating that certain types of packaged foods available in space lack particular flavors.
  • Bsupporting the notion that spending more than 100 days in space is detrimental to astronauts’ health.
  • Coffering an example of how the limited selection of on-mission meals becomes less appealing over time.
  • Dmaking an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the description of Lashelle Spencer’s goal in paragraph 5 develops a central idea of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Although Spencer mentions how astronauts miss certain eating experiences like the “fresh pop” and “green flavor” not found in packaged and dehydrated food, a central idea of the excerpt is that there is a need to provide fresh, healthy foods for long missions, not that food flavor should be improved.

B. Incorrect. While the excerpt focuses on how spending more than 100 days in space affects nutrition, it does not discuss specific ways in which spending long periods of time in space is detrimental to the health of astronauts.

C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 states that astronauts “can spend upwards of 100 days in space,” the excerpt does not develop a central idea that existing meals in space become less appealing over time.

D. CORRECT. The paragraph explains that astronauts currently rely on supplements for vitamins and minerals, which lose their nutritional value over time. Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” supporting a central idea that astronauts need more nutritionally valuable food to sustain them while in space for long periods of time.

Question analysis

Lashelle Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is described in paragraph 5 of the WIRED excerpt, and this central-idea question asks how that description develops a central idea of the whole excerpt. Students must connect a single sentence about a scientist’s aim to the article’s larger point, and every choice draws on details from that same paragraph.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace how a central idea develops, usually through a plainly stated example. Here the goal’s connection to the central idea runs through the sentences around it, and the choices are abstract restatements, which asks more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 75 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice draws on paragraph 5, and none mentions growing plants, which leaves students looking for the goal without finding it. The flavor quotation that follows the goal is the most memorable detail and the easiest wrong pick. The key works only through context: the goal answers the problem the previous sentence sets out, crews depending on supplements that weaken in storage, which is why it serves the article’s case for fresh food on long missions.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Spencer’s goal names healthy plants and healthy astronauts but no supplements; its link to the key runs through the sentence before it, where vitamins sit in supplements that “lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    No choice restates the goal of growing plants itself, so none can be matched at a glance; each must be tested for whether it ties the goal to the excerpt’s concern with nutrition on long missions. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. How, not what minor Working it out

    The question asks how the description develops a central idea, its role in the article, so knowing what Spencer wants is only the first step toward the answer. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  4. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The central idea must come from the whole excerpt: paragraph 3’s “nutritional and psychological benefits,” paragraph 8’s “nutritional needs of astronauts” and paragraph 9’s “nutritional content of crops.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: State a central idea of the whole excerpt in your own words, reread Spencer’s goal with the sentences around it in paragraph 5, and pick the option that connects the goal to that central idea.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A central idea is a main point the whole article keeps coming back to. This question asks how Spencer’s goal, in paragraph 5, helps build one of those main points. So first, find the goal. Then connect it to the big idea.

  2. Find the goal and the sentence before

    Paragraph 5 says: “Spencer’s goal is to create the conditions necessary for cultivating healthy plants in space, so those plants can sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions.” Cultivating means growing. The sentence just before it shows why she has this goal. Astronauts’ “vitamins and minerals are isolated in supplements, which lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.”

  3. Connect the goal to the big idea

    Today astronauts get vitamins from pills, called supplements. Those pills lose their health value as they sit. Spencer wants fresh plants grown in space to keep astronauts healthy instead. So her goal points to a problem: relying on weak pills. The article returns to food and health again and again. Paragraph 8 mentions “the nutritional needs of astronauts.” Nutritional means having to do with healthy food.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The “fresh pop of flavor” line comes after the goal. It is about taste, a side point.
    • B is wrong. The article never says long trips in space harm astronauts’ health.
    • C is wrong. It is the stored supplements that lose value over time, not meals that get less tasty.
    • D is right. The goal answers a problem: astronauts depend on supplements that weaken in storage. That ties to the article’s idea that astronauts need healthy fresh food on long trips.

    Watch out: Spencer’s flavor quote is the most memorable line nearby, so A pulls hard. But her goal is about health, not taste.

  5. Choose the answer

    Spencer wants healthy plants because pills are not enough. So the answer is D, “making an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.” Reliance means depending on something.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Spencer really does miss the crunch and flavor of fresh food. But her goal is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” which is about health. Health is the big idea the article keeps returning to. D connects the goal to that idea through the supplements that lose value.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 39 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 57 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 57, question 39.

Question 30 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 40

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.

Question

What is the relationship between the scientists and the astronauts in carrying out the plant-growing experiments?

Move the correct answer to each box.

Scientists on earth are primarily responsible for for conducting plant experiments in space, while the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are responsible for for the experiment.

On the test you drag tiles into the boxes; here, choose each box’s tile from its menu. Each tile can be used once. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.

Show the answer

Correct answer: blank 1: developing the materials and systems; blank 2: growing the plants to harvest

The question asks for the two phrases that should be added to the sentence to explain the relationship between the scientists and the astronauts in carrying out the plant-growing experiments.

CORRECT. The phrase “growing the plants to harvest” should be added to the second box in the sentence. Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the excerpt show that astronauts aboard the ISS are responsible for tending to the plants in the system and harvesting them after the growth cycle is complete.

Incorrect. The phrase “documenting the nutritional goals” should not be added to either box in the sentence. While the excerpt does mention that the experiment is helping gather data about the nutritional value of the peppers, there is no evidence that either the scientists on Earth or the astronauts aboard the ISS are tasked with documenting specific nutritional goals.

Incorrect. The phrase “analyzing the environment” should not be added to either box in the sentence. Although the experiment requires control of environmental factors like light and moisture, the excerpt does not describe or primarily focus on describing how either the scientists on Earth or the astronauts aboard the ISS are responsible for formally analyzing the environment of the habitat as part of the experiment.

CORRECT. The phrase “developing the materials and systems” should be added to the first box in the sentence. The excerpt explains that the scientists on Earth create and prepare the systems, seeds, and equipment needed for the plant-growing experiments in space.

Incorrect. The phrase “determining the most nutritional plants” should not be added to either box in the sentence. Although growing nutritious plants is important, the excerpt does not focus on the scientists on Earth or the astronauts aboard the ISS evaluating or selecting plants based on their nutritional value.

Question analysis

This question asks students to complete a sentence describing how scientists on Earth and astronauts aboard the International Space Station divided the work of the pepper-growing experiment. On the test students drag phrase tiles into two boxes, choosing from five. Each group’s role must be pieced together from details spread across the excerpt, and each tile names a task in general words that must be matched to the text.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how the people in an informational text relate to one another is grade 7 work. Filling two boxes from five tiles with all-or-nothing credit adds some demand, but the excerpt shows the two groups doing clearly different jobs.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 50 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 astronauts’ box is the easy half, since the excerpt opens with the crew snipping and catching ripe peppers. The scientists’ box is where points are lost: the right tile is abstract, while the tempting ones name nutrition and the environment, both prominent in the article. Students who match a tile to a phrase they remember, rather than to everything the people on Earth are shown doing, fill the first box wrongly.

  1. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The scientists’ tile, “developing the materials and systems,” sums up preparing seeds, engineering a variety and building the habitat in words the excerpt never uses, while the nutrition tile echoes paragraph 9. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The scientists’ work is scattered: the habitat’s technology in paragraphs 3 and 4, Spencer preparing seeds in paragraph 5, Bosland’s engineered variety in paragraphs 7 and 8; the crew’s tending and harvest fill paragraphs 1 and 2. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Much to keep track of minor Working it out

    Two boxes must both be right from five tiles that cannot be reused, so each group’s whole role must be held in mind while three plausible-sounding tiles are rejected. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)

Strategy: List what the people on Earth did and what the crew in orbit did, then fill each box with the tile that sums up its list, not one that echoes a single word of the excerpt.

Traps

  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need to finish a sentence about who did what. The first box tells what the scientists on Earth did. The second box tells what the astronauts in space did. On the test you drag a tile into each box. Here, you pick each box’s tile from a menu. Each tile can be used only once, and three tiles are left over.

  2. List what the scientists did

    • Spencer played “a crucial role in preparing the seeds that were sent hurtling into space” (paragraph 5).
    • Bosland and his colleagues “genetically engineered” the pepper seeds (paragraph 7). The footnote says they “combined parts of DNA from different plants to produce a new plant.”
    • Growing plants in space “relies on highly specialized technology over 50 years in the making” (paragraph 3).

    So the scientists made and got ready what the experiment needed: seeds and machines.

  3. List what the astronauts did

    • They “can adjust the color and intensity of the light” for the plants (paragraph 4).
    • “The team cracked open the door of the APH every day” to check on the plants (paragraph 6).
    • They “snip the stems of those that are ready for harvest” (paragraph 1).
    • They finish “after a 137-day growth cycle” (paragraph 2).

    So the astronauts cared for the plants until the peppers were ripe, then picked them.

  4. Match a tile to each list

    The scientists’ list is about making things: seeds, a new pepper and a high-tech habitat. The tile developing the materials and systems sums that up. Materials are the things you use, like seeds. Systems are machines with many parts, like the habitat. The astronauts’ list is about care and picking. The tile growing the plants to harvest sums that up.

  5. Rule out the other tiles

    • documenting the nutritional goals: no one in the article writes down nutrition goals.
    • analyzing the environment: the habitat’s sensors “control and monitor” conditions. The crew adjusts light and water, but that is caring for plants, not studying them.
    • determining the most nutritional plants: paragraph 9 says the data will “determine the nutritional content of crops.” But no one picks the healthiest plants. Bosland made one special kind.

    Watch out: The last tile repeats words from paragraph 9, so it is tempting for the first box. Matching a word is not the same as matching the job.

  6. Fill in both boxes

    Scientists on Earth develop the materials and systems for the experiment. Astronauts grow the plants to harvest. So the first box gets developing the materials and systems, and the second box gets growing the plants to harvest.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

The most tempting wrong tile for the first box is determining the most nutritional plants, because it echoes paragraph 9. But the scientists in the article prepared seeds, engineered a new pepper and built the habitat. That is developing materials and systems. Nobody compares plants to find the most nutritious one.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 58 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 58, question 40.

Question 31 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 41

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.

Question

How is the quotation from Lashelle Spencer at the end of paragraph 9 relevant to the discussion of the peppers referred to in paragraph 2?

  • AThe quotation indicates that larger batches of peppers need to be grown during future missions and suggests a slight criticism of the astronauts discussed in paragraph 2 for not dedicating more of their time to growing peppers during their mission.
  • BThe quotation explains why the 137-day growth cycle mentioned in paragraph 2 is necessary and provides a suggestion on how to grow more peppers during the same growth cycle in future missions.
  • CThe quotation helps explain why some of the peppers discussed in paragraph 2 needed to be sent back to Earth and that increasing the overall number of peppers grown in space will be important in future missions.
  • DThe quotation provides context for understanding why the peppers discussed in paragraph 2 must be sealed and frozen prior to their return to Earth and suggests how this method might be improved in upcoming missions.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the quotation from Lashelle Spencer at the end of paragraph 9 is relevant to the discussion of the peppers referred to in paragraph 2.

A. Incorrect. The quotation from Spencer in paragraph 9 suggests that astronauts should spend more time on growing larger and more continuous batches of peppers during long missions, but it does not criticize astronauts for discarding plants and ending the experiment after the 137-day growth cycle.

B. Incorrect. While the quotation from Spencer in paragraph 9 stresses the value of spending more time growing plants in space, it does not provide specific details about the 137-day growth cycle or offer specific methods for producing more peppers within the same time frame.

C. CORRECT. The quotation from Spencer in paragraph 9 is relevant to the discussion of the peppers on the ISS in paragraph 2 because it emphasizes the importance of expanding plant-growing efforts on future space missions. Spencer suggests that rather than ending the experiment after the 137-day growth cycle, astronauts could continually replant and replenish their food supply from the beginning to the end of a long mission.

D. Incorrect. Although the quotation from Spencer in paragraph 9 conveys the importance of dedicating more time to growing plants in space, it does not explain why the peppers were sealed and frozen, nor does it suggest how this method for preserving them might be improved.

Question analysis

This question asks how Lashelle Spencer’s quotation at the end of the space-farming excerpt, her view of what future astronauts will need to do, relates to the account in paragraph 2 of how the pepper harvest was handled. Students must connect the article’s ending to its opening, and every choice is a long two-part statement whose halves have to be checked separately.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 readers explain how parts of a text relate, usually neighboring ones. This item links the last paragraph to the second, and its four choices run about forty words each in two parts, so it asks more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 16, 163 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Each choice has one half that sounds connected to the quotation, so students must test both halves of all four. The criticism choice is the hardest to reject, since it correctly hears a call for more growing and only then misreads Spencer’s tone. The key itself is not airtight: its first half leans on the sentence before the quotation, about gathering nutrition data, so the answer is best confirmed by ruling out the others.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Spencer’s quotation never mentions paragraph 2; the link is that plants grown “from day one” to “the day they came back” contrast with one 137-day batch harvested and thrown away. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The criticism choice shares the key’s call for more growing on future missions and differs in its other half, a slight criticism of the crew that Spencer’s hopeful “in an optimal world” never makes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. A lot to read moderate Understanding the question

    The four choices run 32 to 40 words, and each joins two claims with “and,” so eight separate statements must be checked against the quotation and paragraph 2. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  4. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The two parts to connect are the excerpt’s second paragraph and its last sentence, with six paragraphs on the habitat, Spencer and Bosland in between. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Put Spencer’s closing quotation into your own words and recall how the pepper project ended in paragraph 2, then weigh both halves of every choice and keep the one the quotation and its paragraph best support.

Traps

  • 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question links the end of the article to its beginning. Spencer speaks at the end of paragraph 9. Paragraph 2 tells what happened to the peppers. You need the choice that best explains how her words connect to those peppers. Each choice has two parts, and both must be true.

  2. Recall the peppers in paragraph 2

    Paragraph 2 says only “the 14 finest” peppers stay on the ISS to eat. The rest are frozen and sent “back to Earth in the next cargo capsule to be studied later.” Then, “after a 137-day growth cycle, the astronauts remove the plants from the module and trash them.” So the crew grew one batch, ate some, sent some home and threw the plants away.

  3. Read the end of paragraph 9

    Just before Spencer speaks, paragraph 9 says: “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.” Then Spencer says that in “an optimal world,” meaning the best possible world, astronauts “would be growing plants from day one.” She adds: “From the day they left to the day they came back, they would be growing them.”

  4. Connect the two parts

    The peppers sent home are studied. That gives the data paragraph 9 describes: how healthy space crops are and how many people they can feed. Spencer’s plan needs that data. You must know what a crop can feed before you plan meals for a whole trip. Her words also point to the future. Instead of one batch that ends in the trash, crews would grow plants all trip long. That means many more peppers.

  5. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Spencer wants more growing, but she doesn’t criticize the crew. “In an optimal world” describes a hope, not a complaint.
    • B is wrong. She never says why the cycle took 137 days. She doesn’t suggest squeezing more peppers into it, either.
    • C is right. The returned peppers give the data, and growing “from day one” means more peppers in the future.
    • D is wrong. She says nothing about freezing the peppers or a better way to store them.

    Watch out: A gets the first half right. The criticism in its second half is what makes it wrong.

  6. Choose the answer

    Her words explain why some peppers went home to be studied and why more growing matters next time. So the answer is C, “The quotation helps explain why some of the peppers discussed in paragraph 2 needed to be sent back to Earth and that increasing the overall number of peppers grown in space will be important in future missions.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Like C, it hears Spencer calling for more plants on future trips. But A also says she criticizes the astronauts. She doesn’t. She calmly describes a perfect world. C keeps the right half and adds a link the paragraph supports: the peppers sent home give the data.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 41 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 59 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 59, question 41.

Question 32 of 112

2026 Practice Test C English, question 43

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.

Question

With which statement would the author most likely agree?

  • ASome plants are better adapted for growing in space than on Earth, and focus should be placed on them.
  • BAttempting to grow plants in space the same way they are grown on Earth would not result in success.
  • CPlants grown in space provide better nutritional value than plants grown on Earth.
  • DSuccessfully growing plants in space is a challenge, so more research must first be completed on plants grown on Earth.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks which statement the author would most likely agree with.

A. Incorrect. Although paragraphs 7 and 8 discuss plants that have been genetically engineered to “accommodate . . . the logistics of growing a plant in space,” the passage does not indicate that the plants are better adapted for growing in space rather than on Earth. Thus, the author is not likely to agree with this statement.

B. CORRECT. In paragraph 3, the author points out that growing plants in space “relies on highly specialized technology over 50 years in the making,” and in paragraph 4, the author explains that the Advanced Plant Habitat requires specialized controls and adaptations for light, moisture, and temperature. The author’s acknowledgment of the special conditions required to grow plants in space indicates that she would agree that growing methods used on Earth are unlikely to succeed in space.

C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 8 mentions that pepper plants were genetically engineered to meet “the nutritional needs of astronauts,” the passage gives no indication that astronauts have greater nutritional needs in space than they do on Earth or that plants grown in space are engineered to provide better nutrition than their counterparts on Earth. Thus, the author would not be likely to agree with this sentence.

D. Incorrect. Although the discussion in paragraph 4 of the rigorously controlled conditions indicates that growing plants in space is, indeed, challenging, the article indicates in paragraph 3 that NASA has been experimenting with growing plants in space “since 2014.” Because plant-growing experiments have already been under way in space for a number of years, it is unlikely that NASA or the author would agree that additional experiments on earth are necessary.

Question analysis

This inference question asks which statement the author of the space-farming excerpt, a Virginia farmer writing for WIRED about NASA’s pepper experiment, would most likely agree with. The author never states her view outright, so students must infer it from the way she reports the experiment, and every choice touches on a topic the article raises.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Inferring which statement an author would accept is regular grade 7 work, but this author mostly reports facts and quotes scientists, so her own view has to be pieced together from several paragraphs of technical description, more than grade 7 usually asks.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 80 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A misquotation of the excerpt in the explanation was corrected.
  • A grammatical error in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Because the article reports facts and quotes scientists, students must build the author’s view from her descriptions, and the key is a prediction she never makes outright. The half-right choice is the main trap: it begins with a view she does hold, that space farming is hard, then adds a demand for research on Earth that ignores NASA’s work in orbit since 2014. The other two turn the engineered variety and the nutrition theme into comparisons the article never draws.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    The author never states an opinion; her view must be drawn from how she describes the work, a habitat that “doesn’t aim to re-create Earth’s conditions” and technology “over 50 years in the making.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The support is in paragraph 3’s description of the habitat and paragraph 4’s sensors and controls, while the wrong choices draw on paragraph 8’s engineered variety and paragraph 5’s supplements. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The key’s “the same way they are grown on Earth would not result in success” restates paragraph 3 in new words, while wrong choices reuse “nutritional” and growing “in space.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Find the sentences where the author speaks in her own voice rather than quoting a scientist, then choose the statement those sentences support most directly, without adding claims the article never makes.

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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option A says the plants were genetically engineered “to accommodate the logistics of growing a plant in space.” Paragraph 8 says Bosland “cultivated a variety that could accommodate both the nutritional needs of astronauts as well as the logistics of growing a plant in space”: “to” is not in the excerpt, and eight words are left out without an ellipsis. The site now says genetically engineered to “accommodate . . . the logistics of growing a plant in space.”
  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option B says “The author’s acknowledgment of the special conditions required to grow plants in space indicate that she would agree.” The subject is “acknowledgment,” so the site now says “indicates.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need to figure out the author’s view. She never states it outright. She mostly reports facts and quotes scientists. So look at how she describes the work. Then pick the statement her own words support best, without adding ideas she never gives.

  2. Find the author’s own words

    In paragraph 3, the author says growing plants in space “relies on highly specialized technology over 50 years in the making.” She also says the habitat “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.” In paragraph 4, she adds that its “more than 180 sensors control and monitor temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide.”

  3. Explain what she means

    Specialized means made for one special job. To re-create means to copy. A variable is one thing that can change, like light or heat. Clinical means very clean and controlled, like a hospital. So she is saying that space is not like a garden on Earth. Plants there need special tools that control every condition, one by one. Simply copying Earth’s way of growing would not be enough.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Paragraphs 7 and 8 show a pepper bred to “accommodate” growing in space. But nothing says some plants grow better in space than on Earth.
    • B is right. She stresses special technology and says the habitat doesn’t copy Earth. So Earth’s usual methods alone would fail.
    • C is wrong. She never says space plants are healthier than Earth plants.
    • D is wrong. She does show that growing in space is hard. But NASA has grown plants in space “since 2014.” Nothing says Earth research must come first.

    Watch out: D starts with an idea she holds, that space farming is hard. Then it adds a demand she never makes.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author shows that space farming needs special tools, not Earth’s usual ways. So the answer is B, “Attempting to grow plants in space the same way they are grown on Earth would not result in success.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer. Its first half fits the author: growing plants in space takes complex tools. But its second half says more research on Earth must come first. The article shows the opposite: NASA has grown plants in space for years. B sticks to what her words show.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 43 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 61 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 61, question 43. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 33 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 3
Passage A Memory Revolution

A Memory Revolution

A high school senior logs on to a computer at the library to double-check the application due date listed on a college admissions website. Nearby, a librarian helps a group of biology students use a database to search for recent studies about mammals. In the past few decades, the Internet has become an integral component of daily life for many people. The seemingly limitless power of search engines made the Internet search extremely common, and today people increasingly rely on the Internet’s vast accumulation of sources to access all types of information. Scientists are beginning to examine how this reliance is modifying the strategies people use to store and prioritize information in their mind.

A Dependable and Valuable Asset

Psychologist Benjamin Storm from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and researchers Sean Stone and Aaron Benjamin devised an experiment to study students’ tendency to depend on the Internet for facts. To begin, the scientists divided sixty participants into multiple groups, including an “Internet” group and a “memory” group, and placed them in front of computers. The Internet group was required to use the search engine Google to answer eight challenging trivia questions. In contrast, participants in the memory group were permitted to use only their personal knowledge to answer the questions. In the second round, the researchers administered notably easier questions. This time, they allowed each group the option of using Google as they answered. Their results showed that 83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round, while only 63 percent of the memory group chose to do so.

People’s growing inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information, particularly facts and figures, is called cognitive offloading. Canadian researcher Evan F. Risko and British researcher Sam Gilbert, who have written extensively about the topic, say a similar process has been taking place for centuries. In the past, people used resources like encyclopedias to assist their memories; however, today the Internet, serving as a vast extended memory, allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information. Consequently, people’s minds are free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.

Filing Information Away

The use of the Internet also appears to be modifying the strategies people use to store information in their mind. Researchers Betsy Sparrow from Columbia University, Jenny Liu from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Daniel Wegner from Harvard University conducted several studies to discover how people efficiently manage their information intake.

To begin, the researchers examined how people evaluate which information deserves their effort to remember. For this experiment, participants read forty trivia facts, such as “An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain,” and typed the statements into a computer file. Half the participants had been previously told the file would be saved, while half believed it would be erased. Next, the participants wrote down every fact they could recall. Those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.

In another experiment, the same researchers tested the ability of study participants to remember where to access information. For this trial, participants read and typed trivia statements, which they saved in folders with generic names such as “Facts” and “Items.” After spending ten minutes writing down all the facts they could recall from memory, participants were asked which folder contained a particular fact based on a keyword. For example, “Which folder has the fact about ostriches?” Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself, correctly identifying 49 percent of the folders for specific facts while remembering only 23 percent of the actual trivia. The researchers concluded that our memory is adapting to the Internet age by prioritizing where to locate information even when the specific details are forgotten. According to Sparrow, the Internet has become an important form of transactive memory, an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory.

As the Internet’s resources continue to expand our “external” memory, some question whether the process may cause people to depend too heavily on technology. However, Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, says, “Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.”

Flow diagram titled “HOW MEMORY WORKS”: an arrow labeled “New Information” points down into a box labeled “Sensory Memory,” and an arrow labeled “Attention” leads down from that box to a box labeled “Short-Term Memory.” From Short-Term Memory, an arrow points right to the note “Unrehearsed information is forgotten,” and on its left a curved arrow labeled “Rehearsal” loops from the bottom of the box back into its top, beside the note “Information is maintained through repetition.” An arrow labeled “Storage” leads down from Short-Term Memory to a box labeled “Long-Term Memory,” a curved arrow labeled “Retrieval” leads from Long-Term Memory back up into Short-Term Memory, and an arrow points right from Long-Term Memory to the note “Some information may be forgotten over time.”

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 7.

As the Internet’s resources continue to expand our “external” memory, some question whether the process may cause people to depend too heavily on technology.

How does the sentence contribute to the structure and development of ideas in the passage?

  • AIt presents a claim about the risks of relying on the Internet that prompted the research described in paragraphs 2 and 6.
  • BIt contrasts a disadvantage of relying on the Internet with the benefits of Internet use that are described in paragraphs 2 and 6.
  • CIt signals a shift from a neutral viewpoint in paragraphs 2 and 6 to a presentation of an argument and a counterargument.
  • DIt introduces a counterargument and marks a transition from an optimistic tone in paragraphs 2 and 6 to a cautious tone as the counterargument is developed.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 7 contributes to the structure and development of ideas in the passage.

A. Incorrect. Although the studies showed, in part, that reliance on the Internet is increasing (“participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself” [paragraph 6]), the studies were not conducted in order to determine the risks of Internet use. The claim in the sentence did not prompt the research described in paragraphs 2 and 6.

B. Incorrect. While the sentence in paragraph 7 poses a question about the disadvantages of relying on the Internet, paragraphs 2 and 6 present the study data on Internet use and memory in a neutral tone (“correctly identifying 49 percent of the folders for specific facts while remembering only 23 percent of the actual trivia” [paragraph 6]). Neither study describes the availability of information on the Internet as an advantage or a disadvantage.

C. CORRECT. Paragraphs 2 and 6 describe the results of experiments related to the Internet’s effect on memory without commenting on the advantages or disadvantages of relying on that technology, and the sentence in paragraph 7 presents a questioning viewpoint that moves away from the neutral perspective of the broader passage. The opinion in the sentence is directly argued against in the three sentences that follow it, which present an extended quote from Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard University. Pinker refutes the idea expressed by the sentence, stating that “knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not.” He adds that technologies such as the Internet “are the only things that will keep us smart.”

D. Incorrect. Although the sentence in paragraph 7 expresses caution about the possible effects of the Internet on memory, the passage does not shift from an optimistic tone to a cautious tone. Actually, paragraph 6 provides the data on Internet use and memory in a neutral tone. The argument expressed by the sentence is also not elaborated on in the sentences that follow, but is immediately argued against by Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology. The last sentence of paragraph 7 in fact refutes the culled sentence: “ ‘Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.’ ”

Question analysis

This text-structure question quotes the sentence that opens the last paragraph of “A Memory Revolution,” where some people question whether the Internet may make us depend too heavily on technology. Students decide how it contributes to the structure and development of ideas in the article. Every choice also describes the experiments in paragraphs 2 and 6, so students must judge how the article presents them and what follows.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 structure questions often ask what one sentence does in its paragraph. This one asks how a sentence turns the whole article, and every choice also characterizes paragraphs 2 and 6, closer to grade 8 work on opposing viewpoints.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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

The quoted sentence is the article’s only worried note, and the question asks what it does there. Students must judge two things at once: how the earlier studies sound, plain numbers such as 49 and 23 percent with no verdict, and what follows, Pinker’s “However” and a confident rebuttal. The near miss rightly calls the sentence an opposing view but hears the studies as cheerful and expects caution to follow, so only students who read on to the end of paragraph 7 can rule it out.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks what the sentence does in the article, and its job is a turn: from studies reported without judgment to a worry that Pinker’s quotation rebuts in the same paragraph. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about a counterargument and a cautious tone shares the key’s frame, a shift away from paragraphs 2 and 6 toward opposing views; it differs in calling those paragraphs optimistic and the ending cautious. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    Every choice also characterizes paragraphs 2 and 6, so students must recall how the Google study and the folder study were reported, as percentages with no praise or blame, before judging the sentence. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  4. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The choices judge structure in abstract words, “neutral viewpoint,” “counterargument,” “optimistic tone” and “cautious tone,” which students must match to how the article actually sounds. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Describe in a word or two how paragraphs 2 and 6 present their studies and what the rest of paragraph 7 does with the quoted sentence’s idea, then test both halves of every choice.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a structure question. Structure is how the parts of an article fit together. The question asks what the sentence does at the start of paragraph 7. Each choice also describes paragraphs 2 and 6. So you must check two things: how those paragraphs sound, and what comes after the sentence.

  2. Look at paragraphs 2 and 6

    Paragraph 2 reports that “83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round, while only 63 percent of the memory group chose to do so.” Paragraph 6 reports “correctly identifying 49 percent of the folders for specific facts while remembering only 23 percent of the actual trivia.” These paragraphs give numbers. They do not say the results are good or bad. Writing that takes no side like this is called neutral.

  3. Read the sentence and what follows

    The sentence says “some question whether the process may cause people to depend too heavily on technology.” That is a worry, an argument against relying on the Internet. The very next word is “However.” Then Steven Pinker answers the worry. He ends, “Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.” An answer to an argument is called a counterargument. So the article moves from neutral reports to an argument and a counterargument.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The worry comes after the studies. Nothing says it caused the research.
    • B does not fit. Paragraphs 2 and 6 do not describe benefits. They only report numbers.
    • C fits. The sentence shifts from neutral reports to an argument, and Pinker’s answer follows.
    • D does not fit. Paragraphs 2 and 6 are not optimistic, or hopeful. And the end is not cautious. Pinker answers the worry with confidence.

    Watch out: D is tempting because the sentence does raise an opposing view. But D gets both tones wrong.

  5. Choose the answer

    The sentence turns the article from plain reports to a debate. So the answer is C, “It signals a shift from a neutral viewpoint in paragraphs 2 and 6 to a presentation of an argument and a counterargument.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. Both C and D see the sentence bringing in an opposing view. But D calls paragraphs 2 and 6 optimistic, when they only give percentages. D also says a cautious tone follows. Instead, Pinker rejects the worry and ends with “keep us smart.” Only C describes both sides of the turn correctly.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 3 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 7 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 7, question 3.
The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed (pages 3–4)The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed on page 3 of the DOE handbook.The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed on page 4 of the DOE handbook.

Question 34 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 6

Uses the passage above: “A Memory Revolution”.

Question

Which evidence from the passage is most relevant to the claim in paragraph 7 that “ ‘far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart’ ”?

  • Athe revelation that most people opted to use the Internet to answer relatively easy trivia questions rather than relying on their own brainpower (paragraph 2)
  • Bthe assertion that the storage of information on the Internet frees people to focus on higher-order tasks such as problem solving (paragraph 3)
  • Cthe connection between how people organize information in their mind and their ability to recall that information (paragraph 5)
  • Dthe description of transactive memory as an expansive external source that people can use to store information (paragraph 6)
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the evidence from the passage that is most relevant to the claim in paragraph 7 that “ ‘far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.’ ”

A. Incorrect. Whether the participants decided to use the Internet to answer easy trivia questions varied based on the options that the participants were given during the first part of the experiment and, therefore, cannot be relevant to the claim in paragraph 7. Even when given the option of using the Internet, some participants chose to recall information from memory instead.

B. CORRECT. The assertion made in paragraph 3 that states that cognitive offloading allows for “people’s minds [to be] free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems” is relevant to the claim in paragraph 7 because it indicates that the ability to store large amounts of information within the brain does not necessarily make someone smart. It also suggests that if people did not have to use so much effort simply organizing and storing information, their brain would be free to conduct higher-order tasks: “the Internet, serving as a vast extended memory, allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information. Consequently, people’s minds are free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems” (paragraph 3).

C. Incorrect. The discussion in the passage connecting how people organize information in their mind and their ability to recall that information focuses on the process of organizing information within human memory rather than on how technology helps keep people’s minds available for complex thoughts.

D. Incorrect. Although the passage provides an accurate description of transactive memory, it provides no indication of how using such memory would advance a person’s ability to maintain or improve intelligent thought.

Question analysis

This evidence question on “A Memory Revolution” quotes the claim, made by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker at the end of the article, that technologies such as the Internet are the only things that will keep us smart. Students choose the finding from earlier in the passage that is most relevant to it. Each choice summarizes a point about technology or memory, so relevance, not accuracy, decides.

NYS standards
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Judging which evidence is most relevant to a claim is standard grade 7 argument work. The claim is short and quoted in the question, and each choice names its paragraph, but students must recall what each paragraph actually showed.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 112 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 reports something the article really says, so the question turns on relevance: which finding would persuade a reader that technology keeps us smart. The transactive-memory finding is the trap, because Pinker himself speaks of retrieving “our collective intellectual output,” and an outside store of facts sounds like his point. That finding shows only that technology holds information; paragraph 3 adds what people do with the freed space, and that step is the claim.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The transactive-memory choice and the key both describe the Internet storing information for people; only the key adds the result, minds free for “connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems,” which is what keeps us smart. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The key never says smart; students must see that freeing minds for “other cognitive feats” is exactly what Pinker means by technology that keeps us smart rather than stupid. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The four findings come from paragraphs 2, 3, 5 and 6, and each choice’s summary has to be matched back to what its paragraph actually showed before its relevance can be judged. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Restate Pinker’s claim in your own words, then ask of each finding whether it would persuade a doubter of that claim itself or only of something related to it.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for evidence: the detail that best supports a claim. The claim comes from Steven Pinker in paragraph 7: “Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.” Put it in your own words first. Pinker says the Internet does not make us dumb. It helps us think better.

  2. Ask what would prove the claim

    To support this claim, a detail must show technology helping people think. A detail that only shows people using the Internet is not enough. Neither is one that only shows the Internet storing facts. Look for a result: something people can do better because of the Internet.

  3. Find that result in paragraph 3

    Paragraph 3 says the Internet, “serving as a vast extended memory, allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information.” The next sentence gives the result: “Consequently, people’s minds are free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.” Consequently means “as a result.” Cognitive feats are hard thinking tasks. Since the Internet holds the facts, your mind has room for harder work.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. People choosing Google for easy questions sounds more like the worry Pinker answers. It does not show anyone getting smarter.
    • B fits. Higher-order tasks are harder kinds of thinking. Freeing minds for them is how technology could keep us smart.
    • C does not fit. It is about how well people recall facts. In paragraph 5, people even recalled fewer facts when a computer would save them.
    • D does not fit. It shows only that the Internet can store information. It does not say what people gain from that.

    Watch out: D is tempting because transactive memory sounds like the “external” memory in paragraph 7. But storing facts outside your head is only half the idea. B adds the payoff: room for harder thinking.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only paragraph 3 shows the Internet freeing people for harder thinking. So the answer is B, “the assertion that the storage of information on the Internet frees people to focus on higher-order tasks such as problem solving” (paragraph 3).

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. It is true that the Internet works as an outside store of facts. But that alone does not show anyone getting smarter. B goes one step further. Because the Internet holds the facts, minds are free for “connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.” That step is what Pinker’s claim needs.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 6 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 10 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 10, question 6.

Question 35 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 7

Uses the passage above: “A Memory Revolution”.

Question

The effect of the Internet on a person’s memory is illustrated in the passage through the presentation of studies that

  • Aexamine how the use of search engines changes the way people evaluate and store information for future access.
  • Bhighlight the difference between the capacity of the Internet and the ability of the human brain to locate information.
  • Ccompare the type of information that can be obtained from the Internet with the type of information that is stored in the human brain.
  • Demphasize the ease of obtaining information through search engines rather than remembering it without assistance.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the studies presented in the passage are used to illustrate the effect of the Internet on a person’s memory.

A. CORRECT. The study described in paragraph 5 examined the effect of computer use on the way people evaluate information, specifically “which information deserves their effort to remember,” and determined that “those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.” The study described in paragraph 2 established that the use of Internet search engines increases the “inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information” (paragraph 3), and the study in paragraph 6 examined how this reliance on technology affects the way people store information: “Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself.”

B. Incorrect. Although a difference in the ability of the human brain and the capacity of the Internet to locate information might seem evident, the studies cited in the passage did not examine the ability or the capacity of either. The studies did not measure what the human brain is capable of but rather how memory is affected by the use of the Internet.

C. Incorrect. While the studies explored the Internet’s effect on the way information is stored in human memory, the type of information was not described or compared. Instead, the studies indicated that location is the main difference between the information stored in the Internet and the information stored in human memory, noting that the Internet has become “an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory” (paragraph 6).

D. Incorrect. Although it is increasingly common to use the Internet to obtain information (paragraph 2) rather than try to memorize information (paragraph 5), the studies did not examine the difficulty or ease of obtaining/recalling information using either method.

Question analysis

This evidence question asks how the studies described in “A Memory Revolution” illustrate the Internet’s effect on a person’s memory. Students must recall three experiments, one with trivia questions and Google, one with trivia typed into a computer file, and one with named folders, and decide what they examine together. Each choice sounds like a fair claim about the Internet and the brain.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summing up what a text’s evidence shows is everyday grade 7 work. Here the evidence is three studies spread over paragraphs 2, 5 and 6, which adds recall, but each one is described in plain terms.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 96 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question asks what the article’s studies show together, so a student needs a one-line summary of three experiments before reading the choices. The key is slightly loose, since only the first study uses a search engine, which can make a careful reader hesitate. The strongest pull comes from paragraph 2, where most people turned to Google even for easy questions; it sounds like proof that searching is easier, but no study weighed the effort of looking up against remembering.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The three studies sit in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6, and the key gathers them: turning to Google even for easy questions, recalling less from a saved file, and remembering folders better than facts. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    No sentence says what the studies share; students must abstract it, that expecting later access changes what people bother to store, from experiments built on Google, a computer file and named folders. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Each wrong choice names something the studies might plausibly have measured, the Internet’s capacity, kinds of information or ease of searching, and only a check of the three experiments shows that none did. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Sum up in a phrase what the studies in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6 each tested, then pick the option that describes what they examined rather than a point made elsewhere in the article.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what the studies in the article have in common. How do they show the Internet’s effect on memory? There are three studies, in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6. Sum up each one in a few words. Then find the choice that fits all three.

  2. Sum up the three studies

    • Paragraph 2: People who had used Google kept using it, even for easy questions. In fact, “83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round.”
    • Paragraph 5: People who thought a file of facts would be erased remembered more. They decided which facts deserved “their effort to remember.”
    • Paragraph 6: People remembered where facts were kept better than the facts themselves.

  3. Find what the studies share

    Each study looks at how people treat information when a computer or search engine can hold it for them. People decide what is worth the effort to remember. Judging the value of something like this is called evaluating. People also change what they store in their minds, such as where a fact is instead of the fact. That is the effect on memory.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. The studies show people judging what to remember and storing where to find it.
    • B does not fit. No study measured how much the Internet can hold or what the brain can do.
    • C does not fit. No study sorted information into types.
    • D does not fit. No study compared how easy it is to search and to remember.

    Watch out: D is tempting because most people in paragraph 2 kept using Google. That might seem to show searching is easier. But the study never measured ease. It only counted who used Google.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice describes what the studies actually tested. So the answer is A, “examine how the use of search engines changes the way people evaluate and store information for future access.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. It sounds like a fair reason people use Google. But none of the studies timed or rated the effort of searching or remembering. They tested what people chose to remember and what they stored. A describes that. Only the first study used a search engine, but the other two show the same pattern with a computer file and folders.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 7 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 11 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 11, question 7.

Question 36 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 15
Passage Wolves of the Sea

Wolves of the Sea

The cool and misty landscape of the Great Bear Rainforest can be found along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, and its nearby islands, from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. Within this protected area, wolves roam the forests, islands, and beaches. When biologist Chris Darimont began to study these wolves, he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves. He spoke with Chester Starr, an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation that has occupied the Great Bear Rainforest for thousands of years. What Starr had to say about the wolves changed Darimont’s perception of the animals.

Starr asked Darimont which wolves he and his team were going to study—the timber wolves (mainland wolves) or the coastal wolves on the islands. The question took Darimont by surprise. Biologists had always believed that the wolves that are sometimes spotted swimming between islands and eating salmon are the same wolves that live on the mainland. Darimont was intrigued by Starr’s classification of the wolves as two different groups. At first, he was hesitant to accept the idea. The distances between the mainland and the islands are small, less than a mile. Why would the wolves on the islands be any different from the wolves on the mainland? To find out, Darimont and his research team studied the wolves on the islands and in the densely forested territory of the Great Bear Rainforest for ten years.

Throughout the study, Darimont recorded several significant, observable differences between the “sea wolves,” as they are nicknamed, and the mainland wolves. Compared with the mainland wolves, the sea wolves are smaller in size and are strong swimmers. In 1996 sea wolves were spotted on an island nearly eight miles from any other land formation. While mainland wolves almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals, sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish. Sea wolves regularly swim between islands and have been known to sneak up on a seal sunning itself on a rock and make a leaping attack from the water. Some salmon-eating mainland wolves come and go from the islands with the fish-spawning season, but the sea wolves are full-time island residents. Darimont suspects that some sea wolves live their entire life on the islands.

The sea wolves displayed not only physical and behavioral differences but also genetic variations from the mainland wolves. After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves. A genetic marker is a variation in a DNA sequence that can be used to identify individuals or a species because it is passed down to offspring. Darimont hypothesizes that a change in habitat led to the eventual genetic differences between sea wolves and mainland wolves. Many years ago, loss of habitat and food sources forced some mainland wolves out to the islands. They learned to eat everything from kelp and fish eggs to the remains of sea creatures that washed up on the beach. Wolves living on the islands and mainland wolves became more isolated and rarely mated with each other. Over time the two types of wolves became more distinct.

It turned out that Chester Starr was right all along. “It sounded totally bizarre at first,” admits Darimont, “that there could be two versions of the species.” But he now realizes that this skepticism “definitely reflected my ignorance of indigenous knowledge at the time.” Learning to trust the wisdom of the Heiltsuk people opened Darimont up to knowledge accumulated over millennia and positioned him so that he could gather new scientific evidence about one of British Columbia’s most elusive species, the sea wolf.

Question

The details in paragraph 1 contribute to a central idea of the passage by showing that Darimont

  • Abelieved the Great Bear Rainforest was an ideal location to study wolves in their natural habitat because it is a protected area.
  • Bvalues different perspectives, because the information that Starr provided influenced the focus of Darimont’s research.
  • Cthought the Great Bear Rainforest would provide opportunities to study different groups of wolves because the area includes forests and islands.
  • Dunderstands the importance of respecting local community members, because Darimont sought permission from an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation before starting his research.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the details about Darimont in paragraph 1 contribute to a central idea of the passage.

A. Incorrect. Although paragraph 1 includes the detail that the Great Bear Rainforest is a protected area, finding an ideal location to study wolves is not a central idea of the passage. Additionally, the paragraph does not describe Darimont’s beliefs about the Great Bear Rainforest.

B. CORRECT. Paragraph 1 explains why Darimont wanted to consult with Chester Starr, an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation: “When biologist Chris Darimont began to study these wolves, he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves.” The details in paragraph 1 show that Darimont valued Starr’s perspective (“What Starr had to say about the wolves changed Darimont’s perception of the animals”), even though it was different from Darimont’s own perspective at that time.

C. Incorrect. Paragraphs 1 and 2 show that Darimont did not initially believe that the mainland wolves and the coastal wolves were different groups. Therefore, the details in paragraph 1 do not provide evidence that Darimont chose the Great Bear Rainforest because of an expectation that there were separate groups of island wolves and timber wolves. Instead, he chose the Great Bear Rainforest for the opportunity to study what he had presumed to be one group of wolves.

D. Incorrect. Although Darimont sought out Chester Starr, an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation, before beginning his research, Darimont’s purpose in doing so was not to request Starr’s permission to study the wolves but to learn from Starr’s expert knowledge of the area and its wolves (“When biologist Chris Darimont began to study these wolves, he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves” [paragraph 1]).

Question analysis

This central idea question on “Wolves of the Sea,” an article about the coastal wolves of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, asks what the details in paragraph 1 show about the biologist Chris Darimont. Students must connect an introductory paragraph to the idea the whole passage develops, and each choice pairs a claim about Darimont with a reason that has to be checked.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Linking an opening paragraph’s details to a central idea is standard grade 7 work. Paragraph 1 is plainly written, but each choice is a two-part claim about Darimont with a reason attached, so both halves must be checked against the text.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 97 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A missing word 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

Every choice pairs a claim about Darimont with a reason, so students who check only the first half can talk themselves into the respect choice, whose motive, asking permission, is a real-world custom the paragraph never mentions. The paragraph’s setting details, a protected area of forests and islands, invite readers to build beliefs about the study site that Darimont never states. The question rewards reading paragraph 1 as the opening of the passage’s larger story: a scientist learning from local knowledge.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Paragraph 1 never says Darimont values other views; that has to be drawn from his wish “to learn what they knew” and from Starr changing “Darimont’s perception of the animals.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The respect choice shares the key’s picture of Darimont turning to the Heiltsuk and differs only in its reason: asking an elder’s permission instead of learning what the Heiltsuk knew about the wolves. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The central idea the paragraph serves is stated only in paragraph 5, where trusting “the wisdom of the Heiltsuk people” opens Darimont to knowledge “accumulated over millennia.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Sum up what paragraph 1 says Darimont did and why, recall what the passage as a whole is about, and test both parts of each choice, the claim and its reason, against the paragraph’s own words.

Traps

  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
  • 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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option C says Darimont “chose Great Bear Rainforest.” The passage, and the next sentence of the same explanation, say “the Great Bear Rainforest,” so the site adds “the.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a central idea question. A central idea is a main point the whole passage builds. You need to see how paragraph 1 helps build that point. Each choice has two parts: something about Darimont, and a reason. Both parts must match the paragraph.

  2. Find the passage’s central idea

    The last paragraph spells it out. Starr “was right all along.” Then it says, “Learning to trust the wisdom of the Heiltsuk people opened Darimont up to knowledge accumulated over millennia.” Millennia means thousands of years. So a central idea is that a scientist learned from the long knowledge of the local people.

  3. Read what paragraph 1 shows

    Paragraph 1 says Darimont “wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves.” To confer is to talk and share ideas. The paragraph ends, “What Starr had to say about the wolves changed Darimont’s perception of the animals.” His perception is the way he saw and understood them. So Darimont listened to a different point of view, and it changed how he saw the wolves.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The paragraph calls the area protected. But it never says what Darimont thought of it as a place to study.
    • B is right. A perspective is a point of view. Darimont wanted to hear what the First Nations knew. Starr’s words changed how he saw the wolves and what he set out to study.
    • C is wrong. Darimont did not expect two groups of wolves. In paragraph 2, Starr’s question “took Darimont by surprise.”
    • D is wrong. Darimont never asks for permission. He went “to learn what they knew about these wolves.”

    Watch out: D sounds kind and respectful, so it pulls hard. But asking an elder’s permission is a custom you may know from real life. The paragraph never mentions it.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 1 shows Darimont seeking out what Starr knew and letting it change his view. That fits the passage’s central idea about trusting local knowledge. So the answer is B, “values different perspectives, because the information that Starr provided influenced the focus of Darimont’s research.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer. Like B, it shows Darimont turning to a Heiltsuk elder. But its reason is wrong. Paragraph 1 says he wanted “to learn what they knew about these wolves,” not to get permission. B gives the reason the passage gives: what Starr knew changed Darimont’s view.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 15 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 25 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 25, question 15. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed (pages 23–24)The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed on page 23 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed on page 24 of the DOE handbook.

Question 37 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 17

Uses the passage above: “Wolves of the Sea”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 4.

After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves.

The phrase “hard biological evidence” conveys that the goal of the research team was to

  • Adevelop a procedure in order to ensure their study yielded plentiful data about the wolves.
  • Bseek definitive scientific proof of the number of wolf species present in the area of the study.
  • Cconduct a study to evaluate multiple theories about the diets of different wolf species.
  • Ddiscover if the new data would provide information different from that of previous studies.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the phrase “hard biological evidence” in the sentence from paragraph 4 conveys about the goal of the research team.

A. Incorrect. Although the research team followed a labor-intensive procedure, the phrase “hard biological evidence” refers to the product of their scientific research (the genetic markers revealed within the DNA samples), not the process by which they collected it. Their goal was not to develop a procedure for data collection but to determine precisely how many species of wolf were present in the area.

B. CORRECT. The research team wanted to prove or disprove the theory that two separate groups of wolves were present in the area, an idea that was already supported by the observations of scientists and local indigenous people. The phrase “hard biological evidence” conveys that the scientists wanted to bolster their observations of the wolves with concrete scientific data about the wolves’ biological makeup. The goal of the researchers was to use the data to prove how many species of wolf were present in the area of the study.

C. Incorrect. The research team gathered extensive data during their study (“After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste” [paragraph 4]), and their goal in doing so was to evaluate a single theory about the wolves: that the wolves had evolved into two separate and genetically distinct species. The research team did not conduct the study in order to evaluate multiple theories about the diets of the wolves.

D. Incorrect. The phrase “hard biological evidence” does not suggest that the research team was hoping to discover if the new data would provide information that was different from previous studies. In fact, the goal of the research team was to use the genetic data to supplement their initial sources of information about the wolves and their own observations from the field.

Question analysis

This word-in-context question quotes a sentence from paragraph 4 of “Wolves of the Sea” about DNA taken from 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, and asks what the phrase “hard biological evidence” shows about the research team’s goal. Students must work out what the phrase says about the evidence and then turn that into a statement of purpose, choosing among four plausible aims for a study.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L4a context clues
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly interpret a phrase in context. Here the phrase must be turned into a claim about the team’s purpose, which the passage never states outright, and the four choices are abstract research goals that each sound reasonable.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 114 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question asks for a purpose, but the phrase it quotes describes a result, so students have to reason from the kind of evidence produced to what the team wanted it for. Readers who take “hard” as difficult drift toward a goal about procedure, and those who remember that biologists had long thought the wolves were one group are drawn to a goal of overturning earlier studies. The key’s “number of wolf species” is looser than the passage’s “two versions of the species,” which can make careful readers hesitate.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The passage never states the team’s goal, so students must work back from “hard biological evidence” to the question paragraph 2 set up: whether island and mainland wolves are really two groups. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Hard words moderate Understanding the question

    “Hard” here means solid and conclusive, as in hard evidence, not difficult; students who know only the everyday sense connect it to the labor of analyzing 800 samples of fur and waste. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The goal the phrase points to lies two paragraphs back, in Starr’s two-group question and Darimont’s ten-year study “to find out,” not in the sentence the stem quotes. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Replace “hard” with a word that fits evidence produced by DNA analysis, then ask what the team wanted that kind of evidence for, recalling the question Darimont set out to answer.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what a phrase shows about the team’s goal. A goal is what you are trying to get. The phrase names the kind of evidence the team got. Work back from that to what they wanted it for.

  2. Read the sentence with the phrase

    In paragraph 4, the team studied “800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste.” Then they “could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves.” A genetic marker is a small difference in the DNA that parents pass to their young. Distinct means clearly different.

