7R5 structure and genre features
Question 1 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 11Passage 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
How does paragraph 5 fit into the overall structure of the passage and contribute to the development of ideas?
- AIt introduces a problem with the results of the study at Lund University, suggesting that some scientists believe that further research will not lead to a clear answer.
- BIt summarizes the final steps of the study at Lund University, emphasizing the difficulties researchers had in differentiating between true planning and practiced actions.
- CIt provides a conclusion to the information about the Lund University study, indicating that some scientists think further research is needed in order to prove the idea.
- DIt lists the effects of the study at Lund University, implying that researchers should have designed experiments that better differentiated between planning and instinct.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how paragraph 5 fits into the overall structure of the passage and contributes to the development of ideas.
A. Incorrect. While paragraph 5 states that “more evidence needs to be gathered before scientists can fully conclude that ravens can plan for the future,” this statement suggests that more research is needed, not that the results of the Lund University study are problematic.
B. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does not discuss steps of the study or emphasize difficulties in determining whether the behaviors shown in the study were planned or practiced; instead it simply suggests that more study is required to make such a determination.
C. CORRECT. Paragraph 5 notes that some doubt remains (“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”) and that more experimentation is needed; the author concludes that there is reason to believe the originally stated theory that ravens are quite smart and can give thought to how future events may affect them.
D. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does not list the effects of the study or criticize the experiment for not differentiating between planning and instinct. The paragraph explains why the results of the experiments are not conclusive and emphasizes that more research is needed.
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks how the last paragraph of the article “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” fits into the passage and develops its ideas. Students must see what that paragraph does once the experiments have been described. Each long choice names a role and then adds a claim, so a choice can begin well and end wrong.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining the role of a final paragraph is regular grade 7 structure work. The choices are long, though, and each pairs a role with a claim about scientists’ views, so both halves must be checked against a paragraph that mixes doubt with enthusiasm.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what moderate
- A lot to read minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 599 words; question and choices: about grade 15, 121 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Paragraph 5 makes three moves, excitement, doubt and a hopeful conclusion, and each wrong choice builds on one of them and then goes too far. Students who notice the doubt but read past “before scientists can fully conclude” pick the claim that research will never settle the question. Summing up the paragraph before reading the choices, and then checking the second half of each, is what earns the point.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about a problem with the results matches the right one in its first half, a doubt raised in paragraph 5, and differs only in claiming that more research will not give a clear answer. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what paragraph 5 does in the article, closing the account of the Lund study, so students must name its role rather than repeat its caution about training. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A lot to read minor Understanding the question
The choices run 24 to 28 words, and each pairs a role with a second claim about what scientists or researchers think or did, so both halves of every choice have to be checked. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Sum up paragraph 5 in one sentence of your own, then check both parts of each choice, the job it names and the idea it attributes to scientists, against that summary.
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.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees that paragraph 5 raises a doubt about the results, but adds that more research will not settle it, when the paragraph says more evidence is needed to reach a conclusion.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the objection some scientists raise, that the birds may simply be trained, into the Lund researchers’ own struggle, though the paragraph describes no steps of the study.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the call for more evidence as a verdict that the experiments were badly designed, though the author calls the results “exciting” and faults no one.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about structure: what job paragraph 5 does in the article. Each choice has two parts, a job and an idea about scientists. Both parts must be right.
See where paragraph 5 sits
Paragraphs 3 and 4 describe the Lund University experiments. Paragraph 5 is the last paragraph. It comes after the whole study has been described. So it is the place where the author sums up what the study means.
Read what paragraph 5 says
It opens: “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.” Next, it says some scientists think the ravens may just be trained. Then it says “Regardless,” the experiments show ravens “could be much smarter than first believed.” Regardless means “even so.”
Put the paragraph in your words
Paragraph 5 wraps up the study. The results are exciting but not proven yet. More research is needed to be sure. A conclusion is the ending part that sums things up. So paragraph 5 is the conclusion to the study, and it says more evidence is needed.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Paragraph 5 does raise a doubt. But it never says more research will fail to give a clear answer.
- B does not fit. Paragraph 5 describes no steps of the study.
- C fits. It wraps up the study and says more research is needed.
- D does not fit. It lists no effects and blames no one. The author calls the results “exciting.”
Choose the answer
Paragraph 5 ends the story of the study and calls for more evidence. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice, because its first half is right: paragraph 5 raises a doubt. But A says more research will not lead to a clear answer. The paragraph says more evidence is needed “before scientists can fully conclude,” so research is the way to an answer. C says this.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” as printed (page 12)
Question 2 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 12Uses the passage above: “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens”.
Question
The author conveys a point of view on the study of animal intelligence mainly by
- Asharing details about experiments that tested the ability of an animal to plan for the future.
- Bcomparing the results of different experiments that were designed to test animal intelligence.
- Ccritiquing experiments that aimed to demonstrate that certain animals are capable of planning for the future.
- Dexplaining how modern experiments show that previously held beliefs about animal intelligence are inaccurate.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the author conveys a point of view on the study of animal intelligence.
A. CORRECT. Paragraphs 3 and 4 focus on the process and details of the experiments that scientists conducted. This detailed information from the author provides a sense of how the ravens demonstrated planning abilities beyond natural instinct. The author supports the claims from the experiments, calling the findings “exciting” and stating in the conclusion that “these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed” (paragraph 5).
B. Incorrect. Although two experiments are described in the passage, the description presents the experiments as building on each other and does not compare their results. The passage states that “these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed, and scientists now believe that ravens do actually think about their own future” (paragraph 5).
C. Incorrect. The author presents information from the experiments and the results that were gathered from them; while there is an admission that “more evidence needs to be gathered before scientists can fully conclude that ravens can plan for the future” (paragraph 5), the author does not criticize the experiments that are presented.
D. Incorrect. While the author does discuss some previously held beliefs about animal intelligence in paragraph 1, the focus of the passage is that experiments indicate that there is reason to question these beliefs, since “these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed” (paragraph 5). The previously held beliefs are not considered inaccurate by the discussion in the passage because only one example—the raven—is provided. The passage does not state that beliefs about animal intelligence as a whole are inaccurate.
Question analysis
This author’s point-of-view question asks how the writer of “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” mainly conveys a view of research into animal intelligence. Students must look at the article as a whole and decide how it presents that view. The choices describe ways of writing in abstract terms, which makes them easy to blur together.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 point-of-view questions usually ask what an author thinks. This one asks how the author mainly conveys a view across the whole article, and the choices name methods that sound alike, closer to grade 8 work on how authors handle differing views.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 599 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 74 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The right choice sounds too plain to carry a point of view, which is exactly what makes this question hard. Students expect a view to be argued, so they reach for the choice that says the experiments prove old beliefs wrong, an overstatement of the author’s hedged “could be,” or for criticism, which belongs to other scientists. The article persuades by reporting the experiments in detail and calling them exciting.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks how the view comes across, not what it is