  3. Work out what “hard” means

    Here “hard” does not mean difficult. Hard evidence is solid proof that is tough to argue with. Biological means it comes from living things and their bodies. So the team wanted firm proof from the wolves’ own bodies.

  4. Connect the proof to the question

    What did they want to prove? Go back to paragraph 2. Starr said there were two groups of wolves. Darimont was unsure. “To find out,” his team studied the wolves. The DNA gave a firm answer: the sea wolves really are a separate group. So the goal was solid proof of how many groups of wolves live there.

  5. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It reads “hard” as hard work. The phrase is about how firm the proof is, not about a procedure.
    • B is right. Definitive means final and settled. The team wanted settled proof of how many groups of wolves live there. B says “species,” which goes further than the passage. Darimont speaks only of “two versions of the species.”
    • C is wrong. Diets come up in paragraph 3. The DNA work tested whether there were two groups.
    • D is wrong. The phrase says nothing about earlier studies.

    Watch out: D is tempting because biologists “had always believed” the wolves were one group. But “hard” evidence is about firm proof, not about beating old studies.

  6. Choose the answer

    “Hard biological evidence” shows the team wanted firm, scientific proof. So the answer is B, “seek definitive scientific proof of the number of wolf species present in the area of the study.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer. Biologists had thought the wolves were one group, so D can seem to fit. But the phrase “hard biological evidence” is about how firm the proof is. It says nothing about earlier studies. B matches that: the team wanted settled proof of how many groups there were.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 27 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 27, question 17.

Question 38 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 20

Uses the passage above: “Wolves of the Sea”.

Question

How did a change in habitat most affect the wolf population of the Great Bear Rainforest over time?

  • AIt caused some of the wolves to learn new hunting techniques in order to catch increasingly scarce prey.
  • BIt caused the wolves to form smaller packs and eventually separate, establishing distinct territories.
  • CIt caused some of the wolves to gradually become a new, genetically distinct species as they adapted behaviorally.
  • DIt caused the wolves to adapt their diet as different food sources became available in the area.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how a change in habitat most affected the wolf population of the Great Bear Rainforest over time.

A. Incorrect. Although the island wolves learned new hunting techniques (“dig for clams and to catch fish,” “sneak up on a seal sunning itself on a rock and make a leaping attack from the water” [paragraph 3]), there is no evidence in the passage that these hunting techniques were developed in response to scarcity of prey. The most significant effect of the change in habitat was not an influence on hunting techniques but the behavior differences that evolved because of the isolation of the groups of wolves from each other.

B. Incorrect. The change in habitat did not cause the wolves to form smaller packs but rather served to create distinctive behaviors because of the isolation of one pack from another, eventually causing the groups of wolves to become distinct species.

C. CORRECT. The change in habitat caused the wolves to gradually become two distinct species. Though the “sea wolves regularly swim between islands” and “some salmon-eating mainland wolves come and go from the islands,” the “sea wolves are full-time island residents” (paragraph 3). This behavioral adaptation to their environment caused the sea wolves to become “more isolated” from the mainland wolves; as a result, the two groups “rarely mated with each other,” and “over time the two types of wolves became more distinct” (paragraph 4).

D. Incorrect. Only the sea wolves adapted their diet. They did this not because different food sources became available in the area but because they were in an entirely different area from the mainland wolves.

Question analysis

This cause-and-effect question asks how a change in habitat most affected the wolf population of the Great Bear Rainforest over time, in the article “Wolves of the Sea.” Students must follow the account in paragraphs 3 and 4 of how some wolves came to live on the islands and pick the result the passage treats as the main one, among several that sound possible.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Tracing how one event leads to another is core grade 7 informational reading. The effects here are spread over two paragraphs of science writing, and several choices mix real details with causes the passage never gives, which keeps the demand typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 85 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • Two grammar slips 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

Several effects of the move are real, and the strongest wrong answer names one of them, a change of diet, but gives it the wrong cause by having food appear nearby instead of wolves being forced out to the islands. Students who stop at the first effect they recognize miss that the question asks what happened over time. The key’s “new, genetically distinct species” overstates the passage, which calls the wolves “two versions of the species,” though it is still the only choice that follows the chain to its end.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The chain of effects runs across two paragraphs: the island habits of paragraph 3, then paragraph 4’s loss of habitat, isolation, rare mating and the two types becoming “more distinct” over time. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The word “most” and the phrase “over time” point past the first changes, a new diet and new skills, to the end of the chain, genetic difference, which students must rank as the main effect. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Trace the chain of events in paragraphs 3 and 4 from the wolves’ move to the islands onward, then test each choice for who changed, why, and with what result.

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.
  • 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.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option B says “eventually causing the groups of wolves to became distinct species”; the site says “to become.” Its explanation of Option C says the change “caused the sea wolves to ‘became more isolated’ from the mainland wolves,” putting paragraph 4’s past-tense “became” after “to”; the site now reads “caused the sea wolves to become ‘more isolated’ from the mainland wolves.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a cause-and-effect question. The cause is a change in habitat. A habitat is the place where an animal lives and finds food. You need the biggest effect it had “over time.” So follow the whole chain of events to its end.

  2. Find the cause in paragraph 4

    Paragraph 4 says, “Many years ago, loss of habitat and food sources forced some mainland wolves out to the islands.” There, “They learned to eat everything from kelp and fish eggs to the remains of sea creatures that washed up on the beach.” Kelp is a kind of seaweed.

  3. Follow the chain to its end

    Next, the two groups “became more isolated and rarely mated with each other.” Isolated means cut off. Then, “Over time the two types of wolves became more distinct.” Distinct means clearly different. Darimont thinks the change in habitat “led to the eventual genetic differences.” Genetic means in the DNA, passed from parents to young. So the chain ends with the two groups becoming different in their DNA.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Lost food sent wolves to the islands. The passage never says they learned tricks to catch scarce, or hard-to-find, prey.
    • B is wrong. The passage never mentions packs or territories.
    • C is right. Some wolves changed how they live, then grew apart in their DNA. One caution: C says “species.” The passage is more careful. It speaks of “two versions of the species.”
    • D is wrong. Only the island wolves changed their diet. They did not find new food nearby. Lost food forced them to move.

    Watch out: D names a real effect, a new diet. But that is only an early step, and D gives the wrong reason for it.

  5. Choose the answer

    The biggest effect over time was that the island wolves grew different in their DNA from the mainland wolves. So the answer is C, “It caused some of the wolves to gradually become a new, genetically distinct species as they adapted behaviorally.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because the diet really did change. But D says new food “became available in the area.” The passage says the opposite: lost food forced some wolves out to the islands. A new diet is also only an early step. C follows the chain all the way to the change in their DNA.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 20 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 30 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 30, question 20. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 39 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 23
Passage 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 use of italics on the word “night” in line 24 is most likely intended to emphasize the

  • Asense of mystery in the darkness.
  • Bsense of absolute darkness.
  • Cspeaker’s fear of night.
  • Dspeaker’s certainty about that night.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the use of italics on the word “night” in line 24 is most likely intended to emphasize.

A. Incorrect. The purpose of italicizing the word “night” is not to convey mystery. While the speaker refers to not knowing the exact location where the firework viewing took place (“in the stubble of what had been / somebody’s cornfield” [lines 25–26]), the emphasis on “night” is meant to highlight the darkness and contrast the bright light from the fireworks soaring across the sky.

B. CORRECT. The italics are intended to place emphasis on one key aspect of nighttime—total darkness. The speaker is making a point that night in the country was truly dark, unlike the night the speaker currently experiences in a city, where light emitted from buildings and vehicles prevents complete darkness.

C. Incorrect. The tone in the second stanza is positive, showing admiration for the beauty visible in true darkness rather than fear: “But it was another thing to see / the sky at night written upon / with those jewels” (lines 21–23).

D. Incorrect. The speaker is talking about the general experience of watching fireworks on several occasions, not focusing on the events of a specific night. The use of italics on the word “night” emphasizes the speaker’s memory of the persistent darkness.

Question analysis

In “Ode to Fireworks,” the word “night” is printed in italics in line 24, inside the speaker’s aside about living in the country. This craft question asks what the italics are most likely meant to emphasize, so students must think about what stressing one ordinary word does and choose among moods and meanings the word could carry.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 students explain how word choice shapes meaning; here the device is italics on one everyday word, which is studied less often. The surrounding lines are plain, so a single careful inference settles it, a typical grade 7 demand.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 36 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

One plain word in a parenthesis carries the question, and its meaning comes from the stress, not the dictionary. Darkness is easy to see; the harder step is choosing what the italics add to it, and mystery is a familiar partner for darkness that the stanza never develops. Students who read on to the brightly lit city of the third stanza see that the speaker is insisting on how complete the country dark was.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks what italics do, not what a word means, so students must hear the stress in “night was night” as insisting that the country night was fully dark, as night should be. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The mystery choice and the key both tie the italics to darkness; they differ only in what the darkness carries, a sense of mystery or its sheer completeness. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The point of the stress becomes clear from the third stanza, where “The city sky is always lit up” and the speaker now lives “awash in light / of every hue.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Read line 24 aloud, stressing “night” as the italics do, and ask what the speaker insists on about nights in the country; then check whether the rest of the poem backs that reading.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • 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 purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why one word is in italics. Italics are slanted letters. Writers use them to stress a word, the way you would say it louder. So ask what the speaker insists on.

  2. Read the line aloud

    Lines 23–24 say “(We lived in the country: / night was night.)” Read it aloud and lean on the second “night.” It means night was really night. It was as dark as night should be, with no city lights.

  3. Use the rest of the poem

    Stanza 3 shows the opposite. “The city sky is always lit up.” The speaker now lives “awash in light / of every hue.” Awash means flooded. A hue is a color. So the italics stress how completely dark the country night was. That darkness made the fireworks stand out.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Darkness can feel mysterious. But nothing in the stanza is hidden or puzzling.
    • B is right. Absolute means total. The italics stress that the dark was total.
    • C is wrong. The speaker shows wonder, not fear. The sky is full of “jewels.”
    • D is wrong. “That night” would mean one evening. The speaker means country nights in general, at a fair held “year after year.”

    Watch out: A pairs darkness with mystery, which feels natural. But the speaker stresses how dark it was, not that it felt strange.

  5. Choose the answer

    The italics insist that country nights were fully dark. So the answer is B, “sense of absolute darkness.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, since both A and B link the italics to darkness. But the stanza never treats the night as strange or secret. The bright city sky in stanza 3 shows what the stress is for: country nights were completely dark. That is B.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 23 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 35 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 35, question 23.
The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed (page 32)The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed on page 32 of the DOE handbook.

Question 40 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 24

Uses the passage above: “Ode to Fireworks”.

Question

What is the purpose of the repeated words “rising and falling” in lines 26 and 37?

  • Ato create a distinction between solitude and meaningful interaction
  • Bto demonstrate a connection between the speaker’s past and present
  • Cto emphasize the speaker’s attention to the surrounding sounds
  • Dto compare the fireworks to common sights and sounds
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the purpose is of the repeated words “rising and falling” in lines 26 and 37.

A. Incorrect. These lines do not provide insight into the speaker’s interactions or feelings of solitude. The speaker mentions the emptiness of the country and the crowds in the city, but these repeated words are meant to draw a connection between the locations rather than show differences between them.

B. CORRECT. The first mention of these words occurs during a recollection of the speaker’s past, and the second takes place during a description of the speaker’s present. The speaker looks to the connections between the country setting (“All around us, crickets / stridulated in the stubble of what had been / somebody’s cornfield, their song rising and falling” [lines 24–26]) and the city setting (“And the music around me is the music of people, / their voices rising and falling in a hundred languages” [lines 36–37]) as a source of comfort.

C. Incorrect. Even though the lines call out specific sounds, the purpose of the repetition of the words in the two parts of the poem is to show how the speaker connects the two settings. The “rising and falling” of the sounds is one detail the speaker highlights.

D. Incorrect. The repetition of the words “rising and falling” is used to compare the different locations in the speaker’s life, not to compare fireworks to the sounds of crickets in the country or to the sounds of people moving and talking in the city.

Question analysis

The phrase “rising and falling” appears twice in “Ode to Fireworks,” in line 26 for the crickets’ song and in line 37 for people’s voices. This question asks for the purpose of repeating it, so students must compare the two places where it appears and decide what the echo does for the poem as a whole.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how a poem’s structure develops its meaning. The repeated words are easy to spot, but they sit eleven lines apart in different stanzas, and the four purposes offered each sound possible, a typical grade 7 structure task.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 51 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 repeated words are easy to find; the work is seeing that they sit on either side of the poem’s turn from childhood memory to city life. The strongest pull is the accurate observation that both lines describe sounds, which tells what the lines say rather than why the poet repeats them. The country and city are contrasted elsewhere in the poem, so a choice built on a contrast also tempts, though repeating the same words joins the two scenes instead of separating them.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks for the purpose of a repetition, so it is not enough to see that both lines describe sounds; students must say what echoing “rising and falling” does for the poem. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The two uses sit eleven lines apart in different stanzas, the crickets’ song in the remembered country field and city voices “in a hundred languages” in the present, and must be read together. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Reread the lines around each use of “rising and falling,” describe each scene in a phrase, and ask what echoing the same words in both scenes accomplishes for the poem.

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

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 25 (“how the memory in lines 41–42 affects the speaker”) and marks D correct, and this question’s explanation (“what the purpose is of the repeated words ‘rising and falling’ in lines 26 and 37”) is printed after question 25, marking B correct. Read page by page, the appendix gives this question the answer D. The site gives the question the explanation that restates it, and the answer follows that explanation: B, because the words join the crickets’ song of the speaker’s country childhood (line 26) to the voices of the city in the present (line 37).

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about purpose: why the poet repeats the words “rising and falling.” Don’t just say what the lines describe. Ask what repeating the same words does for the poem.

  2. Find both uses

    The first is in line 26, in the country of the speaker’s childhood. Crickets “stridulated in the stubble of what had been / somebody’s cornfield, their song rising and falling.” To stridulate is to chirp by rubbing body parts together. The second is in line 37, in the city today: “their voices rising and falling in a hundred languages.”

  3. See what the repeat does

    The two uses sit on either side of the poem’s big turn. Stanza 2 is the past in the country. Stanza 3 is the present in the city. The crickets’ song then and people’s voices now rise and fall alike. Using the same words in both places links the two times. So the repeat ties the speaker’s past to the present.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Solitude means being alone. But the speaker was with family in the country. And the repeat joins the scenes. It does not set them apart.
    • B is right. The same words join a childhood scene to a scene from now.
    • C is wrong. Both lines do describe sounds. But that is what the lines say, not why the words repeat.
    • D is wrong. The words describe crickets and voices. Neither is compared to fireworks.

    Watch out: C is true, which makes it tempting. But a purpose question asks why, not what.

  5. Choose the answer

    The repeated words link the country past to the city present. So the answer is B, “to demonstrate a connection between the speaker’s past and present.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer. It is true that both lines describe sounds the speaker hears. But the question asks for the purpose. The crickets belong to the speaker’s past, and the voices to the present. Repeating “rising and falling” joins the two times. That connection is B.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 24 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 36 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 36, question 24. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 41 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 25

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

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.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 25 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 37 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 37, question 25. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 42 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 26

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

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.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.”

  5. 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 26 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 38 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 38, question 26. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 43 of 112

2026 Practice Test D English, question 40
Passage Martial Arts for the Mind and Body

Martial Arts for the Mind and Body

(1) The martial arts blend a series of physical movements with strategic mental discipline so that practitioners can defend themselves, physically defeat an opponent, or both. (2) Historians are unsure of exactly when and where martial arts were first used. (3) Martial arts have been practiced by several different societies for many centuries. (4) Martial arts such as karate, kung fu, tae kwon do, and judo are still taught and practiced as methods of self-defense, but they offer students more than that. (5) The study of martial arts can provide students with a way to enhance their mental discipline as well as their physical fitness.

(6) Discipline, focus, and respect are important qualities for everyone to have. (7) However, for most people these qualities are not innate; they must be learned and practiced. (8) The study of martial arts can provide an opportunity to develop these skills. (9) Students are rewarded for their dedication by passing tests and advancing to higher ranks or levels. (10) For example, in a typical tae kwon do class, students learn discipline by diligently practicing moves, improve focus by listening carefully, and demonstrate respect by bowing to the instructor and following directions.

(11) For teenagers, martial arts classes provide a safe and structured environment for gaining physical skills, building confidence, and enjoying a sense of community. (12) A lot of teens go through hard situations as they try to do well in school and in life. (13) A martial arts class can provide teens with a physical outlet for stress while also challenging them mentally. (14) Participating in a martial arts program also helps children and teens focus on self-improvement rather than on competition. (15) Progressing through levels of achievement involves mastering more physically demanding techniques. (16) It requires students to take responsibility and be accountable for achieving set goals. (17) Students gain confidence and experience companionship with other students who are progressing through the ranks.

(18) Adults who practice martial arts can experience many of the same benefits that younger people do, but perhaps the greatest of these is health and fitness. (19) Adult martial arts students often see changes in their body within weeks of beginning a program.

(20) For people interested in studying a martial art, there are many ways to learn and practice. (21) In addition to private studios, community recreation centers often offer low-cost or free martial arts classes. (22) There are even online videos that introduce students to the basic concepts. (23) People should study martial arts.

Question

Which concluding sentence should replace sentence 23 to best support the topic presented in the passage?

  • AWith so many ways to begin studying martial arts, people can easily discover how the skills needed to progress in rank may help them in life.
  • BBy taking advantage of opportunities to practice martial arts, people can experience the satisfaction of achieving goals while also improving themselves.
  • CBecause people are eager to reap the mental and physical benefits of studying martial arts, enrollment in martial arts courses has increased.
  • DWhile taking martial arts classes can improve health for both young people and adults, the effects are clearly more immediate for adults.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the concluding sentence that best replaces sentence 23 and supports the topic presented in the passage.

A. Incorrect. The phrase “the skills needed to progress in rank” is vague, and progressing in rank is not related to the overall topic of the passage, which is the benefits of studying martial arts. The topic of the passage is not the “many ways to begin studying martial arts” or how “people can easily discover” the benefits of martial arts.

B. CORRECT. This option is correct because it best supports the topic of the passage—the benefits of studying martial arts—by stating two reasons why people should study martial arts: to “experience the satisfaction of achieving goals while also improving themselves.”

C. Incorrect. Some readers may choose this option because it refers to the benefits of martial arts, but the word “because” and the detail that “enrollment in martial arts courses has increased” make this sentence unrelated to the overall topic of the passage, which is about the benefits of studying martial arts, not the number of people who participate.

D. Incorrect. Although the benefits of studying martial arts are described for both teens (in the third paragraph) and adults (in the fourth paragraph), the topic of the passage is the overall benefits of studying martial arts, which include mental discipline (discussed in the first, second, and third paragraphs) in addition to health benefits. Furthermore, the passage does not compare the health effects of studying martial arts across age groups.

Question analysis

This conclusion question asks which sentence should replace sentence 23, the bare closing line “People should study martial arts,” to best support the topic of the passage. Students must keep all five paragraphs in view, from mental discipline to fitness to ways of getting started, because every choice sounds like a reasonable final line when read on its own.

NYS standards
  • 7W2e concluding informative writing
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 writers choose conclusions that follow from a passage’s topic. This passage covers mental and physical benefits for different ages, and each long choice picks up a real thread, so judging the best fit takes more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 402 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 106 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

Every ending borrows something real from the passage: ways to begin, ranks, mental and physical benefits, or adults’ quick results. The work is deciding what the whole passage is about, the benefits of martial arts for mind and body, and then noticing which ending adds a new claim or shrinks the topic. The rank-based ending is hardest to reject because it is shaped like the key and promises help “in life,” but its focus is how easily people discover rank skills.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The rank choice is built like the key, a phrase about ways or chances to train followed by what people gain; it differs in resting on the vague “skills needed to progress in rank.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The topic is pieced together from all five paragraphs, from the opening’s mind-and-body claim through teens, adults’ fitness and ways to learn, so a fitting ending must cover both kinds of benefit. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Each choice is a two-part sentence of 21 to 26 words, and each picks up a real thread of the passage, so all four must be held against the topic. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: State the passage’s topic in a few words using all five paragraphs, then test each ending: does it sum up that topic, or does it narrow it or add a new claim?

Traps

  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
  • 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

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 39 (“the sentence that would best follow and support sentence 18”) and marks C correct, and this question’s explanation (“the concluding sentence that best replaces sentence 23 and supports the topic presented in the passage”) is printed after question 39, marking B correct. Read page by page, the appendix gives this question the answer C. The site gives the question the explanation that restates it, and the answer follows that explanation: B, because it sums up the passage’s topic, the benefits of studying martial arts.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for a better last sentence. A good concluding sentence sums up the topic of the whole passage. Sentence 23, “People should study martial arts,” is short and plain. It doesn’t remind the reader why.

  2. Find the passage’s topic

    Sentence 5 states the topic. Martial arts can help students “enhance their mental discipline as well as their physical fitness.” Enhance means improve. Paragraph 2 covers discipline, focus and respect. Paragraph 3 covers teens and goals. Paragraph 4 covers adults and fitness. Paragraph 5 lists ways to start. So the topic is how martial arts help both mind and body.

  3. Name the rule

    A conclusion should sum up the main point. It should not shrink the point or add a brand-new claim. For example, after a report on why sleep matters, a good ending is Getting enough sleep helps both your body and your mind. A poor one is More people buy pillows now.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It rests on vague “skills needed to progress in rank,” one small part of the passage.
    • B is right. “Opportunities to practice” follows paragraph 5. “Achieving goals” and “improving themselves” sum up the benefits.
    • C is wrong. Enrollment is the number of people who sign up. The passage never says it has gone up.
    • D is wrong. The passage never says adults see results sooner than young people. D also leaves out the benefits to the mind.

    Watch out: A is built like B and promises help “in life.” But it shrinks the topic to rank skills.

  5. Choose the answer

    B sums up what the whole passage says martial arts offer. So the answer is B, “By taking advantage of opportunities to practice martial arts, people can experience the satisfaction of achieving goals while also improving themselves.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Like B, it starts with ways to begin and ends with what people gain. But its gain is vague “skills needed to progress in rank.” That is only one thread of the passage. B sums up the whole topic: reaching goals and improving yourself.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 58 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 58, question 40. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Martial Arts for the Mind and Body” as printed (page 52)The passage “Martial Arts for the Mind and Body” as printed on page 52 of the DOE handbook.

Question 44 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 11
Passage Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”

Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”

by Hilary Wilson

In ancient Egypt, literacy was the key to success. However, contrary to popular belief, not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs. Many relied instead on the simpler hieratic script for the multitude of everyday documents generated by the Egyptian bureaucracy.

Hieroglyphs—“the Words of God”—compose a writing system with more than 1,000 distinct characters, the meanings of which were lost for 1,500 years before they were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Including both ideograms (which convey a whole word or idea, either concrete or abstract, in a single sign) and phonograms (representing either an alphabetic sound or a group of consonants), [the writing system] was used in formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls as well as on elaborate funerary papyri. For everyday purposes, however, scribes used a shorthand version of the hieroglyphic script known as hieratic, which was quicker to write and more economical of space. The two writings existed side by side for at least 2,500 years.

Scraps of ancient hieratic writing, mostly penned by student scribes on limestone flakes called ostraca, suggest that no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything. Horemheb (d.1292 B.C.) is a good example. Born of middle-ranking parents, his scribal training led to an army career. From Scribe of Recruits, during the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 B.C.), Horemheb rose through the military ranks and, by the rule of Tutankhamun (1332–1323 B.C.), he was commander in chief of the Egyptian forces. As a close adviser of the young Pharaoh, Horemheb was appointed “Deputy of the King throughout the Two Lands,” and might have expected to succeed to the throne should the king die childless. He had to wait a few years, but eventually Horemheb achieved the pinnacle of his career by becoming the last king of the 18th Dynasty, making his mark by instituting dramatic reforms to the organisation of the army, the judiciary and administration in general. The lasting success of these changes owed much to his scribal background. . . .

But education was not available to all. Government departments and major temples supported schools, where boys commenced their training at six or seven, sometimes earlier. To these boarding establishments . . . family or household servants delivered the students’ food and drink rations daily for several years, during which time the student was not contributing to the family’s income. Boys from poorer families could only hope to be educated with support from a wealthier relative or patron, or through apprenticeship to an older scribe, perhaps the local clerk or land agent, who would teach them the basics of the scribe’s craft. This limited the scope for employment but such “on the job” training allowed apprentices to help out at home while learning. . . .

Scribal education began with the elementary principles of the hieratic script. The lowliest scribes, who trained for just five or six years, probably learned only the rudiments of the hieroglyphic script. Students were set exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting on basic-format letters, reports and contracts, while absorbing the good advice contained in the texts. Surviving examples of copy-work sometimes include tutors’ corrections added in red. Some significant Egyptian literary works survive almost exclusively from student copies.

A schoolboy “dictionary” of hieroglyphs with their hieratic equivalents shows that a knowledge of more than 450 signs was required for everyday writing purposes. Lessons in record-keeping and filing and labelling enabled any half-competent scribe to perform that most essential of all scribal functions: the making and updating of lists. For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs. Those with the best handwriting or drawing skills might follow the craft of creating beautifully illustrated copies of funerary texts, commonly called Books of the Dead. Others could become draughtsmen, artists or architects. Doctors compiled their own collections of medication recipes, treatments and associated incantations, many copied from texts found in the House of Life, the temple library. Lawyers had to be familiar with the corpus of civil and religious laws and precedents found in the official records, which were administered by archivists. Egypt’s bureaucratic society depended on the skills of an army of scribes of all ranks from filing clerk to tax assessor. For young Egyptians, “be a scribe” was the best of career advice.

From “Scribe Like an Egyptian” by Hilary Wilson from HISTORY TODAY, August 8, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by History Today Ltd. Company.

A pyramid diagram titled “ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SOCIAL CLASS STRUCTURE,” divided into five horizontal levels, each with a small drawing of figures in ancient Egyptian style and a labeled box. From top to bottom the levels are labeled: Pharaoh (a single standing figure); Nobility and priests (a kneeling figure and a standing figure); Traders, shopkeepers, scribes, and artisans (two seated figures working); Animal herders and farmers (a man standing beside a group of cattle); and Unskilled workers (three figures bending forward).

bureaucracy: an administrative staff of government officials
funerary papyri: a sheet or scroll of papyrus containing religious images and hieroglyphs meant to help the deceased be reborn in the afterlife
rudiments: basics
schoolboy: slang that refers to materials used during the course of receiving an education
draughtsmen: people who draw plans of machinery or structures
corpus: a collection of writings

Question

Which statement summarizes the process that schools used to train scribes?

  • ABoys had to memorize around 450 hieratic signs. Once they had learned these, they were expected to copy literary texts that contained valuable lessons.
  • BBoys spent at least five years learning hieratic signs, which they practiced by copying texts. During this period, they were also introduced to basic hieroglyphs.
  • CBoys spent five or six years learning the basics of hieratic script. After this period, they could become apprentices and begin learning hieroglyphics.
  • DBoys were taught two different scripts. They practiced both types by copying lists and eventually progressed to writing letters, reports, and contracts.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the best summary of the process that schools used to train scribes.

A. Incorrect. This summary incorrectly explains that scribes were expected to learn 450 hieratic signs instead of 450 hieroglyphs along with their hieratic versions as explained in paragraph 6. In paragraph 5, the author explains that scribes copied texts as part of the process of learning the scripts rather than as practice after the signs had already been memorized.

B. CORRECT. Paragraph 5 explains that students began by learning hieratic script and studied for about five or six years by using “exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting.” The paragraph also explains that during this time, they learned only the basics of hieroglyphic script.

C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 does explain that the scribes spent five or six years learning hieratic script, it does not suggest that hieroglyphs were learned only during apprenticeships.

D. Incorrect. This summary correctly explains that scribes learned two types of scripts, but the second sentence of the summary is incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author explains that the students copied from exemplar texts, but the author clearly states that the purpose of this copy work was “to practice their hieratic handwriting” and does not suggest that the copy work was used to practice hieroglyphs. Paragraph 6 explains that scribes could make lists as part of their professional skills but does not suggest that copy work was used to help them learn this task. Paragraph 5 mentions letters, reports, and contracts as the formats students practiced on while copying, not as a later stage of their training.

Question analysis

This summary question on “Scribe Like an Egyptian” asks which statement sums up how ancient Egyptian schools trained young scribes. Each choice is a two-sentence summary that combines years of study, kinds of script and copying practice, so students must check every detail against what the article says about scribal education.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Summarizing a process is a grade 7 standard, but these four summaries are long, two-part and mostly accurate, and the details they mix up come from three different paragraphs, so judging them asks more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 104 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A detail in the explanation that misdescribes the excerpt was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every wrong summary opens with something true or nearly true, so a quick reading of first sentences cannot separate them. Most of the errors concern order: one makes copying follow memorizing, one turns apprenticeship into a later stage where hieroglyphs begin, and one makes the copied letters, reports and contracts a later step. Students who check the order of training against paragraph 5, not just the facts, find the only summary with nothing out of place.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The apprenticeship summary repeats the right one’s opening, years of hieratic study, and parts from it on one phrase: hieroglyphs come “After this period” instead of “During this period.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The details sit in three paragraphs: the five or six years, the copying and the hieroglyph basics in paragraph 5, apprenticeship in paragraph 4, and the 450-sign dictionary and list-making in paragraph 6. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right summary puts the text in new words, “at least five years” and “basic hieroglyphs,” while wrong ones repeat its own details: “five or six years,” the “450” signs, “letters, reports, and contracts.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Note what the article says students learned, for how long and by what method, then check both sentences of each summary against those notes; one wrong detail rules a summary out.

Traps

  • 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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option D ends: “Paragraph 6 explains that scribes could make lists and write letters as part of their professional skills but does not suggest that copy work was used to help them learn these tasks.” Paragraph 6 mentions the making and updating of lists, but not letters. Letters come up in paragraph 5, where students copy texts “to practice their hieratic handwriting” on basic-format letters, reports and contracts, so the excerpt does tie the copy work to letters. The site now says that paragraph 6 explains that scribes could make lists as part of their professional skills but does not suggest that copy work was used to help them learn this task, and that paragraph 5 mentions letters, reports, and contracts as the formats students practiced on while copying, not as a later stage of their training. Option D is still wrong, and the answer, B, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for the best summary of how schools trained scribes. A summary retells the main steps in a few words. Each choice has two sentences. Both must match the article, including the order of the steps. One wrong detail rules a choice out.

  2. Find the training in paragraph 5

    Paragraph 5 says training began with the basics of hieratic script. The lowest scribes studied for five or six years, and others studied longer. In that time they learned only the basics of hieroglyphs. Students were given “exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting.” Exemplar means model. Extracts are short pieces. So they learned by copying good examples.

  3. Sort out paragraphs 4 and 6

    Two other paragraphs hold details that look alike. Paragraph 4 describes apprenticeship. An apprentice learns on the job from a skilled worker. It was another way in for boys from poorer families, not a step after school. Paragraph 6 mentions a list of hieroglyphs with their hieratic forms. It says more than 450 signs were needed for everyday writing. It never says students memorized them before copying.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The 450 signs were hieroglyphs paired with their hieratic forms. And copying was how students learned, not a step after memorizing.
    • B fits. Students spent at least five years on hieratic, practiced by copying, and learned basic hieroglyphs along the way.
    • C does not fit. Apprenticeship was a different route, not a later stage. Hieroglyphs were not saved for apprentices.
    • D does not fit. The copying was to practice hieratic. Lists come up in paragraph 6 as a job skill, not as practice. Letters, reports and contracts were what students copied, not a later stage.

  5. Choose the answer

    Watch out: C starts out right, with five or six years of hieratic. Then it says hieroglyphs came “After this period” instead of during it. That one change makes it wrong.

    Only B gets every detail and the order right. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice. It gets the five or six years of hieratic right. But it says hieroglyphs came afterward, through apprenticeship. Paragraph 5 says students learned the basics of hieroglyphs during their schooling. Apprenticeship was a separate path for poorer boys. B says “During this period,” which matches.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 11 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 11. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the testThe passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 1 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 2 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 3 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 4 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 5 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 6 of 6.

Question 45 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 12

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian””.

Question

Which claim is best supported by the information presented in paragraphs 3 and 4?

  • AEducation was difficult for the common citizens of Egypt to obtain.
  • BOnce students began studying to become scribes, their future held more possibilities.
  • CIf someone wanted to become a scribe, support from outside sources such as the government or a temple was necessary.
  • DBecoming a successful scribe required a student’s family to sacrifice time and money in order to ensure the best education.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the claim that is best supported by the details in paragraphs 3 and 4.

A. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 does explain that boys from poorer families had more challenges in receiving an education, the paragraph also provides examples of obtaining a patron or getting an apprenticeship as ways that these aspiring scribes could attain an education. Furthermore, the details in paragraph 3 do not provide any support for the claim that “common citizens” had difficulty getting an education because that paragraph focuses on the example of one person who was able to become a king as a result of his background as a scribe.

B. CORRECT. In paragraph 3, the author provides an example of a person who used his skills as a scribe to rise through the ranks of society by describing the achievements of Horemheb to support the idea that “no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything.” The author continues in paragraph 4 to explain that with the proper support, some young Egyptians could become educated, thereby opening more opportunities for themselves.

C. Incorrect. Paragraph 4 explains that schools were supported by the government and religious institutions, but it also explains that apprenticeships were a method of learning the craft of the scribe. As the paragraph indicates, boys could also be helped in their education by support from “a wealthier relative or patron.”

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 4, the author details the sacrifices that families made to keep their sons at the schools, while boys from poorer families could only hope for a patron or an apprenticeship. Paragraph 4 also explains that apprentices could help out at home while learning, so the sacrifice of time and money was not required of every family.

Question analysis

This inference question asks which claim is best supported by paragraphs 3 and 4 of “Scribe Like an Egyptian,” which tell the story of the scribe Horemheb and describe who could get a scribal education in ancient Egypt. Students must weigh each claim against both paragraphs together, and several claims echo a single sentence closely enough to look supported.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Choosing the claim a passage best supports is core grade 7 work. Here the claim must fit two paragraphs that do different jobs, one telling a single man’s story and one explaining access to schooling, and some choices fit only part of that.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 75 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A misdescription of the passage in the explanation of one wrong answer was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The trap is a claim that paragraph 4 seems to state almost word for word, which makes it feel safer than the right one. But the question asks for support from both paragraphs, and Horemheb’s story points the other way, toward what schooling made possible. The two other wrong claims harden paragraph 4’s details into rules, a necessary sponsor or a required family sacrifice, so words like “necessary” and “required” are the ones to test.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The claim must fit two paragraphs that do different work: paragraph 3 follows Horemheb from army scribe to king, and paragraph 4 explains who could pay for schooling and what the alternatives were. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The right claim restates paragraph 3’s “an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything” in new words, while the most tempting wrong one nearly copies paragraph 4’s opening, “education was not available to all.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Students must connect Horemheb’s rise with paragraph 4’s account of who got schooling to see that both paragraphs are about education opening doors, a link the author leaves implicit. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Sum up paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 in a sentence each, then test every claim against both summaries, watching for words that make a claim stronger than the text.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of D said paragraph 4 details sacrifices “necessary for some poorer families,” and that paragraph 3’s Horemheb, born of middle-ranking parents, shows the sacrifice was not required of all families. In paragraph 4 the rations and lost income are those of families whose sons were at the schools; poorer boys could only hope for a patron or an apprenticeship; and paragraph 3 says nothing about what Horemheb’s family gave up. The explanation now says so: D is wrong because apprentices could help out at home while learning, so not every family made the sacrifice.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which claim is best supported by paragraphs 3 and 4 together. A claim is a statement that someone says is true. The right claim must fit both paragraphs. Watch for strong words, like “necessary,” that go further than the text.

  2. Sum up paragraph 3

    Paragraph 3 tells about Horemheb. His parents were middle-ranking, not rich or powerful. His training as a scribe led to a job in the army. He rose to lead the army, then to serve the young king, and in the end he became king himself. The author uses him to show that “no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything.” Humble origins means an ordinary family background.

  3. Sum up paragraph 4

    Paragraph 4 opens by saying that not everyone could get an education. Government offices and big temples ran schools. Families sent food and drink for years, while the boy earned nothing for them. Poorer boys could hope for help from “a wealthier relative or patron.” A patron is someone who pays for another person’s training. Or they could learn on the job from a working scribe. That path led to fewer jobs.

  4. Put the two paragraphs together

    Both paragraphs are about what schooling could do for a boy. Paragraph 3 shows a man rising all the way to king because he trained as a scribe. Paragraph 4 shows that, with the right support, boys could get that schooling. It even notes that the on-the-job path led to fewer jobs. So education opened doors. That is what choice B says.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It matches only the start of paragraph 4. Paragraph 4 also gives ways in for poorer boys, and paragraph 3 shows a man from an ordinary family rising to the top.
    • B fits. Both paragraphs show schooling leading to more possibilities.
    • C does not fit. A government or temple school was not “necessary.” A relative, a patron or an apprenticeship could also work.
    • D does not fit. Apprentices could help out at home while they learned, so not every family gave up time and money. And the paragraphs never mention “the best education.”

  6. Choose the answer

    The claim that fits both paragraphs is that schooling gave a boy more possibilities. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice, because paragraph 4 begins by saying not everyone could get an education. But the question asks about paragraphs 3 and 4. Paragraph 3 tells of a scribe from an ordinary family who became king. Paragraph 4 shows ways around the cost. Both point to what education made possible, which is B.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 12 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 12. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 46 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 13

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian””.

Question

Hieratic script was particularly valuable in a bureaucratic government because

  • Ausing hieratic script was an efficient way for scribes to produce large amounts of documentation.
  • Bmany members of the general public could comprehend information that was written in hieratic script.
  • Cknowledge of hieratic script prepared scribes to serve their society in increasingly challenging roles.
  • Dpeople from different professional backgrounds could easily communicate with one another in hieratic script.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks why hieratic script was especially valuable in a bureaucratic government.

A. CORRECT. Hieratic script is described in paragraph 1 as being simpler for the “multitude of everyday documents” generated by the government and as “quicker to write and more economical of space” in paragraph 2. The logical conclusion based on these details is that hieratic script was more efficient for the large amounts of documentation produced by the government.

B. Incorrect. In paragraph 4, the author explains that “education was not available to all,” suggesting that only people who were educated could read and write. The excerpt as a whole does not provide sufficient information to indicate what portion of the general public would be able to comprehend material written in hieratic script.

C. Incorrect. The idea that becoming a scribe could lead to taking different positions in society is addressed in paragraphs 3, 4, and 6. However, the use of hieratic script in the fields of medicine, law, or religion does not necessarily explain the value of the script for the bureaucratic government referenced in the question.

D. Incorrect. Although different professions such as doctors and lawyers used hieratic script, the author uses these professions as examples of different job opportunities for scribes in paragraph 6. There is no discussion in the excerpt about different professions communicating with each other, and these professions were not necessarily part of the bureaucratic government.

Question analysis

This inference question on “Scribe Like an Egyptian” asks why hieratic, one of the two scripts of ancient Egypt, was especially valuable to a bureaucratic government. The article never gives the reason in a single sentence, so students must connect what it says about Egypt’s bureaucracy with what it says about the script itself. Each choice offers a reasonable-sounding benefit.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Drawing a conclusion from two neighboring paragraphs is typical grade 7 inference work. The word “bureaucratic” and the article’s formal style add some load, but the details needed are close together and plainly stated.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 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 two facts that answer the question sit a few lines apart in the first two paragraphs, so the work is mostly connecting them. The wrong reasons all sound like advantages a simpler script might bring, public readability, career preparation, communication across professions, and each rests on a guess or on the excerpt’s talk of scribal careers rather than on what it says hieratic was used for. Students who return to the description of hieratic itself avoid them.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The reason is split between paragraph 1, where hieratic serves the “multitude of everyday documents,” and paragraph 2, where it is “quicker to write and more economical of space.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The stem turns on “bureaucratic,” a word students must connect to a government that runs on paperwork; without it, the link to large amounts of documentation is hard to see. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    No sentence says why hieratic helped the government; students must combine speed and compactness with the sheer volume of records to reach efficiency. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Find the sentences that describe hieratic script and what it was used for, then pick the choice those sentences support rather than one that only sounds like an advantage.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why hieratic script was so useful to a bureaucratic government. A bureaucracy is a government run by many officials, with lots of paperwork. Hieratic is the quick, simple form of Egyptian writing. Look for what the article says about hieratic and what it was used for.

  2. Find the evidence in paragraphs 1 and 2

    Paragraph 1 says many scribes used hieratic for the “multitude of everyday documents” that the government produced. Multitude means a huge number. Paragraph 2 says hieratic was “quicker to write and more economical of space.” Economical of space means it took up less room on the page.

  3. Connect the two facts

    Put the facts together. The government made a huge number of papers. Hieratic was fast to write and used less space. So scribes could turn out lots of papers quickly. Getting a lot done with little time and effort is called being efficient.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. Hieratic let scribes make large amounts of paperwork quickly.
    • B does not fit. Paragraph 4 says “education was not available to all.” The article never says ordinary people could read hieratic.
    • C does not fit. Training did lead to careers, but that explains a scribe’s chances, not why the government valued the script.
    • D does not fit. Paragraph 6 lists jobs like doctor and lawyer as careers for scribes. It never says those workers wrote to each other in hieratic.

    Watch out: B sounds sensible, since a simpler script seems easier for anyone to read. But that is a guess, not something the article says.

  5. Choose the answer

    Hieratic was fast and compact, and the government needed a huge number of documents. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because a simpler script does sound easier to read. But the article says only some Egyptians got an education. It never says the public could read hieratic. A rests on two facts the article states: the government made a “multitude of everyday documents,” and hieratic was quicker to write.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 13 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 13.

Question 47 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 17
Passage Excerpt from Winter Wheat

Excerpt from Winter Wheat

by Mildred Walker

Ellen, the narrator, is preparing to leave her parents and the family farm for college the next day.

I love Dad’s way of talking that makes him seem different from other ranchers. He’s lived here twenty-three years, but he still says “back East where I come from.” He’s the one who gets excited when I do about spring coming or a serial running in the magazine we’re both reading, but it’s what Mom says that I depend on. When Mom used to say “Don’t worry” about my pet chicken or dog or new calf, it always got well. Dad is always talking of going some place, not now, but next year, maybe. Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning.

Mom folded the ironing board and put it inside their bedroom that was just off the kitchen. She carried in the freshly ironed clothes. Dad went back to his paper. When Mom came back she took beans from the cupboard to soak for tomorrow. Dad always said Mom could make all the dishes he’d had back in Vermont as well as though she were a New Englander herself, instead of a Russian. All of a sudden, I realized that tomorrow when those beans would be ready to eat I’d be going away. It gave me a funny feeling.

“I’ll be taking the train tomorrow night,” I said aloud, more to hear it myself.

“We can drive you into town in the afternoon,” Dad said, dropping his paper on the floor.

“There’s no need to go to town; she can catch the train at Gotham just as well. We haven’t nothing to take us into town for,” Mom said.

“Well, we don’t have to decide tonight,” Dad said, but I knew he wanted to go into Clark City. It wouldn’t be so flat as just seeing me go off on the train from Gotham. My going away was hard on both of them; they were so different—and I was part of them both. It made me uncomfortable to think of leaving them.

While I was getting ready for bed in my room that’s off the front room, I saw how it would be if I left from town. We’d go in right after dinner and go around to the stores, Dad going one way and Mom and I another. Dad would probably have his hair cut at the barbershop and stop in the bank and meet someone he knew to talk to. Then we’d meet at the big store on the corner and go to the cafeteria for supper. The train stops ten minutes or so at the station in town and there are other people and excitement and you have time to wave from the platform and then again from your window by your seat. We went to the station in Clark City to see the Goodals off when they went back to Iowa.

If I left from Gotham, we’d just drive down in the truck and wait till the train came. It only stops long enough for you to get on and you hardly have time to taste the flavor of going away.

I sat on the bed in my pyjamas with my arms around my knees. I couldn’t keep from thinking of that time Dad went back East. I tried to, and then I just sat still and looked straight at it. Sometimes that’s better than working so hard to keep from looking at what’s in your mind.

Dad went all the way back to Vermont. . . . It was in November and it was already dark when the train came through Gotham. Even now, I could feel how cold and dark it was. I held Mom’s hand. Dad was so dressed-up he seemed strange. . . . We stood there without saying anything until Dad told Mom to remember to call Mr. Bardich, our neighbor, if the cow didn’t calve tomorrow.

“I’ll manage,” Mom snapped back.

“I wish you could go, Anna,” Dad said to Mom, “and we could take Ellen.” . . .

“Good-by, Anna Petrovna,” he said, looking at Mom. I had never heard him call her by two names before.

“Good-by,” Mom said, standing still, without smiling.

Then he was gone and the crossroads were darker than ever. The train light shone on the high window in the top of the grain elevator for a moment and then that too was dark. We got into our old Ford and Mom drove back to the house. My throat ached all the way. The name Dad had called Mom kept saying itself in my ears: “Anna Petrovna, Anna Petrovna.” . . .

Our house seemed lonely when we came back to it. It seemed to be hiding under the coulee. I went with Mom to put the truck in the barn that was bigger than the house. I think Mom was prouder of our barn than the house, anyway. We walked back to look at the cow that was going to calve. She was just a big light blob in the dark, waiting. I had thought she was exciting this morning, but now she seemed sad, too.

The wind blew when we walked across the open space to the house and I couldn’t help shivering with the cold. Inside the house it was warm, but empty.

“Bring your nightgown in here and I heat you some milk,” Mom said.

I drank the milk sitting on a stool in front of the stove. It tasted good, but the lonely ache in my throat was still there. I picked up my clothes and hung them neatly behind the stove and put my cup on the sink board. Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning.

“Good night, Mom,” I said almost timidly, standing beside her. She seemed wrapped around in a kind of strangeness. Then she turned around and drew me to her. The front of her dress was warm from the stove. I felt the comfortable heat through my gown. She laid her hand against my face and it felt rough and hard but firm. I dared ask her something I wanted to know.

“Mom, was that really your name—what Dad called you?”

Her voice sounded surprised. “Why, Yeléna, you know that; Anna Petrovna. You know I am born in Russia, in Seletskoe.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know your other name,” I said.

“Anna Petrovna Webb.” She pronounced it slowly. “Once I think what a funny name Ben Webb is!” She laughed. Her laugh was warm and low like our kitchen, and comfortable. The house seemed natural and right again. . . .

But now that I am grown, I feel the wall of strangeness between them, more than when I was a child. I wondered how they would get along without me.

From WINTER WHEAT by Mildred Walker, published by University of Nebraska Press. Copyright © 1944 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1971 by Mildred Walker. All rights reserved.

serial: story published in short segments at regular intervals
coulee: small gulch or ravine

Question

Read these sentences from paragraph 2.

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.

The sentences help develop a theme of the excerpt by

  • Asuggesting that life presents people with many challenges.
  • Bimplying that the stress of major life events can cause confusion.
  • Cdemonstrating that moving on from the familiar is a common human experience.
  • Demphasizing the idea that people can easily learn the routines of being part of a new culture.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the sentences in paragraph 2 help develop a theme of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Although the sentences from paragraph 2 describe Ellen’s “funny feeling” upon realizing that she will no longer be home when the beans that her mother is making are ready to eat, the details do not show that life presents many challenges. Additionally, the theme that life presents people with many challenges is not a theme found in the excerpt.

B. Incorrect. The sentences from paragraph 2 state that Ellen has “a funny feeling” while awaiting a major life event, but they do not indicate that she is confused or stressed. The details in the sentences convey a sense of wistfulness, but the theme that the stress of major life events causes confusion is not found in the excerpt.

C. CORRECT. The sentences from paragraph 2 show that Ellen’s mother has moved on from the familiar and left her childhood home behind, just as Ellen is about to do. This information links the experiences of parent and child and helps develop the theme that moving beyond the familiar is a common human experience.

D. Incorrect. Although the sentences from paragraph 2 show that Ellen’s mother has learned to cook New England food very well (“as though she were a New Englander herself”), they do not provide information about how easy or difficult it was for Ellen’s mother to learn a new way of cooking. The theme that people can easily learn the routines of a new culture is not a theme found in the excerpt.

Question analysis

This theme question quotes three sentences from paragraph 2 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, about Mom’s cooking and Ellen’s sudden realization that she is leaving, and asks how they help develop a theme. Students must connect a small kitchen moment to an idea that runs through the whole excerpt, choosing among theme statements that range from narrow to very general.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Explaining how details develop a theme is a grade 7 standard. These sentences never state the idea, so students must infer it from a remark about Mom’s cooking and Ellen’s passing feeling, then link it to the whole excerpt, more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 117 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The quoted sentences seem to be about cooking and a passing mood, and the link to a theme hides in where the parents come from. Students who miss that Dad and Mom both left homes far away read the passage as being about Mom’s skill or Ellen’s nerves, and pick a theme built on one of those. The vague choice about life’s challenges catches students who sense that leaving is hard but cannot pin the theme to these details.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    The theme is never stated: students must notice that “back in Vermont” and “instead of a Russian” mean both parents left their first homes, just as Ellen realizes she will be “going away.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    A theme of the excerpt must hold beyond paragraph 2, so the choice has to be checked against Dad’s trip back East in the flashback and Mom’s Russian name in paragraph 22. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How, not what minor Working it out

    The stem asks how the sentences develop a theme, so a remark about cooking has to be read for what it reveals about the parents’ pasts, not for its subject. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Note what each quoted sentence tells you about the person in it, then pick the theme that these details and the rest of the excerpt both support.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • 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.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how three sentences from paragraph 2 help build a theme. A theme is a big idea about life that a story keeps showing. Look at what each sentence tells you about the people in it, not just at its subject, cooking.

  2. Read the sentence about Mom and Dad

    The first sentence says “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.” Vermont is a state far to the east, in New England. Dad grew up there. Mom came from Russia. So both parents left the places where they grew up.

  3. Read the sentences about Ellen

    The next sentences say “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.” The beans are soaking for tomorrow’s meal. Ellen sees that she won’t be home to eat them. She is about to leave her own home, just as her parents once left theirs.

  4. Find the theme

    Put the two parts together. Dad left Vermont, Mom left Russia, and now Ellen is leaving the farm. Each of them moves on from a familiar place. So the sentences show that leaving what you know is something many people go through. Ellen’s “funny feeling” is wistful, a quiet sadness, like missing home before you go.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It is so broad it could fit almost any story. These sentences show leaving home, not many challenges.
    • B does not fit. Ellen’s feeling is quiet and wistful. Nothing shows her stressed or confused.
    • C fits. Parents and daughter all move on from a familiar home.
    • D does not fit. Dad praises Mom’s cooking, but the sentence never says learning it was easy.

  6. Choose the answer

    The sentences link Ellen’s leaving to her parents’ own leaving long ago. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because a “funny feeling” before a big change could sound like stress. But Ellen is not mixed up or panicked. She simply realizes she will be gone tomorrow. The sentences tie that moment to her parents’ moves from Vermont and Russia. That shared experience of leaving is C.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 17.
The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the testThe passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 1 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 2 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 3 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 4 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 5 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 6 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 7 of 7.

Question 48 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 18

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Winter Wheat”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 3.

“I’ll be taking the train tomorrow night,” I said aloud, more to hear it myself.

This remark contributes to the conflict in the excerpt by

  • Arevealing Dad’s reasons for wanting to drive to the city.
  • Bcausing tension between Mom and Dad.
  • Cleading Ellen to distance herself from both Mom and Dad.
  • Dshowing Mom’s reluctance to plan that far in advance.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 3 contributes to the conflict in the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Although Ellen’s father does want to drive to the city, this sentence does not reveal his reasons for wanting to do so. Ellen’s father’s wish to drive to the city is important to the conflict of the excerpt not because of his underlying reasons but because his wish differs from Ellen’s mother’s wish to take Ellen to the train at Gotham—a difference of opinion that introduces tension between the parents.

B. CORRECT. The sentence causes Ellen’s parents to propose competing options for taking her to the train, and the resulting conversation recalls fraught memories of an earlier leave-taking in the family. The disagreement between Ellen’s mother and father over where to take Ellen to catch the train heightens the tension between them. Because the primary conflict of the excerpt is Ellen’s anxiety about the effect her leaving will have on the relationship between her parents, this remark contributes to the conflict by bringing her parents’ disagreement into view.

C. Incorrect. Although Ellen will put physical distance between herself and her parents on the following day, the remark she makes does not lead her to emotionally distance herself from her parents. Moreover, the emotional distance between Ellen and her parents is not the primary source of conflict in the excerpt.

D. Incorrect. While paragraph 1 states that Ellen’s mother “seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning,” the sentence in paragraph 3 does not show any reluctance to plan far in advance. Moreover, planning for the future is not a source of conflict in the excerpt.

Question analysis

This plot question quotes Ellen’s remark in paragraph 3 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, said aloud mostly so she can hear it herself, and asks how it contributes to the excerpt’s conflict. Students must first work out what the conflict is, since the story has no fight or villain, and then follow what the remark leads to.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Analyzing how a line of dialogue drives a plot matches the grade 8 wording of the standard. The remark is short and plain, though, and what it sets off plays out in the next few paragraphs, which keeps the demand typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 65 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 remark itself is plain, and neither parent raises a voice in reply, so the tension it causes is easy to miss. Students who do not see that the excerpt’s real problem is Ellen’s worry about her parents look for a more visible effect, such as Dad’s wish to drive her or Mom’s habit of thinking no farther than tomorrow. The question rewards reading the remark together with the quiet exchange it starts in paragraphs 4 to 6.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The excerpt never names its conflict; students must infer from paragraph 6 and the closing paragraph that Ellen worries about her very different parents getting along once she leaves. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The remark’s effect unfolds over the next three paragraphs: Dad offers to drive into town, Mom says the Gotham train will do, and Dad puts off the decision. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How, not what minor Working it out

    The question asks what the remark does for the plot, not what it says; a plain statement of travel plans matters only for the disagreement it sets off. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Name the excerpt’s central problem in your own words first, then reread the remark with the paragraphs right after it and pick the choice that shows how the remark feeds that problem.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how Ellen’s remark adds to the conflict, the main problem in the story. The remark itself is plain. It just says when she will leave. So look at what happens right after she says it.

  2. Name the story’s conflict

    In paragraph 6, Ellen says her going away was hard on both parents. They were very different, and she was part of them both. In paragraph 25, she says she feels a distance between them. She wonders how they will get along without her. So the conflict is Ellen’s worry about her two very different parents once she is gone.

  3. See what the remark sets off

    Right after Ellen speaks, her parents disagree. In paragraph 4, Dad offers to drive her into town. In paragraph 5, Mom says there is no need, because Ellen can catch the train at Gotham. In paragraph 6, Dad puts off the choice, though Ellen knows he wants to go to town. Neither parent shouts, but they want different things.

  4. Connect the remark to the conflict

    Ellen’s simple remark brings her parents’ differences into the open. Their quiet disagreement shows the tension between them. Tension is a tight, uneasy feeling between people. That tension is just what worries Ellen about leaving. So the remark feeds the conflict by causing tension between Mom and Dad.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Dad offers to drive, but no one explains why he wants to.
    • B fits. The remark leads straight to the parents’ disagreement.
    • C does not fit. Ellen doesn’t pull away from her parents. She worries about them.
    • D does not fit. Paragraph 1 says Mom doesn’t think far ahead. But here Mom answers at once with a plan of her own.

    Watch out: D borrows a detail from paragraph 1. The remark itself shows nothing of the kind.

  6. Choose the answer

    The remark starts a quiet disagreement about how Ellen will leave. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice, because the remark does lead to Dad’s offer to drive. But Dad never gives his reasons. What matters is that Mom wants something else. Their different wishes show the tension between them, and that tension is what Ellen worries about. That is B.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 18 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 18.

Question 49 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 21

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Winter Wheat”.

Question

Read these sentences from the excerpt.

Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning. (paragraph 1)

Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning. (paragraph 19)

The sentences help develop a central idea of the excerpt by

  • Asuggesting that practical people focus on current needs rather than worrying about the future.
  • Bshowing that parents tend to consider the needs of their children before thinking of themselves.
  • Crevealing that it is sometimes important to plan ahead.
  • Dillustrating that dreaming about the future is a waste of time.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the sentences from paragraph 1 and paragraph 19 help develop a central idea of the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. The sentences illustrate a practical aspect of Ellen’s mother’s personality and show that she is concerned with an immediate task that needs to be completed. The details in these sentences help develop the central idea that practical people focus on current needs—such as preparing food for the following day—rather than worrying about the future.

B. Incorrect. These sentences do not show Ellen’s mother focusing on her daughter’s needs before her own, and the idea that parents consider their own needs only after considering those of their children is not a central idea of the excerpt.

C. Incorrect. Although the sentence from paragraph 19 shows Ellen’s mother planning a few hours ahead by preparing the next morning’s breakfast, the idea that it is sometimes important to plan ahead is not a central idea of the excerpt, nor is it supported by the sentence from paragraph 1.

D. Incorrect. The details in the sentences do not show that it is a waste of time to dream about the future. The sentences highlight the tendency of Ellen’s mother to focus her attention on the practical necessities of the moment, but the idea that dreaming about the future is a waste of time is not a central idea of the excerpt.

Question analysis

This central-idea question quotes two sentences about Ellen’s mother from paragraphs 1 and 19 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, far apart in the story, and asks how they help develop a central idea. Students must see what the two sentences have in common and decide which general statement about people they actually support.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Connecting repeated details about a character to a central idea is typical grade 7 work. Both sentences are short and plain, but they sit eighteen paragraphs apart, and the choices are broad statements that must be checked for overreach.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 91 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Read alone, the oatmeal sentence looks like a lesson in getting ready for tomorrow, which is why the planning choice tempts. Paired with paragraph 1’s description of Mom, though, it shows a mind fixed on the next practical task, the opposite of thinking far ahead. The other wrong choices go past the sentences, into parents’ sacrifices or a verdict on daydreaming, and students who keep both sentences in view can set them aside.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Neither sentence states an idea; students must see what they share, Mom’s attention stopping at today and tomorrow morning, and then decide what general statement that habit supports. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The sentences come from paragraphs 1 and 19, and paragraph 1 sets Mom’s present-minded talk against Dad’s plans for next year, a contrast that frames the idea. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Three choices speak of the future, planning or dreaming, so each must be tested against both sentences, not just the oatmeal for tomorrow morning. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Say in your own words what both sentences show about how Mom thinks and acts, then choose the statement that follows from that without going further than the sentences do.

Traps

  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how two sentences about Mom help build a central idea, a main idea the story develops. Find what the two sentences have in common. Then pick the idea that follows from both, without going further.

  2. Read the first sentence

    Paragraph 1 says “Mom seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning.” Just before this, Ellen says Dad is always talking about going places next year. So Mom is different. Her mind stays on the here and now.

  3. Read the second sentence

    Paragraph 19 says “Mom was fixing oatmeal for tomorrow morning.” This is the night Dad left on his trip, and Ellen is sad. But Mom does the next useful job, making breakfast. Again her mind goes no farther than tomorrow morning.

  4. Find the shared idea

    Both sentences show Mom as practical. Practical means focused on real, useful tasks. She deals with what needs doing now and next, not with far-off plans or dreams. So the sentences develop the idea that practical people focus on current needs instead of worrying about the future.

  5. Check each choice

    • A fits. Both sentences show Mom focused on today’s needs.
    • B does not fit. Neither sentence weighs Mom’s needs against Ellen’s.
    • C does not fit. Oatmeal for the next morning is a small step, not planning ahead. Paragraph 1 says Mom doesn’t think far ahead at all.
    • D does not fit. The story never says dreaming is a waste of time. It doesn’t judge Dad’s talk of travel.

    Watch out: Read alone, the oatmeal sentence looks like planning ahead. Read it together with paragraph 1.

  6. Choose the answer

    Both sentences show Mom paying attention to what is needed now, not to the far future. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice, because making oatmeal for tomorrow does look like planning. But paragraph 1 says Mom thinks no farther ahead than tomorrow morning. The oatmeal is just the next job, not a long-range plan. Together the sentences show a practical mind fixed on present needs, which is A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 21 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 21.

Question 50 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 22

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Winter Wheat”.

Question

The flashback in paragraphs 10–24 affects the plot by

  • Ashowing that the departure of one member of the family makes extra work for those left on the farm.
  • Bshowing that the bond within the family persists even when its members are apart.
  • Cexplaining why Ellen fears that leaving her parents will be too difficult.
  • Dillustrating the close connection Ellen has with both of her parents.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the flashback in paragraphs 10–24 affects the plot of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. The flashback does not show that Ellen and her mother faced extra work as a result of the father’s trip to Vermont. Although paragraph 19 describes Ellen’s mother making oatmeal for the next day’s breakfast, this task was not extra work.

B. Incorrect. Although the flashback highlights Ellen’s fondness for each of her parents, it describes her father’s initial departure only and does not show what happened to the familial bond while he is away.

C. Incorrect. Although Ellen describes the memory of her father’s departure as something she wanted to avoid thinking about, she does not fear that it will be too difficult to leave her parents. Instead, she is concerned about what will happen to her parents’ relationship when she is no longer there.

D. CORRECT. The flashback illustrates the close connection that Ellen has with her parents by describing her sadness over the departure of her father (“My throat ached all the way” [paragraph 15]) and presenting a moment of comfort and reassurance between Ellen and her mother (“She laid her hand against my face and it felt rough and hard but firm” [paragraph 20]).

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how the long flashback in paragraphs 10–24 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, Ellen’s memory of the night her father left by train for Vermont, affects the plot. Students must hold fifteen paragraphs in mind, see why the narrator recalls that night just before her own departure, and choose among several believable effects.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students study how a flashback shapes a story. This one runs through most of the excerpt, so students must sum up a long stretch of narrative and then tell apart choices that are close in meaning, more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 64 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The flashback is most of the excerpt, and it carries several things at once: grief at Dad’s leaving, the parents’ stiffness with each other, Mom’s comfort, the mystery of her Russian name. The two strongest wrong choices sound like plot effects, a bond lasting through absence or a fear of leaving, while the key describes a relationship, so students looking for an event to point to may pass it by. Students must sum up the whole memory and test each choice against what it actually shows.

  1. Evidence in several places major Working it out

    The support for “both of her parents” lies in two separate stretches of a fifteen-paragraph flashback: Ellen’s aching throat after Dad’s train leaves in paragraph 15, and Mom’s hand on her face in paragraph 20. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about the family bond persisting while members are apart shares the right one’s subject, family closeness, and differs in one claim, that the bond lasts through a separation the flashback never follows. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how the flashback affects the plot, yet the keyed effect is about character, so students must accept that the memory works by showing Ellen’s ties to each parent before she leaves. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Summarize what happens in the flashback and how Ellen feels at each stage, then compare it with the present-day scenes before and after it and decide what the memory adds.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the flashback in paragraphs 10–24 affects the story. A flashback is a scene from the past that interrupts the present. Here Ellen, about to leave for college, remembers the night Dad left for Vermont years ago. Sum up what the memory shows, then test each choice.

  2. Sum up the flashback

    Ellen and Mom see Dad off at the train in the cold dark. On the drive home, Ellen says “My throat ached all the way.” At home, Mom comforts her: “She laid her hand against my face and it felt rough and hard but firm.” Later, Mom laughs warmly about her name, and the house feels right again.

  3. See what the memory shows

    An aching throat is the tight, sore feeling you get when you hold back tears. That shows how much Ellen loves her father. Mom’s firm hand and warm laugh show how close Ellen is to her mother. So the flashback shows Ellen’s strong tie to both parents.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The flashback never shows Ellen and Mom with extra farm work.
    • B does not fit. The memory ends the night Dad leaves. It never shows the family while he is away.
    • C does not fit. Ellen’s worry is about how her parents will get along without her, not about whether leaving will be too hard.
    • D fits. It shows Ellen’s love for Dad and her closeness to Mom.

    Watch out: B also talks about family closeness. But it says the bond lasts through time apart, which the flashback never shows.

  5. Choose the answer

    The flashback shows how close Ellen is to her father and to her mother. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because it also describes a strong family bond. But B says the bond lasts while family members are apart. The flashback stops on the night Dad leaves, so it never shows that. It does show Ellen grieving for Dad and comforted by Mom. That is D.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 22 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 22.

Question 51 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 23

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Winter Wheat”.

Question

Which sentence from the excerpt provides evidence that Mom wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage?

  • A“Mom folded the ironing board and put it inside their bedroom that was just off the kitchen.” (paragraph 2)
  • B“ ‘There’s no need to go to town; she can catch the train at Gotham just as well.’ ” (paragraph 5)
  • C“We’d go in right after dinner and go around to the stores, Dad going one way and Mom and I another.” (paragraph 7)
  • D“ ‘Why, Yeléna, you know that; Anna Petrovna.’ ” (paragraph 22)
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which sentence from the excerpt provides evidence that Mom wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage.

A. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 2 describes a domestic moment that takes place within the family home, it does not relate to the heritage of either parent and therefore does not provide evidence that her mother wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage.

B. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 5 provides the name of the train station closest to Ellen’s family’s farm, the train stop at Gotham is not related to the family’s heritage. Therefore, this sentence does not provide clear evidence that her mother wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage.

C. Incorrect. Although this sentence from paragraph 7 describes an aspect of the family dynamic (Ellen predicts that while browsing in stores in town, “Dad [would go] one way and Mom and I another”), their shopping habits do not provide clear evidence that her mother wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage.

D. CORRECT. In this sentence from paragraph 22, Ellen’s mother addresses her by the Russian version of her name (Yeléna) and repeats her own Russian name (Anna Petrovna). The choice to call her daughter Yeléna instead of Ellen follows immediately after Ellen asks, “Mom, was that really your name—what Dad called you?” (paragraph 21), and the mother’s surprised response provides evidence that she both wants and expects Ellen to understand the family’s Russian heritage.

Question analysis

This evidence question asks which quoted sentence from the Winter Wheat excerpt shows that Mom wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage. The four sentences, from paragraphs 2, 5, 7 and 22, all involve Mom, so students must reread each one in its paragraph to see what it really shows about her.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Finding the sentence that supports a stated idea is everyday grade 7 work. The quotations are short and plainly worded and the idea is concrete, so one careful rereading of each in context is enough, a lighter task than usual.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 4, 1179 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 83 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

Only one of the four sentences touches the family’s origins at all, so a student who knows what heritage means can rule out the others at a glance. The small risk lies with students who match “Mom wants” to any line where Mom states a preference, or who do not recognize the Russian names, since the quotation stops before Mom mentions Russia.

  1. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The quoted line never mentions heritage; students must see that Mom calling Ellen “Yeléna” and repeating “Anna Petrovna,” as things Ellen should already know, shows her wish to pass on their Russian roots. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The names’ Russian origin is clearest outside the quotation, in the rest of paragraph 22, where Mom names her birthplace, and in paragraph 2’s “instead of a Russian.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Define heritage in your own words, then reread each quoted sentence in its paragraph and ask whether it shows Mom handing something about the family on to Ellen.

Traps

  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which sentence shows that Mom wants Ellen to understand the family’s heritage. Heritage is the history and traditions a family passes down, such as where it came from. Look for a sentence where Mom shares something about the family’s roots.

  2. Look at the conversation

    At the train, Dad called Mom Anna Petrovna, a name Ellen had never heard him use. In paragraph 21, Ellen asks, “Mom, was that really your name—what Dad called you?” In paragraph 22, Mom answers, “Why, Yeléna, you know that; Anna Petrovna.” Then she reminds Ellen that she was born in Russia.

  3. Work out what Mom’s answer shows

    Mom calls her daughter Yeléna, the Russian form of Ellen. She repeats her own Russian name. She also says “you know that,” as if Ellen should already know. Mom is surprised that Ellen doesn’t. That shows Mom wants and expects Ellen to know where the family comes from.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Folding the ironing board is housework. It says nothing about the family’s past.
    • B does not fit. Mom does want something here, the train at Gotham. But that is about travel, not heritage.
    • C does not fit. Shopping in town shows family habits, not family roots.
    • D fits. Mom uses Russian names and expects Ellen to know them.

    Watch out: B tempts because it shows what Mom wants. But the question asks what she wants Ellen to understand about the family.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one sentence has Mom passing on the family’s Russian roots. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because Mom states a wish in it: Ellen can catch the train at Gotham. But that wish is about the trip, not the family’s past. In D, Mom uses the Russian names Yeléna and Anna Petrovna. She is surprised that Ellen doesn’t know them. That shows she wants Ellen to understand her heritage.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 23 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 23.

Question 52 of 112

2025 Practice Test A English, question 37
Passage Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

by Dallas Lore Sharp

In this excerpt, published in 1914, author and professor Dallas Lore Sharp describes a summer cattle roundup in Oregon. The heat and dust had been relentless for three days. The cowboys were exhausted, and the cattle were restless. The ranch boss, Wade, had led the drive to a watering place, only to find it empty.

Along with the wagon had come the fresh horses—one of them being Peroxide Jim, a supple, powerful, clean-limbed buckskin, a horse, I think, that had as fine and intelligent an animal-face as any creature I ever saw. Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work. And why should he not have been saved fresh for just such a need as this? Are there not superior horses as well as superior men—a Peroxide Jim to complement a Wade?

The horse knew the cattle business and knew his rider perfectly; and though there was nothing like sentiment about the boss of the P Ranch riders, his faith in Peroxide Jim was complete. . . .

The desert, where the herd was camped, was one of the highest of a series of tablelands, or benches; it lay as level as a floor, rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below. The herd when overtaken by the dusk had been headed for a pass descending to the next lower bench, but was now halted within a mile of the rim rock on the east, where there was a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet. . . .

In the taut silence of the stirless desert night, with the tension of the herd at the snapping-point, any quick, unwonted sight or sound would stampede them. The sneezing of a horse, the flare of a match, would be enough to send the whole four thousand headlong—blind, frenzied, trampling—till spent and scattered over the plain.

And so, as he rode, Wade began to sing. The rider ahead of him took up the air and passed it on until, above the stepping stir of the hoofs rose the faint voices of the men, and all the herd was bound about by the slow plaintive measures of some old song. It was not to soothe their savage breasts that the riders sang to the cattle, but rather to preempt the dreaded silence, to relieve the tension, and so to prevent the shock of any sudden startling noise.

So they sang and rode and the night wore on to one o’clock, when Wade, coming up on the rim-rock side, felt a cool breeze fan his face, and caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it.

He checked his horse instantly, listening as the wind swept past him over the cattle. But they must already have smelled it, for they had ceased their milling, the whole herd standing motionless, the indistinct forms close to him in the dark showing their bald faces lifted to drink the sweet wet breath that came over the rim. Then they started on again, but faster, and with a rumbling now from their hoarse throats that tightened Wade’s grip on the reins.

The sound seemed to come out of the earth, a low, rumbling mumble, as dark as the night and as wide as the plain, a thick, inarticulate bellow that stood every rider stiff in his stirrups. . . .

Then the breeze caught the dust and carried it back from the gray-coated, ghostly shapes, and Wade saw that the animals were still moving in a circle. He must keep them going. He touched his horse to ride on with them, when across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning.

There was a snort from the steers, a quick clap of horns and hoofs from far within the herd, a tremor of the plain, a roar, a surging mass—and Wade was riding the flank of a wild stampede. Before him, behind him, beside him, pressing hard upon his horse, galloped the frenzied steers, and beyond them a multitude borne on, and bearing him on, by the heave of the galloping herd.

Wade was riding for his life. He knew it. His horse knew it. He was riding to turn the herd, too, back from the rim, as the horse also knew. The cattle were after water—water-mad—ready to go over the precipice to get it, carrying horse and rider with them. Wade was the only rider between the herd and the rim. It was black as death. He could see nothing in the sage, could scarcely discern the pounding, panting shadows at his side. He knew that he was being borne toward the rim, how fast he could not tell, but he knew by the swish of the brush against his tapaderos and the plunging of the horse that the ground was growing stonier, that they were nearing the rocks.

To outrun the herd was his only chance for life. If he could come up with the leaders he might not only escape, but even stand a chance of heading them off upon the plain and saving the herd. There were cattle still ahead of him; how many, what part of them all, he could not make out in the dark. But the horse knew. The reins hung on his straight neck, where his rider had dropped them, as, yelling and firing over the wild herd, he had given this horse the race to win, to lose.

They were riding the rim. Close on their left bore down the flank of the herd, and on their right, under their very feet, was a precipice, so close that they felt its blackness—its three hundred feet of fall! . . .

. . . Then Wade found himself racing neck and neck with a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off into the swishing sage.

The steers coming on close behind followed their leader, and in, after them, swung others. The tide was turning from the rim. More and more were veering, and within a short time the whole herd, bearing off from the cliffs, was pounding over the open plains.

Whose race was it? It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade, for not by word or by touch of hand or knee had the horse been directed in the run. From the flash of the lightning the horse had taken the bit, had covered an indescribably perilous path at top speed, had outrun the herd and turned it from the edge of the rim rock, without a false step or a tremor of fear.

From “The Spirit of the Herd” by Dallas Lore Sharp—Public Domain

tablelands: plateaus, flat areas of land sharply elevated from the surrounding area
tapaderos: leather covers for stirrups

Question

How does paragraph 9 fit into the overall structure of the excerpt?

  • AIt hints at the change in the setting that caused Wade to suddenly become alert.
  • BIt creates a false sense of calm that shows how unprepared the men were for what was about to happen.
  • CIt introduces the idea that Wade was a skillful leader in unpredictable circumstances.
  • DIt presents the incident that caused the main conflict Wade and Peroxide Jim addressed.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how paragraph 9 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Wade was alert long before the events of paragraph 9. In paragraph 5, he began singing to the cattle because he knew that they were on the verge of stampeding. He was even more alert when he “caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it” (paragraph 6) and heard the low rumbling of the herd in paragraph 8: “The sound seemed to come out of the earth, a low, rumbling mumble.”

B. Incorrect. Wade and the other riders were not calm; rather, they were alert and attempting to keep the cattle calm by singing to them. They were as prepared as they could be for what was about to happen, as shown in paragraph 1, through the selection of fresh horses and, specifically, Wade’s choice to ride Peroxide Jim in the face of possible danger: “Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work.”

C. Incorrect. Although Wade’s leadership is implied in paragraph 9 (“He must keep them going. He touched his horse to ride on with them”), his leadership is revealed in earlier portions of the excerpt as well (“Wade had been saving this horse” [paragraph 1]; “Wade began to sing” [paragraph 5]), so this is not new information being introduced in paragraph 9 of the excerpt.

D. CORRECT. Paragraph 9 describes the lightning strike that made the cattle panic and stampede. The stampede is the main conflict Wade and Peroxide Jim addressed in the excerpt; and therefore, paragraph 9 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt by presenting the incident that caused the main conflict.

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how paragraph 9 of “The Spirit of the Herd,” Dallas Lore Sharp’s account of a cattle drive through the Oregon desert at night, fits into the overall structure of the excerpt. Students must judge what the paragraph does at that moment in the story, and several choices describe something real in the scene around it.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how a paragraph fits a story’s structure is typical grade 7 work. The 1914 prose is dense, but this paragraph is short and its role is clear once the paragraphs around it are read.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 73 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A paragraph number and a detail that is not in the excerpt were corrected in the 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

Paragraph 9 is short and its turning point comes in its final words, so a student who reads it as a pause in the night’s tension, or as a portrait of Wade, can miss that it sets off everything after it. The wrong choices each describe something that happens around this point in the story, which is why checking what came earlier matters: Wade was already alert and already leading. Seeing the paragraph as the hinge between suspense and stampede settles it.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks what paragraph 9 does in the sequence of events, and its job is carried by its last clause, the lightning that the next paragraph turns into a stampede. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    Ruling out the choices about alertness and leadership means looking back: Wade starts the singing in paragraph 5, reins in his horse at the moist wind in paragraph 7, and had saved Peroxide Jim in paragraph 1. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The paragraph’s key event arrives at the end of a long sentence in inverted order, “across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning,” after Wade’s plan to keep riding. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Sum up what happens before, during and after paragraph 9 in a few words each, then pick the choice that describes the paragraph’s role in that sequence.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • 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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option A says “In paragraph 4, he began singing to the cattle.” Wade begins to sing in paragraph 5 (“And so, as he rode, Wade began to sing”), as the explanation of Option C itself says; paragraph 4 describes the tension that makes the singing necessary. The same explanation says Wade “heard thunder in paragraph 8,” but the excerpt has no thunder: the sound in paragraph 8 is the herd’s “thick, inarticulate bellow,” the rumbling that comes “from their hoarse throats” in paragraph 7. The site now says “In paragraph 5, he began singing” and “heard the low rumbling of the herd in paragraph 8.” Option A is still wrong, and the answer, D, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how paragraph 9 fits into the structure of the excerpt. Structure is the order of events and how the parts connect. Ask what happens before paragraph 9, in it, and right after it.

  2. Sum up what comes before

    Before paragraph 9, the night is tense. In paragraph 1, Wade had been saving Peroxide Jim, his best horse, for an emergency. In paragraph 5, “Wade began to sing” to keep the herd from being startled. In paragraph 6, he caught a moist wind. In paragraph 8, the herd’s low rumbling “stood every rider stiff in his stirrups.” Everyone is alert.

  3. Read paragraph 9

    Paragraph 9 says the breeze cleared the dust, and Wade saw that the animals “were still moving in a circle.” He decided “He must keep them going.” Then the paragraph ends with the key event: “across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning.” Vivid means very bright.

  4. See what comes right after

    Paragraph 10 begins with a snort from the steers and a roar. Then “Wade was riding the flank of a wild stampede.” A stampede is a sudden wild run by a frightened herd. The rest of the excerpt is Wade and Peroxide Jim racing to turn the herd from the cliff. So the lightning in paragraph 9 sets off the main conflict.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Wade was alert long before. He began singing in paragraph 5, caught the moist wind in paragraph 6 and heard the herd rumbling in paragraph 8.
    • B does not fit. The riders were not calm or unprepared. They were singing to the herd, and Wade had a fresh horse ready.
    • C does not fit. Wade’s leadership shows earlier, when he saved his best horse and started the singing.
    • D fits. The lightning causes the stampede that Wade and Peroxide Jim must stop.

  6. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 9 ends with the lightning that starts the stampede, the problem the rest of the excerpt is about. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice, because Wade does lead in paragraph 9 when he decides “He must keep them going.” But C says the paragraph introduces his leadership. We already saw it in paragraph 1, when he saved his best horse, and in paragraph 5, when he started the singing. What is new in paragraph 9 is the lightning.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 37 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 37. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed on page 41 of the DOE handbook.

Question 53 of 112

2025 Practice Test B English, question 15
Passage A Miracle Mile

A Miracle Mile

In the 1950s people compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest and nicknamed the feat a “dream mile.” Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier. One of them was a twenty-five-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister.

Roger Bannister had tasted failure during the 1952 Olympics. There, he was favored to win the 1,500-meter competition, a distance slightly shorter than a mile, but he finished in a dismal fourth place instead. Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain. Determined to redeem himself, Bannister postponed his plans to retire from racing and focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.

Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning. The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed. For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap. In between intervals, he let his body recover for two minutes.

By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target. Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days. The rest from running permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed. When Bannister returned to the track, he completed ten quarter-mile-long intervals at fifty-nine seconds each. He finally felt prepared to attempt to break the world record.

As a member of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), Bannister joined the AAA team for a track meet against Oxford University. The event took place on a cinder track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Bannister and his two AAA teammates, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, were close friends and frequent running partners. Chataway and Brasher agreed to help Bannister accomplish his goal by being his “rabbits.”

In track and field, rabbits are runners who enter the race solely to pace a teammate for a segment of the course. Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo. Additionally, by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort. When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.

Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted “Faster!” at Brasher. Brasher, however, remained composed and maintained his current steady but grueling pace, completing the first two laps in a desirable one minute and fifty-eight seconds. Then Chataway surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half. At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway. Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.” Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. The ecstatic crowd erupted the moment the timekeeper announced the word “three.”

Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners. Over the years, the record continued to fall. However, the current record, 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, has stood unbroken since 1999. Some question whether this record represents the limits of human ability. But perhaps there is another Bannister, an athlete who, with willpower and dedication, will accomplish the miraculous.

Question

How does the author’s use of chronological structure contribute to the development of ideas in the passage?

  • AIt presents the increasing physical effects of Bannister’s training methods as he prepared to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
  • BIt shows the increase in Bannister’s confidence in his ability to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
  • CIt emphasizes the key events in Bannister’s life that inspired him to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
  • DIt highlights the progression of Bannister’s training and details about his successful attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the author’s use of chronological structure contributes to the development of ideas in the passage.

A. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions the “plateau” Bannister dealt with and the break that “permitted his muscles to recuperate,” the chronological structure of the passage focuses mainly on the progression of Bannister’s process over time.

B. Incorrect. Even though the passage suggests that Bannister’s ability to break the four-minute-mile barrier improved and that he felt “prepared to attempt to break the world record” (paragraph 4), the chronological structure of the passage primarily serves to show how Bannister’s progress over time led to his success.

C. Incorrect. The chronological structure of the passage begins with an acknowledgment that Bannister was inspired to break the four-minute-mile barrier by his loss at the 1952 Olympics (paragraph 2); however, the overall organization of the passage highlights his dedicated efforts over time to break the four-minute-mile barrier.

D. CORRECT. The chronological structure of the passage follows the progression of Bannister’s training from his loss at the 1952 Olympics to the race where he ran the first sub-four-minute mile on May 6, 1954 (paragraph 5).

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how the chronological structure of “A Miracle Mile,” an article about Roger Bannister’s attempt to run a mile in under four minutes, contributes to the development of its ideas. The article moves from the 1950s to the present day, and each choice names a thread a reader might trace through it, so students must decide which one the time order really follows.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how an author organizes a text. Here the stem names the structure, and the article moves through dated events in plain prose, so seeing what the order brings out is lighter than most grade 7 structure questions.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 84 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The article tells Bannister’s story in order, and the right choice simply names what that order follows: training that improves, then the race itself. Each wrong choice picks a thread the text touches without tracing, a confidence present from the start, a physical toll mentioned once, an inspiration that comes only from 1952. Students who sum up each paragraph in a few words see that only the training and the race run all the way through.

  1. How, not what minor Working it out

    The stem names the structure and asks what it does, so students must say which thread the time order follows from the 1952 Olympics to May 6, 1954, not retell the events. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Each wrong thread has a foothold: “a positive attitude” and “finally felt prepared” for confidence, muscles that needed to “recuperate” for physical effects, and the 1952 loss for inspiration. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    A thread counts only if it runs from paragraph 2 to paragraph 7, so it must cover both the training of paragraphs 3 and 4 and the race told in paragraphs 5 to 7. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Note in a few words what each paragraph covers, in order, then choose the description that matches what the whole sequence follows rather than one detail along the way.

Traps

  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a structure question. Chronological structure means telling events in time order, from first to last. The question asks what that order helps the passage show. So sum up each paragraph in a few words. Then see which thread runs through all of them.

  2. Sum up each paragraph in order

    • Paragraph 1: In the 1950s, a four-minute mile seemed impossible.
    • Paragraph 2: Bannister loses at the 1952 Olympics and sets his goal.
    • Paragraph 3: He makes a training plan.
    • Paragraph 4: By early 1954, his laps get faster.
    • Paragraph 5: A race is set for May 6, 1954. Two teammates will set his pace.
    • Paragraphs 6–7: The race is run. He finishes in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
    • Paragraph 8: Other runners match him, and over the years the record is lowered.

  3. See what the order follows

    Most of the passage follows two things. First, his training improves step by step. The track is a quarter mile, so four laps make a mile. Sixty seconds a lap would be exactly four minutes. He goes from sixty-one seconds a lap to fifty-nine, so the goal comes within reach. Second, the passage gives details of the race. It is set up in paragraph 5 and run in paragraphs 6 and 7. Progression means step-by-step progress.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. His body comes up only now and then, as when a rest “permitted his muscles to recuperate” in paragraph 4. Recuperate means recover. The passage never tracks effects that grow, and A leaves out the race.
    • B does not fit. He had “a positive attitude” from the start, in paragraph 3. The order follows what he did, not how sure he felt.
    • C does not fit. Only one event inspired him, the 1952 loss in paragraph 2. After that come training and the race.
    • D fits. The order traces his training and then the record-breaking race.

    Watch out: B is tempting because he “finally felt prepared” in paragraph 4. But that is one moment, not the thread of the whole passage.

  5. Choose the answer

    The time order follows Bannister’s training as it improves, then the race where he broke the barrier. So the answer is D, “It highlights the progression of Bannister’s training and details about his successful attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice. Bannister does end up ready, and he “finally felt prepared” in paragraph 4. But he began with “a positive attitude,” so his confidence does not build from low to high. The paragraphs follow his training and then the race itself. Only D names both.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 15 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test B English, question 15.
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed on page 13 of the DOE handbook.

Question 54 of 112

2025 Practice Test B English, question 35
Passage Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy

Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy

Inside the 40,000-acre Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northern Oklahoma, herds of bison roam on the scenic land that is home to hundreds of different species of plants and animals. While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.

Fires that are started by lightning or other natural circumstances are inevitable, and the results can be disastrous. However, hundreds of years ago the American Indian people who inhabited the Great Plains area between Minnesota and Texas realized that these fires could also be helpful. The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas. The American Indian people began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on, which enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.

Today conservationists at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and farmers in the Great Plains continue to use controlled burns for land management. Intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there. The fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients. Additionally, the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil.

One common target of controlled burns at the preserve and the surrounding area is the invasive red cedar tree. A single red cedar tree can consume up to 40 gallons of water per day, taking this vital resource away from other plant life. These tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them. The fast-growing red cedar trees tend to crowd out prairie grasses, the primary food source for wild and domestic animals that make the prairie their home. An imbalance in one component of the prairie’s ecosystem affects the entire web of life. Controlled burns help maintain this ecosystem’s delicate balance.

Of course, these controlled fires are intended to burn only a portion of an area. A total burn, which is a risk with an uncontrolled wildfire, would destroy all wildlife as well as the crops farmers plant for income. The key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when. Conservation experts at the preserve employ the “patch-burn” approach, meaning they rotate which portion of land is burned each year. They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned, and then they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land. This patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate. The following year, conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve, while the land burned the previous year regrows healthier than before.

Researchers have tracked and studied the variety of plant species and animals that live on the preserve, and their studies show that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out. The patch-burn system is so successful that the conservationists at the preserve provide training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land. Burning land to make it healthy may seem counterintuitive, but strategic controlled fires have helped the prairie sustain life for hundreds of years and, with careful management, will continue to do so.

Boxed diagram titled “OVERVIEW OF THE PATCH-BURN METHOD,” introduced by the text “By using a patch-burn method, conservationists and farmers can reduce the risk of unintentional fires and control where grazing animals, such as bison, roam.” Below it, a map of one stretch of land is divided by a branching stream, labeled Stream, into three shaded areas: a dark Unburned Area across the top, a medium gray Previously Burned Area on the left, and a light gray Recently Burned Area on the lower right, where eight bison stand. Three captions under the map read “The unburned area is overrun with weeds and has the greatest risk of catching fire,” “The previously burned area is cleared of weeds, and young trees and crops grow freely and thrive,” and “The recently burned area has been cleared of all plants. Bison prefer to eat the fresh grass that will begin to grow in the recently burned area, and they will generally remain in that area until newer, fresher grass is available elsewhere.”

Question

Which details from the passage best convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land?

  • Athe explanation that conservationists use the alternating burn pattern of the patch-burn method in order to allow the animals in the area to avoid the fire
  • Bthe information that conservationists evaluate which land would most benefit from a controlled burn before applying the patch-burn method
  • Cthe information that conservationists have determined that the patch-burn method has promoted the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out
  • Dthe explanation that conservationists are able to control the fire in the patch-burn method by arranging separate burns across the designated portion of land
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks which details from the passage best convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.

A. Incorrect. The author explains in paragraph 5 that “patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate.” This explanation conveys two supporting ideas: the patch-burn method is controllable, and patch-burn fires do not pose a threat to animals. However, this explanation does not address the broader central idea that the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.

B. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author states that “the key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when.” The author then provides information about how conservation experts “study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned.” However, these details convey supporting ideas rather than the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.

C. CORRECT. In paragraph 3, the author states that “fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients.” Also, in paragraph 6, the author states that patch burning “has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out.” These details directly convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land.

D. Incorrect. The author explains in paragraph 5 how conservationists “arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land,” which helps show how the patch-burn method is applied by conservationists. However, this is a supporting detail that conveys the idea that the burns are deliberately set and carefully controlled. This detail does not convey the central idea that using the patch-burn method is an effective way to manage and protect prairie land.

Question analysis

This evidence question on the article about controlled burns at an Oklahoma tallgrass prairie preserve asks which details best convey the central idea that the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land. Every choice reports something the article really says about the method, so students must decide which details speak most directly to the central idea as stated.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Matching details to a stated central idea is regular grade 7 work, and the article is short and clearly written. Each choice is a long, accurate description, so the work lies in judging relevance rather than truth, which is typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 118 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The central idea joins three words, protect, manage and effective, and each wrong choice speaks to protect or manage with a step in carrying out the method: keeping animals safe, choosing the land, controlling the fire. Only a result shows that the method is effective, and the one result offered is the return of species once at risk of being crowded out. Students who ask what each detail proves, not what it is about, separate how the method works from whether it works.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    All four choices report the patch-burn method accurately, the animals’ safe relocation, the study of the land, the dozen burns and the restored species, so truth rules none out; each must be tested for proof the method works. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Three choices come from paragraph 5, where the method is explained, while the result that shows it works, restored biodiversity, sits in paragraph 6, after the description ends. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Each choice is a noun phrase of 19 to 26 words opening “the explanation that” or “the information that,” so four long details must be unpacked before they can be compared. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Restate the central idea in your own words, noting what “effective” requires, then ask of each choice whether that detail would persuade a doubtful reader of the whole idea.

Traps

  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which details best support a central idea. A central idea is a main point the whole passage develops. Here the idea is given: the patch-burn method is an effective way to protect and manage prairie land. Effective means it works and gets good results. So look for details that show results, not just how the method is done.

  2. Find how the method works

    Paragraph 5 explains the patch-burn method. The experts “rotate which portion of land is burned each year.” Rotate means take turns. First, “They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned.” Then “they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land.” This “contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate.” These details tell how the method is done.

  3. Find what the method achieves

    Paragraph 6 gives the results. Researchers studied the plants and animals on the preserve. Their studies show “that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out.” Biodiversity means many kinds of living things. A species is one kind of plant or animal. Crowded out means pushed aside, the way red cedars crowd out prairie grasses in paragraph 4. So the method helped species that were losing ground. That shows it works.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Animals escaping safely shows the burns are done with care. It does not show the land gets healthier.
    • B does not fit. Studying the land is a planning step before a burn. It shows how the experts choose, not whether the burns work.
    • C fits. It reports a result: the method helped species that were at risk.
    • D does not fit. Arranging a dozen burns shows how the fire is kept under control. It does not show what the burns achieve.

    Watch out: D sounds like “manage,” since the experts control the fire. But controlling a fire is part of doing the method. Only a result proves the method is effective.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice shows the patch-burn method getting good results. So the answer is C, “the information that conservationists have determined that the patch-burn method has promoted the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. Careful control sounds like good management. But D only describes how the burns are set up. A method can be done carefully and still fail. C gives the proof that it works: studies show the burns “restored biodiversity.” Paragraph 6 even calls the system “so successful.”

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 35 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test B English, question 35.
The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed (page 41)The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed on page 41 of the DOE handbook.

Question 55 of 112

2025 Practice Test B English, question 48
Passage Letter from Brooklyn

Letter from Brooklyn

by Jacob Scheier

I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.

“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.

brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past

Question

The poet develops the speaker’s point of view by

  • Aproviding details about the speaker’s longing to be in a different place.
  • Bshowing the speaker’s sense of unease about the passing seasons.
  • Cincluding details about the speaker’s hope that life will remain unchanged.
  • Dshowing the speaker’s desire to treasure and appreciate the changes taking place.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view.

A. Incorrect. The speaker concedes that at some point, Brooklyn will become tiresome (lines 2–4). However, the bulk of the poem reveals the speaker’s appreciation for experiencing Brooklyn, not a desire to be in some other place.

B. Incorrect. Cold weather is inevitable, and the speaker is well aware of this future shift as well as the change in attitude it will bring. Nevertheless, the speaker does not focus on this future but rather embraces the current season, describing it in vivid detail.

C. Incorrect. The speaker is not hopeful that life will remain unchanged. Rather, the speaker accepts and appreciates the seasonal changes that occur.

D. CORRECT. The speaker’s point of view is largely positive and appreciative of the shift in seasons. This point of view is developed by language that shows a close connection between the speaker and the setting. For example, the speaker uses words such as “intimacy” (line 11) and “closeness” (line 14) and the description of the “pop-up picture book” (line 20). Finally, the conclusion emphasizes the point of view: “These late afternoons filled / with a loneliness that makes me feel / distinctly myself, and an awareness / of how rare that is” (lines 23–26).

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in “Letter from Brooklyn,” in which the speaker walks through the city at the start of fall knowing that colder, darker days lie ahead. The speaker’s thoughts move between the present and the future, so students must weigh the whole poem, and each choice names a different attitude.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 point-of-view questions focus on one passage or stanza. This one asks for the speaker’s attitude across a whole poem of shifting moods, and several choices rest on real lines, so judging the overall view takes more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 54 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The poem opens by predicting its own end and returns to the coming dark in lines 13–16, so a reader who weighs those lines heavily finds unease, and the speaker does feel some. But the speaker turns back to the present each time, with “But that all happens later” and “These days I am still walking,” and the closing lines call the moment rare. The point of view is a wish to savor what is passing, and only a choice that fits the whole poem, not its most anxious lines, matches it.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The point of view has to hold from line 1 to line 26 while the poem swings between the future, tiring of the bridge and darkening at 4, and the present walk under the branches. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    No line names the speaker’s attitude; it has to be drawn from “For now,” the walk “at a cathedral pace,” the nostalgia “for the moment I am walking inside of” and “how rare that is.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Three wrong choices rest on real lines, tiring of the bridge’s “steep incline,” the “felt distance” of line 14 and the nostalgia of lines 21–22, so each must be weighed against the whole poem. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Sum up in one sentence how the speaker feels about the present walk and about the season ahead, then pick the choice that holds true from the first line to the last.

Traps

  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about point of view: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about what is happening. The question is about the whole poem, not a few lines. So follow the speaker’s feelings from line 1 to line 26. The right choice must fit all of it.

  2. Follow the speaker’s thoughts

    The poem moves back and forth in time. Lines 1–5 look ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker will tire of the bridge, and “The weather will turn cold.” Line 6 turns back: “But that all happens later.” Lines 7–12 describe the cool air of early fall. Lines 13–16 look ahead again, to days that get dark at 4 o’clock. Line 17 returns to now: “These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace.”

  3. See how the speaker treats now

    The glossary says cathedral means “meditative,” or calm and thoughtful. The speaker walks slowly to take everything in. Brownstones look “like a pop-up picture book.” Lines 21–22 say “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” Nostalgic means “yearning for the past.” Yet the speaker longs for right now. In the last lines, even the loneliness of late afternoon is welcome. It makes the speaker feel “distinctly myself,” and aware “of how rare that is.”

  4. Put the point of view in words

    The speaker knows this season will end. That is why each moment matters. The speaker notices the first signs of fall, like the crisp air, and savors them. To treasure something is to value it highly. So the speaker wants to treasure and appreciate the changes happening now.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Lines 2–4 say the speaker will tire of the bridge someday. But the speaker enjoys Brooklyn now and never wishes to be elsewhere.
    • B does not fit. Lines 13–16 show some unease about the dark days ahead. But each time, the speaker turns back to the present.
    • C does not fit. The speaker knows from line 1 that this will end, and treasures the moment because it will pass.
    • D fits. The speaker savors the early-fall walk while it lasts.

    Watch out: B rests on real lines: the closeness the speaker feels now “will be a felt distance” (line 14). But that is one part of the poem, not the whole view.

  6. Choose the answer

    The speaker knows the season will change and holds on to each moment of it. So the answer is D, “showing the speaker’s desire to treasure and appreciate the changes taking place.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because lines 13–16 do show unease. But each time the poem looks ahead, the speaker turns back to now: “But that all happens later” and “These days I am still walking.” The poem ends by calling the moment rare. The main feeling is a wish to treasure the present, which is D.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 48 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test B English, question 48.
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.

Question 56 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 5
Passage The Free College Debate

The Free College Debate

(1) A college degree has become an essential tool in an increasingly competitive job market. (2) Yet the price of higher education, at both private and public universities, continues to rise. (3) Helping students cover the cost of attending college is an important issue.

(4) Many people agree that a college education should be a financially realistic option for those who aspire to obtain a degree. (5) For example, in 2017, the New York State legislature passed a bill creating a program to cover the tuition costs for nearly one million students. (6) The state of Tennessee also has a program that offers all students scholarships and mentoring services if they attend one of the state’s community colleges. (7) Proponents generally believe that these programs are a step in the right direction for making college affordable for students who would have had to take out loans or who would have decided not to pursue higher education at all.

(8) On the other hand, some people oppose bills like the ones in New York and Tennessee because they believe “free” college programs are unsustainable. (9) In order to implement these types of programs, a state pays the college on behalf of the students using funds from the state’s budget, which primarily comes from state taxes. (10) As more students choose to attend college, more funds will be needed to cover the costs. (11) Additionally, many students do not finish college within four years because they switch majors or because they have to work. (12) Critics believe that these circumstances will inevitably lead to an increase in taxes, a decline in the quality of the education offered by the schools, or both. (13) They think narrower college-affordability efforts that target the students who need the most support, such as first-generation college students, may be more effective and viable solutions.

(14) Faculty and students at higher-education institutions can work to keep costs down. (15) In light of increased access to computers, mobile devices, and the Internet, there are more opportunities for students to take courses online, thus reducing the need for and cost of maintaining physical classrooms. (16) Additionally, colleges should account for experience by allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in order to avoid having to pay to sit through classes on subjects they have already mastered. (17) Similarly, college-bound high school students need to be prepared for college-level work so that they do not have to spend money on remedial classes.

(18) The solutions to the problems associated with rising college costs are not simple. (19) Passing legislation that boosts college affordability will take time, input from experts with different ideas, and careful planning.

Question

Which sentence should replace sentence 3 to best state the topic of the passage?

  • ASeveral states have implemented scholarship programs that allow students to attend public universities and community colleges at a very low tuition rate or for free.
  • BDetermining the most effective way to make college affordable is a complex issue, and there are differing opinions about how to approach the problem.
  • CHigher-education institutions should reduce the cost of a college education by finding ways to help students avoid paying for unnecessary classes and materials.
  • DThe main concern related to the issue of college affordability is that helping students cover tuition could affect the quality of the education they receive.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks which sentence should replace sentence 3 to best state the topic of the passage.

A. Incorrect. Although this sentence mentions that “several states have implemented scholarship programs,” it does not clearly introduce the topic of the passage, which is differing opinions about and approaches to solving the problem of the cost of college.

B. CORRECT. This sentence best replaces sentence 3 because it clearly states the topic of “determining the most effective way to make college affordable.” It also provides an introduction to the “differing opinions” of proponents, who believe that states should provide low-cost or free tuition, and opponents, who believe that such state programs are “unsustainable” (sentence 8).

C. Incorrect. This sentence mentions the role of higher-education institutions in helping “reduce the cost of a college education” for students, which is an idea discussed in sentences 14 and 15 in the passage. Although the sentence provides details to support the topic of the passage by referring to “ways to help students avoid paying for unnecessary classes and materials,” it does not state the topic, which is differing opinions about and approaches to solving the problem of the cost of college.

D. Incorrect. Even though this sentence mentions “college affordability,” it is primarily focused on a problem that is related to, but different from, the issue discussed in the passage. The passage is concerned with “the price of higher education” (sentence 2), not how tuition rates “affect the quality of the education [students] receive.”

Question analysis

This revising question uses a passage about the rising cost of college and state programs that cover tuition, and asks which sentence should replace sentence 3 to state the passage's topic. Every choice is about college affordability, so students must tell a sentence that covers the whole passage from one that fits a single paragraph.

NYS standards
  • 7W2a introducing and organizing a topic
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing a sentence that states a passage's topic is core grade 7 writing work. The passage is formal and five paragraphs long, but each paragraph opens by signalling its part of the subject, so the demand is typical.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 427 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 110 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 replacement must cover a passage that argues both sides of free college and then turns to campus cost-cutting, so a sentence about any one part falls short. Students most often take the state scholarship programs for the topic, because those programs fill the two middle paragraphs. Summing up each paragraph in a few words before reading the choices shows that only a sentence about the debate over how to make college affordable fits them all.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The topic shows only across all five paragraphs: supporters of state programs in sentences 4–7, critics in 8–13, campus cost-cutting in 14–17, and the closing warning that solutions are not simple. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right sentence says “complex issue” and “differing opinions,” words the passage never uses, while wrong ones echo its “scholarship,” “community colleges” and “helping students cover.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Note in a few words what each of the five paragraphs does, then choose the sentence that would prepare a reader for all of them rather than for one paragraph's details.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: In its reason for rejecting choice C, the handbook reads “which is a idea discussed in sentences 14 and 15.” It now reads “an idea.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    The new sentence 3 should state the topic of the whole passage. The topic is what the passage is about overall. So the sentence must fit every paragraph, not just one part.

  2. Sum up each paragraph

    • Paragraph 1 (sentences 1–3): college matters, but it keeps costing more.
    • Paragraph 2 (sentences 4–7): some people support state programs that pay for college.
    • Paragraph 3 (sentences 8–13): critics say those programs can’t last.
    • Paragraph 4 (sentences 14–17): colleges and students can cut costs.
    • Paragraph 5 (sentences 18–19): the solutions “are not simple.”

  3. Find the big idea

    Put together, the passage is about one problem: how to make college affordable. Affordable means cheap enough to pay for. People disagree about the best way to do it. And the answers are not simple. The right sentence should say that.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. State programs fill paragraphs 2 and 3. But they are only what people argue about. A says nothing about the critics or about cutting costs.
    • B is right. “A complex issue” and “differing opinions” cover the whole debate.
    • C is wrong. Not paying for classes you don’t need is an idea from paragraph 4 only.
    • D is wrong. The worry about quality comes up just once, in sentence 12.

    Watch out: A is tempting because the state programs take up so much space. But a topic must cover all of the passage.

  5. Choose the answer

    B prepares the reader for both sides of the debate and for the cost-cutting ideas too. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. It names the state scholarship programs, which fill two paragraphs. But those programs are one thing people argue about, not the whole topic. A leaves out the critics and the ways to cut costs. B calls the issue “complex” and says opinions differ. That fits every paragraph.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 5 as printed on page 39 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 39, question 5. Open page 39 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “The Free College Debate” as printed (page 38)The passage “The Free College Debate” as printed on page 38 of the DOE handbook.

Question 57 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 9

Uses the passage above: “The Free College Debate”.

Question

Which concluding sentence should be added after sentence 19 to support the topic of the passage?

  • AThe increasing use of technology in college classrooms and the financial support from tuition scholarship programs will make colleges more affordable for many students.
  • BStatewide tuition scholarship programs will make college more affordable for many students, but these programs may lead to new problems.
  • CUntil the problems associated with the rising cost of college are solved, many students will pursue other options after graduating high school.
  • DWhen the issue of college affordability is resolved, students will be able to make decisions about pursuing higher education without cost being the deciding factor.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which concluding sentence should be added after sentence 19 to support the topic of the passage.

A. Incorrect. Although sentence 15 cites “increased access to computers, mobile devices, and the Internet” and states that “there are more opportunities for students to take courses online, thus reducing the need for and cost of maintaining physical classrooms,” the primary topic discussed throughout the passage is that making college affordable is a complex issue on which people hold differing opinions, and sentences 18 and 19 stress that the solutions “are not simple” and “will take time.” The option instead states that technology and scholarship programs will make colleges more affordable. Therefore, the sentence should not be added after sentence 19, because it does not support the topic.

B. Incorrect. Sentence 5 presents the example of the New York State legislature, which “passed a bill creating a program to cover the tuition costs for nearly one million students.” Sentence 12 states that critics of this type of program believe that certain circumstances “will inevitably lead to an increase in taxes” or other issues such as low-quality education. However, the option covers only the statewide programs and their critics (sentences 4–13). It leaves out the ways faculty and students can keep costs down (sentences 14–17) and the closing point that solutions will take time and careful planning (sentences 18 and 19). Therefore, the sentence should not be added after sentence 19, because it does not support the topic.

C. Incorrect. Although sentence 7 states that scholarship programs are helpful “for students who would have had to take out loans or who would have decided not to pursue higher education at all,” the passage does not state that many students will stop pursuing higher education until the affordability issues are solved. In fact, sentence 14 states that there are ways faculty and students can “work to keep costs down.” Therefore, the sentence should not be added after sentence 19, because it does not support the topic.

D. CORRECT. The sentence in this option should be added after sentence 19 to support the topic because it acknowledges that the issue of college affordability discussed throughout the passage is not “resolved” but that when it is, students will be able to make decisions about attending college without concerns about cost. Sentence 18 states that “the solutions to the problems associated with rising college costs are not simple,” and sentence 19 adds that “passing legislation that boosts college affordability will take time,” ideas, and planning.

Question analysis

This revising question asks which concluding sentence should be added after the final sentence of a passage about the debate over making college affordable. Students must keep the whole passage in view and pick the ending that follows from its last paragraph, because several choices repeat real details or offer predictions that sound reasonable.

NYS standards
  • 7W2e concluding informative writing
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing a conclusion that follows from a passage's central idea is standard grade 7 writing work. The passage is five formal paragraphs that present two sides and then practical steps, which the student must hold together, a typical grade 7 challenge.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 427 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 106 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • The explanation misstated the topic of the passage; that sentence was corrected.
  • An inaccurate statement about the passage in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The strongest wrong ending is a fair summary of the passage's middle, the state programs and their critics, so it feels like a conclusion. It falls short because it drops the campus steps and the closing point that solutions are slow and complicated. Other endings echo the final paragraph's words or bundle two solutions into a promise, and students who keep the passage's caution in mind reject those quickly.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    Judging an ending means holding the whole passage: the debate over state programs in sentences 4–13, the campus cost-cutting in 14–17, and the warning in 18–19 that solutions take time. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    The new sentence follows “will take time,” so an ending that looks ahead to when the problem “is resolved” continues the thought, while a confident promise of affordability contradicts it. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: State the passage's topic and its final point in your own words, then test each ending: does it follow from both, or does it bring in a claim the passage never supports?

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: In rejecting choice A, the handbook says the topic of the passage is that “state and federal governments, not faculty and students, must resolve the issue of college affordability.” The passage never mentions the federal government, and sentences 14–17 are about what faculty and students can do. The topic, as question 5's answer puts it, is that making college affordable is a complex issue with differing opinions about how to approach it. The explanation now says so, and that choice A instead states that technology and scholarships will make college more affordable.
  • Explanation: In rejecting choice B, the handbook says “the idea that these types of programs may lead to new problems is not thoroughly discussed in the passage.” Sentences 8–13 discuss exactly that: critics expect higher taxes or lower-quality education. Choice B falls short because it covers only the statewide programs and their critics, leaving out sentences 14–17 (what faculty and students can do) and the closing point that solutions take time and planning. The explanation now says that. The answer, D, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a last sentence for the passage. A good conclusion fits the topic of the whole passage. It should also follow from sentence 19, the sentence right before it.

  2. Recall the topic and the ending

    The passage shows that making college affordable is a complex issue. People have different opinions about how to do it. Sentence 18 says the solutions “are not simple.” Sentence 19 says new laws “will take time, input from experts with different ideas, and careful planning.” So the passage ends by saying the problem is not solved yet.

  3. Find the sentence that follows

    D begins “When the issue of college affordability is resolved.” Resolved means solved. That fits right after “will take time.” It looks ahead to a day when the problem is fixed. Then cost won’t decide whether a student goes to college.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It promises that technology and scholarships “will make colleges more affordable.” But the passage just said solutions are not simple.
    • B is wrong. It sums up only the state programs and their critics. It leaves out the cost-cutting ideas and the point about time and planning.
    • C is wrong. The passage never says students will choose other paths after high school.
    • D is right. It fits the topic and follows sentence 19.

    Watch out: B is a fair summary of paragraphs 2 and 3. That makes it feel like a conclusion. But it covers only part of the passage.

  5. Choose the answer

    D keeps the passage’s careful tone and looks ahead to a time when cost no longer decides. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer. The passage really does discuss state programs and the problems critics expect. But B leaves out paragraph 4, on cutting costs, and the closing point that solutions take time. D follows “will take time” by looking ahead to when the issue “is resolved.”

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 9 as printed on page 40 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 40, question 9. Open page 40 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 58 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 17
Passage 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

DateEvent
1500sThe Dakota use beads made from bones, shells, stones, and animal teeth. European traders bring glass beads to North America.
Late 1600sThe Dakota begin trading with the French in Minnesota.
1830sThe Dakota begin using glass beads in clothing, artwork, and decorations in place of Native-made beads.
1862–1865The Dakota are expelled from their homelands in Minnesota as a result of the U.S.-Dakota War.
1900s–1920sThe 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

The idea that mastering moccasin design and creation requires experience is best illustrated in the excerpt through

  • Athe information about the advanced technique of incorporating porcupine quills into a design.
  • Bthe descriptions of the special materials that must be used to make decorated moccasins.
  • Cthe descriptions of the various color combinations that make an attractive moccasin design.
  • Dthe example of the author successfully and independently using a sharpened rod.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the idea that mastering moccasin design and creation requires experience is best illustrated in the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. In paragraph 6, the author states that when she became more familiar with elements of design, “a harder lesson was given me.” According to the author, sewing on porcupine quills is a much more difficult task to master because it requires experience in handling the poisonous porcupine quills, which is why her mother told her not to “do much alone in quills” until she was older (paragraph 6). This information best illustrates the idea that mastering moccasin design and creation requires experience.

B. Incorrect. Although the author provides detailed descriptions of the materials used to make decorated moccasins (“colored beads” [paragraph 2]; “a skein of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews” [paragraph 3]; “tinted porcupine quills, moistened and flattened between the nails of the thumb and forefinger” [paragraph 6]), these descriptions do not illustrate the experience that is needed to gain mastery of moccasin design and creation.

C. Incorrect. Although the author describes the color combinations she used in making moccasins (“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” [paragraph 6]), this information mainly illustrates the author’s satisfaction with her moccasin design, not the importance of experience in mastering the creation and design of moccasins.

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author tells of using a sharpened rod to dig for roots. She explains that she and her playmates used the rods to “[pry] up certain sweet roots,” which they ate before going off to gather gum from a stalky plant. The detail of the sharpened rod is from a recollection about the playtime that followed the “confining lessons” of moccasin making. However, the sharpened rod was not used to create moccasins.

Question analysis

This reading question asks which part of Zitkala-Sa's account of learning to bead moccasins best illustrates the idea that mastering the craft takes experience. The choices point to materials, color combinations, a technique and outdoor play, so students must find the detail that ties skill to practice rather than one that simply describes the craft.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing the detail that best illustrates an idea is grade 7 evidence work. The idea is stated plainly in the question and each paragraph of the excerpt keeps to one topic, so the demand matches typical grade 7 tasks.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 69 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate account of the excerpt in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The idea of experience is spelled out in paragraph 6, where quillwork is a harder lesson given only after some practice and kept from the girl until she is older. The wrong choices describe things the excerpt really contains, materials, colors and a tool, so they look supported until each is asked whether it shows a learner needing practice. Students who put that one question to every choice find this a quick item.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The stem names no paragraph, so students must find where each choice's detail sits, from the beads and sinew of paragraphs 2 and 3 to the rods of paragraph 7. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The link to experience is implied in paragraph 6: quills come as “a harder lesson” once she is “a little familiar with designing,” and she must wait until she is “as tall as my cousin.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: For each choice, find the part of the excerpt it refers to and ask whether it shows a learner needing practice before doing something, not just what the craft involves.

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.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: In rejecting choice D, the handbook says the author used a sharpened rod “to spear gum from trees” and that the children pried up sweet roots “to find the gum.” In paragraph 7 the rods are used to pry up sweet roots, which the children eat; afterwards they stray off to a stalky plant and find drops of gum under its yellow blossoms. Nothing is speared and no trees are mentioned. The explanation now says the rods were used to dig for roots, sweet roots the children ate before going off to gather gum from a stalky plant. The reason for rejecting D, that the rod was not used to make moccasins, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need the part of the excerpt that best shows one idea. The idea is that you need experience to master making moccasins. Experience means practice over time. Look for a learner who must practice before doing something harder.

  2. Find the evidence in paragraph 6

    Paragraph 6 says: “When I became a little familiar with designing and the various pleasing combinations of color, a harder lesson was given me.” The harder lesson was sewing on porcupine quills. Then her mother said “I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.”

  3. Work out what it means

    Quills are the sharp spines of a porcupine. Their points were “poisonous,” so they were dangerous. The girl got this lesson only after she knew the basics. Even then, she could not do much alone with quills until she was as tall as her cousin. That shows skill grows with experience.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. Quillwork is a harder skill she must earn through practice.
    • B is wrong. The materials show what moccasins are made of, not how skill is gained.
    • C is wrong. The colors show her own taste. Her mother “left me to my own taste.”
    • D is wrong. The rods were for digging up sweet roots during play. They had nothing to do with moccasins.

    Watch out: C comes right before the quills in paragraph 6, so it is easy to pick. But the colors show what she liked, not a skill she had to build up.

  5. Choose the answer

    The quill lesson comes only after practice, and working alone comes only once she has grown. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, since the colors come just before the quill lesson. But the girl was free to pick the colors she liked. That shows her taste, not a need for experience. The quills are called “a harder lesson,” given only once she knew the basics. That fits A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as printed on page 46 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 46, question 17. Open page 46 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed (pages 42–43)The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed on page 42 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed on page 43 of the DOE handbook.

Question 59 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 20
Passage 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 isolation of the words “—here here—” in line 7 contributes to the meaning of the poem mainly by

  • Ademonstrating how people try to communicate in familiar ways but are still sometimes misunderstood.
  • Bshowing how people can feel desperate to connect with others but give up quickly when their first attempts are ignored.
  • Cusing the unspoken bond between the neighbor and her cat to highlight the understanding people have with their pets.
  • Dillustrating the use of a simple expression to call home those who are loved and missed.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the isolation of the words “—here here—” in line 7 mainly contributes to the meaning of the poem.

A. Incorrect. The words “—here here—” do interrupt the speaker’s observation in lines 7–8 that “our words . . . / . . . sometimes fall short.” However, in lines 5–7, the speaker observes that the neighbor accompanies her words with a “high-pitched wheedling” that people “send out” because they are aware that animals “know only sound, not / the meanings of our words,” indicating that the neighbor does not actually expect her words to be understood. The description of the cat’s response in lines 10–11 (“the cat lifts her ears, turns first / toward the voice, then back”) does not suggest that the neighbor’s message is misunderstood but rather suggests that the cat prefers not to respond to it.

B. Incorrect. In lines 20–21, the “neighbor’s voice trails off,” and she does give up calling the cat. However, rather than any desperation to connect, the neighbor’s use of a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5) simply indicates her understanding that the cat, like other animals, understands “only sound, not / the meanings of our words” (lines 6–7) such as “here here.” Furthermore, the neighbor does not give up quickly. In lines 21–22, the speaker says the neighbor has “given up calling for now” but is still “waiting” for the cat.

C. Incorrect. In lines 4–7, the speaker describes the neighbor calling to the cat with a “high-pitched wheedling.” The sound may indicate a bond between the neighbor and the cat because the neighbor does understand that animals “know only sound, not / the meanings of our words” (lines 6–7). However, the use of the words “here here” in line 7 does not indicate that bond, because they are used as an example of the type of words that animals do not understand.

D. CORRECT. The speaker’s initial thought in line 1 that the neighbor is calling a child, rather than a cat, suggests that the neighbor loves and misses the cat. Lines 4–7 then present the speaker’s observation that the neighbor uses a “high-pitched wheedling,” to emphasize the simple words of her call, “—here here—.” The idea that the words are an example of a simple expression used to call home a missed loved one is reinforced in lines 25–29, when the speaker is “left . . . to wonder” whether the speaker, too, “might lift / [his or her] voice” and be able “to call someone home.”

Question analysis

This reading question asks how setting off the words here here with dashes in line 7 adds to the meaning of At Dusk, Natasha Trethewey's poem about a neighbor calling her cat at nightfall. Students must work out what two plain, isolated words contribute to the whole poem, choosing among four readings about how people and animals communicate and connect.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students explain how a line adds to a poem, but here the feature is a tiny typographic choice, and its meaning has to be built from the whole poem rather than nearby lines, which goes beyond typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 87 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 words sit inside a sentence about animals not knowing the meanings of our words and about words that “sometimes fall short,” so the nearest lines point toward miscommunication. The poem's frame points elsewhere: it opens with a call that sounds like a parent's, ends with the speaker hoping a voice can “call someone home,” and even repeats “here” in line 27. Students who read only around line 7 choose the misunderstanding; those who connect the isolated call to the first and last lines see what it is for.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The misunderstanding choice and the right one agree that “here here” is a familiar way of calling; they part only on what it shows, failed communication or a call home to someone missed. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The right reading rests on lines far from line 7: the speaker's first guess that a child is being called, and the last line's wish “to call someone home.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks what setting two words apart with dashes and italics does for the poem, a typographic choice whose purpose the poem never explains. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Ask what the two words are meant to do and whom they are aimed at, then keep the choice that the poem's other lines confirm.

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.
  • 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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: In rejecting choice C, the handbook reads “the use of the words “here here” in line 7 do not indicate that bond.” It now reads “does not,” to agree with “use.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    In line 7 the words here here are set apart by dashes and slanted letters (italics). The question asks what this does for the poem’s meaning. Think about what the words are for and who they are aimed at.

  2. Look at line 7

    Line 7 reads “the meanings of our words—here here—.” These are the words the neighbor calls to her cat. Setting them apart lets you hear them, as if spoken aloud. They are simple words that mean “come here.” Lines 6–7 say animals know “only sound, not / the meanings of our words.”

  3. Connect to the start and end

    In line 1 the speaker first thinks the neighbor “is calling a child.” So the call sounds like a parent calling someone they love. The poem ends with the hope that a voice can be “enough to call someone home” (line 29). So here here is a simple call to bring a loved one home.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The cat isn’t confused. She “lifts her ears” and turns “toward the voice.” She just doesn’t come yet.
    • B is wrong. The neighbor isn’t shown as desperate. She stops only “for now,” and the speaker pictures her waiting inside.
    • C is wrong. Here here is spoken out loud. The poem treats it as words animals don’t understand, not a silent bond.
    • D is right. It is a simple call to someone loved and missed.

    Watch out: Line 8 says words “sometimes fall short,” which points toward A. But read the first and last lines too.

  5. Choose the answer

    The two words stand for the simple call people use to bring loved ones home. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because line 8 says our words “sometimes fall short.” But the cat does hear the call and turn toward it. And the poem ends by hoping the sounds “are enough to call someone home.” D links the two words to that wish, and to the first guess that a child is being called.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 20 as printed on page 49 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 49, question 20. Open page 49 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “At Dusk” as printed (page 48)The passage “At Dusk” as printed on page 48 of the DOE handbook.

Question 60 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 23

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5a interpreting allusions
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 23 as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 50, question 23. Open page 50 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 61 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 25

Uses the passage above: “At Dusk”.

Question

The poet develops a theme about making connections with others mainly through the

  • Aexploration of the desires of the speaker and the neighbor.
  • Bspeaker’s observations of the sights and sounds in the neighborhood.
  • Cspeculations the speaker makes about what the neighbor does inside her house.
  • Dspeaker’s explanation of the cat’s thoughts and actions.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for an explanation of how the poet develops a theme about making connections with others.

A. CORRECT. The speaker first describes the neighbor calling the cat in a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5) voice before giving up and returning indoors. The neighbor’s desire to have the cat return home prompts the speaker to wonder whether the speaker could call out and be “certain the sounds . . . / are enough to call someone home” (lines 28–29). These final lines most develop the theme of connection by conveying a desire to be able to prompt someone’s return.

B. Incorrect. Line 1, in which the speaker at first thinks the sound in the neighborhood is the neighbor “calling a child,” might be assumed to introduce a theme of making connections with others. However, other descriptions of the sights and sounds of the neighborhood, including the time of day—“at dusk, street lamps just starting to hum / the backdrop of evening” (lines 3–4) and “constellation of fireflies flickering” (line 12) near the cat—have no relationship to a theme of connection.

C. Incorrect. In lines 22–24, the speaker imagines the neighbor’s activities inside her house: “perhaps in a chair in front of the TV, / or walking around, doing small tasks.” Although the speaker does imagine the neighbor is doing these things to pass time while “waiting” (line 22) for the cat, the neighbor’s actions—and even the speaker’s imagining—are carried out alone, so they do not develop a theme of connection.

D. Incorrect. Lines 10–19 present the speaker’s observations of the cat, which “turns first / toward the voice, then back” when the neighbor calls, then appears “as if she can’t decide” whether to return to the neighbor or stay outside. Although the cat’s indecision about whether to heed the neighbor’s call might seem to develop a theme about making connections, lines 10–19 focus more on the relative appeal of the cat’s two options—returning to “the steady circle / of light” at home or pursuing the “luminous / possibility . . . flitting before her”—than on any connection between the cat and its owner or between the speaker and the neighbor.

Question analysis

This reading question asks which element of Natasha Trethewey's poem At Dusk mainly develops its theme about making connections with others. All four choices describe something that really happens in the poem, from neighborhood sights to a cat's hesitation, so students must weigh how much each part contributes to that theme.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Analyzing how a theme develops is grade 7 work, but here the student must rank four genuine features of the poem by how much each builds the theme, a comparison that asks more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 53 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question asks what mainly carries the theme, and every choice is a real part of the poem, so ruling choices out means ranking them, not spotting errors. The cat takes up the most lines and is the one being called home, which makes it the strongest lure, though its lines are about her choice between two places. What builds the theme is the neighbor's wish to bring the cat home, echoed by the speaker's wish to call someone home.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    All four choices name something that really fills the poem, so each must be weighed by how much it builds the theme of connection, not by whether it is there. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The theme is built from the two ends of the poem: the neighbor calling and then waiting in lines 1–8 and 20–22, and the speaker's wish in lines 25–29 to send a voice out. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice speaks of “desires,” a word the poem never uses, while the wrong ones echo its sounds, the neighbor's house and the cat. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: For each choice, find the lines it refers to and ask how directly they bear on making connections with others; keep the choice whose lines do so most fully.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A theme is a big message about life. This poem has a theme about making connections, or reaching out to others. You need the part of the poem that mainly builds that theme.

  2. Look at what the neighbor wants

    The neighbor wants her cat to come home. She calls out at dusk with a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5). Wheedling means sweet-talking. When she stops, the speaker pictures her “inside the house waiting” (line 22). Her wish is to reach the cat and bring her back.

  3. Look at what the speaker wants

    Her calling “left me to wonder that I too might lift / my voice” (lines 25–26). The speaker hopes the sounds “are enough to call someone home” (line 29). So the speaker wants to reach someone too. Both people wish to call someone back to them. That shared wish builds the theme of connection.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The desires, or wishes, of the neighbor and the speaker carry the theme.
    • B is wrong. The humming street lamps and the fireflies set the scene. They don’t show anyone reaching out.
    • C is wrong. The guesses about the neighbor inside fill only three lines, and they show her alone.
    • D is wrong. The cat lines weigh home against the night. They don’t show one person reaching another.

    Watch out: D is tempting because the cat fills many lines. But they are about her choice, not about a connection.

  5. Choose the answer

    The poem builds its theme through what the neighbor and the speaker both want. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, since the cat takes up lines 10–19. But those lines weigh the porch light against the glowing night. The theme of connection comes from two wishes. The neighbor wants to call the cat home. The speaker wants to “call someone home” too. A names those desires.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 25 as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 50, question 25. Open page 50 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 62 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 33
Passage 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

The idea that many people were interested in Ederle’s attempt to swim the channel is illustrated in the passage mainly through the

  • Ainformation about Ederle’s competition with another female swimmer who was also attempting to cross the channel.
  • Bdetails about the reports of Ederle’s progress during the swim and the celebration of her successful completion of the swim.
  • Cdetails about how Ederle’s historic swim contributed to an increase in the number of people learning how to swim.
  • Dinformation about the resources Ederle used throughout her swim to maintain her motivation and stamina.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the idea that many people were interested in Ederle’s attempt to swim the channel is mainly illustrated in the passage.

A. Incorrect. While paragraph 3 states that “a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well,” which suggests that Ederle’s competitor was interested in Ederle’s attempt to swim the channel, this information does not establish that many people were interested in Ederle’s attempt.

B. CORRECT. Paragraph 6 includes the detail that newspaper reporters followed Ederle on a tugboat and “wired dispatches of her progress to shore,” which suggests that an audience was waiting for news about Ederle’s progress. Paragraph 8 states that when Ederle reached the shore, “the waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky.” Further, paragraph 9 states that when Ederle returned to New York, “thousands of people” attended a parade in her honor. These details describing the celebration of Ederle’s feat further illustrate the idea that many people were interested in what she had accomplished.

C. Incorrect. While paragraph 9 states that “more than 60,000 people credited [Ederle] with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates,” this detail describes how Ederle’s historic swim influenced people after the fact but does not illustrate the level of public interest during the attempt itself.

D. Incorrect. Paragraph 6 provides details about how Ederle’s “coach, family, and friends” displayed signs, played songs, and “passed her baby bottles of broth” to help her maintain her motivation and stamina. However, these resources do not suggest the idea that people beyond Ederle’s immediate support team were interested in her attempt to swim the channel.

Question analysis

Public interest in Gertrude Ederle's 1926 English Channel swim is the focus of this reading question, which asks which details in the passage mainly illustrate that many people cared about her attempt. Students must gather signs of attention from several paragraphs, and every choice points to real details that involve other people in her story.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Matching an idea to the details that develop it is standard grade 7 work. The supporting details are spread across several late paragraphs and must be gathered before the choices can be judged, a typical grade 7 demand.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 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 idea has two parts, many people and interest in the attempt itself, and each wrong choice satisfies one at most. The strongest pull is the 60,000 swimming certificates, a huge number tied to Ederle but describing what people did in the years afterward. Students who hold both parts in mind, and who remember that paragraph 6 carries reporters as well as family, find the details that answer it.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The right details sit in three places: reporters wiring dispatches from a tugboat in paragraph 6, the roaring crowd and flares in paragraph 8, and the New York parade in paragraph 9. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    No sentence says people were interested; the student must infer an eager audience from reporters sending news to shore and a crowd already “waiting” when she landed. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Hold each choice to both parts of the idea in the stem: the details must involve many people, and they must show interest in the attempt itself, not some other link to Ederle.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Find the two parts of the idea

    This asks you to find the details that best show an idea. The idea has two parts. Many people, not just a few, cared about Ederle. And they were interested in the attempt itself, the swim as it happened. The right choice must show both.

  2. Look for news and crowds

    Paragraph 6 says reporters on a tugboat “wired dispatches of her progress to shore.” Dispatches are news reports. In paragraph 8, “The waiting crowd roared” as she stepped onto the English shore. In paragraph 9, “thousands of people shouted” her name at a parade in New York.

  3. See what these details show

    Reporters send news only when readers want it. So people on land were following the swim as it happened. The crowd was “waiting” before she even arrived. Then thousands cheered her at home. These details show that a great many people cared about her swim.

  4. Check each choice

    • B fits: the reports of her progress and the celebration show many people following the swim.
    • A is wrong because the rival swimmer in paragraph 3 is one person, not many people.
    • C is wrong because the swimming certificates came in later years, after the swim.
    • D is wrong because her coach, family and friends were a small group, not the wider public.

    Watch out: C has the biggest number, more than 60,000 people. But it tells what people did after the swim was over.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only B shows many people paying attention while Ederle swam and when she finished. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, since 60,000 is a huge number of people. But they earned their certificates “over the next few years,” long after the swim. That shows her influence, not interest in the attempt. B shows people following the swim as it happened and cheering when she finished.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 33 as printed on page 56 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 56, question 33. Open page 56 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 56 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 57 of the DOE handbook.

Question 63 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 38
Passage 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

How does paragraph 7 fit into the overall structure of the passage?

  • AIt indicates where the author changes the purpose of the writing.
  • BIt introduces the author’s opinion on the issue.
  • CIt signals a shift in the position of the author.
  • DIt begins the author’s commentary on the preceding information.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for an explanation of the role of paragraph 7 in the overall structure of the passage.

A. Incorrect. The purpose of paragraphs 2–6 is to present reasons physical books might be better than e-books, and paragraph 7 offers summarizing “take-away” advice based on those reasons. As a result, it may seem as though the author’s purpose for writing the entire passage has shifted. However, the author’s advice in paragraph 7, that readers who want to learn from reading “might want to go for a physical book,” makes it clear that paragraph 7, like paragraphs 2–6, continues to serve the same purpose for the passage that the writer expresses in paragraph 1: to inform readers that printed books “may actually be a better choice for some readers” than e-books.

B. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author does offer the advice that readers who want to absorb material “might want to go for a physical book” rather than an e-book. Even though the author makes the statement favoring physical books for those who want to learn from their reading, the author is not sharing a personal opinion. Instead, the author offers the advice as a summary of the information presented in paragraphs 2–6, which explore various studies about the advantages of physical books over e-books. Furthermore, the idea that physical books are sometimes a better option is not introduced for the first time in paragraph 7. Instead, it is introduced early in the passage, when the author states in paragraph 1 that physical books “may actually be a better choice for some readers.”

C. Incorrect. Paragraph 7 presents a clear shift in style and content from paragraphs 2–6. Paragraphs 2–6 are each preceded by a heading stating a reason physical books might be a better choice than e-books, and each paragraph provides research evidence. Paragraph 7 shifts to stating a “take-away message”—the author’s advice—which is based on the reasons in paragraphs 2–6. Paragraph 7’s different style and content do not, however, signal a change in the author’s position. Instead, the author’s advice in paragraph 7 (“if you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book”) actually reinforces the position first introduced in paragraph 1 that physical books “may actually be a better choice for some readers.”

D. CORRECT. The author uses paragraphs 2–6 to present “five ways e-books might be inferior” (paragraph 1) to physical books. Each of paragraphs 2–6 presents one reason for the inferiority of e-books, based on a scientific study. Paragraph 7 indicates a shift because it describes neither a reason e-books might be inferior nor a scientific study. Instead, it presents personal commentary: the “take-away,” or conclusion, the author draws from the studies and evidence presented in paragraphs 2–6. That commentary consists of the author’s own practical advice to readers who want to retain information that they read (“you might want to go for a physical book”) and to those who are “going to be up all night studying” (“turn off the backlight”).

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how paragraph 7, a two-sentence paragraph that follows the five research sections, fits into the overall structure of an article arguing that printed books might be better than e-books. Students must compare it with the opening claim and the paragraphs around it, and the four choices use similar abstract wording about the author's purpose, opinion and position.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how sections contribute to a text, but here all four choices are abstract statements about the author's purpose and position, and telling them apart means tracking the argument from the first paragraph to the last.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 49 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 abstract claims about the author's purpose and position, so none can be checked against a single sentence. Paragraph 7 does feel like a turn, from studies to advice, which makes the choices about a changed purpose or position tempting, but the advice repeats the view the first paragraph set out. The real hedge comes one paragraph later, and the closest call is whether paragraph 7 introduces a view or comments on evidence already given.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The right choice and the one saying paragraph 7 introduces the author's opinion both find the author's own voice there; they part on whether that view is new, and paragraph 1 already said print “may actually be a better choice”. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks what paragraph 7 does in the article, a short take-away after five research sections, so its advice about physical books and backlights matters only for its role. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Judging the claims of a shift or a change needs both ends of the article, the stance of paragraph 1 and the “However” that opens paragraph 8. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Compare what paragraph 7 does with what paragraphs 1–6 do: where was the author's view first stated, and what is new in paragraph 7? Then match that role to a choice.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    This asks about the structure of the passage, which means how its parts fit together. You need to name the job paragraph 7 does compared with the paragraphs around it.

  2. Map the passage first

    Paragraph 1 states the author’s view: print “may actually be a better choice for some readers.” Paragraphs 2 through 6 each sit under a bold heading. Each one reports research on one way e-books might be worse than print.

  3. Read paragraph 7

    It begins, “The take-away message?” A take-away is the lesson you carry away. Then the author advises, “If you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book.” The author also says to “turn off the backlight” when studying late. Both tips come from the studies just before. So paragraph 7 is the author commenting on that evidence.

  4. Check each choice

    • D fits: it “begins the author’s commentary on the preceding information,” and preceding means coming before.
    • A is wrong because the purpose doesn’t change, since the advice still shows print may be better.
    • B is wrong because the author’s opinion first appears in paragraph 1, not paragraph 7.
    • C is wrong because the author softens the view only later, in paragraph 8, with “all this may not mean.”

    Watch out: B is tempting because paragraph 7 really is the author’s own voice. But it is not the first time you hear it.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 7 turns the research in the five sections into advice, which is commentary on what came before. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B comes closest, since paragraph 7 really is the author speaking. But the author’s view already appeared in paragraph 1. Paragraph 7 doesn’t introduce it. It sums up the research before it and turns that research into advice. That is commentary on the preceding information, as D says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 38 as printed on page 61 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 61, question 38. Open page 61 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed (pages 58–59)The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed on page 58 of the DOE handbook.The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed on page 59 of the DOE handbook.

Question 64 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 40

Uses the passage above: “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books”.

Question

The studies described in paragraph 6 are important to the author’s observations in paragraphs 7 and 8 because the findings

  • Ashow that the author has personal opinions to share beyond the ideas included in the studies.
  • Bgive the author the opportunity to reach practical conclusions about reading that are based on scientific evidence.
  • Chighlight the author’s statement that digital reading experiences vary based on the individual and the device.
  • Dsupport the author’s inference that more studies on more types of devices are needed.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the findings from the studies described in paragraph 6 are important to the author’s observations in paragraphs 7 and 8.

A. Incorrect. The evidence from the studies mentioned in paragraph 6 is not substantially supported by the personal opinions the author shares in paragraph 7 (“And if you’re going to be up all night studying, turn off the backlight”) or in paragraph 8 (“melt your brain” and “digital distractions”).

B. CORRECT. In paragraph 6, the author cites studies from 2005 and 2014 that found that LED screens can “disrupt sleep patterns” and that “people who used e-readers with LED screens at night slept worse and were more tired the next day.” Then, in paragraph 7, the author suggests that “if you’re going to be up all night studying, turn off the backlight,” and in paragraph 8, the author explains some differences between reading e-books on various devices. This information is not based on a personal opinion; instead, it is based on practical conclusions drawn from scientific evidence.

C. Incorrect. In paragraph 6, the author cites a 2005 study in which researchers found that “reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload than reading on paper.” Then, in paragraph 8, the author concludes that “reading an e-book on a computer is a much different experience than reading on a Kindle, which is specifically designed for consuming books.” Although the findings in paragraph 6 are important, they do not highlight the information presented by the author that digital reading experiences vary based on the reader and the device.

D. Incorrect. The author states in paragraph 8 that “reading an e-book on a computer is a much different experience than reading on a Kindle” and mentions how the same thing is true for “an interactive e-book on an iPad” compared with an e-book on “a simpler e-book device.” Readers may conclude that this statement is meant to indicate the author’s belief that more studies on more types of devices are needed. However, the author does not state or imply this belief in the passage.

Question analysis

This question asks why the studies on screen fatigue and sleep in paragraph 6 of an article about e-books matter to the observations the author makes in the next two paragraphs. Students must trace the connection between the research and the later paragraphs, and each choice describes that link in abstract terms that are easy to confuse.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Tracing how evidence leads to an author's conclusions is grade 7 argument work, but this item spans three paragraphs, and the four explanations of the link are abstract and close in wording, more demanding than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 80 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice describes a link between evidence and commentary, so the student has to know both what paragraph 6 found and what paragraphs 7 and 8 do with it. The tempting wrong answer borrows paragraph 8's real point that devices differ and wrongly credits the sleep and workload studies with it. Seeing that the backlight advice comes straight from the Harvard study is what makes the general wording of the right choice convincing.

  1. How, not what major Working it out

    The question asks how paragraph 6's findings function for the paragraphs after them, a relationship between evidence and conclusion, so knowing what the sleep and workload studies found is only the first step. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The links run across three paragraphs: the Harvard backlight finding becomes “turn off the backlight” in paragraph 7, and the tired brain returns as “melt your brain” in paragraph 8. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice names no study, screen or device, speaking only of “practical conclusions” and “scientific evidence”, while two wrong choices echo paragraph 8's talk of devices. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Note what the paragraph 6 studies found, then find the sentences in paragraphs 7 and 8 that draw on those findings and describe what the author does with them.

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 purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Understand the link asked about

    This asks how evidence connects to the author’s comments. First see what the studies in paragraph 6 found. Then see what the author does with those findings in paragraphs 7 and 8.

  2. Read the studies in paragraph 6

    A 2005 study found that “reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload.” Cognitive workload means how hard your brain has to work. A 2014 study found that people who read on lit screens at night “slept worse and were more tired the next day.”

  3. See how the author uses them

    In paragraph 7 the author advises, “if you’re going to be up all night studying, turn off the backlight.” That tip comes straight from the sleep study. Paragraph 8 then warns you not to take the findings too far. It says they “may not mean that reading on a Kindle is really going to melt your brain.” Both are practical, real-life conclusions drawn from science.

  4. Check each choice

    • B fits: the studies let the author reach “practical conclusions” based on “scientific evidence.”
    • A is wrong because the advice in paragraphs 7 and 8 grows out of the studies, not out of opinions beyond them.
    • C is wrong because nothing says reading changes from person to person, and the studies compare screens with paper.
    • D is wrong because the author never says more studies are needed.

    Watch out: C is half right. Paragraph 8 does say devices differ, but the part about each person is never stated.

  5. Choose the answer

    The findings in paragraph 6 lead straight to the author’s practical advice. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C comes closest, because paragraph 8 does say a computer and a Kindle feel different. But the studies in paragraph 6 compare screens with paper, and no one says reading changes from person to person. B fits the clear link: a sleep study turned into the advice to turn off the backlight.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as printed on page 61 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 61, question 40. Open page 61 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 65 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 42

Uses the passage above: “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books”.

Question

What is the best summary of the research into the effects of e-book reading?

  • AE-books are disliked by college students and preferred by kids, and their interactive features are distracting.
  • BSome e-books can aid comprehension, but most e-book readers remember few details.
  • CE-books reduce reading comprehension and increase distraction, and they are tiring for the eyes and brain.
  • DEnhanced e-books engage children, but they offer them too many opportunities to be distracted by non-reading activities.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks which sentence is the best summary of the research into the effects of e-book reading.

A. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author notes that “college students often don’t prefer” e-book textbooks but that more than half the children in a study reported “preferring screen reading.” Paragraph 3 describes a study that showed that “ ‘enhanced’ ” e-books might be distracting for young children. Therefore, this sentence is not the best summary, because it overstates the opinions of college students and implies that college students are distracted by interactive features, which is not discussed in the text.

B. Incorrect. According to the information in paragraph 3, children who read “ ‘enhanced’ ” e-books “remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.” A study conducted with a group of tenth graders showed that these students “remembered more about texts if they read them in print rather than on a computer screen” (paragraph 4). Although the author points out in paragraph 2 that “some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension,” a study found that “ ‘enhanced’ e-books might be distracting” (paragraph 3). Therefore, this sentence does not provide the best summary of the research about e-book reading, because the author does not show that e-books aid in reading comprehension.

C. CORRECT. The author states in paragraph 2 that studies found that “students who read on iPads had lower reading comprehension than when they read traditional printed books” and that “e-books can be detrimental to the practice of reading itself.” In paragraph 3, the author also points out that a study found that “ ‘enhanced’ e-books might be distracting” and that children “remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.” Finally, in paragraph 6, the author states that “staring at a lit screen can be tiring for the eyes and the brain” and that “a 2005 study from Sweden found that reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload than reading on paper.” Therefore, this sentence provides the best summary of the research about e-book reading, because it includes accurate information about the results of the studies discussed in the text.

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author does point out that “researchers noted that some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension, and that those might be more helpful than game-type interactive graphics.” The author also explains in paragraph 3 how children “were more engaged with [e-books] physically.” But because this sentence does not include important details about reading comprehension or the physical toll of e-book reading on readers, it does not provide the best summary of the research about e-book reading.

Question analysis

This summary question asks for the best summary of the research an article reports on the effects of reading e-books instead of printed books. Students must pull findings together from several sections, and the choices differ in how completely and how accurately they reflect what the studies found.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summarizing research spread across an article is grade 7 work. The five bold headings make the findings easy to locate, so the demand is typical: weighing four summaries for accuracy and for how much they cover.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 75 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The right summary practically restates three of the article's bold headings, so students who use the headings as a map can answer quickly. The wrong summaries fail in different ways: one mixes in survey preferences, which are not effects of reading, one stretches a few studies to “most e-book readers”, and one is accurate but covers only the enhanced e-books. Spotting each flaw takes more care than spotting the answer.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    Each summary joins two or three findings, and every part must be checked: “disliked” against “don't prefer”, “most e-book readers” against small studies, “too many opportunities” against one study of 32 kids. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The findings are spread over five sections, but bold headings such as “E-books can reduce reading comprehension” and “They're tiring” make each one easy to find. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: List the main finding under each bold heading, then pick the choice that reflects several of them accurately without adding claims or stretching any single finding.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what a good summary does

    A summary gives the main points in a few words. A good one gets each point right. It doesn’t add new claims or stretch one finding too far. Here you need to sum up what research found about the effects of reading e-books.

  2. Use the bold headings

    The headings list the main findings:

    • “E-books can reduce reading comprehension.” Comprehension means understanding.
    • “Young kids can get distracted by e-books.”
    • “You remember less about a book’s timeline.”
    • “They’re not great as textbooks.”
    • “They’re tiring.”

  3. Match the right choice to the findings

    Choice C says e-books “reduce reading comprehension and increase distraction,” and that they “are tiring for the eyes and brain.” That covers three headings: understanding, distraction and tiredness. Each part matches what the studies found.

  4. Check each choice

    • C fits: it joins three key findings and states each one correctly.
    • A is wrong because what readers prefer is not an effect of reading, and “don’t prefer” is not “disliked.”
    • B is wrong because some features are only designed to help, and no study covers “most” e-book readers.
    • D is wrong because it covers only enhanced e-books and leaves out comprehension, timelines and tiredness.

    Watch out: D is true as far as it goes. But it sums up just one section, so it is too narrow.

  5. Choose the answer

    Choice C brings together the main findings from several sections. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D comes closest, because every word of it is true about enhanced e-books. But a summary of the research has to cover more than one study. C brings together understanding, distraction and tiredness, the findings of several sections, without adding anything the passage doesn’t say.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 42 as printed on page 62 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 62, question 42. Open page 62 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 66 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 46
Passage 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

How does the setting affect the plot of the excerpt?

  • AThe darkness of the mudflats before sunrise causes the narrator to pay close attention to his surroundings.
  • BThe rugged terrain of the mudflats makes it more difficult for the narrator to do his job.
  • CThe slow return of the tide along the mudflats forces the narrator to be patient during his journey.
  • DThe barren appearance of the mudflats creates a sense of mystery that unsettles the narrator.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the setting affects the plot of the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. In paragraph 4, the narrator says that it is an hour before sunrise. It is difficult to see because the mudflats are dark, so the narrator, while familiar with the terrain of the mudflats, is cautious.

B. Incorrect. While the terrain of the mudflats is challenging because of the “wet, flattened dunes” (paragraph 4), the narrator is familiar with the terrain and moves carefully. In addition, the excerpt focuses on the narrator’s curiosity and enjoyment as he explores the mudflats, not on his work collecting specimens.

C. Incorrect. In paragraph 1, the narrator watches the water “hesitating at its apex” and “patiently waiting for the gravitational gears to shift.” This illustrates that the narrator is already familiar with the changes in his surroundings, that the tide is slow to move in, and that he can move carefully through the mudflats without the threat of rising water.

D. Incorrect. While the narrator is on the mudflats for the entire excerpt, the phrase “eyes relaxed” in paragraph 1 indicates that the narrator feels comfortable there. The narrator does not show fear until paragraph 6, when a growing fear about the unknown creature arises.

Question analysis

Set on the mudflats of Puget Sound before daybreak, this excerpt from the novel The Highest Tide is the basis for a question about how setting affects plot. Students must link features of the place and time to what the narrator does across the whole excerpt, and each choice pairs a real feature of the setting with an effect that may or may not be in the text.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Analyzing how setting shapes plot is a grade 7 literary standard, but the excerpt never states the link: the effect must be inferred from scattered details, and every choice names a genuine feature of the flats, which is beyond typical work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 77 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A statement in the explanation that contradicted the excerpt’s introduction was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice names a real feature of the mudflats, so the question turns on which feature the excerpt actually shows shaping events. The darkness never gets a sentence of its own; it is felt in a sound heard before anything is seen, a silhouette that cannot be found and a headlamp beam. The barren look of the flats is the strongest pull, because the scene is eerie, but the narrator knows life hides in the mud and his unease comes from the creature.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    The excerpt never says the darkness changes anything; the effect must be assembled from the hour before sunrise, the sound heard “long before I saw it”, the missing silhouette and the headlamp that finally finds the creature. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice uses no words from the text, while the wrong ones echo it: the “barren” look of the flats, the water “patiently waiting”, the narrator's summer job. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The darkness is established in paragraph 4 and felt in paragraphs 5, 6 and 8, so no single passage shows the setting at work. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Collect the details of time, place and conditions across the excerpt, then for each choice ask whether the text shows that feature of the setting actually changing what the narrator does.

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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: In rejecting choice B, the handbook says “the excerpt shows that the narrator explores the mudflats for curiosity and enjoyment, not work.” But the introduction says the narrator’s summer job is collecting marine specimens and that “in this excerpt, he is looking for specimens in the mudflats before daybreak.” The explanation now says the excerpt focuses on his curiosity and enjoyment as he explores the mudflats, not on his work collecting specimens. That keeps the handbook’s point (the excerpt is not about the terrain making his job harder) without contradicting the introduction.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what setting and plot mean

    The setting is where and when a story happens. The plot is the chain of events. This asks which part of the setting changes what happens or what the narrator does.

  2. Find the time of day

    Paragraph 4 says, “It was still an hour before sunrise.” The narrator is out on the mudflats in the dark. The only light comes from the moon and his headlamp.

  3. See how the dark shapes events

    Because it is dark, he must rely on sounds and small clues. He says, “I heard it long before I saw it.” He looks for “a hulking silhouette,” a dark outline, but can’t find one. He spots the creature only when “my headlamp crossed it.” Then he stares hard, trying to make out its shape. The darkness keeps him alert and watching closely.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits: the dark makes him pay close attention to everything around him.
    • B is wrong because the excerpt follows a strange sound and never shows the ground making his job harder.
    • C is wrong because in paragraph 1 he chooses to stop and watch the tide, and nothing forces him.
    • D is wrong because he knows life hides in the mud, and what scares him is the creature.

    Watch out: D feels right because the scene is eerie. But the flats’ empty look never troubles him.

  5. Choose the answer

    The darkness before sunrise is what keeps the narrator listening and looking so carefully. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D comes closest, because the dark flats do feel spooky. But the narrator says they only look “too barren to support sea life” from far away, and he knows better. His fear comes from the creature. The darkness, though, shapes every step: he hears before he sees and must watch closely.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 46 as printed on page 66 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 66, question 46. Open page 66 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed (pages 64–65)The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed on page 64 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed on page 65 of the DOE handbook.

Question 67 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 48

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from The Highest Tide”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 6.

I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard, a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all.

How do the narrator’s actions develop a central idea of the excerpt?

  • AThe narrator’s concern about the origin of the noise shows dedication to helping preserve sea life in the mudflats.
  • BThe narrator’s curiosity about the sea life in the mudflats outweighs any fear about the situation.
  • CThe narrator’s knowledge about a variety of sea life encourages a search for more specimens to study.
  • DThe narrator’s eagerness about new specimens of sea life outweighs the reality that the area is an unlikely place to find them.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the narrator’s actions, as described in the sentence from paragraph 6, develop a central idea of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. The sentence highlights the narrator’s concern about sea life and the creatures living within the flats. However, these ideas do not develop what is being described in the excerpt.

B. CORRECT. The narrator “kept stepping toward the one sound,” indicating a sense of curiosity. However, the words “a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing” suggest a rising fear or concern. Ultimately, the narrator’s curiosity outweighs his growing fear and is a central idea in the excerpt, as shown by the fact that the narrator does not run away when finally encountering the creature.

C. Incorrect. While the narrator’s descriptions of the nudibranch and other sea life demonstrate a knowledge of these creatures, as well as a desire to discover more in the mudflats, the knowledge the narrator exhibits is not what is being illustrated in the excerpt.

D. Incorrect. The excerpt does describe the narrator’s enjoyment at seeing a nudibranch in paragraph 2, and in paragraph 4, the narrator clearly states that there is an abundance of life in the seemingly barren mudflats, including “hearty clams, worms and tiny creatures that flourish in mud.” However, the sentence demonstrates the narrator’s curiosity in spite of fear, not an eagerness about or fascination with the mudflats.

Question analysis

This central-idea question quotes a sentence in which the narrator keeps walking toward a mysterious sound while part of him hopes to find nothing, and asks how his actions develop a central idea of the excerpt. Students must read the mixed feelings packed into one sentence and connect them to the larger story of his walk on the flats.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Connecting a character's actions to a central idea is grade 7 work. The quoted sentence states both the action and the feeling, so the task is typical, though the four choices are long and each names a different motive.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 111 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The quoted sentence holds both halves of the answer, an action and a wish that pulls against it, but neither is named. The wrong choices each supply a motive the sentence does not show, a rescue, a hunt for specimens, an eagerness for new finds, and two of them borrow real details from elsewhere in the excerpt. Students who split the sentence into what he does and what he hopes avoid all three.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The sentence names neither feeling: curiosity must be read from “kept stepping toward the one sound” and fear from “a growing part of me hoping I'd find nothing at all”. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    To count as a central idea, the pull between curiosity and fear has to recur, from “I couldn't resist” in paragraph 4 to “If they even twitched I would have run” in paragraph 8. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Split the quoted sentence into what the narrator does and what part of him feels, then ask which motive behind those actions runs through the rest of the excerpt.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    This asks how the narrator’s actions build a central idea, a main point that runs through the whole excerpt. Start by splitting the sentence into what he does and what he feels.

  2. Split the sentence in two

    What he does: “I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard.” He keeps moving forward. What he feels: “a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all.” Part of him is afraid of what he might find, and that fear is growing.

  3. Weigh the two feelings

    He is scared, but he keeps going anyway. So his curiosity, his wish to know, is stronger than his fear. This pull runs through the excerpt. In paragraph 4 he “couldn’t resist” going out. In paragraph 8 he stays and stares at the creature, though he admits, “If they even twitched I would have run.”

  4. Check each choice

    • B fits: his curiosity “outweighs any fear,” since his steps forward win out over his wish to find nothing.
    • A is wrong because nothing shows he wants to protect sea life, and he even hopes to find nothing.
    • C is wrong because he is following one strange sound, not hunting for specimens to study.
    • D is wrong because paragraph 4 says the flats only look empty from far away.

    Watch out: D copies B’s pattern of one thing outweighing another. But its details don’t match the excerpt.

  5. Choose the answer

    The narrator’s steps show curiosity winning out over a growing fear. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A comes closest, because two summers earlier a stranded whale had needed help. But in this sentence the narrator hopes to find nothing at all. Someone set on a rescue would not hope that. B explains both halves: he is afraid, yet his curiosity keeps him walking.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 48 as printed on page 67 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 67, question 48. Open page 67 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 68 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 50

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from The Highest Tide”.

Question

The author develops the narrator’s point of view when the narrator sees the creature by

  • Adescribing the narrator’s movements as he approaches the creature.
  • Bemphasizing the odds of finding the creature in an area inhabited by a rival species.
  • Cshowing the narrator’s growing realization of the creature’s identity.
  • Dcomparing the size of the creature to the size of a vehicle.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the author develops the narrator’s point of view when the narrator sees the creature.

A. Incorrect. The author’s description of how the narrator moves toward the creature has to do with the terrain and the narrator’s sense of awe. The narrator’s perspective is not represented through how he approaches the creature; it is presented later in the excerpt when the narrator is studying the creature.

B. Incorrect. In this excerpt, while the narrator does discuss other large animals (minke whale, paragraph 5; octopi, paragraph 7) that have appeared on the mudflats, these are examples to show the variety of animal life that can be discovered on the mudflats, not rivals of the creature discovered at the end of the excerpt.

C. CORRECT. In paragraph 7, the narrator describes the largest octopi in the world and then states that this creature is “more than an octopus.” The narrator then states that it is “impossible to hear anything over the blood in my ears,” and in paragraph 8, he describes the creature’s body in detail, as well as his growing fear and amazement as he begins to realize what the creature really is.

D. Incorrect. While the narrator observes that the creature’s eye is as large as a hubcap in paragraph 9, a comparison to an entire car is never made. This detail is for description but does not give the narrator’s point of view.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks how the author develops the narrator's perspective at the moment he comes upon a huge, unknown sea creature at the end of the excerpt from The Highest Tide. Students must track the narration over the last paragraphs and decide which technique shapes what readers see through his eyes.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Analyzing how an author develops a narrator's point of view is a grade 7 standard. The key paragraphs are dense with description and suspense, but the choices are fairly distinct, so the overall demand is typical of grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 60 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The narrator's guesses change from paragraph to paragraph, octopus, then something more, then a name he refuses to say, and the answer is that progression rather than any single detail. The wrong choices fasten on details, his approach across the mud, the octopi of Puget Sound, the hubcap, and each misdescribes or misplaces it. Readers who track what he believes at each step see the growing realization.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks how the author builds the narrator's point of view, so the student must name a technique, a step-by-step realization, rather than any single thing he sees or does. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The realization unfolds across paragraphs 6 to 9: “A giant octopus” becomes “more than an octopus”, then “I knew what it had to be”, and finally an eye the size of a hubcap. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The creature is never named; “the two words” the narrator will not let himself think have to be understood as a name he already suspects. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Reread paragraphs 6 through 9 and track what the narrator notices, thinks and feels at each step, then pick the choice that describes the technique the author uses across those steps.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    Point of view here means how the narrator sees and understands what is happening. The question asks how the author shows his view once the creature appears. Look for a method the author uses across several paragraphs.

  2. Track his guesses

    Follow what the narrator thinks the creature is:

    • Paragraph 6: “My first thought? A giant octopus.”
    • Paragraph 7: “I knew it was more than an octopus.”
    • Paragraph 8: “I knew what it had to be, but I wouldn’t allow myself to even think the two words.”
    • Paragraph 9: “Its eye was the size of a hubcap.”

  3. See the pattern

    Each step brings him closer to knowing what the creature is. First comes a guess, then a doubt, then a name he won’t let himself think. Finally a huge eye makes him scream. The author shows his growing realization, his slow understanding, one step at a time.

  4. Check each choice

    • C fits: “growing realization of the creature’s identity” matches his changing guesses, and identity means what something is.
    • A is wrong because his steps closer reveal little, while his thoughts change from paragraph to paragraph.
    • B is wrong because the octopus is only his first guess, not a rival, and he never talks about odds.
    • D is wrong because only the eye is compared to a hubcap, a cover on a car wheel.

    Watch out: D uses a real detail but gets it wrong. A hubcap is part of a wheel, not a whole vehicle.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author builds the narrator’s view by showing him slowly work out what he is looking at. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A comes closest, because the narrator does move closer after he sees the creature, to “within fifty feet.” But his steps tell little about how he sees it. What changes from paragraph to paragraph is his thinking: his guesses grow until he understands. That is C.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 50 as printed on page 67 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 67, question 50. Open page 67 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 69 of 112

2024 Test A English, question 55
Passage 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.

Chart titled “Possible Management of Non-Native Species, Based on Extent of Invasion,” plotting Area Affected by Non-Native Species (vertical axis) against Time (horizontal axis) as an S-shaped curve that stays low, then rises steeply and levels off high, where it is labeled “Widespread and abundant throughout range.” The time line is divided into four shaded stages, left to right: Prevention, “Species absent”; Eradication, “Few, localized populations”; Containment, “Rapid increase in populations”; and Local Control and Management Only, “Eradication no longer feasible; can only protect small areas based on economic and ecological need.” Markers on the curve show “Species introduced” at the end of Prevention, “Detection” within Eradication and “Public awareness begins” near the end of Containment, and two large arrows read “Management = simple; eradication likely” across Prevention and Eradication and “Management = difficult and costly; eradication unlikely or impossible” across Containment and Local Control and Management Only.

1stymie: hinder or interfere with

Question

The details in the section “A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing” convey a central idea of the excerpt by suggesting that

  • Asome non-native species can replace native species that are unable to survive on their own.
  • Bdecisions about whether to keep non-native species should be considered on an individual basis.
  • Cthe scientists who study rapidly changing ecosystems agree that non-native species enhance biodiversity.
  • Da natural habitat that is healthy should be able to support a blend of native and non-native species.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the details in the section “A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing” convey a central idea of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. While paragraph 15 does discuss introducing non-native Aldabra tortoises to replace native tortoises that no longer exist, the real point of this section is to show that non-native species can sometimes help support native species that still exist but are struggling. In this case, the Aldabra tortoises are now moving seeds around for the fruiting plants on the islands where the tortoises have been introduced.

B. CORRECT. This section discusses situations in which non-native species should be kept (as in the example of the Aldabra tortoises in paragraph 15) but also asserts that “most of the time . . . conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives” (paragraph 16). This section makes the point that the issue of non-natives needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

C. Incorrect. This section does not claim that non-native species always or even usually enhance biodiversity; rather, it states that “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), later adding that “most of the time . . . conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives” (paragraph 16).

D. Incorrect. While the section happens to give a good example of a habitat that supports both native and non-native species (the islands of Mauritius), it never suggests that being able to do so is a defining characteristic of healthy habitats.

Question analysis

This central-idea question asks how the details in the final section of an article on non-native species, titled “A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing,” convey a central idea of the excerpt. Students must sum up the section as a whole, including its example of a tortoise brought to the islands of Mauritius, and match it to the article's larger argument.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Explaining how a section conveys a central idea is grade 7 work, but this section mixes an argument, an example and a closing paragraph, and the choices differ in how far they generalize from it, which demands more than typical.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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 section's most memorable content is an example, the Aldabra tortoise doing the work of the islands' lost tortoises, and a choice built on it is the strongest pull. The central idea sits instead in the qualifiers at the start and end of the section: some cases favor non-natives, most still call for removing them. Students who summarize all three paragraphs in a sentence, including the last, arrive at the case-by-case reading.

  1. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice's “on an individual basis” appears nowhere in the section, while the wrong choices echo it: a non-native standing in for natives, “biodiversity”, natives alongside non-natives. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The case-by-case idea comes only from joining paragraph 14's “In some cases” to paragraph 16's “Most of the time” and “where it is feasible and important to us”. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Sum up the section's three paragraphs in one sentence of your own, including its example and its final paragraph, then compare that sentence with each choice.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    A section is a part of an article under its own heading. This one runs from paragraph 14 to paragraph 16. You need to sum up the whole section, including its last paragraph. Then match that summary to a central idea.

  2. Read paragraph 14

    It says that “in some cases” we help nature most “by leaving the non-natives alone.” We might even bring them in “on purpose.” The words “in some cases” are the key. They mean sometimes, not always.

  3. Read the example and the ending

    Paragraph 15 gives an example. A non-native tortoise was brought to Mauritius to spread the seeds of fruiting plants. Then paragraph 16 says that “most of the time,” saving species still means “planting natives and removing non-natives.” We should do that “where it is feasible and important to us.” Feasible means possible.

  4. Put the section together

    Sometimes it is best to keep a non-native species. Most of the time it is best to remove it. So each case has to be judged on its own. That is what “on an individual basis” means.

  5. Check each choice

    • B fits: deciding case by case matches both “in some cases” and “most of the time.”
    • A is wrong because the tortoise is one example, and the section ends by saying removal is still the usual choice.
    • C is wrong because the section never says scientists agree, and “in some cases” is far from always.
    • D is wrong because the section never says what a healthy habitat should hold.

    Watch out: A is built on the section’s most memorable detail. But the main idea comes from the words that limit the claim.

  6. Choose the answer

    The section says to keep non-natives in some cases and remove them in others. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A comes closest, because the Aldabra tortoise really does take over work the lost tortoises once did. But that is one case. The section ends by saying that most of the time we still remove non-natives. B covers both sides: some cases call for keeping them, and others call for removing them.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 55 as printed on page 71 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 71, question 55. Open page 71 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed (pages 68–70)The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed on page 68 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed on page 69 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed on page 70 of the DOE handbook.

Question 70 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 6
Passage Find Time to Volunteer

Find Time to Volunteer

(1) Many people believe that they gain a greater sense of purpose by giving their time to serve others. (2) These are the people who spend their free time volunteering at various places within the community. (3) Those who are served benefit from the work of these volunteers. (4) However, research shows that those who volunteer also receive benefits.

(5) For many students, this proposition may sound impossible. (6) Schoolwork can require hours of study each week. (7) Volunteering at a retirement center or homeless shelter requires both time and energy. (8) Extracurricular activities fill up after-school time. (9) Family obligations and part-time jobs often have to be worked into the schedule, too. (10) However, if students can find time to volunteer, even for a few hours a month, they may find that the benefits outweigh the scheduling difficulties.

(11) To begin with, students who engage in volunteer activities acquire valuable skills and experience, which can help them focus on potential fields of study and career options. (12) Furthermore, when students list volunteer work on college applications, admissions counselors see applicants who care about making their community and college campus a better place.

(13) Volunteerism benefits more than students applying to college. (14) This type of experience is equally important for students moving directly into the workforce after high school. (15) Volunteering demonstrates initiative, dedication, and a strong work ethic, qualities that companies value in a potential employee. (16) In a CareerBuilder study, 60 percent of managers regarded volunteerism as a significant asset when considering applicants.

(17) Students who volunteer undoubtedly make a positive investment in their future, but they also affect their present quality of life. (18) Studies have shown that volunteering is good for both the mind and the body. (19) Volunteering can boost mood levels and reduce anxiety. (20) According to the Mayo Clinic,1 the feeling of doing something meaningful and the appreciation received from that action can reduce stress.

(21) Even the busiest of students can find a way to donate some time to a worthy cause. (22) Though managing different commitments may seem overwhelming at times, students are sure to feel a sense of fulfillment in volunteerism.

1Mayo Clinic: a nonprofit medical organization dedicated to treatment and research

Question

Which sentence should follow sentence 4 to introduce the main claim of the passage?

  • AWith that in mind, high school students should consider engaging in some form of regular volunteerism.
  • BFortunately for students, these benefits are guaranteed to produce both immediate and long-term results.
  • CIn fact, studies have confirmed that volunteerism can be beneficial for students, the family, and the community.
  • DFor this reason, high school students should learn about how helping others can strengthen their communities.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks which sentence should follow sentence 4 to introduce the main claim of the passage.

A. CORRECT. Sentence 4 states that “research shows that those who volunteer also receive benefits.” The sentence in the option logically follows the ideas in sentence 4 and provides the best thesis statement for the passage because it introduces the main claim that high school students should consider the benefits of volunteerism.

B. Incorrect. While the sentence refers to the “benefits” mentioned in sentence 4, it erroneously asserts that “immediate and long-term results” are “guaranteed.” In addition, the sentence does not introduce the main claim of the passage that volunteering is beneficial for high school students.

C. Incorrect. Although the sentence states that “volunteerism can be beneficial for students,” it introduces the idea that “the family, and the community” benefit as well, which is not part of the main argument. Therefore, this sentence should not follow sentence 4 to introduce the main claim of the passage.

D. Incorrect. Although the sentence introduces the claim that “high school students should learn about” volunteering, it focuses on the idea that volunteering strengthens the community, which is not the main claim. This sentence does not accurately introduce the claim that volunteering is beneficial for high school students and thus should not follow sentence 4.

Question analysis

This introduction question asks which sentence should come right after sentence 4 of the volunteering essay to state its main claim. Students must work out what the whole essay argues and match it to an opening line, while the choices mention benefits, studies and communities in ways that sound like a thesis.

NYS standards
  • 7W1a introducing claims and counterclaims
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Stating a precise claim is a core grade 7 argument skill. Students must sense the essay’s claim from all six paragraphs and test four openers that each sound like a thesis, typical of careful grade 7 revision.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 354 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 76 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Three of the four sentences sound like a thesis, and two contain “high school students should,” so tone decides nothing. Students go wrong when they choose a sentence that only repeats the research point of sentence 4, or one that urges a different action. The question rewards stating the essay’s claim first, that students should volunteer because it pays off for them, and then finding the sentence that says exactly that.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The essay never states its claim in one sentence; it has to be pieced together from the benefits for college, work and health in paragraphs 3 to 5 and sentence 21’s “Even the busiest of students can find a way.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right sentence and the one about strengthening communities both open with a linking phrase and “high school students should”; they part only on what students should do, volunteer or learn about communities. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    The new sentence follows sentence 4’s “those who volunteer also receive benefits,” so it must turn that research point into what students should do about it. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Skim the body paragraphs and state in a few words what the essay wants its readers to believe. Then choose the sentence that says exactly that and follows naturally from sentence 4.

Traps

  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a sentence to go right after sentence 4. It must introduce the main claim. A claim is the main point a writer wants you to believe or act on. In an essay like this, it is often a should statement. Example: Students should get more sleep. So first figure out what the whole essay argues.

  2. Find the essay’s main claim

    The essay keeps urging students to make time to help. Sentence 10 says “if students can find time to volunteer, even for a few hours a month, they may find that the benefits outweigh the scheduling difficulties.” Paragraphs 3 to 5 give benefits for college, jobs and health. Sentence 21 says “Even the busiest of students can find a way to donate some time to a worthy cause.” So the claim is: high school students should volunteer, because it helps them.

  3. Use the clue in sentence 5

    The new sentence will sit just before sentence 5. Sentence 5 says “For many students, this proposition may sound impossible.” A proposition is a suggestion. So the sentence before it must suggest something students could do. That points to a sentence telling students to volunteer.

  4. Check each choice

    • A says students “should consider engaging in some form of regular volunteerism.” That is the essay’s claim. “With that in mind” links it to the benefits in sentence 4.
    • B says the benefits are “guaranteed.” That overstates them, and it never tells students to do anything.
    • C just repeats that studies found benefits. It also adds families, which the essay never discusses.
    • D tells students to “learn about” helping communities. The essay never argues for that.

  5. Pick the answer

    Watch out: D also says “high school students should,” so it sounds like a claim. But it asks them to learn, not to volunteer. Only one choice states what the essay argues. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because it also tells high school students what they should do. But the essay never asks students to study how helping makes communities stronger. It argues that volunteering pays off for the students themselves. A says exactly that, and it sets up “this proposition” in sentence 5.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 6 as printed on page 164 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 164, question 6. Open page 164 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Find Time to Volunteer” as printed (page 163)The passage “Find Time to Volunteer” as printed on page 163 of the DOE handbook.

Question 71 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 9

Uses the passage above: “Find Time to Volunteer”.

Question

Which concluding sentence should replace sentence 22 to provide the best support for the argument presented in the passage?

  • AIn every city, there are homeless shelters, food pantries, youth centers, and political campaigns that depend on the support and commitment of hardworking young people.
  • BClearly, students who volunteer will experience a host of benefits, such as learning new skills, meeting interesting people, opening up opportunities for the future, and gaining a sense of satisfaction.
  • CWhen students carefully evaluate their activities and prioritize volunteerism, they find a way to work it into their schedule and are soon encouraging their peers to do the same.
  • DWhether they are seeking admission to college, preparing to enter the workforce, or simply looking to reduce stress, high school students who volunteer can help themselves as much as they help others.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which concluding sentence should replace sentence 22 to provide the best support for the argument presented in the passage.

A. Incorrect. Although the sentence lists examples of organizations that depend on “hardworking young people” as volunteers, it should not replace sentence 22, because its use of specific examples does not provide a strong conclusion to the main idea in the passage, and it does not best support the main argument that students benefit themselves and their community when volunteering.

B. Incorrect. While the sentence supports the argument that students “will experience a host of benefits” through volunteerism, it should not replace sentence 22 as a concluding sentence, because it does not best support the main argument that volunteerism benefits both the students and their community.

C. Incorrect. Although the sentence emphasizes the importance of prioritizing volunteerism, it should not replace sentence 22, because it focuses on the main idea in the second paragraph (“For many students, this proposition may sound impossible.”), rather than the main argument that volunteerism benefits both students and their community. This sentence introduces the idea that student volunteers “are soon encouraging their peers” to volunteer, which does not best support the argument presented in the passage.

D. CORRECT. This sentence should replace sentence 22 to conclude the passage because it lists specific reasons for volunteering (“Whether they are seeking admission to college, preparing to enter the workforce, or simply looking to reduce stress”) and best supports the main argument that volunteering not only helps students but can also help their community (“high school students who volunteer can help themselves as much as they help others”).

Question analysis

This conclusion question asks which sentence should replace the last line of the essay urging high school students to volunteer. Students need a closing statement that best supports the argument as a whole. Several options list benefits or name real places to volunteer, so the challenge is telling an ending that fits the whole essay from one that drifts.

NYS standards
  • 7W1e concluding an argument
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Writing a conclusion that sums up an argument is a grade 7 standard. Students recognize one rather than write it, but they must keep the essay’s several reasons in mind while judging four endings that all sound final.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 354 words; question and choices: about grade 15, 134 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 endings sound final, and the strongest wrong one is a fair-sounding list of benefits that opens with “Clearly.” The right ending wins on fit: its three reasons are the essay’s own, college, work and stress, and it keeps the opening idea that volunteers help others as well as themselves. Students who sketch the essay’s reasons paragraph by paragraph before reading the endings can see which one gathers them and which adds a point of its own.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The reasons a conclusion must gather sit in three body paragraphs, college admission in paragraph 3, the workforce in paragraph 4 and stress in paragraph 5, well before sentence 22. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right ending and the “host of benefits” ending both list what volunteers gain; they part on whether the list matches the essay’s own reasons and keeps the help volunteers give others. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

Strategy: List the essay’s reasons for volunteering, one phrase per paragraph, then pick the ending that pulls them together without bringing in a new point.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a new last sentence for the essay. A good conclusion sums up the argument. It pulls the main reasons together without adding a new idea. Example: an essay on biking to school might end, Biking keeps you fit, saves money and helps clean the air. So first list this essay’s reasons.

  2. List the essay’s reasons

    • Paragraph 1: volunteers help others, and “those who volunteer also receive benefits” (sentence 4).
    • Paragraph 3: volunteering helps with college applications.
    • Paragraph 4: it helps students “moving directly into the workforce,” which means starting a job.
    • Paragraph 5: it helps the mind and body, and it “can reduce stress.”

    So a good ending names college, work and stress. It also keeps the idea that volunteers help both others and themselves.

  3. Check each choice

    • D names all three: “seeking admission to college, preparing to enter the workforce, or simply looking to reduce stress.” It ends with students who “help themselves as much as they help others.” That matches the essay.
    • B lists benefits, but it adds “meeting interesting people.” The essay never says that. It also leaves out helping others.
    • A lists places that need volunteers. It sums up none of the essay’s reasons.
    • C is about fitting volunteering into a schedule and getting friends to join. Getting friends to join is a new idea.

  4. Pick the answer

    Watch out: B starts with “Clearly” and lists good things, so it sounds like an ending. But its list is not the essay’s list. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer, because it also sums up what volunteers gain. But it adds a benefit the essay never discusses, and it drops the help volunteers give others. D gathers the essay’s own reasons, college, work and stress, and keeps both sides of the essay’s idea.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 9 as printed on page 165 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 165, question 9. Open page 165 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 72 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 18
Passage Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”

Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”

by Gretchen Reynolds

Many scientists suspect that exercise alters the biology of the brain in ways that make it more malleable and receptive to new information, a process that scientists refer to as plasticity.

But many questions have remained unanswered about movement and learning, including whether exercise is most beneficial before, during or after instruction and how much and what types of exercise might be best.

So for a new study, which was published recently in PLOS One, researchers in China and Italy decided to home in on language learning and the adult brain.

Language learning is interesting. As young children, almost all of us picked up our first language easily. We didn’t have to be formally taught; we simply absorbed words and concepts.

But by early adulthood, the brain generally begins to lose some of its innate language capability. It displays less plasticity in areas of the brain related to language. As a result, for most of us, it becomes harder to learn a second language after childhood.

To see what effects exercise might have on this process, the researchers first recruited 40 college-age Chinese men and women who were trying to learn English. The students had some facility with this second language but were far from proficient.

The researchers then divided the students into two groups. Those in one group would continue to learn English as they had before, primarily while seated in rote vocabulary-memorization sessions.

The others would supplement these sessions with exercise.

Specifically, the students would ride exercise bikes at a gentle pace (about 60 percent of their maximum aerobic capacity) beginning 20 minutes before the start of the lessons and continuing throughout the 15 minutes or so of instruction.

Both groups learned their new vocabulary by watching words projected onto large screens, together with comparable pictures, such as “apple” and a Red Delicious. They were shown 40 words per session, with the sequence repeated several times.

Afterward, the students all rested briefly and then completed a vocabulary quiz, using computer keys to note as quickly as possible whether a word was with its correct picture. They also responded to sentences using the new words, marking whether the sentences were accurate or, in the case of “The apple is a dentist,” nonsensical. Most linguists1 feel that understanding sentences shows greater mastery of a new language than does simple vocabulary improvement.

The students completed eight vocabulary sessions over the course of two months.

And at the end of each lesson, the students who had ridden bikes performed better on the subsequent vocabulary tests than did the students who sat still.

They also became more proficient at recognizing proper sentences than the sedentary students, although that difference did not emerge until after several weeks of instruction.

Perhaps most interesting, the gains in vocabulary and comprehension lingered longest for the cyclists. When the researchers asked the students to return to the lab for a final round of testing a month after the lessons—without practicing in the meantime—the cyclists remembered words and understood them in sentences more accurately than did the students who had not moved.

“The results suggest that physical activity during learning improves that learning,” says Simone Sulpizio, a professor of psychology and linguistics at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, Italy, and a study co-author.

These improvements extend beyond simply aiding in memorization, she added. The exercise also deepened language learners’ grasp of how to use their newly acquired words.

This study involved college students performing relatively light exercise, though, and cannot tell us whether other people completing other types of exercise would achieve the same results.

It also offers no clues about what is occurring inside the brain that might be contributing to the benefits of the exercise. But many past studies have shown that exercise prompts the release of multiple neurochemicals in the brain that increase the number of new brain cells and the connections between neurons, Dr. Sulpizio says. These effects improve the brain’s plasticity and augment the ability to learn.

From a real-world standpoint, the study’s implications might seem at first to be impractical. Few classrooms are equipped with stationary bicycles. But specialized equipment is probably unnecessary, Dr. Sulpizio says.

“We are not suggesting that schools or teachers buy lots of bicycles,” she says. “A simpler take-home message may be that instruction should be flanked by physical activity.”

From “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language” by Gretchen Reynolds from THE NEW YORK TIMES, August 16, 2017. Copyright © 2017 The New York Times Company.

1linguists: scientists who study language

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of the research procedure used in the study in the excerpt?

  • AResearchers had a group of non-English-speaking students learn new English vocabulary by matching words and images on a computer screen, and also by analyzing words in context; some students exercised and some students sat still while learning.
  • BResearchers first divided non-English-speaking students into two groups, with one group exercising before and while studying English and the other group studying English without exercising; then, after instruction, student learning was assessed.
  • CResearchers first had non-English-speaking students sit on stationary bikes and pedal for 20 minutes before instruction and 15 minutes during instruction; then, after a rest period, students indicated whether English sentences made sense.
  • DResearchers asked non-English-speaking students to study English while sitting or biking; then the students’ vocabulary skills were assessed after a short break period and also after a break of a full month without their having studied any of the materials.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the best summary of the research procedure used in the study in the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. This summary says that students learned new words by matching words and images and “also by analyzing words in context,” but this last method was how the researchers assessed students, not how the students learned words; the summary is therefore inaccurate.

B. CORRECT. The summary includes the most important information, which is that one group of non-English-speaking students exercised before and during the English lessons, while the other group did not, and that the students’ learning was assessed afterward.

C. Incorrect. This summary is incomplete because it never mentions the control group—that is, the students who studied English without exercising—which was essential to the study so that results could be compared.

D. Incorrect. This summary includes unnecessary details, such as that students were assessed after a short break and also assessed after a month of no studying; it also neglects to mention important points: that one group exercised both before and during learning, while the other group did not exercise at all.

Question analysis

This summary question asks which of four long sentences best sums up how the researchers ran the study of exercise and English vocabulary learning. Each choice packs in real details about bikes, screens, quizzes and timing, so students must check both whether every detail is accurate and whether anything essential to the study’s design has been left out.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students summarize texts, usually choosing among short summaries. Here each choice runs about forty words packed with accurate details from several paragraphs, and students must judge which keeps the study’s essential design, not merely which details are true.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 16+, 157 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 of what the wrong summaries say is true, which makes this a test of completeness and weight rather than of accuracy. One summary describes only the cyclists, another slips the sentence quiz into how words were taught, and the most tempting one is accurate but leaves out that the cyclists pedaled before the lesson as well as during it. The right summary is plainer than its rivals: two groups, one exercising, then a test.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The sitting-or-biking summary is accurate and names both conditions, as the right one does, but it spends its words on the short rest and the month-later test instead of when the cyclists rode. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The procedure runs from the recruiting in paragraph 6 through the groups, bikes, lessons and quiz in paragraphs 7–12 to the final test in paragraph 15, so it must be gathered before any summary is judged. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read moderate Understanding the question

    Each summary is a 32- to 40-word sentence packed with real details, the 20 minutes of pedaling, the rest period, the month without study, so the four together form a dense passage of their own. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, note in a few words how the study was set up and how learning was checked. Then test each summary for accuracy and for anything essential it leaves out.

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.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need the best summary of how the study was done. A summary gives the main parts in a few words. It must be accurate, and it can’t leave out anything important. Small details can be skipped.

  2. Find the main parts of the study

    • Paragraph 7: “The researchers then divided the students into two groups.”
    • Paragraphs 8 and 9: one group rode bikes “beginning 20 minutes before the start of the lessons and continuing throughout the 15 minutes or so of instruction.” The other group sat still.
    • Paragraph 11: then all the students took a quiz.

    So the key parts are two groups, one that exercised, and a test afterward. The group that sat still matters. It lets the researchers compare.

  3. Check each choice

    • B has it all: two groups, one exercising “before and while studying,” then a test.
    • A says students learned by “analyzing words in context.” But judging sentences was part of the quiz, not the lessons.
    • C describes only the bike riders. It leaves out the group that sat still, so nothing gets compared.
    • D spends its words on small details: the short break and the test a month later. It leaves out that the bike riders started 20 minutes before the lesson.

  4. Pick the answer

    Watch out: D is tempting because everything in it is true. But a summary should give the main parts, not the side details. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer. Its facts are accurate, and it names both groups. But it builds the summary around the break and the month-later test. It never says the cyclists rode before the lessons too. B gives the main plan plainly: two groups, one exercising, then a test of learning.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 18 as printed on page 173 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 173, question 18. Open page 173 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed (pages 171–172)The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed on page 171 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed on page 172 of the DOE handbook.

Question 73 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 20

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language””.

Question

Read these sentences from paragraph 17.

These improvements extend beyond simply aiding in memorization, she added. The exercise also deepened language learners’ grasp of how to use their newly acquired words.

Which sentence from the excerpt best explains why Sulpizio feels confident in the conclusion stated in these sentences?

  • A“They were shown 40 words per session, with the sequence repeated several times.” (paragraph 10)
  • B“They also responded to sentences using the new words, marking whether the sentences were accurate or, in the case of ‘The apple is a dentist,’ nonsensical.” (paragraph 11)
  • C“And at the end of each lesson, the students who had ridden bikes performed better on the subsequent vocabulary tests than did the students who sat still.” (paragraph 13)
  • D“They also became more proficient at recognizing proper sentences than the sedentary students, although that difference did not emerge until after several weeks of instruction.” (paragraph 14)
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which sentence from the excerpt best supports Sulpizio’s assertion in paragraph 17 that exercise went beyond helping with memorization to deepen the language learners’ ability to use new vocabulary.

A. Incorrect. This sentence merely describes what the language-learning sessions were like, without making any claims about how the exercise affected the subjects’ understanding of how to use new words.

B. Incorrect. While this sentence does address the fact that learners were required to think about how the new words should be used rather than just memorizing the words, it does not discuss results such as how the exercise affected their ability to do this.

C. Incorrect. This sentence establishes only that exercise helped with the memorization of new words, not that exercise deepened learners’ grasp of how to use the new words.

D. CORRECT. The fact that learners who exercised were better at identifying when the new words were used correctly in sentences directly supports Sulpizio’s assertion that the exercise deepened their grasp of how to use the new words.

Question analysis

This textual evidence question quotes Simone Sulpizio’s conclusion that exercise did more than help learners memorize new English words. Students choose the sentence from the article that best explains why she can be confident of it. All four choices come from the article’s account of the study, so students must match evidence to the exact claim rather than to its general topic.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions usually match a quotation to a stated claim. This claim has two parts, gains beyond memorizing and a better grasp of usage, and two quotations touch it closely, a sharper test than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 142 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

Sulpizio’s claim has two parts, gains beyond memorizing and a better grasp of using words, and two of the quotations each touch one part. The vocabulary result is real evidence that exercise helped, but of the very memorizing she says the gains went beyond, and the sentence-task description mentions using words but reports no result. Only a result about sentences proves the claim, so the question rewards asking of each line what it shows, not what it is about.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The vocabulary-test result in paragraph 13 and the sentence result in paragraph 14 are worded alike, cyclists outperforming students who sat still; only the skill measured, memorizing words or using them, separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Students must map the claim’s two halves onto the study’s two measures: vocabulary tests show memorization, and recognizing proper sentences shows the “grasp of how to use” new words. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The four quotations come from paragraphs 10, 11, 13 and 14, and each must be weighed against a claim made later, in paragraph 17. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Pin down what the quoted claim says the exercise achieved, then test each sentence by asking whether it reports a result that proves that specific achievement.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    Sulpizio says the exercise did more than help students memorize words. It “deepened language learners’ grasp of how to use their newly acquired words.” A grasp is an understanding. You need the sentence that best proves this claim. Proof should be a result, not just a description.

  2. Break the claim into two parts

    • Part 1: the gains went “beyond simply aiding in memorization.” Memorization is learning words by heart.
    • Part 2: the cyclists got better at using the words.

    So the proof must show the bike riders did better with words in sentences. A test that only checks memory won’t prove it.

  3. Check each choice

    • A (paragraph 10) tells how many words were shown. It gives no result.
    • B (paragraph 11) describes the sentence task. But it doesn’t say who did better.
    • C (paragraph 13) is a result. But it is about “vocabulary tests,” which check memory. That is the part she says the gains went beyond.
    • D (paragraph 14) says the cyclists “became more proficient at recognizing proper sentences than the sedentary students.” Proficient means skilled. Sedentary means sitting still. That is a result about using words.

  4. Pick the answer

    Watch out: C is very tempting. It shows that exercise helped. But it proves the wrong kind of help. Only one choice shows the cyclists did better at using words in sentences. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer. Both C and D say the bike riders beat the students who sat still. The difference is the skill that was tested. C’s vocabulary tests show memory. D’s sentence test shows the learners knew how to use the words, which is exactly Sulpizio’s claim.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 20 as printed on page 174 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 174, question 20. Open page 174 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 74 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 22

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language””.

Question

Which evidence from the excerpt is most relevant to the author’s claim that there are many unanswered questions about the relationship between movement and learning?

  • Athe method of the study using one type of exercise and people from one age group
  • Bthe statement from Sulpizio explaining past studies on neurochemicals in the brain
  • Cthe finding of the study that exercise helps people recall information over a long period of time
  • Dthe statement from Sulpizio describing how the results of the study can be applied
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks which evidence from the excerpt is most relevant to the author’s claim that there are many unanswered questions about the relationship between movement and learning.

A. CORRECT. While the study revealed that the college students who used exercise bikes did better in their language learning, paragraph 18 indicates that we cannot know “whether other people completing other types of exercise would achieve the same results,” suggesting that there are many unknowns about the relationship between movement and learning.

B. Incorrect. Rather than supporting the claim that there are many unanswered questions about the relationship between movement and learning, this statement offers a possible explanation as to why exercise might improve learning.

C. Incorrect. The finding that exercise helps people retain their language learning longer (paragraph 15) adds to our understanding of the relationship between movement and learning rather than supporting the claim that there are still many unanswered questions.

D. Incorrect. Sulpizio’s statement that the study suggests that “ ‘instruction should be flanked by physical activity’ ” (paragraph 21) does not in any way address the issue of unanswered questions about movement and learning.

Question analysis

This evidence question asks which part of the exercise and language-learning article is most relevant to the author’s early claim that many questions about movement and learning remain unanswered. The choices describe parts of the article in general terms rather than quoting them, so students must locate each one and judge how it bears on that claim.

NYS standards
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace claims and judge whether evidence is relevant. Here the claim appears early, the evidence is described in summary rather than quoted, and students must see an indirect link across the article, which demands more than usual.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 84 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The choices describe evidence instead of quoting it, so each must first be located and then weighed against a claim made near the start of the article. The trap is the neurochemical statement: its paragraph begins by admitting what the study cannot show, but the statement itself offers an answer from past research. The key is easy to undervalue because it sounds like a plain description of the method, until it is linked to paragraph 18’s account of what the study cannot tell us.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The right choice names a method, not a question; students must see that one light exercise tried on college students leaves open paragraph 2’s “what types of exercise might be best,” as paragraph 18 says. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The claim sits in paragraph 2, and the choices are short labels that must be traced to paragraphs 15, 18, 19 and 21 before any of them can be judged. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Reread the claim in paragraph 2, then find where each choice’s material appears in the article and ask how directly it bears on that claim.

Traps

  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    The author claims there are many unanswered questions about movement and learning. You need the evidence that best supports that claim. Evidence is the facts that back up a point. So look for something that shows a question is still open, not something that answers one.

  2. Find the claim

    Paragraph 2 says “many questions have remained unanswered about movement and learning.” It names some. One is whether exercise helps most “before, during or after instruction.” Another is “how much and what types of exercise might be best.” Instruction means teaching.

  3. Find what the study left open

    The study used one kind of exercise, light biking. It also used one age group, college students. Paragraph 18 says the study “cannot tell us whether other people completing other types of exercise would achieve the same results.” So the question of “what types of exercise” work best is still open. That is what choice A describes.

  4. Check the other choices

    • B: in paragraph 19, Sulpizio says past studies show exercise releases “neurochemicals,” or brain chemicals, that help learning. That offers an answer, not an open question.
    • C: the finding in paragraph 15, that cyclists remembered words longer, answers a question.
    • D: Sulpizio’s advice in paragraph 21 says how to use the results. It says nothing about what is still unknown.

    Watch out: Paragraph 19 begins with something the study can’t explain, so B is tempting. But Sulpizio’s statement itself gives an explanation.

  5. Pick the answer

    Only the study’s narrow method shows that big questions remain. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer, because its paragraph starts by admitting the study “offers no clues” about the brain. But Sulpizio then fills that gap with what past studies found. A points to what is truly still unknown: whether other people and other kinds of exercise would get the same results.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 22 as printed on page 175 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 175, question 22. Open page 175 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 75 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 24
Passage 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 paragraphs 4 and 6, the beginning of the change in seasons affects the characters mainly by

  • Acausing them to collect their bounty and feel eager to celebrate before it becomes cold.
  • Bmaking them want to rest and relax before the challenging work of the harvest begins.
  • Cforcing them to give up leisure time to prepare their camp for the coming winter.
  • Dallowing them to trade the goods they have prepared during the warm months.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the beginning of the change of seasons mainly affects the characters.

A. CORRECT. Paragraph 4 describes the time as the last chance for The People to be together “before the Cold Moons kept them close to their fires.” Paragraph 6 tells about how the women were working hard to dig and cure roots, because “WARM was going and COLD was coming.” These paragraphs describe both celebration and preparation before the winter comes.

B. Incorrect. Paragraphs 4 and 6 describe the characters working hard, but there is no discussion of them wanting to rest and relax.

C. Incorrect. While both paragraphs describe some of the work involved in the harvest, paragraph 4 also lists a number of leisure activities, such as visiting, foot racing, horse racing, gambling, and stick games. The characters are still taking the time to relax.

D. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions trading in a list of activities that the characters are doing, this is just one of many activities. Allowing the characters to trade goods is not the way the change in seasons mainly affects them.

Question analysis

This question on how setting shapes characters asks how the first signs of winter mainly affect The People in paragraphs 4 and 6 of Do Them No Harm!, a narrative about a Nez Perce harvest gathering. Students must draw on two separate paragraphs and pick the effect both support, among choices that each borrow real activities from the story.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how setting shapes what characters do is typical grade 7 work on story elements. Students combine details from two separate paragraphs, a step beyond reading one, but the language is plain and the details concrete.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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

Each paragraph shows a different response to the coming winter, play in paragraph 4 and hard work in paragraph 6, and only one choice keeps both. Students who read paragraph 6 alone see work under pressure and decide the cold costs The People their free time, though paragraph 4 lists races and games. The question rewards checking each choice against both paragraphs, not just the one read last.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice and the one about giving up leisure both have The People preparing before the cold; they differ only in whether the season brings celebration or takes it away. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The answer must fit both paragraphs: paragraph 4’s racing, gambling and stick games before “the Cold Moons” and paragraph 6’s women digging roots because “COLD was coming.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Find what paragraphs 4 and 6 each say about the approaching cold, then note what The People do because of it, and choose the effect that fits both paragraphs.

Traps

  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • 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.
  • Reversed relationship: Cause and effect, or the order of events, turned around.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    Summer is ending and winter is coming. This asks how that change mainly affects the characters in paragraphs 4 and 6. Your answer has to fit both paragraphs, not just one.

  2. Read paragraph 4

    Paragraph 4 calls this time “this last chance to enjoy being together before the Cold Moons kept them close to their fires.” The Cold Moons are the winter months. The People enjoy “the foot racing and horse racing, and the gambling and stick games.” So, before winter, they celebrate together.

  3. Read paragraph 6

    Paragraph 6 says “The women worked hard to dig and cure as many bags of roots as they could during the warm, sunny days.” To cure food means to dry it so it keeps. Why rush? Because “the sharp night air brought warnings that WARM was going and COLD was coming.” So, before winter, they also gather and store food.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits both: they collect their bounty and celebrate before the cold. Bounty means a large supply of good things, like food.
    • B: no one wants to rest before the work. The harvest work is already going on.
    • C: they don’t give up leisure, which is free time for fun. Paragraph 4 is full of races and games.
    • D: trading is only one item in paragraph 4’s list. It is not the main effect.

  5. Pick the answer

    Watch out: C is tempting if you read only paragraph 6, which is all hard work. But paragraph 4 shows play. Only one choice fits both paragraphs. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer. Like A, it has The People getting ready for winter. But C says they give up their free time. Paragraph 4 says the opposite: races, games and visiting fill this “last chance to enjoy being together.” A keeps both the work and the fun.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 24 as printed on page 179 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 179, question 24. Open page 179 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed (pages 177–178)The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed on page 177 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed on page 178 of the DOE handbook.

Question 76 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 31

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!”.

Question

The details in paragraph 5 about the locations of the camps and the details in paragraphs 23–24 about the reaction to the woman convey a theme of the excerpt by

  • Arevealing the difficulties posed by moving often each year.
  • Bshowing the connectedness among The People through the years.
  • Cindicating the value to The People of retelling stories about the past.
  • Ddemonstrating the importance of choosing appropriate names.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the details in paragraph 5 about the locations of the camps and the details in paragraphs 23–24 about the reaction to the woman convey a theme of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does not reveal that The People move often, only that they come together near each other at this particular time of year. Paragraphs 23–24 reveal a resolution to the difficulty of people who are absent for some time, but they do not relate to the difficulty of moving often each year.

B. CORRECT. The details in paragraph 5 show that each year The People set up their camps beside the same neighbors, in the places their parents and grandparents used before them, demonstrating their connectedness. Similarly, the details in paragraphs 23–24 reveal that The People quickly embrace a member of their group who had gone away but has since returned. Taken together, these sections reveal just how much The People rely on their connectedness, a theme of the excerpt.

C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 suggests that The People keep the customs of their ancestors alive, it does not reference storytelling. Further, though paragraphs 23–24 suggest that The People had knowledge of this woman’s absence, they do not indicate that this knowledge came from stories in particular.

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 24, an appropriate new name, meaning “Gone-from-Home-then-Come-Back,” is bestowed on the returned woman. However, the importance of appropriate names is not a theme of the excerpt. Rather, the theme that is emphasized is the importance of the connection among The People, exemplified by the annual gathering and the warm welcome extended to the woman who has returned after a long absence.

Question analysis

This theme question asks how two sets of details in the Nez Perce narrative, where each group pitches its camp and how the camp reacts to a woman who has come back after many years, together convey a theme. Students must connect two parts of the excerpt that are far apart and find the one idea that both of them express.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Tracing a theme across a text is the grade 7 central idea standard. Students must join two passages far apart in the excerpt, but each is concrete, and the theme they share is the kind grade 7 readers routinely name.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 65 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • The explanation described the wrong paragraph's details; 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

Each set of details on its own suggests several ideas, tradition, travel, naming, but the theme has to explain both at once. Students who focus on paragraph 24’s new name or on storytelling elsewhere in the excerpt choose an idea that fits only one passage. Naming what the old campsites and the warm welcome have in common, ties that last across years and distance, leads straight to the key.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The two sets of details sit eighteen paragraphs apart, the camps in the places “their parents and grandparents had occupied” and the welcome given Wat-ku-ese, and the theme must fit both. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Neither passage names the theme; students must see that returning to ancestral campsites and embracing a lost daughter both show bonds that last across years. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Sum up each set of details in a phrase, the camp locations and the reaction to the woman, then name the one idea both sets share before reading the choices.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook's explanation of B says paragraph 5 shows The People coming together “to share in recreational activities.” The races and games are in paragraph 4; paragraph 5, the one the question names, is about camping each year in the same places as their parents and grandparents, beside the same neighbors. The sentence now describes paragraph 5. The answer, B, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A theme is a big idea a story shows about life. This asks for the theme shared by two parts of the story. One is paragraph 5, about where the camps go. The other is paragraphs 23–24, about the woman who comes back. The theme has to fit both.

  2. Sum up paragraph 5

    Paragraph 5 says they set up camp “in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them.” The same neighbors camp side by side each year. Red Bear’s neighbors “had their camp close by.” So the families stay tied to each other and to the past, year after year.

  3. Sum up paragraphs 23 and 24

    In paragraph 23 the camp learns “She was the daughter of the family gone so long ago!” She left as a little girl and came back grown. Yet they know her as one of their own. In paragraph 24 the women joyfully give her a new name. She is welcomed home after many years.

  4. Find the shared idea

    Both parts show bonds that last a long time. The People keep the same camps and neighbors through the years. They also welcome back a member who was gone for years. So the theme is how connected The People stay over time.

  5. Check each choice

    • B fits both parts: connectedness through the years.
    • A: paragraph 5 is about going back to the same places, not moving often. Paragraphs 23–24 don’t mention moving at all.
    • C: neither part is about retelling old stories.
    • D: the new name is only in paragraph 24. It says nothing about the camps in paragraph 5.

    Watch out: The naming of Wat-ku-ese is easy to remember, so D is tempting. But a theme must fit both parts.

  6. Pick the answer

    The camp locations and the warm welcome both show bonds that last through the years. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because the naming in paragraph 24 stands out. But a name says nothing about where the camps go in paragraph 5. B explains both parts: The People camp beside the same neighbors year after year, and they welcome back a daughter gone for years.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 31 as printed on page 181 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 181, question 31. Open page 181 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 77 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 35
Passage Invention of the Telegraph

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

Invention of the Telegraph

Earlier Signal Systems

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

The Growth of an Idea

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

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

Obstacles and Opportunities

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

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

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

Realizing a Great Invention

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

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

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

1^1legislation: Telegraph Bill

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

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

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

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

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

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system?

  • AMorse’s application for a federal grant was delayed until 1843, so he spent time traveling in Europe, where he concentrated on obtaining a patent for his system.
  • BMorse applied for a government grant that required both houses of Congress and the president to pass a bill awarding him $30,000 for his telegraph project.
  • CMorse applied for a government appropriation and conducted telegraph demonstrations to show that his system could work, and after a delay caused by a financial depression, Congress approved the $30,000 appropriation in 1843.
  • DWorking with Gale and Vail allowed Morse to find flaws in Henry’s work and to develop his own ideas before applying for the federal government appropriation.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system.

A. Incorrect. This summary focuses mostly on what Morse did while his application for funding was delayed in the United States rather than on how Morse acquired the funding, because during this period, Morse tried “not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England” (paragraph 5). Therefore, it is not the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system.

B. Incorrect. Although this summary mentions how Morse applied for the “federal government’s appropriation” (paragraph 4), it primarily focuses on the actions of the House of Representatives and the Senate, not on Morse’s efforts to obtain funding. Therefore, it is not the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system.

C. CORRECT. This summary best describes how Morse obtained the funding that he needed for his telegraph system, because it explains that Morse applied “for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph” (paragraph 4). In paragraph 5, the author explains the impact that the Panic of 1837 had on Morse’s request. In paragraph 6, the author describes how by 1843, economic times had improved, so Morse again “asked Congress for the $30,000” and was awarded the funds after “the Senate approved it.”

D. Incorrect. This summary is not the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system, because it relates how Morse worked with others to develop his ideas about the telegraph and how Gale and Vail were the “keys to Morse’s success” (paragraph 3) before he applied for funding.

Question analysis

Students read “Invention of the Telegraph” and pick the best one-sentence summary of how Samuel Morse secured federal funding for his telegraph line. The money story is spread over several paragraphs alongside other events in Morse’s life, and the four long choices each blend true details, so students must decide what a good summary of this one process includes.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summarizing a short chain of events is everyday grade 7 work, and every fact needed is stated plainly. The main demand is patience with long choices rather than any hard inference.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 126 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A date in the passage introduction was corrected.
  • A wrong word in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice is built from real events, so the question is less about spotting a false statement than about judging what a summary of the funding must contain. Students who accept the first accurate sentence they meet stop at the account of Congress and the president, which skips the years between application and approval. Listing the stages first, application, demonstrations, delay and vote, turns the long choices into a quick checklist.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The summary about both houses and the president is accurate and ends where the key does, with the $30,000 approved; what separates them is the middle stretch, the demonstrations and the depression’s delay, which only the key covers. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The funding story is split over paragraphs 4 to 6: the December 1837 application, demonstrations in New York and Washington, the Panic of 1837 with a trip to Europe, and the 1843 request and vote. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Each choice is a single sentence of 26 to 33 words carrying dates, a dollar amount, Congress and several people, and every piece has to be checked against the passage. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Find the part of the passage about paying for the telegraph and jot down each step in order; then pick the summary that matches your list from start to finish without wandering off it.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Passage: The 2024–2025 handbook’s introduction says “In 1844, the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill.” Congress passed the $30,000 appropriation in March 1843; 1844 is the year of Morse’s first message. Paragraph 6 describes the 1843 approval, and Option C, the correct answer, says 1843, so the introduction reads “In 1843.” The site shares this passage with 2018 Test B English, where the same correction is recorded.
  • Explanation: The handbook says Option A focuses on what Morse did while his application was delayed “rather than on how Morse acquired the patent.” The question asks how Morse obtained his funding, and the patent is what Option A does focus on, so the site now says “rather than on how Morse acquired the funding.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question wants a summary. A summary is a short retelling that keeps only the main points, in the order they happen. The topic is narrow: how Morse got the money for his telegraph. So the best choice must be true, stay on the money, and tell that story from beginning to end.

  2. Find where the money story is told

    The funding story runs through paragraphs 4, 5 and 6. By December 1837, Morse felt ready “to apply for the federal government’s appropriation” (paragraph 4). The next year, “he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington” (paragraph 4). Then a money crisis “caused a long depression,” and Morse “was forced to wait for better times” (paragraph 5). In 1843 he “again asked Congress for the $30,000,” and this time he got it (paragraph 6).

  3. Explain the words and list the steps

    Some words may be new. An appropriation is money that lawmakers agree to pay out for a planned project. Demonstrations are public shows that prove a machine works. A depression is a long period when businesses struggle and cash is scarce. Now put the story in order:

    1. Morse asked for the money.
    2. He showed people his telegraph working.
    3. Hard times made him wait.
    4. In 1843 Congress said yes to the $30,000.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It is mostly about a trip to Europe for a patent (a legal right that stops others from copying an invention). Morse made that trip while he waited. A leaves out the demonstrations and the vote.
    • B does not fit. It is true, but it gives only the final step, when the House, the Senate and the president approved the bill. It skips the demonstrations and the years of waiting.
    • C fits. It covers the request, the demonstrations, the delay from the depression and the 1843 approval, in that order.
    • D does not fit. Gale and Vail helped Morse build the telegraph, not pay for it. And the flaws Gale pointed out were in Morse’s system, while D puts them in Henry’s work.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice tells the whole funding story, from the first request to the final yes, without drifting to other topics. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the hardest choice to rule out, because nothing in it is false. But it starts at the very end of the story. It drops the demonstrations Morse gave and the long wait during the depression. A summary must hold all the main steps, and C is the only choice that does.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 35 as printed on page 187 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 187, question 35. Open page 187 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 146 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 147 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 148 of the DOE handbook.

Question 78 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 40

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

How does the map provide additional support for a central idea of the passage?

  • Aby demonstrating that Morse’s telegraph system greatly exceeded the limitations of previous long-distance communication systems
  • Bby indicating that Morse was lacking foresight by seeking a patent only in North America
  • Cby proving that Gale’s advice helped Morse extend the telegraph’s range much farther than first thought possible
  • Dby showing that the Morse telegraph had a surprisingly immense influence across the world
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the map provides additional support for a central idea of the passage.

A. CORRECT. The map shows the telegraph line crossing continents in 1902, just forty-four years after the first transatlantic message was sent in 1858. This is a much greater distance than the first line Morse built between “the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore” (paragraph 7).

B. Incorrect. The map shows the distance the line covers; it does not indicate Morse’s lack of foresight in seeking patents only in North America.

C. Incorrect. While Gale’s advice was crucial to Morse’s success, the map shows the physical line stretching across continents many years later, after their initial work.

D. Incorrect. While it can be inferred that the telegraph had influence across the world, the amount of influence cannot be determined.

Question analysis

This question pairs “Invention of the Telegraph” with a map of the British All-Red Telegraph Line in 1902 and asks how the map adds support for a central idea of the passage. Students must read a world map with a key and a caption, connect what it shows to the story of Samuel Morse’s invention, and sort through four claims about the map that vary in how far they go.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Linking a graphic to a text is familiar grade 7 work. Here students must pin down a central idea of the passage and work out how a 1902 world map, made decades after Morse’s first line, bears on it, a step beyond typical demand.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 75 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate detail in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Lines on a map can prove how far the telegraph reached, and the question turns on how much more than that each choice claims. The key depends on a link back to paragraph 1, where a message went only as far as the next hilltop tower, read many minutes before the map. The influence choice skips that link and states the map’s message in bigger terms, so students who do not ask what a map of routes can show are drawn to it.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The influence choice, a telegraph with “a surprisingly immense influence across the world,” sounds like a fair reading of lines circling the globe; it differs from the key in claiming impact and surprise rather than reach beyond earlier systems. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The earlier systems the key measures against are in paragraph 1, towers on distant hills passing flag and light signals from station to station, far from the map at the end of the passage. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

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

    The map shows a 1902 British line from London to Canada and Vancouver, south through Bermuda and Barbados to Cape Town, and on to India, Australia and New Zealand, with Washington left unconnected. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Look at what the map and its caption actually show, sum up a central idea of the passage in your own words, and keep only a choice that both of them back up.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook says the 1902 line came “forty-four years after the first message was sent in 1858.” The first telegraph message was Morse’s in 1844 (paragraph 1); 1858 is the year of the first transatlantic message, as the map’s caption says. The site now says “the first transatlantic message.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks how a graphic adds to the passage. You need two things. First, what does the map really show? Second, which central idea, a main point the whole passage builds, does it back up?

  2. Read the map and its caption

    This map is a picture of one British network of telegraph wires, as it stood in 1902. In its key, a thick black line stands for an electric telegraph line. From London, a line crosses the Atlantic Ocean and Canada to Vancouver. Other lines reach Bermuda, Barbados, Cape Town, India, Australia and New Zealand. According to the caption, by 1902 this network “connected most of the world.”

  3. Recall the older ways of signaling

    Next, compare that with paragraph 1. Before electricity, people signaled with flags or lights. An observer would “decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station.” So a message could only jump as far as a person could see. Even Morse’s first line, in paragraph 6, reached Baltimore, just “forty miles away.”

  4. Connect the map to that idea

    The caption says the first message across the Atlantic was sent in 1858. Only 44 years later, in 1902, lines crossed several oceans and linked much of the globe. Paragraph 8 adds that telegraph lines “connected the continents of Europe and America” before Morse died. So the map supports a central idea: electric telegraph lines went far beyond the reach of older signal systems.

  5. Check each choice

    • A fits. Lines that span oceans go far past the limits of hilltop towers.
    • B does not fit. A map of lines shows nothing about patents. Also, paragraph 5 says Morse sought patent protection in Europe, too.
    • C does not fit. The map names no inventors, so it cannot prove what Gale’s advice did decades before.
    • D does not fit. The map shows where lines went, not how much they changed the world, and nothing on it shows surprise.

  6. Choose the answer

    The map shows telegraph lines reaching around the globe, far past what flags and towers could do. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest trap, because lines around the world seem to prove a huge effect. But a map of routes shows only how far messages could travel. It cannot measure influence, and it cannot show that anyone was surprised. A sticks to what a map of lines can prove: the telegraph reached much farther than earlier systems.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as printed on page 188 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 188, question 40. Open page 188 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 79 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 48
Passage Snowy Mountains

Snowy Mountains

by John Gould Fletcher

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

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

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

“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 48 as printed on page 192 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 192, question 48. Open page 192 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.

Question 80 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 55
Passage 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

The details in paragraph 7 convey a central idea of the excerpt by suggesting that

  • Athe success of the bristlecone pine lies in its ability to resist climate change.
  • Bthe uncommon appearance of the bristlecone pine is related to its ability to survive.
  • Cthe attachment that humans have to the bristlecone pine is understandable.
  • Dthe longevity of the bristlecone pine continues to encourage experts.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which central idea of the excerpt is supported by the details in paragraph 7.

A. Incorrect. While paragraph 7 mentions the pines’ ability to survive climate change, the central idea is about the trees’ longevity. Surviving climate change is a part of the pines’ longevity, but just surviving climate change does not fully encompass the central idea of the excerpt.

B. Incorrect. Although the paragraph mentions that the “super-elderly trees” are each unique in appearance, their appearance does not directly connect to their ability to survive. The details in paragraph 7 emphasize the durability and longevity of the trees.

C. Incorrect. While the beginning of paragraph 7 expresses the idea that each bristlecone pine appears to be a unique individual and supports the idea that humans relate to the pines, the paragraph expresses a stronger central idea in the last two sentences about the pines’ survival.

D. CORRECT. The longevity of bristlecone pines is a central idea of the excerpt. Experts are encouraged that bristlecone pines have survived many catastrophes, and the details in the second half of paragraph 7 draw direct attention to the trees’ longevity.

Question analysis

Students explain how the details in paragraph 7, the closing paragraph of Alex Ross’s excerpt on bristlecone pines, convey a central idea of the whole piece. The paragraph moves from people seeing old trees as individuals to alarmed news stories and the views of tree scientists, so students must decide which thread ties to the excerpt’s main idea.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 central idea questions often ask what a passage is mostly about. Here students must connect one closing paragraph that touches several topics to an idea of the whole excerpt, reading its details for what they imply as well as what they say.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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

Paragraph 7 moves through several topics, trees that look like individuals, people projecting feelings onto them, alarmed news and calm scientists, and only its last two sentences connect to the excerpt’s main idea. The strongest lure states a true point about human attachment that the paragraph does make, while the key has to be inferred from the scientists’ calm and the trees’ record of survival. Naming the central idea first, the trees’ extraordinary age, shows which thread of the paragraph serves it.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    Nothing in paragraph 7 says experts are encouraged; it has to be read from “tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger,” set against the “alarmed news stories.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The key speaks of “longevity” and of experts being encouraged, words the paragraph never uses, while two wrong choices repeat its “climate change” and “survive” and so look better anchored. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Recognizing longevity as a central idea draws on the whole excerpt: the tree from the time of the Great Pyramid in paragraph 1, its endurance in paragraph 4 and its ring record in paragraph 5. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Name the central idea of the whole excerpt first, then reread paragraph 7 and find the sentences that connect to it.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how paragraph 7 connects to a central idea, a main point of the whole excerpt. So first name that idea. Then find which details in paragraph 7 point to it.

  2. Name the excerpt’s central idea

    The excerpt follows a tree that has lived about 4,500 years. Paragraph 1 starts its story near the time of the Great Pyramid. A settled bristlecone “can last almost indefinitely” (paragraph 4). Paragraph 5 shows a tree living on while empires “rose and fell.” So a central idea is the bristlecone’s amazing longevity, or long life.

  3. Find the matching details in paragraph 7

    Paragraph 7 first says people treat the old trees almost like persons. Then it turns to climate change. News stories sound alarmed, “although tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger.” To discount an idea is to doubt it. The last sentence gives the reason: “They have survived any number of catastrophes in the past; they may survive humanity.”

  4. Explain what the details suggest

    A catastrophe is a terrible disaster. The trees have lived through so many disasters that scientists are not very worried. In other words, the trees’ long record of survival gives the experts hope. That ties paragraph 7 to the central idea of longevity.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Climate change comes up only as a fear in the news. The paragraph never says the trees succeed by resisting it.
    • B does not fit. Paragraph 7 says no two old trees look alike, but it never links their looks to their survival.
    • C does not fit. People do call the trees “elders, sentinels, sages,” but that feeling is a side point, not a central idea.
    • D fits. Experts take comfort from how long the trees have survived.

  6. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 7 ends on the trees’ long survival and the experts’ calm about their future. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the strongest trap, because paragraph 7 really does say people feel close to the trees. But the question asks for a central idea of the whole excerpt. Long life runs through every paragraph, and the last two sentences of paragraph 7 tie into it. That is why D fits better.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 55 as printed on page 196 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 196, question 55. Open page 196 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed (pages 193–194)The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed on page 193 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed on page 194 of the DOE handbook.

Question 81 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 56

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees””.

Question

What is the best summary of the bristlecone pine’s life cycle?

  • AThe bristlecone pine takes root as a stubby seedling in the mountains. Over time, it grows slowly in a hostile environment with alkaline soil that ensures little competition from other trees.
  • BThe bristlecone pine grows up slowly from the fragments of its dead ancestors. Over time, it begins to become contorted in appearance but continues to funnel water and nutrients to its stem.
  • CThe bristlecone pine grows slowly in an environment hostile to other trees. Over time, its trunk and some branches fossilize, but it funnels water and nutrients to other parts that are still alive.
  • DThe bristlecone pine grows only in one location in the mountains. Over time, it develops sparse foliage that fossilizes slowly, but the trunk and branches stay alive, as revealed by ribbons of live bark.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the best summary of the bristlecone pine’s life cycle.

A. Incorrect. Though the summary in this option covers key points in the life cycle, it focuses on minor details (“stubby seedling” and “alkaline soil”) while leaving out major details of the life cycle (for example, the fact that parts of the trees become fossilized over time).

B. Incorrect. This option addresses the unique quality of the pine growing from “fragments of its dead ancestors”; however, it does not address the fossilization phase, which is a major part of the life cycle. In addition, this option incorrectly states that the tree continues to funnel nutrients to its stem.

C. CORRECT. The option describes the key phases of the pine’s life cycle without focusing on minor details. The organization of the summary is chronological, and the information presented is accurate.

D. Incorrect. The option focuses more on the location and the appearance of the pine than on the phases of the pine’s life cycle. The option also describes the pine’s appearance inaccurately: it says that the foliage fossilizes and the trunk and branches stay alive, but paragraph 6 says that “entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils.” It provides little information about the main phases of the pine’s life cycle.

Question analysis

This summary question asks students to choose the best summary of the life cycle of the Great Basin bristlecone pine, as described across Alex Ross’s excerpt about the Earth’s oldest trees. Each choice is two sentences long and sounds accurate, and the differences lie in which stages of the tree’s long life each one includes and how faithfully it reports them.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Summarizing a process is regular grade 7 work, but this life cycle unfolds across six paragraphs of dense description, and each choice is a two-sentence summary with accurate-sounding details, so spotting small omissions and errors takes more than typical care.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 141 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate statement in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

A good summary of this life cycle has to reach old age, when the trunk and branches turn to fossil while a strip of bark keeps the tree alive, and it has to get that stage right. One wrong choice never gets past youth, another reaches old age but keeps the wrong part alive, and a third mixes up which parts fossilize. Recalling paragraph 6 exactly, with every choice two sentences long, is what makes the question slow.

  1. Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer

    Each two-sentence summary sounds accurate, and its flaw is an omission or a wrong detail, such as nutrients sent to a stem that dies back or foliage that fossilizes, so every clause must be checked. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The life cycle runs across six paragraphs: the seedling in paragraph 1, the dead ancestors in 2, slow growth in 3, harsh conditions in 4, and fossilized wood with a live ribbon of bark in 6. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The ancestors-and-stem summary has the key’s shape, slow growth, then decline, then water and nutrients still funneled; it differs in where they go, the stem, which paragraph 6 says “dies back.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, list the stages of the tree’s life from seed to old age with one detail each, then check every sentence of each summary against the passage.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook says Option D “contains an accurate description of the pine’s appearance.” It does not: Option D says the foliage fossilizes and the trunk and branches stay alive, but paragraph 6 says that “entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils,” as the correct answer, Option C, also says. The site now says that the option describes the pine’s appearance inaccurately.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for the best summary of the bristlecone’s life cycle. A life cycle is the stages of a living thing’s life, from its start to old age. A good summary covers the main stages in order and gets each one right.

  2. List the stages from the excerpt

    1. Young: the seedling grows “agonizingly slowly” (paragraph 3).
    2. Settled: it lives where few plants “can handle the dry, cold climate” (paragraph 4).
    3. Old: “The main stem, or leader, dies back,” and “Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils” (paragraph 6).
    4. Still alive: “A ribbon of live bark runs up one side, funneling water and nutrients to clumps of green needles high above” (paragraph 6).

  3. Explain the hard words

    Hostile means unfriendly or harsh. To fossilize here means to turn into hard, dead wood, almost like stone. To funnel is to carry something along a narrow path. Contorted means twisted out of shape. Nutrients are the things a plant needs to grow. Foliage means leaves, which for a pine are its needles.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It stops while the tree is young. It never reaches old age, when parts of the tree turn to fossil.
    • B does not fit. The main stem “dies back,” so water is not sent to the stem. B also leaves out the fossil stage.
    • C fits. It gives slow growth in a harsh place, then a fossilized trunk and branches, with water still carried to the living parts.
    • D does not fit. Paragraph 2 says bristlecones grow in high areas across the Great Basin, a region that stretches into Utah. That is not one location. D also mixes up the parts: the trunk and branches turn to fossil, not the foliage.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one summary reaches old age and gets every stage right. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B looks the most like the right answer. Like C, it moves from young growth to old age and has water and nutrients still flowing. But it sends them to the stem, and paragraph 6 says the stem “dies back.” C sends them to the parts still alive, which matches the ribbon of live bark.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 56 as printed on page 196 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 196, question 56. Open page 196 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 82 of 112

2024 Test B English, question 57

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees””.

Question

Throughout the excerpt, the author conveys his point of view mainly by

  • Asharing details about the qualities of the bristlecone pine that make it an unusual tree.
  • Bcomparing the bristlecone pine to global empires that lasted thousands of years before falling.
  • Cexplaining the way the seemingly sickly appearance of the bristlecone pine contrasts with its ability to survive.
  • Darguing that the bristlecone pine has survived past threats to its survival and will continue to thrive.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the author mainly conveys his point of view throughout the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. The author clearly conveys his interest in and admiration of the bristlecone pine by sharing many details throughout the excerpt that show how unusual the tree is; these include details about the tree using remnants from previous generations (paragraph 2), details about the tree’s “agonizingly” slow growth rate (paragraph 3), and details about the incredibly difficult growing conditions that the tree thrives in (paragraph 4).

B. Incorrect. While the author does briefly compare the bristlecone pine to global empires (paragraphs 1, 3, and 5), he mainly offers many details throughout the excerpt about what makes the bristlecone pine so unusual.

C. Incorrect. While paragraph 6 largely focuses on the contrast of the pine’s sickly appearance with its ability to survive, this is just one detail about the pine that makes it unusual. The author offers many such details throughout the excerpt.

D. Incorrect. The author suggests in paragraph 7 that the bristlecone pine “may survive humanity,” but this is just one detail about the bristlecone that the author offers in an excerpt full of details, each of which contributes to an understanding of how unusual this tree is.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks how Alex Ross mainly conveys his view of the bristlecone pine throughout an excerpt from his article “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees.” His attitude is never stated directly, and each choice is tied to something in the piece, so students must judge what he does most consistently.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 readers are regularly asked how an author reveals a point of view in nonfiction. This excerpt is long and descriptive, and every choice grows out of a real detail, so students must weigh the whole piece before choosing.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 75 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice grows from something real in the excerpt, so the question turns on the word “throughout.” The strongest lure describes paragraph 6 well but nothing else, another inflates the closing “may survive humanity” into an argument, and a third makes the history references the method. Students who sum up each paragraph in a few words see that most of them describe an unusual feature of the tree, which is how the author’s admiration comes through.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The author’s view has to be gathered from across the excerpt: seedlings rising from dead wood, growth “agonizingly slowly,” wood too dense for beetles, the ring record and the fossilized trunk. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how the view is conveyed, a method, so students must notice that the author seldom states an opinion and instead piles up details that make the tree remarkable. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Note in a few words what the author does in each paragraph, then test each choice against that list, keeping in mind that the question says “throughout.”

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the author mainly shows his point of view, his attitude toward the bristlecone. The word “throughout” means across the whole excerpt. So the answer must describe something he does in most paragraphs, not just one.

  2. Note what each paragraph does

    • Paragraph 1: a seed lands about 4,500 years ago.
    • Paragraph 2: young trees grow from the dead wood of old ones.
    • Paragraph 3: they grow “agonizingly slowly.”
    • Paragraph 4: they survive cold, dry air, poor soil and insects.
    • Paragraph 5: their rings record changes on Earth.
    • Paragraph 6: an ancient tree looks dead but “clings to life.”
    • Paragraph 7: the trees “may survive humanity.”

  3. Find the pattern

    Almost every paragraph adds a fact about something unusual in the tree. The author rarely states his opinion outright. Instead, he piles up amazing details: its great age, its slow growth, its toughness. These details show his wonder and respect without his having to say so.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. Across the whole excerpt, the author shares details that make the tree unusual.
    • B does not fit. The pyramid, the Old Kingdom and the fallen empires come up only briefly, to mark how long the tree has lived. They are not the author’s main method.
    • C does not fit. The contrast between looking sickly and staying alive belongs to paragraph 6 only.
    • D does not fit. The excerpt mostly describes rather than argues. And “they may survive humanity” is a maybe, not a promise that the trees will thrive.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author’s view comes through the many unusual details he gathers. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the strongest trap, because paragraph 6 really does contrast a tree that “may look dead” with one that “clings to life.” But the question says “throughout.” That contrast is one detail in one paragraph. A describes what the author does in nearly every paragraph.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 57 as printed on page 196 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 196, question 57. Open page 196 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 83 of 112

2023 Test B English, question 9
Passage The End of an Era

The End of an Era

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

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

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

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

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

Question

Which concluding sentence should be added after sentence 20 to best support the information presented in the passage?

  • AThese rovers, including one named Curiosity, will help scientists answer their lingering questions about the planet.
  • BToday’s rovers continue to add to Opportunity’s discoveries and will help us learn even more about the planet.
  • CAnd in conjunction with these rovers, NASA is using other resources, including an orbiting spacecraft known as Mars Odyssey, for the exploration of the planet.
  • DWith its red dust, rocky surface, and freezing temperatures, Mars will continue to be a challenging environment for today’s rovers.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the concluding sentence that should be added after sentence 20 to best support the information presented in the passage.

A. Incorrect. The sentence does not summarize or make reference to the focus of the passage, which is the Opportunity rover.

B. CORRECT. This sentence summarizes the ideas about the Opportunity rover while also extending those ideas to future research, an effective combination for a sentence that concludes a piece about a scientific topic.

C. Incorrect. This sentence not only begins with the phrase “And in conjunction,” which is repetitive, but also introduces an entirely new idea (Mars Odyssey) instead of concluding on the main topic of the passage (the Opportunity rover).

D. Incorrect. This sentence puts emphasis on Mars’s characteristics and makes a conclusion about “today’s rovers,” instead of referring back to the Opportunity rover, the main focus of the passage.

Question analysis

This concluding-sentence question on “The End of an Era,” a passage about NASA’s Opportunity rover, which explored Mars from 2004 until NASA declared its mission complete in 2019, asks which sentence should follow sentence 20. That last sentence notes that other rovers still roam Mars, and every choice builds on it, so students must judge which ending best supports the passage as a whole.

NYS standards
  • 7W2e concluding informative writing
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing a concluding sentence for an informational passage is standard grade 7 writing work. The rover passage is twenty plain sentences, and all four endings follow on from its last line, so the comparison is careful but typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 337 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 96 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Sentence 20 hands every ending a ready link, the rovers still on Mars, so each choice sounds like a natural next line. The question is which one returns to the subject the passage built over twenty sentences, and only one connects today’s rovers to what Opportunity found. The near-twin that names Curiosity draws students who check smoothness rather than focus, while the other two drift to a spacecraft and to the planet’s harsh conditions.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The ending that names Curiosity and the right one both say today’s rovers will help answer questions about Mars; they differ only in whether the sentence ties those rovers back to Opportunity’s discoveries. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The passage’s subject, Opportunity, runs through all five paragraphs, from its 2004 landing to the “blueberries,” the 28.06 miles and the dust storms, so judging an ending means holding that whole thread in mind. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    Sentence 20 turns to “other rovers” that “still roam the surface of Mars,” and all four endings pick up from it, so fit with the last sentence alone rules none of them out. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Say in a few words what the whole passage is about, then read each ending after sentence 20 and ask whether it closes that subject or turns to something the passage never covered.

Traps

  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a concluding sentence. That is the last sentence of a piece of writing. A good one wraps up the main topic and leaves the reader with a final thought. So first, decide what the whole passage is about.

  2. Name the main topic

    Every paragraph is about one rover, Opportunity. Paragraph 1 tells when it landed on Mars in 2004. Paragraph 2 tells about the “blueberries,” small round rocks it found. Paragraph 3 gives the 28.06 miles it traveled. Paragraph 4 tells how its mission ended in 2019. Paragraph 5 says it “returned valuable data about our neighbor planet.” A good ending should come back to this rover.

  3. Read the last sentence

    Sentence 20 says: “Even though this rover’s journey ended, other rovers still roam the surface of Mars.” Roam means travel around. All four choices pick up from these other rovers. So fitting with sentence 20 is not enough. The best choice must also tie back to Opportunity.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It names a new rover, Curiosity, and never mentions Opportunity.
    • B is right. It says today’s rovers add to Opportunity’s discoveries. That links them back to the topic. It also looks ahead: they “will help us learn even more about the planet.”
    • C is wrong. It brings in a spacecraft, Mars Odyssey, that the passage never talks about. An ending should not start a new topic.
    • D is wrong. It ends on how harsh Mars is for today’s rovers, not on what Opportunity did.

    Watch out: A sounds like a strong ending because it looks to the future. But it leaves out the rover the passage is about.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only B ties today’s rovers back to Opportunity and also looks ahead to new learning about Mars. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Like B, it says today’s rovers will help answer questions about Mars. But A talks about Curiosity instead. B is better because it connects those rovers to Opportunity’s discoveries, the subject of all five paragraphs.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 9 as printed on page 156 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 156, question 9. Open page 156 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “The End of an Era” as printed (page 60)The passage “The End of an Era” as printed on page 60 of the DOE handbook.

Question 84 of 112

2023 Test B English, question 11
Passage Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”

Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”

by Mandalit Del Barco

“La Cocina” means “the kitchen” in Spanish. It’s also the name of a business incubator1 based in San Francisco’s Mission District. Since it began in 2005, it’s been helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.

Over the years, many of its alumni have found success: more than 50 chefs in its program have become self-sufficient business owners, and many of them have opened their own brick-and-mortar restaurants. Two alumnae of its culinary program . . . were even recognized as semi-finalists for prestigious James Beard awards.2

A new cookbook, We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream, tells some of their stories.

Executive director Caleb Zigas says the nonprofit La Cocina grew out of two grassroots economic development organizations3 who found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets. The vendors needed an affordable commercial kitchen space and technical assistance in order for their businesses to be legally viable. La Cocina provided just such a space, in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.

Zigas says as many as eight businesses can work in the kitchen space at La Cocina at any one time. Some can prep for a farmers’ market sale, corporate catering gigs or weddings, while others might be making and packaging their food products.

“It’s just an incredible and exciting range of techniques, flavors, perspectives, age, language. And that’s a really beautiful thing,” he says. . . .

Twice a year, La Cocina hosts “F&B: Voices from the Kitchen,” a storytelling project where their chefs can tell their own stories, as they do in the new cookbook. Some of the chefs will be on tour to promote the book, whose proceeds will go to support La Cocina entrepreneurs.

NPR4 caught up with . . . La Cocina chefs, who shared their stories:

Mariko Grady, Aedan Fermented Foods

At La Cocina, you can often hear Mariko Grady singing or humming as she prepares miso, koji, and amasake. Her fermented products come in four different flavors, including mushroom and chicken, to be used in soups and sauces. She originally brought the fermenting rice and barley koji seeds from Japan, where she had a 30-year career as a singer and dancer with the prestigious modern theatrical dance group she founded, Pappa Tarahumara. They performed around the world, and 16 years ago, had a one-night show in San Francisco. The man who would become her husband was in the audience. She soon joined him in San Francisco, often returning to Tokyo to rehearse. But after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, her company disbanded. . . . Grady focused on nourishing her family and creating a line of fermented products that she sells online, at local Bay Area stores and at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. She began at La Cocina in 2012 and named her business after her son, Aedan. (Written in Kanji characters, the name means “wisdom” and “handed down from generation to generation.”) . . . Her fermented products are “also full of wisdom about how to relate to nature and how to create a healthy life,” she says. . . .

Shani Jones, Peaches Patties

Shani Jones is a native San Franciscan. Her father was born in New Orleans, her mother, in Jamaica. She says their home was always filled with a variety of spices and dishes like jerk chicken and Jamaican patties—savory pastries filled with beef or chicken. Jones says she learned to cook from her mother, whose nickname was Peaches. After returning from college in Atlanta, Jones worked on her doctorate in organizational leadership and management while driving a Lyft5 car. She often told passengers about her idea of opening a catering company with her mom’s recipes. They steered her to La Cocina, where she developed her own business, named after her mother. Five years later, she caters and runs a kiosk6 at a small food cooperative in Bernal Heights, where some of her handmade patties have an Ethiopian twist, “because my husband is Ethiopian.” Jones has big aspirations for Peaches Patties: “The ultimate goal,” she says, “is to be the patty kingpin7 of the West Coast.”

From “The Food Business Incubator That Helps Immigrant Women Pursue The American Dream” by Mandalit Del Barco from WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY, June 19, 2019. Copyright © 2019 NPR.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR LA COCINA APPLICANTS

Level of IncomeLa Cocina considers assets and access to opportunity when screening applicants. La Cocina’s mission is to support entrepreneurs who face barriers to becoming successful in the food industry. Applicants must be classified as low- or very-low-income earners according to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Guidelines for San Francisco.
Business PlanApplicants must have a business plan that is ready to be put into action. La Cocina will help applicants refine an existing business plan. Applicants without a business plan should contact one of La Cocina’s partner organizations for guidance in developing one.
Viable ProductThe applicant’s food must not only be delicious but also stand out. For a business to make a profit, there also has to be a market for the food.
Entrepreneurial Work EthicLa Cocina is excited to work with entrepreneurs who are motivated and passionate about growing their business. Succeeding in the food industry requires a lot of heart and hard work.
Community SpiritThe 30+ entrepreneurs who share La Cocina’s kitchen are from many different backgrounds. La Cocina values the community it has created and expects each entrepreneur to be active in bringing the spirit of La Cocina to the wider world.
In order to succeed in the La Cocina kitchen, accepted applicants must be flexible and willing to work closely with others.

Source: La Cocina

1business incubator: company that helps new and startup companies develop by providing services such as management training and office space

2James Beard awards: an award named after American cook and author James Beard, considered one of the highest honors in the culinary industry

3economic development organizations: organizations whose mission is to promote economic improvement within a specific geographical area

4NPR: National Public Radio, a nonprofit media organization that produces and distributes news and cultural programming

5Lyft: ride-sharing company where people use their own cars to provide rides to customers

6kiosk: cart or small structure with one or more open sides that is used to vend merchandise or services

7kingpin: the leader in a group or undertaking

Question

Paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas about La Cocina in paragraph 1 by

  • Aspecifying how La Cocina helps local food entrepreneurs become successful.
  • Bexplaining what kind of goals La Cocina tries to set for local food entrepreneurs.
  • Cproviding background information about local food entrepreneurs in San Francisco.
  • Ddescribing how Caleb Zigas discovered the need to provide assistance to local food entrepreneurs.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas about La Cocina in paragraph 1.

A. CORRECT. Paragraph 4 lists ways that La Cocina provides support to local food entrepreneurs. This supports the statement in paragraph 1 that La Cocina has been “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.”

B. Incorrect. Paragraph 1 simply states that La Cocina tries to help local food entrepreneurs develop their businesses, but neither paragraph describes or mentions any goals that La Cocina sets for local food entrepreneurs.

C. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions some background information on where local food entrepreneurs were found, these details do not directly support any ideas in paragraph 1.

D. Incorrect. The description of the process by which Caleb Zigas realized there was a need for La Cocina provides background for the organization, but it does not directly support any ideas in paragraph 1.

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how paragraph 4 of the La Cocina article contributes to the development of ideas about the nonprofit in paragraph 1. Paragraph 4 gives executive director Caleb Zigas’s account of how La Cocina started and whom it served, so students must set the two paragraphs side by side and decide what the later one adds.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how one paragraph develops an idea from another is core grade 7 structure work. Both paragraphs are short and plain, but paragraph 4 holds several kinds of information and several choices echo its details, so close checking is needed.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 61 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Paragraph 4 opens with background, the grassroots groups that found people cooking at home and selling on the streets, and only its last sentence says what La Cocina provided. Students who stop at the opening find the background choice accurate and the Zigas choice plausible, since his name leads the paragraph. The question rewards asking which part of paragraph 4 builds on paragraph 1’s claim about helping entrepreneurs develop businesses, and that part is the list of services.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how paragraph 4 develops paragraph 1, so students must match paragraph 1’s general “helping local food entrepreneurs … develop their small businesses” to paragraph 4’s specifics: kitchen space, business plans, city permits. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Paragraph 4 mixes an origin story told by Zigas, the vendors’ needs and La Cocina’s services, and the wrong choices draw on the first two, so each must be checked for who did what. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The two paragraphs are separated by the alumni successes and the cookbook, so paragraph 1’s statement of what La Cocina does must be carried across them and set beside paragraph 4. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Write down what paragraph 1 says La Cocina does, then go through paragraph 4 sentence by sentence and ask which sentences expand on that statement; check who does what in each choice.

Traps

  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
  • Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Understand the question

    This is a question about how a text is put together. You need to see how paragraph 4 builds on an idea from paragraph 1. Find the idea in paragraph 1 first. Then ask what paragraph 4 adds to it.

  2. Find the idea in paragraph 1

    Paragraph 1 says that since 2005, La Cocina has been “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.” An entrepreneur is a person who starts a business. Notice that this statement is general. It tells you that La Cocina helps, but not how.

  3. See what paragraph 4 adds

    Paragraph 4 opens with a little history. Two grassroots groups “found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets.” (Grassroots means started by ordinary people in a community.) Then the paragraph gets specific. La Cocina gave those cooks a kitchen, “in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.” Those are the actual ways it helps.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. Paragraph 4 names the help: a kitchen, business plans and city permits. That shows how La Cocina helps cooks succeed.
    • B is wrong. Neither paragraph mentions goals that La Cocina sets for the cooks.
    • C is wrong. Paragraph 4 does describe the cooks selling on the streets. But that is background about the cooks. It doesn’t build on paragraph 1’s idea about La Cocina.
    • D is wrong. Zigas only tells the story. In paragraph 4, it is the two grassroots groups that found the cooks. Zigas discovers nothing there.

    Watch out: C is tempting because its facts are true. A true detail is still wrong if it doesn’t answer the question.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 1 says that La Cocina helps. Paragraph 4 spells out exactly how it helps. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

The strongest wrong choice is C. It describes the start of paragraph 4 correctly. But the question asks how paragraph 4 develops an idea about La Cocina. Only the list of services does that. It turns paragraph 1’s general word, helping, into real examples.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 11 as printed on page 161 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 161, question 11. Open page 161 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed (pages 158–160)The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed on page 158 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed on page 159 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed on page 160 of the DOE handbook.

Question 85 of 112

2023 Test B English, question 14

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator””.

Question

Which statement would the author most likely agree with?

  • AThe publicity efforts La Cocina engages in will help its business design spread to other cities.
  • BThe variety of exciting food available in San Francisco is due to the work of La Cocina.
  • CLa Cocina offers a method that will guarantee business ownership for qualified entrepreneurs.
  • DLa Cocina does admirable work in supporting the efforts of ambitious cooks who may have few resources.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks with which statement the author would most likely agree.

A. Incorrect. The author does not suggest at any point that La Cocina would like to expand its work and mission to other cities.

B. Incorrect. While the author describes some of the work of talented chefs from La Cocina, at no point does the author imply that the many food choices that exist in San Francisco are because of La Cocina.

C. Incorrect. While the author does describe how La Cocina can help entrepreneurs find success, at no point does the author suggest that La Cocina can guarantee success.

D. CORRECT. The descriptions of the income requirements as well as the information that some of the chefs are James Beard award semi-finalists and others have achieved success with their businesses all help show that the author admires the work of La Cocina in helping chefs who have few resources.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks which statement the author of the NPR article about La Cocina, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps food entrepreneurs, would most likely agree with. The author reports facts and profiles two chefs rather than giving opinions outright, so students must infer the author’s attitude from what the article chooses to report and test each statement against it.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Inferring which statement an author would accept is typical grade 7 point-of-view work. This reporter lets facts and two chefs’ stories carry the view, but each statement can be checked directly against the article, which keeps the demand ordinary.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 72 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate detail in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Because the author reports rather than argues, students must build the author’s attitude from the facts chosen, then test four statements that all speak well of La Cocina. Three of them claim more than the article does: that it will spread to other cities, that it accounts for the city’s food, that it guarantees ownership. The right statement is the modest one, and students drawn to bigger praise lose the point.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The reporter never states an opinion; admiration has to be read from what the article chooses to include: the income rule, the 50-plus self-sufficient owners, the James Beard semi-finalists and two chefs’ stories. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Support for the author’s view is scattered from paragraph 1’s low-income immigrant women through paragraph 2’s successes to the table’s Level of Income row, so no single passage settles it. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right statement speaks of “ambitious cooks” with “few resources,” words the article never uses, while wrong ones echo its own “exciting” and “San Francisco” or the table’s talk of qualifications. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Ask what the article’s choice of facts and stories shows about how the author regards La Cocina, then measure each statement against that view and against what the article actually reports.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option D says that “some of the chefs are James Beard award recipients.” The excerpt never says any chef won the award: paragraph 2 says two alumnae “were even recognized as semi-finalists for prestigious James Beard awards.” The site now says “some of the chefs are James Beard award semi-finalists.” The answer is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Think about the author’s view

    This asks about the author’s point of view, or how the author feels about the topic. The author is a reporter who mostly gives facts. So you have to read the author’s feelings from the facts the author chose to include.

  2. Gather the clues

    • Paragraph 1: La Cocina helps cooks, “many of whom are low-income immigrant women.” Low-income means earning little money.
    • Paragraph 2: “more than 50 chefs in its program have become self-sufficient business owners.” Self-sufficient means able to support themselves.
    • Paragraph 2 also says two alumnae “were even recognized as semi-finalists” for top cooking awards. Semi-finalists reach the round before the final. They did not win.
    • Paragraph 10: Shani Jones hopes “to be the patty kingpin of the West Coast.” A kingpin is the leader of a group.

  3. Work out the author’s opinion

    Put the clues together. The cooks often start with little money. Many of them dream big, like Jones. La Cocina helps them, and many succeed. The word “even” shows the author is impressed. So the author admires La Cocina’s work. Admirable means deserving praise. Ambitious means wanting to achieve a lot.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Some chefs will tour to promote a cookbook. That is not a plan to bring La Cocina to other cities.
    • B is wrong. The author never says La Cocina is the reason San Francisco has so many kinds of food.
    • C is wrong. To guarantee means to promise for sure. The author reports successes but promises nothing.
    • D is right. It matches the clues: cooks with little money, big dreams and praise for the help they get.

    Watch out: A is tempting because a book tour does spread the word. But spreading the word is not opening in new cities.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author would agree that La Cocina deserves praise for helping driven cooks who have little money. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the most tempting wrong choice. The chefs’ book tour and storytelling events do share La Cocina’s story. But the article never mentions taking its model to other cities. D claims only what the article supports, so it is the better choice.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 14 as printed on page 161 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 161, question 14. Open page 161 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 86 of 112

2023 Test B English, question 15

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator””.

Question

Which piece of evidence from the excerpt is most relevant to the author’s claim that La Cocina provides an opportunity to become more established as a business owner?

  • Athe description of how two alumni of the business incubator have won food awards
  • Bthe reference to a storytelling project where chefs relate their own backgrounds and business experiences
  • Cthe lists of necessities such as business plans and city permits that La Cocina assists with
  • Dthe notations of the criteria that applicants must meet to be endorsed by La Cocina in order to develop a small business
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the piece of evidence most relevant to the author’s claim that La Cocina provides an opportunity to become more established as a business owner.

A. Incorrect. This evidence reveals that two former members of La Cocina have been recognized for their culinary skills and thus likely gained some business success, but it is not directly relevant to how La Cocina provides specific services and training to help prospective business owners in achieving their goals.

B. Incorrect. Paragraph 7 briefly describes this project, but the fact that chefs share their stories with others does not directly reveal that La Cocina provides resources to help current members become established in a business. It merely suggests that La Cocina wants to publicize its participants and its efforts.

C. CORRECT. This evidence reveals a direct connection between what La Cocina offers and the chefs’ ability to operate a successful business. Having a viable business plan and obtaining the correct operating permits are necessary for the chefs to move out of the La Cocina space and into their own facilities—thus becoming more established business owners.

D. Incorrect. Though the list of criteria that applicants to La Cocina must meet helps ensure that the chefs have a good chance of success in the program, these criteria reveal La Cocina’s selectivity and not necessarily its ability to aid chefs in becoming more established business owners.

Question analysis

This evidence question asks which part of the La Cocina article is most relevant to the author’s claim that the incubator gives people an opportunity to become more established as business owners. Each choice names a piece of evidence without quoting it, so students must first track down where it appears and then weigh how closely it speaks to owning and running a business.

NYS standards
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Matching evidence to a claim is standard grade 7 work. Here the choices describe parts of the article and its table in general terms, the claim is paraphrased rather than quoted, and more than one choice seems related, so it demands more than usual.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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

Every choice points to something real in the excerpt, so the work is matching evidence to the exact claim: an opportunity La Cocina provides to become more established. Success stories show outcomes, the storytelling project shows publicity, and the table shows who may apply, but only the services in paragraph 4 show La Cocina giving that opportunity. The two choices about business plans are hardest to separate, because helping with a plan and requiring one look alike at a glance.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The table’s criteria and the right choice both concern business plans, which appear in paragraph 4 and in the Business Plan row; one is help La Cocina gives, the other a requirement for getting in. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The choices describe evidence without quoting it, from paragraph 2’s awards and paragraph 7’s storytelling project to paragraph 4’s services and the table, so each must be found before it can be weighed. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The claim speaks of becoming “more established,” and students must see that business plans and permits are what let a cook move from selling on the street to running a legal, independent business. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Restate the claim in your own words, find where each described piece of evidence appears, and ask whether that evidence shows how someone becomes more established as a business owner.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Restate the claim

    This is an evidence question. Evidence is a fact that backs up a claim. The claim here is that La Cocina gives cooks a chance to become “more established” business owners. More established means more firmly set up, with a business that can last.

  2. Find what the cooks needed

    Paragraph 4 tells what the street cooks were missing. “The vendors needed an affordable commercial kitchen space and technical assistance in order for their businesses to be legally viable.” Vendors are sellers. Legally viable means allowed by law and able to keep going. A food business needs official permission from the city to run.

  3. Find what La Cocina gave them

    La Cocina gave them a kitchen and helped them “develop business plans, pull city permits and more.” A business plan is a written plan for how a business will make money. To pull a permit means to get it from the city. With a plan and permits, a street cook can run a real, legal business. That is what becoming more established looks like.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Paragraph 2 says the two chefs were semi-finalists, so they did not win. Also, a cooking honor doesn’t show help with running a business.
    • B is wrong. The storytelling project in paragraph 7 lets chefs share their stories. That spreads the word, but it doesn’t set anyone up in business.
    • C is right. Plans and permits are the tools that turn a cook into an established owner.
    • D is wrong. The table lists what applicants need to get in. Rules for joining don’t show the help La Cocina gives once you are in.

    Watch out: D is tempting because the table also mentions business plans. But there a plan is something you must already have. In paragraph 4, La Cocina helps you develop one.

  5. Choose the answer

    The help with plans and permits shows La Cocina giving cooks a real chance at a lasting business. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the hardest choice to rule out. Both D and C touch on business plans. But D points to entry rules, which tell who may join. C points to services La Cocina provides. The claim is about an opportunity La Cocina gives, so C is the better evidence.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 15 as printed on page 162 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 162, question 15. Open page 162 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 87 of 112

2023 Test B English, question 16

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator””.

Question

Which detail would be most important to include in a summary of the excerpt?

  • ALa Cocina produced a cookbook that includes some members’ stories.
  • BLa Cocina provides legal and technical assistance to its members.
  • CPotential vendors need a market for their food before considering La Cocina.
  • DThere are different types of venues that food vendors from La Cocina use.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks which detail would be most important to include in a summary of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. The detail about the cookbook that includes members’ stories is mentioned briefly but not developed. It should not be included in a summary, because it does not most help support the central idea that La Cocina helps food entrepreneurs expand their businesses.

B. CORRECT. The fact that La Cocina provides legal and technical assistance is a key factor in the success of the chefs who participate. Paragraph 4 explains that La Cocina provides technical and legal assistance by helping businesses navigate city permits and meet other challenges. This detail supports the central idea by sharing how La Cocina helps food entrepreneurs expand their businesses.

C. Incorrect. The specific requirements for chefs to be accepted at La Cocina are lesser details and should not be included in a summary, because they do not strongly support the central idea that La Cocina helps its members expand their food businesses.

D. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 indicates that vendors from La Cocina sell their food at various venues, including farmers’ markets and corporate events. However, this is a detail that is not developed and should not be included in a summary since it does not support the central idea as clearly as does the detail that La Cocina provides members with legal and technical support for their businesses.

Question analysis

This summary question asks which detail would be most important to include in a summary of the La Cocina article, which runs from the nonprofit’s origins and services to profiles of two chefs and a table of qualifications for applicants. Each choice draws on the article, so students must first decide what the excerpt is mainly about and then separate central details from minor ones.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Picking the detail a summary needs is grade 7 central-idea work. The choices are short and plainly worded, but each comes from somewhere in a long article, so students must hold its main idea in mind while weighing them.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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

All four details are drawn from the excerpt, so accuracy eliminates little; the test is importance. The cookbook is the most tempting minor detail, because it has a paragraph of its own and returns in paragraph 7 with the book tour, yet both mentions are brief. Students who first state what the excerpt mainly shows, how La Cocina helps cooks build legal businesses, keep the detail that carries that idea.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The four details come from paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 and the table, and the cookbook returns in paragraph 7, so each must be judged against the whole excerpt, not the part it comes from. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The excerpt never states its main idea in one sentence; students must work out from paragraph 1, paragraph 4 and the two profiles that it is about how La Cocina helps cooks build businesses. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, state in one sentence what the excerpt is mainly about, then keep the detail that most directly develops that idea, not one the article mentions once and leaves.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.

The wrong answers, classified

  • A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)

    Reveals partial knowledge Expected pull: strong

    Remembers the cookbook because its italic title fills paragraph 3 and the book tour returns in paragraph 7, but each mention is brief and says nothing about how La Cocina helps cooks.

  • C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)

    Reveals partial knowledge Expected pull: weak

    Picks a requirement from the table’s Viable Product row, that there has to be a market for the food, which is one screening rule rather than what the excerpt is about.

  • D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)

    Reveals partial knowledge Expected pull: moderate

    Recalls the farmers’ markets, catering gigs and weddings of paragraph 5 and the profiles’ online sales and kiosk, accurate details about where members sell but not about what La Cocina does.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Learn what a summary needs

    A summary is a short retelling of a text’s most important ideas. It leaves out small details. To pick the right detail, first decide what the whole excerpt is mainly about.

  2. State the main idea

    The excerpt opens with La Cocina’s purpose: helping cooks start and grow small food businesses. Paragraph 4 explains how that help works. Paragraphs 9 and 10 show two chefs who built businesses there. So the main idea is this: La Cocina helps cooks with few resources build real food businesses.

  3. Find the detail that carries it

    Paragraph 4 says the cooks needed “technical assistance in order for their businesses to be legally viable.” Technical assistance is expert help with the practical side of a job. La Cocina gave that help, including how to “pull city permits.” Permits keep a business within the law. So choice B, legal and technical help, describes the heart of what La Cocina does.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The cookbook gets one short sentence in paragraph 3 and a brief return in paragraph 7. It is a side detail.
    • B is right. It names the main kind of help La Cocina gives.
    • C is wrong. The need for a market comes from one row of the table. It is one screening rule, not the main point.
    • D is wrong. Paragraph 5 lists places members sell, like farmers’ markets and weddings. That tells where they sell, not what La Cocina does.

    Watch out: A is tempting because the cookbook has its own paragraph and an italic title. But the excerpt mentions it and moves on.

  5. Choose the answer

    A summary needs the help at the center of the excerpt: legal and technical support for members. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

The cookbook choice, A, is the nearest miss. It is easy to remember, and it does tell some members’ stories. But the excerpt never explains the book or builds on it. B names the support that explains how the cooks in the excerpt succeed, so it belongs in a summary.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 16 as printed on page 162 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 162, question 16. Open page 162 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 88 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 4
Passage Moving through Mountains

Moving through Mountains

(1) An age-old proverb says that necessity is the mother of invention. (2) Centuries of human ingenuity in the face of obstacles prove this to be true. (3) For many years the Swiss Alps, a mountain range spanning southern Switzerland and northern Italy, were such an obstacle. (4) Roads and railways had to navigate around the mountains or through winding tunnels inside the mountains, making the transportation of people and goods difficult and time consuming. (5) In 2016 these burdens were eased with the completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.

(6) Construction of the high-speed railway tunnel began in 1996. (7) The tunnel was created through the use of tunnel-boring machines, which are giant drills with a flat rotating head called a cutter head. (8) Each of the tunnel-boring machines used during the construction of the tunnel was about the length of four football fields arranged end-to-end. (9) During the seventeen-year construction period, 28 million tons of rock were removed, enough to rebuild the Great Pyramid of Giza five times. (10) This massive construction project is reported to have cost $12 billion. (11) After that, 4 million cubic meters of concrete, or enough concrete to build eighty-four Empire State Buildings, were used to construct and support the tunnel.

(12) By 2020 the high-speed railway will carry more than 250 freight trains and 55 passenger trains a day, with most traveling at speeds of around 100 to 125 miles per hour. (13) It will be faster for people to travel between northern and southern Europe. (14) The travel time between the European cities of Zurich, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy, will be reduced by an hour. (15) Many European leaders compare the Gotthard Base Tunnel to the Channel Tunnel, a 33-mile underwater tunnel that connects the United Kingdom and France. (16) While there is no roadway in the Channel Tunnel, people can drive their cars onto special trains that will carry vehicles through to the other side.

(17) Just as traffic congestion in major cities led to the construction of underground local transportation, natural formations, such as mountain ranges, have also sent people underground for faster, easier, and cheaper methods of transportation across larger areas. (18) There is renewed interest in constructing innovative methods of transportation that will help eliminate problems associated with traveling to and from certain areas.

Question

Which sentence should be added after sentence 5 to introduce the main topic of the passage?

  • AThe construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel was approved by Swiss voters in 1992 and was funded by tolls, fuel taxes, and government loans.
  • BLeaders from several European countries attended the opening ceremonies for the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a Swiss tunnel.
  • CThe Gotthard Base Tunnel is the world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel, stretching 35.5 miles straight through the base of the Swiss Alps.
  • DThe Gotthard Base Tunnel continues to help reduce the number of freight trucks on the roadways in the Swiss Alps.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The Answer is (C)

The question asks which sentence should be added to the end of the first paragraph in order to introduce the topic of the passage, which is the description, construction, and use of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.

Option C correctly presents and describes the Gotthard Base Tunnel.

Option A is incorrect because it offers overly detailed information about the funding used to build the Gotthard Base Tunnel, and it does not provide a description of the tunnel.

Option B is incorrect because it gives details about the opening ceremony of the tunnel, and it does not provide a description of the tunnel.

Option D is incorrect because it offers a result of completing the Gotthard Base Tunnel, rather than offering an introductory statement presenting and describing the tunnel.

Question analysis

This revising question uses a short informational passage about the Gotthard Base Tunnel through the Swiss Alps and asks which sentence best introduces the main topic at the end of the first paragraph. Several choices offer true-sounding facts about the tunnel, so students must tell an introduction apart from a supporting detail.

NYS standards
  • 7W2a introducing and organizing a topic
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing a sentence that introduces a topic and previews what follows is standard grade 7 writing work. The passage is short and factual, and the wrong choices are related details, much like a classroom revision exercise.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 362 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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

Most students find the descriptive sentence once they ask what a reader needs right after the tunnel is first named. Points are lost to sentences that follow on smoothly from the word “completion” or that name a real benefit, but which set up a passage about something else. The right sentence even adds facts the passage never states, so students should judge fit rather than hunt for repeated words.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The topic the new sentence must introduce only emerges across all four paragraphs: what the Gotthard Base Tunnel is, how it was dug, and what it will do for travel. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    The added sentence follows sentence 5, which names the tunnel only as what eased the burdens, so it should present the tunnel itself before paragraph 2 turns to its construction. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Skim the first sentence of each paragraph to see what the passage as a whole covers, then pick the sentence that would prepare a reader for all of it.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    The new sentence goes at the end of paragraph 1, right after sentence 5. It must introduce the main topic, which is what the whole passage is mostly about. So first you need to know what the whole passage covers.

  2. Skim the passage for its topic

    Sentence 5 ends paragraph 1: “In 2016 these burdens were eased with the completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.” Paragraph 2 tells how the tunnel was built. Paragraph 3 tells how it will make travel faster. Paragraph 4 tells why people build tunnels like it. So the passage is about the Gotthard Base Tunnel: what it is, how it was built, and what it does.

  3. See what sentence 5 leaves out

    Sentence 5 names the tunnel, but it doesn’t say what the tunnel is. A reader doesn’t yet know how long it is or what makes it special. Then paragraph 2 jumps right into building it. So the new sentence should describe the tunnel itself. That gets the reader ready for the rest.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is about voters and money from tolls and taxes. The passage never discusses how the tunnel was paid for.
    • B is about an opening ceremony. The passage never describes one.
    • C says what the tunnel is: “the world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel,” running “straight through the base of the Swiss Alps.”
    • D gives one result, fewer trucks on the roads. That is a detail, not an introduction.

    Watch out: D links back to the slow roads in sentence 4, so it seems to fit. But it is one benefit, and the passage never mentions trucks.

  5. Pick the answer

    Choice C presents the tunnel and tells what makes it special. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

Choice D is the closest wrong answer. It is about the tunnel, and it ties back to the hard travel in sentence 4. But it gives a result before the reader even knows what the tunnel is. C describes the tunnel itself, and that is what an introduction needs.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 4 as printed on page 49 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 49, question 4. Open page 49 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Moving through Mountains” as printed (page 48)The passage “Moving through Mountains” as printed on page 48 of the DOE handbook.

Question 89 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 9

Uses the passage above: “Moving through Mountains”.

Question

Which concluding sentence should be added after sentence 18 to support the topic presented in the passage?

  • AThere is proof that underground tunnels such as the Gotthard Base Tunnel are beneficial to the economy of the surrounding area.
  • BThe Gotthard Base Tunnel is an extraordinary example of how human ingenuity and persistence can overcome great obstacles.
  • CThe completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel shows that people can work together to achieve important goals.
  • DThe Swiss government is confident that the economic impact of the Gotthard Base Tunnel will be worth its construction cost.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The answer is (B)

The question asks for a concluding sentence that supports key ideas about the topic developed earlier in the passage.

Option B is correct because it supports the points made in the introductory paragraph by affirming the idea that the Gotthard Base Tunnel is an example of a way people have improved life by overcoming obstacles.

Option A is incorrect because the economies of surrounding areas were never mentioned in the passage.

Option C is incorrect because, although the construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel appears to have required many people to work together, the passage does not explicitly mention people or groups working together.

Option D is incorrect because it focuses on the cost of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is referred to only in sentence 10 of the passage.

Question analysis

This revising question asks which concluding sentence should end the passage about building the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Students must recognize the passage's overall point and choose a conclusion that sums it up, avoiding sentences that sound reasonable but add claims the passage never supports.

NYS standards
  • 7W2e concluding informative writing
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Picking a concluding sentence that reflects a passage's central idea is standard grade 7 writing work. Students must keep the whole short passage in mind and reject conclusions that bring in claims it never makes.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 362 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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 conclusion has to return to the idea the passage opened with, which sits at the far end of the text from where the new sentence goes. Students who have forgotten the proverb about necessity tend to choose by tone, and three choices sound like fitting final lessons or benefits. What the question rewards is matching the conclusion to the opening's own words, ingenuity and obstacles.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The passage's point is set out in sentences 1 to 3, the proverb about necessity and “human ingenuity in the face of obstacles”, about fifteen sentences before the spot where the conclusion goes. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right conclusion and the teamwork one share a frame, the tunnel as proof of what people can do, and differ only in the lesson: ingenuity against obstacles, from sentences 1 to 3, or teamwork, which the passage never mentions. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

Strategy: Say in one sentence what the whole passage is about, then choose the conclusion that restates that idea without adding claims the passage never makes.

Traps

  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a last sentence for the passage. A good conclusion sums up the main idea. It often goes back to the point made at the start. It should not add new claims that the passage never made.

  2. Find the main idea at the start

    Sentence 1 says: “An age-old proverb says that necessity is the mother of invention.” Sentence 2 says: “Centuries of human ingenuity in the face of obstacles prove this to be true.” Sentence 3 says the Swiss Alps “were such an obstacle.”

  3. Put the main idea in plain words

    A proverb is an old saying. Necessity is the mother of invention means that when people really need something, they find a clever way to get it. Ingenuity means cleverness. An obstacle is something in the way. So the passage says people use cleverness to get past what blocks them. The tunnel is the example.

  4. Check each choice

    • B says the tunnel shows “how human ingenuity and persistence can overcome great obstacles.” This repeats the opening idea. Persistence means not giving up.
    • A is about the economy, meaning money and jobs, of nearby areas. The passage never discusses that.
    • C is about people working together. The passage never mentions teamwork.
    • D is about the cost and the government’s opinion. The cost comes up only once, in sentence 10.

    Watch out: C sounds like a fine life lesson for an ending. But a conclusion must match this passage, and teamwork is not its point.

  5. Pick the answer

    Choice B restates the passage’s main idea without adding anything new. It ties the ending back to the beginning. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because it also uses the tunnel to teach a lesson. But teamwork never comes up in the passage. B uses the passage’s own words, “human ingenuity” against “obstacles,” so it closes the passage the way it opened.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 9 as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 50, question 9. Open page 50 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 90 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 13
Passage An Early Warning

An Early Warning

One of the books that has done the most to alert the world to the dangers of environmental degradation is George Perkins Marsh’s Man and Nature. Its message—that Western society is in the process of causing irreparable harm to the environment—greatly influenced ecologists during the beginning of the modern environmentalist movement in the 1960s. Marsh was not, however, part of this movement. Surprisingly, Man and Nature was first published in 1864.

Marsh first observed the environmentally destructive effects of human activities while growing up in Vermont in the early nineteenth century. The heavy demand for firewood had depleted the forests, and extensive sheep grazing had stripped the land. The result was flooding and soil erosion. Furthermore, streams were fouled by wastes dumped from numerous mills and dye houses.

Much later in his life, after careers in law, business, farming, and politics, Marsh served as ambassador to Italy. There he noticed land abuse similar to what he had seen in Vermont. Overgrazing and forest mismanagement had rendered areas that had been productive farmland since the days of the Roman Empire desolate. Marsh attributed this to what he called “man’s ignorant disregard for the laws of nature.”

In Italy, Marsh began to organize his observations and theories. He wrote in a way intended to educate readers about the impact of industrial and agricultural practices on the environment. In Man and Nature, he evaluated the important relationships between animals and plants, discussed forestry practices in great detail, and analyzed the ways natural water supplies are affected by human use.

Man and Nature challenged the popular belief that nature can heal any damage that people inflict upon it. Marsh argued that people may use and enjoy, but not destroy, the riches of the earth.

Furthermore, he asserted that everything in nature is significant and that even the tiniest organism affects the fragile environmental balance. His belief that drastic alteration of this balance would be dangerous is now accepted as a fundamental principle of modern environmental science.

Although he pointed out environmental damage caused by irresponsible human activities, Marsh did not oppose every human alteration to the environment. To him, the goal was proper management, not a return to wilderness conditions. People should consider the consequences of their actions, he wrote, and become “co-worker[s] with nature.” Marsh praised the Suez Canal, the human-made waterway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as “the greatest and most truly cosmopolite physical improvement ever undertaken by man.” He believed that the advantages of the canal— improved transportation and commerce—would outweigh any environmental damage. Yet he also warned of possible unintended consequences, such as destructive plants and animals spreading from one body of water to the other.

Marsh was considered a radical thinker during his lifetime. By the late nineteenth century, however, his writings, along with those of John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and others, had inspired what became known as the conservation movement. The conservationists of that time sought to educate the public that wilderness areas were worth preserving and were responsible for creating the National Park Service and the National Forest Service.

Question

Which evidence supports the accuracy of Marsh’s theories about nature?

  • Athe details about Marsh’s observations of environmental degradation
  • Bthe details about how Marsh’s writing inspired a conservation movement
  • Cthe details about how Marsh’s ideas are essential to modern environmental science
  • Dthe details about Marsh’s opinions on human alterations to the environment
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The answer is (C)

The question asks for evidence that supports Marsh’s theories about nature, based on the passage. The passage states that ideas from Marsh’s book are now considered basic knowledge in the field of environmental science (paragraph 6). This statement supports the idea that his theories about nature were accurate, making Option C correct.

Option A is incorrect because, while Marsh made observations of the harm that people were causing to the environment (paragraphs 2 and 3), the details about his observations do not provide evidence that his theories were accurate.

Option B is incorrect because, while Marsh’s writing did inspire a conservation movement (paragraph 8), these details do not call attention to the accuracy of his ideas.

Option D is incorrect because it refers to Marsh’s personal opinions (paragraph 7), not his theories.

Question analysis

This reading question asks which details in a passage about George Perkins Marsh and Man and Nature support the accuracy of his theories about nature. Every choice points to real content in the passage, so students must think carefully about what kind of evidence shows that ideas were correct.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students judge whether evidence supports a claim, but here the choices are abstract descriptions of passage content, and the student must decide which kind of detail could actually show a theory to be correct, a step beyond typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 523 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 51 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The choices are labels for kinds of detail, not quotations, so the student has to translate each one back into the passage and then ask a harder question: does it show the ideas were right? Influence and firsthand observation both feel like proof, and they separate students who confuse popularity or origin with confirmation from those who do not. Only acceptance by modern science judges the theories after the fact.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice and the one about inspiring a conservation movement are worded alike, details about how Marsh's ideas fared later, and differ only in whether they show acceptance by science or mere influence. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The student must work out what kind of fact could show a theory accurate, later acceptance by a science, and then spot it in paragraph 6's “fundamental principle of modern environmental science”. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The four kinds of detail sit in different paragraphs, observations in 2 and 3, science in 6, opinions in 7 and the movement in 8, and each must be found. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Decide first what kind of fact would prove a theory accurate, then test each choice against that standard rather than against whether it is true of Marsh.

Traps

  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what shows that Marsh’s theories were accurate, or correct. A theory is an idea that tries to explain how something works. So you need a detail that shows his ideas turned out to be true. A detail that is just true about Marsh is not enough.

  2. Decide what counts as proof

    How can you show an idea is correct? A strong way is when experts study it later and agree with it. Being popular does not make an idea correct. And the facts that gave someone an idea can’t also prove that idea.

  3. Find that proof in the passage

    Paragraph 6 says: “His belief that drastic alteration of this balance would be dangerous is now accepted as a fundamental principle of modern environmental science.” A drastic alteration is a big change. A fundamental principle is a basic rule. So scientists today treat Marsh’s idea as a basic truth. That supports its accuracy.

  4. Check each choice

    • C: Marsh’s ideas are “essential to modern environmental science.” This matches paragraph 6.
    • A: his observations in Vermont and Italy are what he built his theories on. They don’t show the theories were right.
    • B: inspiring a movement shows his ideas were popular. Popular is not the same as correct.
    • D: his opinions about changing nature, such as praising a canal, are more of his views. They are not proof.

    Watch out: A is tempting because the damage Marsh saw was real. But it came before his theories, so it can’t test them.

  5. Pick the answer

    Only C shows experts in a science accepting Marsh’s ideas as true. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is close because it is also about how Marsh’s ideas did later. But many people can follow an idea that is wrong. C shows that scientists, who test ideas, now accept his belief as a basic rule. That is evidence of accuracy, not just of popularity.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 13 as printed on page 53 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 53, question 13. Open page 53 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “An Early Warning” as printed (page 52)The passage “An Early Warning” as printed on page 52 of the DOE handbook.

Question 91 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 14

Uses the passage above: “An Early Warning”.

Question

Which detail about Marsh provides support for the author’s statement in paragraph 5?

  • Ahis reputation as a radical thinker
  • Bhis contribution to the conservation movement
  • Chis experience working as an ambassador
  • Dhis approval of beneficial human-made projects in nature
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The answer is (D)

The question asks for a specific detail that supports the author’s statement in paragraph 5. In paragraph 5, the author states that “Marsh argued that people may use and enjoy, but not destroy, the riches of the earth.” Marsh’s approval of the Suez Canal shows that Marsh did not oppose certain human innovations, because the advantages—improved transportation and commerce—enriched human life and outweighed environmental damage (paragraph 7). Option D describes that idea.

Option A is incorrect because it is not relevant to the statement in question.

Option B is incorrect because, while it acknowledges Marsh’s contributions to the conservation movement, it does not relate to his attitudes about certain alterations to the environment.

Option C is incorrect because it relates to a time when Marsh observed environmental degradation in Italy.

Question analysis

This reading question asks which detail about George Perkins Marsh supports a statement the author makes in paragraph 5 of a passage about his book Man and Nature. Students must pin down the exact claim first, then find the detail elsewhere in the passage that illustrates it, since all four choices are true facts about Marsh.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Matching a supporting detail to a claim is grade 7 work, but here the student must first decide which statement in paragraph 5 is meant and then connect it to a detail elsewhere, with choices given as brief labels.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 523 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 38 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 5 contains two statements, and the question does not say which one it means, so a student must settle that first. Anchored to the first sentence, the radical-thinker detail looks like a fit; anchored to “use and enjoy, but not destroy”, only the approval of the Suez Canal works. The brief labels hide which paragraph each detail comes from, so every one has to be traced.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The claim is in paragraph 5 but its support, Marsh's praise of the Suez Canal, is two paragraphs later, and the choices are brief labels that must be traced back. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Praise for a canal does not mention the earth's riches; the student must see that approving a useful human-made change shows “use and enjoy” in practice. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Restate paragraph 5's claim in your own words, then ask of each detail whether it shows Marsh holding that view, rather than simply being true about him.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    First find the author’s statement in paragraph 5. Then find the detail about Marsh that backs it up, or shows it is true.

  2. Find the statement in paragraph 5

    Paragraph 5 says: “Marsh argued that people may use and enjoy, but not destroy, the riches of the earth.” The riches of the earth are nature’s gifts, like land, water, and forests. In plain words: it is fine to use nature, as long as you don’t wreck it.

  3. Look for that view in action

    Paragraph 7 says: “Marsh did not oppose every human alteration to the environment.” He praised the Suez Canal, a waterway people dug so ships could pass. He believed its benefits, “improved transportation and commerce,” would outweigh any harm. Commerce means trade, or buying and selling. So Marsh was fine with people using nature in a helpful way.

  4. Check each choice

    • D: his approval of helpful human-made projects shows “use and enjoy” in action.
    • A: he was a radical thinker, but that says nothing about how people should use nature.
    • B: he helped inspire the conservation movement, but that doesn’t show his view on using nature.
    • C: his job in Italy explains where he saw land damage. It says nothing about how to use the earth.

    Watch out: Paragraph 5 says Marsh’s book challenged a “popular belief,” which can make you think of “radical.” But A doesn’t show the use-but-don’t-destroy idea.

  5. Pick the answer

    Praising a useful canal shows Marsh believed people may use nature. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Marsh was a radical thinker, and paragraph 5 does say his book challenged a popular belief. But being radical doesn’t show that people may use nature. Praising a useful canal does, so D gives real support.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 14 as printed on page 54 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 54, question 14. Open page 54 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 92 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 22
Passage 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

Paragraph 7 contributes to the development of the central idea of the passage by

  • Aillustrating that Ederle’s physical strength and mental fortitude allowed her to stay focused on her goal.
  • Bconveying that Ederle pushed herself to the edge of her physical capabilities in order to complete the swim.
  • Chighlighting the impact the severe weather had on Ederle’s emotions during her swim.
  • Demphasizing the surge of emotions Ederle felt as she came closer to achieving a personal goal.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The answer is (D)

The question asks for an explanation of how paragraph 7 contributes to the development of a central idea of the passage. Paragraph 7 is mainly about Ederle’s physical and emotional state as she pushed through a difficult portion of her swim and realized her goal was in sight. A central idea of the passage is that Ederle’s passion and determination allowed her to accomplish her goal of being the first woman to cross the English Channel.

Option D is correct because it emphasizes her passion by referring to the overwhelming emotions Ederle felt as she progressed during her swim, despite the unfavorable conditions (paragraph 7: “For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile” and “Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea.”).

Option A is incorrect because, although Ederle needed physical strength and mental fortitude to complete the swim, the paragraph contributes to a central idea because it highlights her emotion as she swam, not her physical strength or mental fortitude.

Option B is incorrect because the paragraph focuses on Ederle’s emotional response to the challenging circumstances and not the idea that Ederle was at the “edge of her physical capabilities.”

Option C is incorrect because Ederle’s feelings of happiness and amusement were caused by her anticipation and excitement as she approached achieving her goal, not by the severe weather.

Question analysis

This reading question asks how the paragraph about the storm near the end of Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim contributes to the passage's central idea. Students must decide what the paragraph mainly does and connect it to the larger point, while every choice sounds like a fair description of a hard swim.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Explaining how one paragraph develops a central idea is a grade 7 standard, but here several choices sound true of a hard swim through a storm, and the student must see what the paragraph is mainly about, beyond typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 76 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Paragraph 7 is crowded with hardship, a storm, a swollen tongue and inflamed ears, so the obvious reading is that it shows toughness. The author's pointed “Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy” turns it toward emotion, which ties it to the passion named in the thesis. Several choices are fair about the swim in general, and this is one of the closer calls on the test, since strength is also on display.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The right choice and the strength-and-fortitude one both describe Ederle's inner state as she nears her goal, and only whether paragraph 7 stresses her feelings or her toughness separates them, since she does fight “the stubborn swells for several hours”. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The central idea, her “determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming”, is stated in paragraph 1, six paragraphs before the storm it must be connected to. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks how paragraph 7 develops the central idea, so the student must weigh what its details stress, the “amused smile” and “indescribably happy”, not just what happens. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Mark the words in paragraph 7 that describe how Ederle felt and what she endured, decide which the author stresses, then connect that to the passage's stated central idea.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need to explain how paragraph 7 helps build the central idea, the main point of the passage. So first find the central idea. Then see what paragraph 7 stresses.

  2. Find the central idea

    The last sentence of paragraph 1 says: “Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.” A testimony here means proof. Passion means a strong love for something.

  3. See what happens in paragraph 7

    A fierce storm pushes Ederle backward. She fights “the stubborn swells for several hours.” Swells are big, rolling waves. Salt water makes her tongue swell and her ears sore. Then the storm ends, and the sea pushes her “toward the shore and victory.”

  4. Notice what the author stresses

    Look at the feeling words. She swims “dodging debris with an amused smile.” In the middle of the pain, the author writes: “Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea.” Indescribably means too much to put into words. The word “Yet” shows a surprise. She felt joy in spite of the pain. That shows her passion for swimming.

  5. Check each choice

    • D: a “surge of emotions” as she came closer to her goal. A surge is a sudden rush. This matches the smile and the happiness.
    • A: strength and “mental fortitude,” or toughness. She was tough, but the paragraph stresses her joy.
    • B: the paragraph never says she reached “the edge of her physical capabilities.”
    • C says the storm caused her feelings. She was happy in spite of the storm, not because of it.

    Watch out: A is tempting because she fought for hours. But the “Yet” sentence turns to how she felt.

  6. Pick the answer

    Paragraph 7 builds the passage’s idea of her passion by showing her feelings. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because she does fight “the stubborn swells for several hours.” But the paragraph’s key words are about feeling: “amused smile” and “indescribably happy.” Those link to her “passion for swimming” in paragraph 1. D names those emotions.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 22 as printed on page 59 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 59, question 22. Open page 59 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 56 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 57 of the DOE handbook.

Question 93 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 32
Passage Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad

Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad

by Mark Twain

Now and then, while we1^1 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.

we1^1: the author and his fictional travel companion

From A TRAMP ABROAD by Mark Twain—Public Domain

Question

Which sentence from paragraph 2 best supports the idea that sheer “leather-headedness” (paragraph 2) amounts to “ignorance” and “idiocy” (paragraph 4)?

  • A“He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do?”
  • B“He lifts it bodily up in the air by main force,”
  • C“When he gets up there he finds that that is not the place;”
  • D“Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever.”
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The answer is (C)

The question asks for a sentence in the excerpt that supports the idea that the ant’s “leather-headedness” (paragraph 2), or the ant’s stubborn determination to engage in foolish and worthless actions, amounts to ignorance and idiocy.

Option C is correct because, in the sentence in Option C, the ant realizes he is in the wrong place only after wasting effort and strength, which reveals his stupidity and lack of awareness.

Option A is incorrect because the sentence in Option A poses the question that the ant should ask himself and does not demonstrate the ant’s ignorance and idiocy.

Option B is incorrect because the sentence in Option B simply describes the ant’s action of lifting the grasshopper leg into a position to carry it.

Option D is incorrect because, while the sentence in Option D describes the ant’s exhaustion, which is caused by his stubborn determination, the sentence does not provide a connection to the ant’s leather-headedness.

Question analysis

This textual evidence question asks which sentence from paragraph 2 best shows that the ant's “leather-headedness” amounts to the “ignorance” and “idiocy” named later in Mark Twain's excerpt. Students must work out an old-fashioned insult and then choose among quotations that all describe the ant behaving oddly.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7L4a context clues
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 On a typical grade 7 test, an evidence question pairs a clear claim with one obviously fitting quotation. Here students must first decode an old-fashioned insult and connect it to judgments made two paragraphs later, which demands more interpretation.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 79 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A wrong paragraph number in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every quotation comes from the ant's absurd trip, so the question is which one shows a failure of sense on its own. Two are fragments cut just before the foolish part, and students who remember the full sentence credit them with more than they show. The marching-aimlessly line is the strongest rival; the key wins because it records a mistake the ant discovers only after great effort, matching paragraph 4's ant that cannot find his way.

  1. Hard words moderate Understanding the question

    “Leather-headedness” is an old insult meaning thick-headed stupidity; a student who reads it as toughness or stubbornness will look for force or persistence instead of foolishness. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The claim joins a word in paragraph 2 to “ignorance” and “idiocy” in paragraph 4, where idiocy is an ant that cannot “find his way home again.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Work out from context what “leather-headedness” means, then ask of each quotation whether it clearly shows that quality, and how it connects to the judgments in paragraph 4.

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.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook places the ant’s “leather-headedness” in paragraph 4. The word is in paragraph 2, as the question itself says, so the explanation now reads “(paragraph 2)”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is an evidence question. You need the sentence from paragraph 2 that best proves the ant is foolish. First you must know what the three insults mean.

  2. Learn what the insults mean

    In paragraph 2 Twain says, “his leather-headedness is the point I make against him.” Leather-headed is an old insult. It means thick-headed or dim. Watch out: it does not mean tough or strong.

    In paragraph 4 he calls the ant’s acts “ignorance” (not knowing things) and “idiocy” (being very foolish). His example of idiocy is this: “He cannot stroll around a stump and find his way home again.”

  3. Look for a foolish mistake

    So look for a quote that, by itself, shows the ant making a foolish mistake. Choice C does. The ant drags his load to the top of a weed. Then “he finds that that is not the place.” He learns he is wrong only after all that work. That is a lot like an ant who can’t find his way home.

  4. Check each choice

    • A only asks a question. The foolish answer comes in later words.
    • B shows the ant is strong, lifting his load “by main force.” Strength is not foolishness.
    • C fits. It shows a mistake he finds only after wasting effort.
    • D shows him sweaty and in a hurry. “Aimlessly” hints that he has no plan, but the quote shows no clear mistake.

  5. Choose the answer

    Choice C gives the clearest proof of a thick-headed ant. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice, because “aimlessly” means without a goal. But D mostly shows the ant wiping sweat and rushing off. C shows a real error: he works hard to reach a spot, and it is the wrong spot. That matches “ignorance” and “idiocy” best.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 32 as printed on page 65 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 65, question 32. Open page 65 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed (pages 62–63)The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed on page 62 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed on page 63 of the DOE handbook.

Question 94 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 39
Passage Ruins of a Fabled City

Ruins of a Fabled City

The African country of Zimbabwe took its name from the Shona word meaning “stone enclosures” or “venerated houses.” In fact, today dozens of stone ruins are scattered throughout Zimbabwe and other areas in southeastern Africa. One of these ruins, known as Great Zimbabwe, was once a fabled city that inspired tales that circulated throughout Europe. Where was this remarkable city, and who had built it? For centuries the mystery occupied the minds of explorers and treasure seekers.

The first reports to Europeans of Great Zimbabwe were spread a thousand years ago by Arab traders sailing between the Middle East and the east coast of Africa. The traders told of the fabulous wealth of a mysterious stone city in the African interior. In the trader’s tales, that city became associated with the Europeans’ understanding of Middle Eastern history—the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and his legendary gold mines, long since lost to the world. By the sixteenth century, Portuguese explorers regularly visited East Africa, searching for King Solomon’s gold, but they never found Great Zimbabwe. In 1552, a Portuguese historian, João de Barros, recorded a story told by Arabs about a city with a “square fortress of masonry within and without, built of stones of marvelous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them.”

In fact, Great Zimbabwe was a marvel. In one area a massive wall more than thirty feet high and twenty feet thick created a great enclosure. Another area contained a fortress-like series of walls, corridors, and steps built into the bluff that overlooks the ruins. Throughout the city, each stone was precisely fitted to the others without the use of mortar.

In the 1870s Karl Mauch, a German geologist, was the first European to see Great Zimbabwe, by then in ruins. Mauch realized that he had “rediscovered” the fabled city from de Barros’s story. He jumped to the conclusion that Great Zimbabwe had been built by the Queen of Sheba. British authorities sent a British journalist, Richard Hall, to Great Zimbabwe to investigate Mauch’s report. Archaeology was still in its infancy, and Hall, convinced that the structures had been built by ancient people from the Middle East, dug up and discarded archaeological deposits that would have revealed much about the true history of Great Zimbabwe. Later European excavations destroyed even more valuable evidence.

In the twentieth century, after excavating areas that had not been disturbed, David Randall-MacIver, a Scottish Egyptologist, and Gertrude Caton-Thompson, an English archaeologist, concluded that the ruins were unmistakably African in origin. Great Zimbabwe was most likely built during the fourteenth or fifteenth century by the ancestors of the present-day Shona people. Recent carbon-14 dating supports their conclusion. Great Zimbabwe was once home to an estimated 20,000 people, the center of a great Shona kingdom. Wealthy Shona kings traded their ivory and gold in coastal towns for other goods, thus accounting for the discovery of beads and other foreign wares in the ruins.

One mystery of Great Zimbabwe had been solved. Another mystery remains: why was the settlement at Great Zimbabwe abandoned, leaving the magnificent stone architecture to fall into ruins?

Question

What was “one mystery of Great Zimbabwe” (paragraph 6) that had been solved?

  • Awhy the settlement was abandoned
  • Bwhere the ivory and gold from the city went
  • Cwhy the ruins remained undiscovered until the 1870s
  • Dwho had built the settlement
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The answer is (D)

The question asks for the specific conclusion that was able to be drawn from the excavations at Great Zimbabwe.

Option D is the correct answer because paragraph 5 states that carbon-14 dating supports Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson’s conclusion that Great Zimbabwe was built by ancestors of the Shona people during the fourteenth or fifteenth century.

Option A is incorrect because the mystery behind “why the settlement was abandoned” has not been solved.

Option B is incorrect because the passage never presents the city’s ivory and gold as a mystery; paragraph 5 simply states that Shona kings traded them in coastal towns for other goods.

Option C is incorrect because the reason that Europeans did not discover Great Zimbabwe until the 1870s has not been explained.

Question analysis

This question asks students to identify the “one mystery of Great Zimbabwe” that the final paragraph calls solved. Students need to connect the final paragraph with the findings described before it, keeping track of which questions the passage answers and which it leaves open.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Matching a phrase to the fact it refers to is a short, routine task, easier than most grade 7 reading questions. The only demand is linking the last paragraph back to earlier ones rather than reading it alone.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 524 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 39 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate statement in the explanation was corrected.
  • An overstatement of the passage in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The final paragraph names two mysteries in back-to-back sentences, one solved and one open, but only spells out the open one. Students have to look back to the excavations and carbon dating in paragraph 5 to see which question was answered. Rushing produces the most common wrong pick, the abandonment question, because its words sit right beside the phrase the stem quotes.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    “One mystery” points back to paragraph 1's question “who had built it?” and to paragraph 5's finding, so the answer lies outside the paragraph the stem cites. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, find the paragraph that reports what excavation and carbon dating showed, note which question it settles, and compare that with each choice.

Traps

  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook rejects choice B because “the disappearance of the city’s ivory and gold is a mystery that has not been solved.” The passage presents no such mystery: paragraph 5 says Shona kings traded their ivory and gold in coastal towns for other goods. The explanation now says the passage never presents the ivory and gold as a mystery.
  • Explanation: The handbook says paragraph 5 states that carbon-14 dating “proved” Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson’s conclusion. The passage says only that recent carbon-14 dating “supports their conclusion,” so the explanation now says “supports”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks you to find a key detail. Paragraph 6 says one mystery was solved, but it doesn’t say which one. You have to look back to find it.

  2. Find the mystery and its answer

    Paragraph 1 asks: “Where was this remarkable city, and who had built it?”

    Paragraph 5 answers part of that. Scientists concluded “that the ruins were unmistakably African in origin.” The city was built “by the ancestors of the present-day Shona people.” Carbon-14 dating, a lab test that tells how old something is, supports this.

  3. Match it to paragraph 6

    Paragraph 6 says: “One mystery of Great Zimbabwe had been solved.” The solved mystery is the one paragraph 5 answers: who built the city. The next sentence starts, “Another mystery remains.” That one, why people left, is still open.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is the mystery that “remains,” so it is not solved.
    • B The passage tells where the ivory and gold went, but never calls it a mystery.
    • C The passage never explains why Europeans didn’t see the ruins until the 1870s.
    • D fits. Paragraph 5 shows who built it.

  5. Choose the answer

    The mystery that had been solved is who built Great Zimbabwe: the ancestors of the Shona. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

Watch out for A. Its words sit right next to the quoted phrase in paragraph 6, so it is easy to grab. But that sentence says “Another mystery remains,” which means it is still open. Only D is a question the passage actually answers.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 39 as printed on page 69 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 69, question 39. Open page 69 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Ruins of a Fabled City” as printed (page 68)The passage “Ruins of a Fabled City” as printed on page 68 of the DOE handbook.

Question 95 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 51
Passage The Year without a Summer

The Year without a Summer

The eruption of the Philippine volcano Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 sent a huge cloud of gas and dust encircling the globe. The dust and ash from Mount Pinatubo was blamed for a two-year decrease in global temperature, changes in weather patterns, and damage to the ozone layer. The situation brings to mind a time now remembered as “The Year without a Summer,” a meteorological event that occurred 175 years earlier. At that time, harsh weather conditions plagued much of eastern North America and, to a lesser extent, northern Europe.

April 1816 brought typical spring weather to upstate New York and New England; trees budded, and farmers prepared to plow and plant. In May, however, the expected warm temperatures failed to arrive. Most people remained optimistic, waiting for the summer that was “just around the corner.” They waited in vain. During the first week of June, ten inches of snow fell on New England. Throughout the month, temperatures rarely rose above the 30s. Many farmers replanted crops several times, only to see them stunted or destroyed by sleet, hail, and icy winds. July and August brought little improvement. During most days the temperature stayed in the 40s. Farmers’ diaries document the farmers’ daily struggles with near-freezing temperatures, failing crops, and dying farm animals. The few crops that managed to survive were killed by frost in mid-September. Winter came early in New England and was unusually severe. Even the South was affected; on July 4, the high temperature for Savannah, Georgia, was only 46 degrees Fahrenheit!

Some religious leaders warned their congregations that the unusual weather meant that the end of the world was drawing near. Other leaders attributed the cool weather to unusual sunspot activity. The proliferation of the newly invented lightning rod was also blamed as some people believed that lightning rods had interrupted the natural temperature balance of Earth, causing the cooler temperatures.

It was not until October that the first plausible explanation for “The Year without a Summer” was suggested. Friedrich Bessel, a German astronomer, reported seeing thick clouds of dust in the upper atmosphere. He theorized that these dust particles screened portions of Earth from the warming rays of the sun. It was discovered that in April 1815, Mount Tambora, an Indonesian volcano, had erupted with such force that it had sent an estimated 100 cubic miles of fine dust into the atmosphere. Witnesses to the eruption reported that the sky remained dark for two days. The dust then rose high into the stratosphere, where it encircled the world for several years to come.

Skeptics in 1816 doubted that a faraway volcano could steal their summer. However, most present-day researchers believe Bessel’s explanation to be generally correct, demonstrating the global nature of weather. The dust in the atmosphere eventually settled, and the spring of 1817 was back to normal.

Question

Which of the following best tells what this passage is about?

  • Athe belief of some religious leaders that the end of the world was coming in 1816
  • Ba summer of strange weather and its probable cause
  • Cthe importance of summer weather to agriculture in New England
  • Da comparison of the weather of 1816 and 1991
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The answer is (B)

The question asks for the best summary sentence for the passage. The passage is mostly about the strange, cold summer of 1816 and speculation around its cause, which is best stated in Option B.

Option A is incorrect because it is a detail in paragraph 3 about one theory regarding the cause of the weather.

Option C is incorrect because the passage is about more than agriculture in New England (paragraphs 1 and 2).

Option D is incorrect because it is a detail in the passage mentioned only in paragraph 1.

Question analysis

This central idea question asks students to choose the best summary of “The Year without a Summer,” a short informational passage about weather history. The passage brings in several groups of people and more than one time period, and the right summary has to cover all of it.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Summarizing a short, clearly organized informational passage is a grade 6 skill. The text is plain and the choices are short, so the demand is lower than most grade 7 central idea work.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 469 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 52 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The passage is short and plainly organized, and the key names its two halves, the cold summer and its cause. The wrong choices each enlarge one detail into the whole: the 1991 eruption that opens the passage, the farmers' struggles, the religious warnings. Students most likely to slip are those who let the first paragraph's Mount Pinatubo set the topic.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The strange weather fills paragraph 2, but its probable cause arrives only in paragraphs 4 and 5, so a summary must reach the end to cover both halves. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, sum up the passage in a sentence of your own, then pick the choice closest to it in scope and meaning.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what the whole passage is about. The right answer must cover the full passage, not just one detail.

  2. Note what each paragraph does

    • Paragraph 1: A volcano in 1991 brings to mind “The Year without a Summer.”
    • Paragraph 2: In 1816, snow and frost hit New England all summer.
    • Paragraph 3: People at the time guessed at the cause.
    • Paragraph 4: Bessel blamed dust from a volcano.
    • Paragraph 5: Scientists today agree with him.

  3. See the two halves

    The passage has two halves. First it describes the strange, cold summer of 1816. Then it explains the likely cause: dust from Mount Tambora. A good summary needs both parts. “Probable” means likely.

  4. Check each choice

    • A The end-of-the-world warning is one guess in paragraph 3.
    • B fits. It covers the strange summer and its likely cause.
    • C Farming comes up in paragraph 2, but the passage is about the weather and its cause.
    • D 1991 is mentioned only to start the passage. The two years’ weather is never compared.

  5. Choose the answer

    The passage tells about a summer of strange weather and what probably caused it. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is a trap if you let the first paragraph decide the topic. Mount Pinatubo in 1991 only leads into the 1816 story. Paragraphs 2 to 5 are all about 1816. B covers all of that, so it fits best.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 51 as printed on page 76 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 76, question 51. Open page 76 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “The Year without a Summer” as printed (page 76)The passage “The Year without a Summer” as printed on page 76 of the DOE handbook.

Question 96 of 112

2018 Test A English, question 56

Uses the passage above: “The Year without a Summer”.

Question

Which of the following is implied by the phrase “the global nature of weather” (paragraph 5)?

  • AUnderstanding weather events around the world is important for making weather predictions.
  • BExtreme weather conditions in some parts of the world can have a lasting impact on a geographical area.
  • CNatural disasters tend to occur in different parts of the world at the same time.
  • DConditions in one part of the world can affect weather in another part of the world.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The answer is (D)

The question asks for the implied meaning behind the phrase “the global nature of weather” (paragraph 5). This phrase refers to how conditions in one part of the world can affect weather in another part of the world.

Option D is correct because it clarifies “global” by explaining the relationship between weather and conditions all over the world. Option A is incorrect because the phrase in paragraph 5 is about the effects of weather conditions around the world, not about making weather predictions.

Option B is incorrect because it discusses the lasting impact on specific geographical areas, while the phrase “the global nature of weather” refers to events that affect the entire world.

Option C is incorrect because, while weather events (the unusually cold summer in New England in 1816) can be related to natural disasters (a volcano eruption), there is no support in the passage for the idea that natural disasters tend to occur at the same time.

Question analysis

This question about word meaning in context asks what the phrase “the global nature of weather” implies in the final paragraph of “The Year without a Summer.” Students have to work out its meaning from the events the passage has described, not from a general sense of the word “global.”

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L4a context clues
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Determining a phrase's meaning from context is standard grade 7 work. The phrase draws on the passage's main explanation, which is clearly laid out, so the demand is typical for grade 7.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 469 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 76 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

“Global” alone suggests anything worldwide, and the wrong choices offer several worldwide-sounding ideas: forecasting, lasting local damage, simultaneous disasters. The phrase means something narrower, that what happens in one place can change the weather far away, as Tambora did to New England. Students who read the phrase in its sentence, where it is what Bessel's explanation demonstrates, find the key; those who define the word in isolation do not.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The phrase must be read through the example the passage just gave: an Indonesian volcano filled the stratosphere with dust and New England lost its summer. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The meaning depends on facts from paragraph 4, Tambora's location and its dust circling the world, and from paragraph 2, snow in New England, not on paragraph 5 alone. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer

    B and D are worded almost alike, conditions in some part of the world affecting somewhere; they differ in what is affected, since B makes it a lasting impact on one area rather than weather elsewhere. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

Strategy: Reread the sentence with the phrase and the paragraph before it, ask what Bessel's explanation demonstrated, and choose the paraphrase that fits that example.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what a phrase implies, or hints at. Read the phrase in its sentence, not by itself.

  2. Read the phrase in its sentence

    Paragraph 5 says researchers “believe Bessel’s explanation to be generally correct, demonstrating the global nature of weather.”

    So Bessel’s explanation is the example. Recall it. In 1815, a volcano in Indonesia erupted. Its dust spread around the world. In 1816, New England had snow in June.

  3. Work out what it means

    Global means having to do with the whole world. Indonesia is in Asia, very far from New England. Yet the eruption there changed the weather in America. So the phrase means that something in one part of the world can change the weather in a faraway part.

  4. Check each choice

    • A The passage never talks about predicting weather.
    • B It keeps the effects in one area. The point here is that effects travel far.
    • C The two eruptions in the passage were 176 years apart. Nothing says disasters strike at the same time.
    • D fits. Conditions in Indonesia changed the weather in New England.

  5. Choose the answer

    The phrase means events in one place can change the weather far away. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest trap, because it also says extreme conditions have effects. But B keeps those effects in one area. The passage’s example crosses the world: dust from Indonesia chilled New England. D names that link between faraway places.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 56 as printed on page 78 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 78, question 56. Open page 78 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 97 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 5
Passage The Local Library

The Local Library

(1) According to a 2015 survey, more than two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, which means that obtaining information or communicating with people is easier than ever before. (2) With the swipe of a finger, the tap of an icon, or a verbal command, people have instant access to articles, blogs, news, and social networking websites. (3) Even with all these immediately available sources of information, one of the best resources for many members of the community also happens to be one of the oldest. (4) The public library is a great place for people to get information.

(5) The public library serves a truly critical role in promoting community. (6) With the explosion of digital media in recent years, people in different locations can now communicate almost instantaneously. (7) And yet many people complain of feeling more isolated and alone than ever before. (8) The library stands in a rare position to help community members meet this universal need for human connection and companionship.

(9) Furthermore, libraries provide certain amenities, such as access to the Internet, for free to all people. (10) A student who does not have a computer at home can research and type a paper for school. (11) Similarly, an unemployed adult without access to the Internet can make use of library resources to find job opportunities. (12) The free items that are found at the library can help people get a lot done.

(13) Public libraries also offer a variety of resources to community members. (14) One important resource is the local librarian, who does far more than check out books and collect fines. (15) Other library resources include free or low-cost tutoring and training programs. (16) Additionally, lectures, book groups, and town meetings promote critical thinking and community engagement. (17) A typical librarian holds a master’s degree and can help library patrons navigate through the flood of information available in print and on the Internet.

(18) The hallmark of a public library is that its materials and services are accessible to all. (19) The library connects people to a network of information and resources and is an important part of a community.

Question

Which sentence should replace sentence 4 to best introduce the main claim of the passage?

  • AIn this age of smartphones and search engines, the public library is a valuable resource that all members of a community should use.
  • BFinding information is easier than ever, but going to the public library is still a valuable learning experience.
  • CThough today’s computers are highly advanced, the resources available at a public library are more useful for students.
  • DDespite the proliferation of social networking sites, a public library is a great place for people who are interested in improving their community.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for a sentence that should replace sentence 4 to introduce the main claim of the passage.

Option A is correct because it best presents the main claim that the public library is a valuable resource and should be used by community members.

Option B is incorrect because it states that going to the library can be a learning experience. This idea is implied in sentences 17 and 18, but it is not the main claim of the passage.

Option C is incorrect because it states the idea that the library is useful for students, which would be supporting evidence rather than an introductory statement expressing the main claim.

Option D is incorrect because it states that local libraries provide services to help improve communities, which is explained in sentences 15–18, but it does not present the main claim.

Question analysis

This introduction question uses a persuasive essay about public libraries that opens with statistics on smartphone ownership. Students choose a new fourth sentence that states the passage’s main claim. Every option contrasts technology with libraries, so the challenge is telling the overall argument apart from single supporting points.

NYS standards
  • 7W1a introducing claims and counterclaims
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 writers learn to state a precise claim; here students must find the claim behind a whole five-paragraph essay and test each candidate opener against all of its reasons, not just one paragraph.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 341 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 96 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The risk here is settling for a true point from the essay instead of its overall claim. Every opener sets technology against the library, so the contrast itself decides nothing; what decides is whether the library is presented as a resource for the whole community or as a benefit to one group. Students who state the claim in their own words before reading the choices avoid the near-copy that narrows it to learning.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The main claim is never stated in one place: it has to be pieced together from paragraphs on human connection, free Internet access, librarians and tutoring, and access for all, ending with “an important part of a community.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The learning-experience opener has the right one’s shape, a nod to technology and then “valuable,” and differs in one part of the claim: “a valuable learning experience” instead of “a valuable resource that all members of a community should use.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    Sentence 3 builds up to an unnamed “one of the best resources,” so the new sentence 4 must name the library as that resource and say why everyone should use it. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, sum up in your own words what the essay wants readers to believe about the library, drawing on every paragraph, then find the opener that matches it.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a new sentence 4. Sentence 4 ends the first paragraph, so it should state the main claim. A claim is the big point a writer tries to prove. Here it must fit the whole essay.

  2. Sum up what the essay argues

    Look at what each paragraph says about the library.

    • Paragraph 2: it helps people meet the “need for human connection and companionship.”
    • Paragraph 3: it offers things like “access to the Internet, for free to all people.”
    • Paragraph 4: it offers librarians, tutoring, lectures and book groups.
    • Paragraph 5: it is “an important part of a community.”

    So the claim is this: the library is a valuable resource that everyone in the community should use.

  3. See how sentence 4 must fit

    Sentence 1 talks about smartphones. Sentence 3 says that “one of the best resources” is also “one of the oldest.” Sentence 4 should name that old resource, the library. It should also say why everyone should use it.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. It links back to the smartphones. It calls the library “a valuable resource that all members of a community should use.” That is the whole claim.
    • B is wrong. It shrinks the claim to learning. It leaves out the free services and the human connection.
    • C is wrong. It talks only about students. It also says the library beats computers, which the essay never says. The library even offers the Internet.
    • D is wrong. It talks only about people who want to improve their community. It keeps the vague words “a great place.”

    Watch out: B repeats “easier than ever” from sentence 1, so it sounds like it belongs. But it covers only one benefit.

  5. Choose the answer

    A names the library, calls it valuable and tells everyone to use it. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer. It also starts with how easy it is to find information today, and it calls the library valuable. But it calls the library “a valuable learning experience.” The essay argues for much more than learning: free Internet, librarians, programs and a place to meet people. A covers all of that.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 5 as printed on page 121 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 121, question 5. Open page 121 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “The Local Library” as printed (page 120)The passage “The Local Library” as printed on page 120 of the DOE handbook.

Question 98 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 9

Uses the passage above: “The Local Library”.

Question

Which concluding sentence should be added after sentence 19 to support the argument presented in the passage?

  • ATherefore, patrons of the public library can grow in both their social life and their level of community engagement.
  • BClearly, it is in the best interest of community members to maintain, support, and use their public library.
  • CAfter all, the public library has been a part of American communities since the first library was founded in 1833.
  • DIn fact, community leaders must work together to find ways to generate more involvement in events at the public library.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for a concluding sentence that would follow sentence 19 and support the argument presented in the passage.

Option B is correct because it logically follows sentence 19 and supports the argument that the public library facilitates connections within a community and provides valuable services—some at no cost—by urging community members to use, maintain, and support their local public library.

Option A is incorrect because it does not provide a logical conclusion that fully supports the argument in the passage; the sentence addresses only one benefit of having a public library, ignoring the valuable services and resources it provides.

Option C is incorrect because it presents the idea that the library has been in existence since 1833, which does not logically provide a conclusion for the passage or support the argument developed in the passage.

Option D is incorrect because it presents a new claim—community leaders must work together to support library events—instead of a conclusion that supports the argument presented in the passage.

Question analysis

This conclusion question asks which sentence should be added after the library essay’s last line. Students choose a closing statement that best supports the argument as a whole. Several endings sound final, so the challenge is judging which one fits the complete argument rather than one part of it.

NYS standards
  • 7W1e concluding an argument
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Writing a conclusion that explains an argument’s significance is a grade 7 standard. This item asks students to recognize one rather than write it, but they must keep the essay’s full argument in mind to judge which closing sentence fits best.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 341 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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

All four endings open with a word that sounds conclusive, “Therefore,” “Clearly,” “After all” or “In fact,” so the opening word is no guide. Students lose the point when they accept a closing line that is true to one part of the essay, or one that introduces something new such as a date or a task for community leaders. The right ending turns the essay’s reasons into a call to keep using and supporting the library.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    To judge whether an ending covers the whole argument, students must recall that the free Internet access and the tutoring sit in paragraphs 3 and 4, far from the last sentence. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. How sentences fit together minor Working it out

    Sentence 19 already calls the library “an important part of a community,” so the added line has to build on it, moving from praise to what readers should do. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Jot down the essay’s main reasons in a phrase each, then choose the ending that ties them together without bringing in a new fact or a new claim.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need a concluding sentence: a last sentence that wraps up the argument. A good conclusion pulls the main points together. It does not bring in a new fact or a new claim.

  2. List the essay’s main reasons

    • The library helps people connect with others (paragraph 2).
    • It gives free things, like Internet access (paragraph 3).
    • It offers librarians, tutoring and lectures (paragraph 4).
    • It is open to all and is “an important part of a community” (paragraph 5).

    All of these support one claim: people should value and use their library.

  3. Decide what the ending should do

    Sentence 19 already says the library “connects people to a network of information and resources.” The new last sentence should build on that. It can tell readers what to do, now that they know the reasons. This kind of ending is called a call to action.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It covers only social life and community involvement. It leaves out the free services and resources.
    • B is right. It tells community members to “maintain, support, and use” the library. That fits every reason in the essay.
    • C is wrong. The year 1833 is a new fact that the essay never mentions. It proves nothing about the library’s value.
    • D is wrong. It makes a new claim about what community leaders must do.

    Watch out: A starts with “Therefore,” so it sounds like a conclusion. But it sums up only part of the argument.

  5. Choose the answer

    B ties all the reasons together and tells readers what to do. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. It sounds like an ending and repeats ideas from the essay. But it names only the social side of the library. B covers the whole argument: because the library does all these things, people should keep it going and use it.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 9 as printed on page 122 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 122, question 9. Open page 122 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 99 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 11
Passage The Tunguska Fireball

The Tunguska Fireball

On June 30, 1908, an enormous fireball shot across the sky and exploded high above the remote Tunguska River Valley in the Siberian region of Russia. Twenty miles away, huts were flattened and people were flung into the air. Villagers 40 miles away felt the heat and heard explosions, and tremors were recorded at a German seismic station more than 3,000 miles away.

What caused the intense light and the horrendous destruction of the Tunguska Fireball, as it came to be called? Scientists and laypeople have debated the question for over 100 years. Not until 1927 did a scientific expedition, led by Russian scientist Leonid Kulik, reach the remote site. Kulik discovered a vast region of scorched and downed trees, their trunks pointing away from the center of the blast. Convinced that a meteorite was responsible, Kulik searched for evidence—a crater, a buried meteorite, even fragments of the exploded mass. He never found it.

Other scientists, amateur astronomers, and the public suggested alternative theories of what had happened. Some thought it was an earthquake. Perhaps, others said, a black hole—a theoretical object in space where gravity is so strong that even light cannot get out—had collided with Earth or an alien spaceship carrying nuclear material had crashed.

For many years Russian scientists believed that the Tunguska Fireball was a comet—a cluster of dust and frozen gases—that had exploded a few hundred feet above the ground. They pointed to the lack of meteoric evidence and the June 30 date, a time of year when Earth was passing through cometary debris. Other scientists disagreed, arguing that a comet would have burned quickly in Earth’s atmosphere and could not have created such a blast.

Many Western scientists believed that a meteorite was responsible, despite the lack of evidence. The pattern of fallen trees suggested that they were knocked down by a blast about 4 miles above the ground with an energy of 15 megatons of TNT, consistent with a meteoric blast. Yet repeated searches of the surrounding forest and wetlands revealed no evidence of a meteorite.

During the 1990s an Italian physicist named Menotti Galli became interested. Galli had previously investigated whether particles from outer space can add carbon atoms to the cellulose in trees. Perhaps the trees at the Tunguska site hid evidence of such extraterrestrial material. Galli and his colleagues traveled to the site by helicopter to gather core samples from spruce trees that had lived through the blast. They analyzed the particles trapped in the trees’ resin, and the results were remarkable. Based on studying the trees’ rings during the time period when the Tunguska Fireball occurred, the researchers found that the resin contained high levels of high-proton elements, such as copper, gold, and nickel. In fact, it contained ten times more such particles than resin dating from either before or after that time period. Some previously discovered meteorites had also contained elevated levels of these elements, suggesting that the particles had an extra-earthly origin. But then where is the crater? Is it nearby Lake Cheko, as some claim? Or was the meteorite reduced to dust in the atmosphere? Can scientists rule out a comet carrying those elements? The mystery remains unsolved.

Question

The June 30 date of the Tunguska event was significant to some scientists because it

  • Asuggested that the explosion may have been caused by a comet.
  • Bhighlighted why tree resin from the time of the blast contained high-proton elements.
  • Cindicated that the blast may have resulted from Earth’s impact with a black hole.
  • Dexplained why debris from outer space would have burned up in the atmosphere.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks why the June 30 date bears significance to some scientists. Scientists noted that Earth was passing through cometary debris on June 30, 1908 (paragraph 4), which supports the idea stated in Option A, making it the correct response.

Option B is incorrect because, while it states a detail from the passage, the detail is not connected to the June 30 date.

Option C is incorrect because it states a theory regarding the cause of the impact that is not tied to the date of June 30.

Option D is incorrect because this detail is used in the passage to suggest that such a blast could not have been caused by a comet.

Question analysis

This key-details question from the Tunguska Fireball article asks why the date of the 1908 explosion mattered to some scientists. Students must find where the passage connects the date to a theory about the blast. Several choices borrow real details from elsewhere in the article, which makes careless matching easy.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Locating a stated reason in one paragraph is lighter than most grade 7 reading tasks, which ask students to analyze or infer. Here the date is linked to its explanation in a single sentence, and the main work is finding it.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 531 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 65 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This is a locate-and-read question: once the second mention of June 30 is found in paragraph 4, the link to cometary debris is stated plainly. The only real trap sits in the same paragraph, where the next sentence brings in a comet burning up in the atmosphere. Students who read one sentence too far can attach the date to the objection instead of the theory.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    June 30 first appears in paragraph 1 only as the date of the blast; its significance comes three paragraphs later, inside the Russian scientists’ case for a comet. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The sentence says only that the scientists “pointed to” the date, and students must connect that back to the comet theory stated one sentence earlier. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Skip past the opening, scan for the next mention of June 30, and read that whole sentence to see what the scientists used the date to support.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the date June 30 mattered to some scientists. Find where the passage uses the date as a clue, and see what it was a clue for.

  2. Find the date in paragraph 4

    Paragraph 4 begins: “For many years Russian scientists believed that the Tunguska Fireball was a comet.” The next sentence says they “pointed to the lack of meteoric evidence and the June 30 date, a time of year when Earth was passing through cometary debris.”

  3. Put the clue in plain words

    A comet is “a cluster of dust and frozen gases” that moves through space. “Cometary debris” means bits left behind by comets. Around June 30, Earth passes through those bits. So the scientists said the date fits a comet. The date was a clue for the comet idea.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The date suggested that the blast came from a comet.
    • B is wrong. The tree resin comes from Galli’s work in paragraph 6. It has nothing to do with the date.
    • C is wrong. The black hole idea in paragraph 3 is never linked to the date.
    • D is wrong. Other scientists said a comet “would have burned quickly.” That argues against the comet. It does not explain the date.

    Watch out: D comes from the very next sentence, so it is easy to mix up. But that sentence argues against the comet, and it is not about the date.

  5. Choose the answer

    The Russian scientists used the date to support the comet idea. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, since it comes from the same paragraph. But the burning-up point is what other scientists used against the comet idea. The date was used for it. A matches what the Russian scientists “pointed to”: Earth was passing through comet bits on June 30.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 11 as printed on page 125 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 125, question 11. Open page 125 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “The Tunguska Fireball” as printed (page 124)The passage “The Tunguska Fireball” as printed on page 124 of the DOE handbook.

Question 100 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 13

Uses the passage above: “The Tunguska Fireball”.

Question

Based on the passage, what is the most likely reason it took nineteen years from the date of the explosion before scientists first visited the Tunguska site?

  • AThe scientists feared radioactivity from a nuclear explosion.
  • BThe site was far from civilization and difficult to reach.
  • CScientists hoped to establish a cause before exploring the site.
  • DCraters from the explosion hampered travel to the area.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the most likely reason it was difficult for scientists to discover the site of the Tunguska explosion. Paragraph 2 notes that the site of the blast was very “remote,” as stated in Option B.

Option A is incorrect because, although one theory in paragraph 3 involves an alien spaceship carrying nuclear material, the passage never suggests that scientists feared radioactivity or stayed away from the site because of it.

Option C is incorrect because, even before visiting the site, scientists debated possible causes of the explosion (paragraphs 2–3).

Option D is incorrect because the passage states in paragraph 2 that no evidence of a crater, or craters, was ever found.

Question analysis

This inference question asks why nineteen years passed between the 1908 Tunguska explosion and the first scientific expedition to the site. The passage never states the reason outright, so students must work it out from clues in the article. Reasons that sound sensible but rest on nothing in the text are the main trap.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Making a logical inference from stated details is core grade 7 reading, and this one sits squarely at that level. Students connect a few details and set aside reasons that sound sensible but lack support in the text.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 531 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 64 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A statement in the explanation that the passage 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

Because the reason is never stated, the wrong choices are all reasons a reader could invent: fear of radiation, a wish to settle the cause first, craters in the way. The question rewards checking each invented reason against the text, where the craters are ruled out outright and the other two have no support. The word “remote,” used twice, is the only real evidence, and the right choice rewords it.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    No sentence explains the 19-year wait; students must connect “the remote Tunguska River Valley” in paragraph 1 with “reach the remote site” in paragraph 2 and conclude the place was hard to get to. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice never uses the passage’s key word “remote,” spelling it out as “far from civilization and difficult to reach,” so a word-matching student may not recognize it. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The stem’s “nineteen years” appears nowhere in the passage; students must link 1908 in paragraph 1 to “Not until 1927” in paragraph 2 to find the sentence that matters. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Test each reason against the passage: keep it only if a word or detail in the text backs it up, and drop any that the text contradicts or never mentions.

Traps

  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook rejects Option A because none of the explanations in the passage “suggest a nuclear explosion or radioactivity,” but paragraph 3 mentions “an alien spaceship carrying nuclear material.” The site now says that, although that theory involves nuclear material, the passage never suggests scientists feared radioactivity or stayed away from the site because of it, so Option A is still wrong.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks you to make an inference: a smart guess based on clues in the passage. Why did it take nineteen years for scientists to reach the blast site?

  2. Find the dates and the clue word

    The blast happened in 1908 (paragraph 1). Paragraph 2 says: “Not until 1927 did a scientific expedition, led by Russian scientist Leonid Kulik, reach the remote site.” From 1908 to 1927 is 19 years. Paragraph 1 also calls the place “the remote Tunguska River Valley.”

  3. Figure out what remote means

    “Remote” means far away from towns, roads and people. A remote place is hard to get to. The word “reach” hints that getting there was the hard part. Even in the 1990s, Galli’s team traveled “to the site by helicopter.”

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The passage mentions “nuclear material” only in one wild guess. It never says anyone feared it.
    • B is right. It spells out what “remote” means: far away and hard to reach.
    • C is wrong. Nothing says scientists waited to find the cause first. Going to the site was a way to find it.
    • D is wrong. No crater was ever found, so craters could not block the way.

    Watch out: C sounds sensible, because people argued about the cause for years. But the passage never links that argument to the wait.

  5. Choose the answer

    The site was far from everything and hard to get to. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because the passage does mention a long debate about the cause. But no sentence says scientists stayed away to settle the cause first. The word “remote” appears twice, in paragraphs 1 and 2. It points straight to B.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 13 as printed on page 125 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 125, question 13. Open page 125 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 101 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 15

Uses the passage above: “The Tunguska Fireball”.

Question

The author includes a series of questions at the end of the last paragraph most likely to

  • Aencourage further study of the Tunguska event.
  • Bsuggest that the Tunguska event had multiple causes.
  • Creflect a personal curiosity about the Tunguska event.
  • Demphasize that the Tunguska event has not yet been fully explained.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the questions at the end of the last paragraph affect the passage. Although the passage introduces a number of theories about the Tunguska explosion, no definitive explanation has been reached. This idea is stated in Option D.

Option A is incorrect because, although the passage does not discourage further study, it does not specifically promote it.

Option B is incorrect because, although the author presents multiple possible causes, the passage suggests that the damage was most likely caused by one of these possibilities rather than several of them simultaneously. The author is certainly curious about the actual cause of the Tunguska explosion but objectively presents the questions about it that remain unanswered, making Option C incorrect.

Question analysis

This author’s-craft question asks why the Tunguska article ends its last paragraph with a string of questions. Students must decide what purpose the questions serve in a passage that presents several competing theories. Each choice offers a reasonable-sounding motive, so students must judge which one the passage as a whole supports.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining why an author uses a device such as rhetorical questions is grade 7 structure work. Students must infer purpose from the ending’s context, and some wrong choices name purposes that sound natural for questions in general.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 531 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 51 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A misspelled place name in the passage was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

All four purposes sound like reasons a writer might end with questions, so the work is in matching the purpose to this article’s stance. It has laid out competing theories without choosing one, and the questions keep that balance before the flat statement that the mystery is unsolved. Students lose the point by reading the questions as a call to action, a personal voice, or a claim that several causes acted together.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    Students must name what four closing questions do, and the clue is the short sentence right after them, “The mystery remains unsolved,” which the questions lead up to. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The questions revisit theories from across the article, the missing crater, the meteorite, the comet, so seeing that none has won means recalling paragraphs 2 through 5. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Reread the whole last paragraph, then decide what closing on a string of questions does for the reader of this science article.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • 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

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Passage: The handbook’s passage asks, “Is it nearby Lake Cheka, as some claim?” The lake near the Tunguska blast site that some scientists have proposed as the crater is Lake Cheko, so the site now spells it that way. No answer depends on the spelling.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the author ends with a string of questions. You need their purpose: what the questions do for the reader.

  2. Read the end of paragraph 6

    The passage ends: “But then where is the crater? Is it nearby Lake Cheko, as some claim? Or was the meteorite reduced to dust in the atmosphere? Can scientists rule out a comet carrying those elements? The mystery remains unsolved.”

  3. Work out what the questions do

    Each question goes back to an idea from earlier: the missing crater, the meteorite, the comet. None of them has a sure answer. Right after the questions, the author says it plainly: “The mystery remains unsolved.” So the questions stress that no one knows for sure what happened.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The author never asks readers or scientists to study the event more.
    • B is wrong. The questions list different possible causes. They compete with each other. They are not causes that worked together.
    • C is wrong. The author reports facts and never says “I” or shares feelings.
    • D is right. The questions show the event is still not fully explained.

    Watch out: Questions can sound like a call for more research. But nothing in the passage tells anyone to study more.

  5. Choose the answer

    The questions remind you that every idea is still in doubt. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. Open questions might make a reader want more research. But the passage never urges anyone to study the event. The questions lead straight into “The mystery remains unsolved.” That sentence tells you their purpose.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 15 as printed on page 126 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 126, question 15. Open page 126 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 102 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 18
Passage 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 cinders1^1, 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.

1^1cinders: 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.

Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.

How does the sentence contribute to the development of the plot?

  • AIt shows how Margaret’s reliance on the guidance of others leads to the external conflict she faces.
  • BIt reveals how Margaret’s concern about the opinions of others causes the external conflict she faces.
  • CIt highlights how Margaret’s indecision results in the external conflict being prolonged.
  • DIt illustrates how Margaret’s confusion makes it difficult for her to fully understand the external conflict.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which sentence correctly explains the connection between the sentence from paragraph 4 and the overall plot of the excerpt. The train’s need to stop for water is not evident to Margaret, which causes the external conflict. The sentence from paragraph 4 reveals how Margaret’s confusion over her best course of action prevents her from recognizing the nature of the external conflict; therefore, Option D is correct.

Option A is incorrect because Margaret’s reliance on others is not demonstrated in the sentence, and her reliance on others does not contribute to the external conflict.

Option B is incorrect because her concern for the opinion of others is not the main cause for her external conflict.

Option C is incorrect because Margaret’s indecision has no effect on the cause of the conflict.

Question analysis

This plot-development question quotes one sentence from A Voice in the Wilderness in which Margaret worries the train will carry her off and the conductor will think her a fool. Students explain how that sentence connects her state of mind to the story’s external conflict. Every choice links a believable trait to the conflict, which makes this one of the trickier questions on the excerpt.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 plot questions usually link one event to its result. This one asks how a single sentence of Margaret’s private worry bears on the external conflict, which students must first pin down using the whole excerpt.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 101 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This is one of the hardest questions on the excerpt because every choice is half plausible: Margaret does want the conductor, does fear being called a fool, and does waver. The decisive half is the second one, what the trait does to the conflict, and judging it requires knowing the conflict is a water stop she mistook for a station. Students who check only the first half will usually choose the worry about others’ opinions.

  1. Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer

    Every choice pairs a trait, reliance, worry about opinion, indecision or confusion, with an effect on the conflict, so each must be tested twice: is the trait in the sentence, and does it do that? (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The indecision choice is nearly the right one: “indecision” and “confusion” name almost the same state in paragraph 4, so only the effect, prolonging the conflict versus making it hard to understand, separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question

    The sentence is old-fashioned and elliptical: “he justly blame her for a fool” silently shares the “might” of “she might be carried on,” which makes its meaning hard to parse. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  4. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The nature of the external conflict, a stop to water the engine rather than a station, is revealed only in the excerpt’s last paragraph, far from paragraph 4. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  5. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The choices rely on the literary term “external conflict,” and students unsure what it means cannot judge how a thought in Margaret’s head relates to it. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Check each choice in two halves: is the trait really shown in this sentence, and does that trait truly cause or change the trouble Margaret ends up in?

Traps

  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how one sentence helps build the plot, the events of the story. The choices use the term external conflict: a problem between a character and something outside her. Margaret’s problem is that she got off where there is no station, and the train leaves her behind.

  2. Read the sentence in plain words

    The sentence is: “Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.” In plain words: If the train leaves with me still on it, I might miss my stop. Then the conductor could rightly call me foolish.

  3. See where it fits in paragraph 4

    Just before, she thinks “Perhaps she ought not to have got out” and “Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet.” Her thoughts go back and forth. She cannot tell whether she is at her station or not. She is confused.

  4. Learn what is really happening

    At the end of the excerpt, she learns the truth. She “had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.” Because she is confused, she worries about the wrong danger. She fears being carried too far. The real danger is being left behind.

  5. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The sentence doesn’t show her depending on others, and that is not what strands her.
    • B is wrong. She does worry about being called a fool. But that worry doesn’t cause her problem. The water stop does.
    • C is wrong. Her back-and-forth doesn’t make the problem last longer. The trouble comes when the train pulls away.
    • D is right. Her confusion keeps her from seeing what is really going on.

    Watch out: B is half right, since she fears looking foolish. But the question asks what that does to the conflict, and her worry does not cause it.

  6. Choose the answer

    The sentence shows Margaret’s mixed-up thinking about a problem she does not understand yet. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer. Its first half is true: Margaret worries the conductor will think she is a fool. But B says this worry causes her problem. It doesn’t. The train stopped for water, and she got off. D fits better, because the sentence shows how confused she is.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 18 as printed on page 130 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 130, question 18. Open page 130 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed on page 128 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed on page 129 of the DOE handbook.

Question 103 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 21

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.

Question

How does Margaret’s experience in paragraph 9 emphasize a theme of the excerpt?

  • AIt confirms Margaret’s understanding that she cannot rely on help from anyone else.
  • BIt leads Margaret to realize that her efforts to change her situation are ineffective.
  • CIt causes Margaret to believe that her own actions led to an unfavorable outcome.
  • DIt reinforces Margaret’s frustration about her lack of control over her surroundings.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks about the relationship between the theme and paragraph 9, where Margaret desperately tries to get someone on the train to notice her. One important theme of this excerpt concerns Margaret’s willingness to take action to ensure that she reaches her destination. This determination, described in Option A, is why she gathers her belongings together without help, gets off the train without being assisted by employees, and then attempts to climb back on while the train employees are busy examining the engine.

Option B is incorrect because, while the narrator describes her screaming as useless, she does not feel that her efforts overall are useless, and she does not give up until paragraph 10.

Option C is incorrect because, while Margaret is feeling a sense of “failure” in paragraph 9, she does not condemn herself as the train moves away.

Option D is incorrect because Margaret has expressed “terror” in paragraph 9 over being unable to catch someone’s attention, not frustration over her lack of control over her surroundings.

Question analysis

This theme question focuses on paragraph 9 of the Grace Livingston Hill excerpt, where Margaret screams and runs as the train pulls away without her. Students decide which larger idea of the excerpt that desperate moment reinforces. All four choices describe feelings she could plausibly have, so students must tie the moment to what the whole story keeps showing.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 theme questions ask how a theme develops; this one asks students to decide which theme a single desperate moment reinforces, with four answers that all fit the scene. Weighing them takes the whole excerpt and fine judgment.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 65 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 every choice describes a feeling Margaret could reasonably have, and two of them borrow the paragraph’s own words, “useless” and “failure.” The answer depends on seeing paragraph 9 as the end of a pattern rather than a single moment of panic. Students who reason from that one paragraph usually conclude she has given up, which the rest of the excerpt contradicts.

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    The theme is never stated; it has to be inferred from paragraph 9’s unanswered cries for attention and what they show about whether anyone will come to her aid. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The same pattern starts in paragraph 2, where no trainman comes to help, and returns in paragraph 8’s passengers “unconscious of her need,” so the theme rests on evidence across the excerpt. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Decide what idea the excerpt keeps returning to from its first paragraph to its last, then ask which choice that moment in paragraph 9 most directly strengthens.

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.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about a theme: a big idea the story keeps coming back to. How does what happens in paragraph 9 support a theme?

  2. Look at paragraph 9

    In paragraph 9, Margaret is “screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention.” But no one notices her, and the train goes on without her. Her calls for help get no answer.

  3. Find the same idea earlier

    This has happened before. In paragraph 2, none of the three train workers “had come to help her off the train.” In paragraph 8, the passengers are “comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.” Here, “unconscious of her need” means they don’t know she needs help. Again and again, no one comes to help her.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. Paragraph 9 shows once more that she cannot count on anyone else.
    • B is wrong. One moment of useless screaming doesn’t mean she gives up. Later she picks up her bags and walks on.
    • C is wrong. She never blames herself for her trouble.
    • D is wrong. The paragraph shows terror at not being noticed, not frustration about control.

    Watch out: B takes one failed moment and makes it about all her efforts. The rest of the excerpt doesn’t support that.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 9 adds one more time that nobody helps Margaret. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer, because her screaming is called “useless.” But a theme must fit the whole excerpt. Margaret keeps acting: in paragraph 14 she “picked up her baggage” and walked on. What stays true from paragraph 2 to paragraph 9 is that no one helps her. That is A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 21 as printed on page 131 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 131, question 21. Open page 131 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 104 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 23

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness”.

Question

How does paragraph 11 contribute to the plot of the excerpt?

  • AIt reveals that the reality of the situation is different from Margaret’s assumptions.
  • BIt illustrates that Margaret’s main problem is her own imagination.
  • CIt shows that Margaret is surprised by the unexpected adventure she is about to undertake.
  • DIt provides additional insight into how Margaret reacts to stressful situations.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how paragraph 11 helps shape the overall plot of the excerpt. In paragraph 5, Margaret assumes there is a station, “It was probably on the other [side], but she was standing too near the cars to see,” but in paragraph 11, the station that had been “so real” in Margaret’s mind actually does not exist, supporting Option A as the correct response.

Option B is incorrect because Margaret’s main problem is not that she has imagined the station on the other side of the train but that it actually isn’t there.

Option C is incorrect because, while Margaret seems somewhat in awe of her surroundings in paragraph 12 and she “gasped” in paragraph 11, her exclamation is one of shock at the discovery, not surprise over an unexpected adventure.

Option D is incorrect because the paragraph mainly describes what Margaret does in the particular situation she is currently in but does not explain or provide details that give insight to Margaret’s personality in general.

Question analysis

This plot question asks what paragraph 11 of the Grace Livingston Hill story, a single exclaiming sentence, adds after the train has gone. Students explain the paragraph’s role in the plot, linking it to earlier moments in the excerpt. Its old-fashioned phrasing, including the word “lo,” can make the meaning hard to pin down.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how one short paragraph moves a plot forward appears in the grade 6 structure standard and carries into grade 7 plot analysis. It is typical work, but students must connect this one-sentence moment to what came before and after it.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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

Paragraph 11 is one short exclaiming sentence, and its job is to overturn what Margaret, and the reader, had assumed since paragraph 3. Students who connect it to those earlier guesses see the reversal at once; students who read it alone fasten on her gasp or on “so real to her mind.” The question rewards reading the paragraph as a turning point in the plot rather than a window into her character.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The imagination choice and the right one both describe a gap between what Margaret pictured and what is there; the separating detail is where the trouble lies, in her mind or in the missing station. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The assumption the paragraph overturns was set up earlier: in paragraph 3 she looked for a platform, and in paragraph 5 she decided the building “was probably on the other” side. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The archaic “lo!” and “on this side and on that there was none” are how the paragraph announces its reversal, and students unused to such phrasing may miss it. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Reread paragraph 11 with the paragraphs just before it, ask what new fact it gives Margaret, and judge each choice by whether the paragraph itself shows it.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how paragraph 11 moves the plot forward. What new thing does Margaret learn there?

  2. Read paragraph 11

    Paragraph 11 says: “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!”

  3. Put it in plain words

    “Lo!” is an old word that means Look! The words “on this side and on that there was none” mean there was no station on either side of the track. Earlier, in paragraph 5, she guessed the station “was probably on the other” side. She was sure it was there. Now she sees that it does not exist.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. What she believed (a station) is different from what is real (no station).
    • B is wrong. Her imagination is not the problem. The missing station is a real problem.
    • C is wrong. Her gasp is shock, not excitement about an adventure.
    • D is wrong. The paragraph shows one discovery. It says nothing about how she handles stress in general.

    Watch out: B uses the idea that the station was “so real to her mind.” But her trouble is real, not imagined: she truly is stranded.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 11 shows that the station she counted on is not there. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer, because both A and B notice a gap between what Margaret pictured and what is there. But B blames her imagination. The real problem is outside her head: there is no station, and the train is gone. A says this correctly.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 23 as printed on page 132 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 132, question 23. Open page 132 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 105 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 36
Passage Uncovering the Past

Uncovering the Past

Archaeology as a distinct branch of science is only about two centuries old. The first archaeological activities focused largely on the search for clues about earlier human societies. In the nineteenth century, most archaeologists were amateurs trained in ancient languages and history. Many were art historians whose interest lay in the artwork and monuments of ancient civilizations. For the most part, their excavations were aimed at uncovering and removing priceless artwork and other valuable artifacts for museum display. Collectively, these early archaeologists are now considered traditional archaeologists.

Today, however, there is a different approach to archaeology, one that tries to reconstruct the everyday life of people in ancient times by applying the scientific methods of a range of specialized fields. Modern archaeologists take full advantage of available technology. Laptop computers enable digging teams to record their finds at each level of an excavation. With sketchpad computer software, archaeologists can draw their finds in the field. Three-dimensional computer modeling enables researchers to create floor plans and elevations for the structures they uncover. Archaeologists can also use remote sensing technologies such as radar and lidar, which is similar to radar but it uses laser light instead of radio waves. These technologies enable scientists to detect traces of early settlements that are not visible to the human eye.

The excavations at Kourion, a Roman port city on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, serve as an example of the modern approach. Portions of Kourion had been unexpectedly buried by a massive earthquake in the fourth century A.D. Traditional archaeologists were interested primarily in the remains of Kourion’s theater, temple, and classical monuments. They also collected precious objects, such as jewelry, found in nearby tombs. Modern archaeologists, however, have focused their studies and excavations on the settlement itself. This preserved seaport has proved to be a gold mine of important information about everyday life sixteen centuries ago.

During one excavation of a house at Kourion, for example, forensic anthropologists were able to reconstruct the skeleton of a young girl, whom they called Camelia. On the basis of her teeth, they determined her age to be about thirteen, although measurement of her skeleton showed that she was only the size of a modern eleven-year-old. The study of the teeth also confirmed her sex and pointed to her excellent health; Camelia had no cavities. Even after centuries, the forensic scientists could study the physical evidence in ways similar to those used in criminal investigations to determine the circumstances of Camelia’s death.

Other specialists on this excavation included a zooarchaeologist, who identified animal remains, including the skeleton of a mule found near Camelia. Another specialist, a paleobotanist, studied the contents of a bake oven at the site and identified four domesticated grains among the charred crumbs—evidence of a kind of ancient multigrain bread.

Although the archaeologists at this site unearthed a few beautiful items, the excavation did not uncover any priceless artwork for museums. Nonetheless, the archaeological processes used in Kourion have given us a valuable insight into everyday life in a Roman city.

Question

As described in paragraphs 4–5, what did the archaeological team learn about life in Kourion?

  • APeople in Kourion had a better diet than people have today.
  • BPeople in Kourion kept a wide variety of domesticated animals.
  • CPeople in Kourion had a shorter life expectancy than people have today.
  • DPeople in Kourion made bread from various domesticated grains.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks what archaeologists learned about the ancient culture based on the evidence found in paragraphs 4–5. Paragraph 5 states that a paleobotanist identified four domesticated grains within a bake oven at the site, which supports Option D.

Option A is incorrect because there is not enough evidence in either paragraph to support the broad assumption that people in Kourion had a better diet than people today.

Option B is incorrect because the passage mentions the discovery of the remains of only one domesticated animal, which does not support the idea that Kourion people kept a wide variety of domesticated animals.

Option C is incorrect because paragraph 4 states that Camelia’s age was determined to be about thirteen at the time of her death, but since her death was likely caused by a natural disaster, the suggestion that all Kourion people had a shorter life expectancy than people today is not supported.

Question analysis

Students find what the archaeological team learned about everyday life in ancient Kourion from the paragraphs about Camelia’s skeleton and the other specialists in “Uncovering the Past.” The tricky part is telling a fact the passage states from a bigger claim that a few clues might seem to suggest.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand: the answer rests on one stated detail, much like a grade 6 key-detail question, and the relevant paragraphs are short and concrete.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 13, 514 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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

The answer is stated almost word for word at the end of paragraph 5, where the grains are called “evidence of a kind of ancient multigrain bread.” The wrong choices stretch real details, Camelia’s healthy teeth, her early death and a single mule, into claims about a whole population. Students who separate what the team found from what a reader might guess rarely miss it.

  1. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Three choices compare Kourion with today or generalize from one find, so each has to be traced back to paragraphs 4 and 5 to see whether the team actually learned it. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The facts are split between two paragraphs: Camelia’s age, size and teeth in paragraph 4, and the mule and the bake oven in paragraph 5, where the bread detail closes the paragraph. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Reread the paragraphs about Camelia and the other specialists, list each fact actually stated about how people lived, and choose the one choice that appears on your list.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a key-details question. It asks what the team actually learned about daily life in Kourion. Look only at paragraphs 4 and 5. The right answer will be stated there, not guessed.

  2. List the facts in paragraphs 4 and 5

    Paragraph 4 is about Camelia. She was about thirteen, small for her age, and healthy, with no cavities. Paragraph 5 names two more experts. A zooarchaeologist found “the skeleton of a mule found near Camelia.” A paleobotanist studied a bake oven. This expert found “four domesticated grains among the charred crumbs—evidence of a kind of ancient multigrain bread.”

  3. Explain the hard words

    A paleobotanist studies plants from long ago. “Domesticated” grains are grains that people grew on farms, like wheat. “Charred” means burned black. “Multigrain” bread is made from more than one kind of grain. So the burned crumbs show that people in Kourion baked bread from several farm grains.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Camelia had healthy teeth, but the passage never compares her diet with ours.
    • B is wrong. The team found one mule. One animal is not “a wide variety.”
    • C is wrong. Life expectancy means how long people usually live. One girl who died young cannot show that.
    • D fits. It matches the bake oven and its four grains.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice is stated in the passage: bread made from four farm grains. So the answer is D, “People in Kourion made bread from various domesticated grains.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A, B and C each take one find and stretch it into a rule about everyone. Ask yourself how many examples back each one up. One girl or one mule is not enough. D needs no stretch, since paragraph 5 calls the crumbs “evidence of a kind of ancient multigrain bread.”

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 36 as printed on page 140 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 140, question 36. Open page 140 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Uncovering the Past” as printed (page 138)The passage “Uncovering the Past” as printed on page 138 of the DOE handbook.

Question 106 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 37

Uses the passage above: “Uncovering the Past”.

Question

What is the most likely reason the author mentions the zooarchaeologist (paragraph 5)?

  • Ato introduce the topic of other artifacts discovered near Camelia
  • Bto contrast this position with that of the paleobotanist
  • Cto complete the list of archaeological specialists
  • Dto provide an example of a particular field in modern archaeology
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for the strongest reason for the author mentioning the zooarchaeologist in the passage. The primary purpose of the passage is to explain and describe modern archaeology, the technology it employs, and various aspects of the field. Zooarchaeology is a specialty within the field, which is stated in Option D.

Option A is incorrect because other artifacts found near Camelia could have been introduced without mentioning the zooarchaeologist.

Option B is incorrect because the text does not state any comparisons between zooarchaeologists and paleobotanists.

Option C is incorrect because the passage does not provide a list of archaeological specialists.

Question analysis

This author’s purpose question asks why the writer of “Uncovering the Past” mentions a zooarchaeologist, a scientist who identifies animal remains, in the account of the Kourion excavation. The detail is only one sentence long, so students must judge its job in the passage, and more than one choice offers a reason that sounds sensible.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining why an author includes a detail is core grade 7 work. Here the detail is short and clear, but the choices include reasons that sound reasonable, so students need a firm grasp of the passage’s purpose.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 13, 514 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 49 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A wrong term 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 detail is one clause long, and the question turns on its job in the passage rather than its content. Students who stay inside paragraph 5 see a list of specialists or a find near Camelia and choose a reason drawn from there. Connecting the specialist to paragraph 2’s range of specialized fields is the step that separates the right answer from the plausible ones.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks why the zooarchaeologist is mentioned, not what he found, so the mule skeleton is beside the point; the answer lies in what this specialist illustrates about the modern approach. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The reason links back to paragraph 2, where the modern approach applies “the scientific methods of a range of specialized fields”; the zooarchaeologist is one of those fields at work. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: State the passage’s main point in a sentence, then ask what this one-sentence mention of a specialist adds to that point.

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.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook says the text makes no comparison between “zooarchaeologists and paleoarchaeologists.” The other specialist in paragraph 5, and in Option B, is a paleobotanist, so the site now says “paleobotanists.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks why the author mentions the zooarchaeologist. It is not asking what this expert found. Think about the purpose of the detail, the job it does for the whole passage.

  2. Find the detail and its link

    Paragraph 5 begins, “Other specialists on this excavation included a zooarchaeologist, who identified animal remains.” A specialist is an expert in one narrow field. Now look back at paragraph 2. It says modern archaeology uses “the scientific methods of a range of specialized fields.”

  3. Connect the detail to the main idea

    A zooarchaeologist is an expert in animal remains from long ago. “Zoo” means animals. This expert is one of those specialized fields at work. So the author names the zooarchaeologist as an example. The example shows what “a range of specialized fields” looks like on a real dig. The word “included” also tells you the passage gives examples, not a full list.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. This expert found a mule near Camelia, but the passage never moves on to other objects found near her.
    • B is wrong. The paleobotanist comes next, but the author never compares the two jobs.
    • C is wrong. The zooarchaeologist does not complete a list. The paleobotanist is named next, and “included” means only some experts are named.
    • D fits. The zooarchaeologist is one example of a specialized field in modern archaeology.

  5. Choose the answer

    The zooarchaeologist shows one of the many science fields that modern archaeology uses. So the answer is D, “to provide an example of a particular field in modern archaeology.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the strongest trap, because paragraphs 4 and 5 name several experts in a row. But to complete a list, this expert would have to be named last. The paleobotanist comes after. D also ties back to the main idea of the passage, the use of many science fields. A good purpose answer usually does that.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 37 as printed on page 140 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 140, question 37. Open page 140 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 107 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 45
Passage Snowy Mountains

Snowy Mountains

by John Gould Fletcher

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

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

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

“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

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.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 45 as printed on page 144 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 144, question 45. Open page 144 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.

Question 108 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 52
Passage Invention of the Telegraph

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

Invention of the Telegraph

Earlier Signal Systems

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

The Growth of an Idea

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

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

Obstacles and Opportunities

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

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

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

Realizing a Great Invention

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

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

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

1^1legislation: Telegraph Bill

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

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

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

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

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

Question

The details of the section “The Growth of an Idea” convey a central idea of the passage by suggesting that

  • Athe collaborative efforts of colleagues resulted in successful communication over a wire.
  • Ba great deal of interest and work was devoted to understanding how to use electricity to send signals.
  • CFaraday’s invention of the electromagnet inspired the invention of the telegraph.
  • Dcolleges like Yale played a great role in making new discoveries about electricity and its applications.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how a passage section helps convey a central idea of the passage. Paragraph 3 states that “Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.” The level of interest inspired Morse and others to work together to find a way to use electricity to send long-distance messages.

Option B is correct; the section helps convey a central idea because, overall, the section focuses on what fascinated Morse enough to begin his work and how others were just as interested and willing to work to achieve this goal.

Option A is incorrect because, although the word collaborative suggests that multiple people contributed to the telegraph’s success, the option does not clarify the research and effort needed in order to understand how to use electricity to send signals.

Option C is incorrect because when Morse came to understand how Faraday’s electromagnet worked, Morse wondered if it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire, but that thought later evolved into the telegraph only after more research and experimentation.

Option D is incorrect because the influence of what Morse learned at Yale was only a minor factor in his development of the telegraph.

Question analysis

This central idea question asks what the details in the section “The Growth of an Idea” suggest about the passage “Invention of the Telegraph.” The section covers Faraday’s electromagnet, Morse’s Yale lectures, and help from Gale, Henry and Vail, so students must judge which statement those details support as a group, and more than one choice sounds right.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 central-idea questions usually have one clearly best summary. Here two paragraphs of names and events must be weighed, and several choices restate true details, so judging which fits the whole section is unusually demanding.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 77 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This is among the hardest questions in the set because the most tempting wrong choice reads like a paraphrase of the section’s final sentence. Rejecting it means noticing that the section never shows a message getting through and never shows Henry working with Morse, who had not even read his article. The right choice is vague by design, and only a summary of both paragraphs together shows that it fits better.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The colleagues choice and the interest-and-work choice both describe effort spent on sending signals by wire; they part on one claim, that the effort “resulted in successful communication,” which the section never shows, the working line arriving in paragraph 7. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The idea emerges only from details across two paragraphs, passengers discussing the electromagnet, Morse’s Yale letter, his failed attempts, Henry’s bell and article, Gale’s relay advice, taken together. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The key names none of the section’s people, while the wrong choices echo its “colleague,” “over a wire,” Faraday’s electromagnet and Yale, and so look more firmly rooted in the text. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Summarize paragraphs 2 and 3 together in one sentence of your own before reading the choices, then choose the statement closest to your summary, checking that every part of it is true of this section.

Traps

  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what the section “The Growth of an Idea” says about a central idea, or main message. The section is paragraphs 2 and 3. Sum up both paragraphs together before you look at the choices.

  2. List the section’s details

    On the ship, Faraday’s electromagnet “was much discussed by the ship’s passengers.” Morse had found the electricity lectures at Yale interesting. He made “sporadic attempts” on his own. In paragraph 3, Henry “rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit.” Gale showed Morse how to use Henry’s relay system.

  3. Find what the details share

    Look at what links these details. Passengers talked about electricity. Morse was curious and kept trying. Henry ran tests and wrote an article. Gale gave advice. All of it is people taking an interest in electricity and working to send signals with it. That is the section’s main point. A working telegraph line does not appear until paragraph 7.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is close but wrong. Morse’s telegraph does not send a message until paragraph 7. Also, Henry never worked with Morse. At first, Morse did not even know about Henry’s article.
    • B fits. It covers the interest and the work in both paragraphs.
    • C is wrong. The electromagnet gave Morse the idea, but that is only the start of the section.
    • D is wrong. Yale is only a small part of paragraph 2. And “Despite what he had learned at Yale,” Morse still knew little.

  5. Choose the answer

    The section shows lots of interest and effort aimed at sending signals with electricity. So the answer is B, “a great deal of interest and work was devoted to understanding how to use electricity to send signals.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A sounds like a summary of the section’s last sentence, which is why it tempts. But it claims the teamwork “resulted in successful communication,” and that only happens in a later section. B claims less, so every detail in paragraphs 2 and 3 fits it.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 52 as printed on page 150 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 150, question 52. Open page 150 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 146 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 147 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 148 of the DOE handbook.

Question 109 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 54

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system?

  • AMorse applied for a federal grant that was delayed until 1843, so he spent time traveling in Europe, where he concentrated on obtaining a patent for his system.
  • BMorse applied for a government grant that required both houses of Congress and the president to pass a bill awarding him $30,000 for his telegraph project.
  • CMorse applied for a government appropriation and conducted telegraph demonstrations to show that his system could work, and after a delay caused by a financial depression, Congress approved the $30,000 appropriation in 1843.
  • DWorking with Gale and Vail allowed Morse to find flaws in Henry’s work and to develop his own ideas before applying for the federal government appropriation.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the best summary of Morse’s efforts to fund the construction of his telegraph system. Option C is correct because it details all the steps that resulted in Morse obtaining the appropriation, or $30,000 needed.

Option A is incorrect because it focuses on what Morse did while his application for the funding was delayed.

Option B is incorrect because, while it begins with Morse applying for the grant, it focuses on the process required for the government to approve the appropriation.

Option D is incorrect because it relates how Morse worked with others to develop his ideas about the telegraph before applying for funding for its construction.

Question analysis

Students choose the best summary of how Samuel Morse obtained the money to build his telegraph, an account spread across three paragraphs of “Invention of the Telegraph.” Each choice is a long sentence with accurate-sounding facts, so the task is to find the one that covers the main steps in order without drifting to side events.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summarizing a sequence is core grade 7 work. The facts are clearly stated, but the four long choices each mix accurate details with gaps or shifts in focus, so careful checking, not inference, is the main demand.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 127 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A date in the passage introduction was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

A good summary has to be complete as well as accurate, and two wrong choices are accurate but incomplete. Students who check only whether each statement is true find little to reject in the choice about Congress and the president, so they need to test coverage: application, demonstrations, delay, approval. The right choice is the longest and the only one that covers every stage.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The Congress-and-president choice and the key both start with Morse applying and end with the $30,000 approved; they part on one stretch of the story, the demonstrations and the depression’s delay, which only the key includes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The funding story runs across paragraphs 4 to 6: the application in December 1837, demonstrations in New York and Washington, the Panic of 1837, the trip to Europe, and the 1843 request and vote. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    The four choices are each a long sentence of 26 to 33 words, packed with dates, institutions and places that must all be checked. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, list the funding steps in paragraphs 4 to 6 in order, then pick the summary that includes the key steps and leaves out side details.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Passage: The handbook’s introduction says Congress passed the Telegraph Bill “In 1844.” Congress passed the $30,000 appropriation in March 1843; 1844 is the year of Morse’s first message. Paragraph 6 describes the 1843 approval, and Option C, the correct answer, says 1843, so the introduction now reads “In 1843.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for the best summary of how Morse got the money to build his telegraph. A summary is a short retelling of the main steps. A good summary must be true and also complete. It should cover all the main steps, in order.

  2. Find the funding steps

    The story runs through paragraphs 4 to 6. In paragraph 4, Morse applied “for the federal government’s appropriation” in 1837. The next year he “conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.” In paragraph 5, the Panic of 1837 “caused a long depression,” so he had to wait. In paragraph 6, Congress passed the bill in 1843, and President Tyler signed it.

  3. Explain the hard words

    An appropriation is money the government sets aside for a certain use. A demonstration is a show of how something works. A depression is a long time when business is bad and money is short. So the steps are: apply, show that the system works, wait out the hard times, then win approval of the $30,000.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It focuses on the trip to Europe, a side event. It leaves out the demonstrations and the final approval.
    • B is wrong. It is true but tells only the last step, the vote and the signature. It skips the demonstrations and the delay.
    • C fits. It covers the application, the demonstrations, the delay and the 1843 approval.
    • D is wrong. It is about building the system, not paying for it. Also, Gale found flaws in Morse’s system, not in Henry’s work.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice covers every main step, from the first application to the final approval. So the answer is C, the summary that ends with Congress approving “the $30,000 appropriation in 1843.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest trap, because everything in it is true. But a summary has to be complete, not just true. B leaves out the demonstrations and the long wait during the depression. C covers the whole story from start to finish, so it is the better summary.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 54 as printed on page 151 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 151, question 54. Open page 151 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 110 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 55

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

How does the map provide additional support for a central idea of the passage?

  • Aby demonstrating that Morse’s telegraph system greatly exceeded the limitations of previous long-distance communication systems
  • Bby indicating that Morse was lacking foresight by seeking a patent only in North America
  • Cby proving that Gale’s advice helped Morse extend the telegraph’s range much farther than first thought possible
  • Dby providing a graphic that shows the surprisingly immense influence Morse’s telegraph had across the world
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the map provides additional support for a central idea of the passage. The map shows the telegraph line crossing continents in 1902, just forty-four years after the first transatlantic message was sent in 1858. This is a much greater distance than the first line Morse built between “the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore” (paragraph 7), making Option A correct.

Option B is incorrect because the map shows the distance the line covers; it does not indicate Morse’s lack of foresight in seeking patents only in North America.

Option C is incorrect because, while Gale’s advice was crucial to Morse’s success, the map shows the physical line stretching across continents many years later, after their initial work.

Option D is incorrect because, while it can be inferred that the telegraph had influence across the world, the amount of influence cannot be determined.

Question analysis

This question asks how a map that accompanies “Invention of the Telegraph” supports a central idea of the passage about Samuel Morse’s invention. Students must link the information in a map to the passage’s main point, and choices that sound alike differ in how much they claim, so careful reading of each one decides it.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Connecting a map to a central idea is grade 7 work, but this one requires tying a visual to the whole passage and weighing choices that differ by a single word or claim, which pushes it above typical demand.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 77 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate detail in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Two choices describe the map’s reach in nearly the same terms, and the difference is in what each claims the map proves. A map of lines can show distance covered, which outruns the hilltop towers of paragraph 1, but it cannot measure influence or reveal surprise. Students lose time because the right choice depends on a paragraph read many minutes earlier.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The choice about the telegraph’s “surprisingly immense influence” sounds like a fair reading of a map spanning five continents and differs from the key mainly in claiming influence rather than reach. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The previous systems are in paragraph 1, towers on hills relaying flag and light signals, far from the map at the end of the passage, and the two must be compared. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

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

    The map shows a 1902 British line from London across the Atlantic to Canada, south to Bermuda, Barbados and Cape Town, and on to India, Australia and New Zealand, with Washington left off it. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: First state the passage’s central idea in a sentence, then ask which choice describes something a map of telegraph lines could actually show that also fits that idea.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook says the 1902 line came “forty-four years after the first message was sent in 1858.” The first telegraph message was Morse’s in 1844 (paragraph 1); 1858 is the year of the first transatlantic message, as the map’s caption says. The site now says “the first transatlantic message.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the map supports a central idea, or main message, of the passage. You need two things: what the map actually shows, and which big idea of the passage it backs up.

  2. Read the map and its caption

    The map shows the British All-Red Telegraph Line in 1902. A thick black line stands for telegraph wire. It runs from London across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada and on to Vancouver. It also goes to Bermuda, Barbados and Cape Town. Then it crosses the Indian Ocean to India, Australia and New Zealand. The caption says that by 1902 the line “connected most of the world.”

  3. Compare it with earlier systems

    Now look back at paragraph 1. Earlier systems used flags or lights. An observer had to “decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station.” Decipher means figure out. Those signals only worked if you could see the next tower. The line on the map crosses whole oceans. That shows how far the new system went past the old limits.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. Lines across oceans go far past towers on hills.
    • B is wrong. A map of wires shows nothing about patents. Paragraph 5 even says Morse tried to get patents overseas.
    • C is wrong. The map is from 1902, long after Gale helped. It can’t prove what his advice did.
    • D is wrong. The map shows how far the lines reached, not how much they changed lives. It also can’t show that anything was surprising.

  5. Choose the answer

    The map shows wires circling the globe, far beyond hilltop flags and lights. So the answer is A, “by demonstrating that Morse’s telegraph system greatly exceeded the limitations of previous long-distance communication systems.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest trap, because the map does cover the world. But a map of lines shows reach, meaning how far something goes. Influence means how much it changed people’s lives, and a map can’t measure that. A claims only what the map can show: distance far past the old towers.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 55 as printed on page 151 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 151, question 55. Open page 151 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 111 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 56

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

The idea that, in the mid-nineteenth century, the United States was mostly unaware of the possibilities of electricity is illustrated in the passage mainly through the

  • Adescription of the government’s initial desire to expand a semaphore signaling system that used either flags or lights along the Atlantic Coast.
  • Bdelay by the House of Representatives to pass the bill funding Morse’s telegraph line six years after he first applied for the appropriation.
  • Cdiscussions of the newly invented electromagnet that sparked the idea of sending codes through wires.
  • Ddescription of how an electric circuit could be closed to ring a bell at a distance.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for information that conveys the idea that the United States was mostly unaware of the possibilities of electricity in the mid-nineteenth century. The passage states that most signaling systems at the time were “visual or ‘semaphore’ systems using flags or lights” (paragraph 1) and that the United States was looking for “just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast” (paragraph 1).

Option A is correct because waving lights and flags reveals how limiting and simple the system of the time was, and Option A states that the United States wanted to expand this system, not improve upon it.

Option B is incorrect because the delay in funding had to do with the Panic of 1837 and the “long depression” (paragraph 5), not because the House of Representatives was not aware or ready for innovation in the use of electricity.

Option C is incorrect because it focuses on what prompted Morse to consider an electronic wire-based communications system.

Option D is incorrect because it describes a basic aspect of an early electrical discovery that demonstrated the interest of scientists in the possibilities of electricity, not the United States as a whole.

Question analysis

Students identify how “Invention of the Telegraph” mainly illustrates the idea that, in the mid-1800s, the United States was largely unaware of what electricity could do. The idea is implied rather than stated, so students must decide which detail truly reveals the nation’s thinking at the time.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 evidence questions often match a stated idea to a sentence. This idea is only implied, so students must infer what a historical detail reveals about a whole nation’s understanding, closer to grade 8 inference.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 102 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The stem asks about a whole nation’s understanding, so details about individuals with electrical interests, the ship’s passengers and Henry, show the opposite of what is needed. The real trap is the funding delay, which looks like official indifference but has an economic cause the passage states. Students who remember that the semaphore plan came with a remark about not knowing electricity was coming find the answer.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The idea is implied: wanting a semaphore system shows unawareness only alongside paragraph 1’s comment that its framers “had no way of knowing” they would be offered electricity. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The choices point to four separate places, paragraph 1’s semaphore plan, the funding delay of paragraphs 4 to 6, the shipboard talk in paragraph 2 and Henry’s bell in paragraph 3, and each must be checked there. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    “Semaphore” and “appropriation” are uncommon words, and the passage defines “semaphore” only in passing, as systems “using flags or lights.” (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: For each choice, find the detail in the passage and ask whether the author uses it to show what the country did or did not understand about electricity.

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.
  • 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which part of the passage best shows an idea. The idea is that in the mid-1800s, the United States mostly did not know what electricity could do. Look for a detail about the country as a whole, not about one scientist.

  2. Find the detail in paragraph 1

    Paragraph 1 says most early systems were visual, or semaphore, “systems using flags or lights.” Then it says, “The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast.” The next sentence explains that its lawmakers “had no way of knowing” they would be offered “an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.”

  3. Explain what the detail shows

    A semaphore system sends signals people can see, like waving flags. The country asked for that old kind of system. It did not ask for an electric one, because it did not know one was possible. “Revolutionary” means bringing a huge change. So the government’s plan shows how unaware the nation was of what electricity could do.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. The government wanted to spread flags and lights, not electric signals.
    • B is wrong. The delay had a money cause. The Panic of 1837 “caused a long depression.” It was not about electricity.
    • C is wrong. Passengers talking about the electromagnet shows interest in electricity, the opposite of not knowing about it.
    • D is wrong. Henry ringing a bell shows one scientist exploring electricity. It says nothing about the whole country.

  5. Choose the answer

    The country’s wish for a flags-and-lights system shows it did not yet see what electricity could do. So the answer is A, the description of the government’s plan for a semaphore system along the Atlantic Coast.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest trap, because a long wait for money can look like doubt about electricity. But paragraph 5 gives the real cause, the Panic of 1837 and the hard times after it. A is backed by the passage’s own words: the lawmakers “had no way of knowing” electricity was coming.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 56 as printed on page 151 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 151, question 56. Open page 151 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 112 of 112

2018 Test B English, question 57

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

With which statement would the author most likely agree?

  • AMorse’s telegraph was successful because the wires were strung aboveground rather than underground as originally planned.
  • BUnderstanding the importance of Morse’s telegraph requires detailed knowledge of electrical systems.
  • CThe implementation of Morse’s telegraph system was overly influenced by economic factors.
  • DMorse’s invention of the telegraph made a great stride toward better connecting people across the United States and across the world.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which statement best represents a viewpoint held by the author of the passage. Paragraph 8 states that “Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.”

Therefore, Option D is correct because the author presents Morse’s telegraph as a great leap in the ability to quickly communicate messages over distances never before imagined.

Option A is incorrect because the author explains that the aboveground wiring was used only because “Cornell suggested that [it was] the fastest and cheapest way” (paragraph 7), not because it would be more successful.

Option B is incorrect because the author conveys the importance of this advancement in communication without providing detailed information about electrical systems.

Option C is incorrect because, while the Panic of 1837 caused a delay in Morse’s funding, the author shows that Morse received the appropriation in 1843 and was able to overcome the financial setback he faced.

Question analysis

This question asks which statement the author of “Invention of the Telegraph” would most likely agree with, based on the passage’s account of Samuel Morse’s work. Students must infer the author’s view from the passage as a whole, and every choice takes up a real topic from the story, so each must be checked for how strongly it is supported.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Inferring an author’s position from an informational text is typical grade 7 work. The author’s attitude is fairly clear in the passage’s word choice, so this matches a routine state-test question in demand.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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 passage’s admiration for Morse’s achievement is steady from the first paragraph to the map, so most students recognize the author’s view. The wrong choices each take a real episode, the overhead wires, Morse’s struggle with electricity, the depression, and turn it into a judgment the author never makes. Watching for evaluative words such as “overly” and “because” separates them.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The author never states an opinion outright; it shows in word choice such as “revolutionary,” “ingenious,” “spectacularly successful” and the heading “Realizing a Great Invention.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Support for the key is spread from paragraph 1’s “revolutionary means of communication” to paragraph 8’s lines that “connected the continents” and the map caption’s line that “connected most of the world.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Look for the author’s own judgments, the words that show approval or criticism, then choose the statement those words support most directly.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which statement the author would most likely agree with. The author never states an opinion directly. So look for word choice that shows approval or criticism. Then pick the statement those words support.

  2. Find the author’s judging words

    Start with paragraph 1. There the author calls electricity “an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication,” which is strong praise. The last section has the heading “Realizing a Great Invention,” more praise. In paragraph 8, the lines spread until “they connected the continents of Europe and America” in Morse’s lifetime. The map caption adds that by 1902 the line “connected most of the world” as well.

  3. Put the author’s view in plain words

    “Revolutionary” means bringing a huge change. “Great Invention” is plain praise. The author also shows the lines spreading from city to city, then across oceans. So the author admires the telegraph as a big step forward in linking people. That is what “a great stride” means: a big step forward.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Overhead wires were used because they were “the fastest and cheapest way” after bad wire wasted time. That doesn’t make them the reason for success.
    • B is wrong. The author shows the telegraph’s importance with almost no technical detail.
    • C is wrong. Money problems did delay Morse. But “overly” means too much, and the author never makes that complaint.
    • D fits. The author praises how the telegraph connected the country and the world.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author’s words praise the telegraph for linking people far apart. So the answer is D, “Morse’s invention of the telegraph made a great stride toward better connecting people across the United States and across the world.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest trap, because money troubles really did matter. The Panic of 1837 delayed the funding. But the word “overly” turns a fact into a complaint, and the author never complains. D matches the praise the author gives from the first paragraph to the map.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 57 as printed on page 151 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 151, question 57. Open page 151 of the handbook (PDF)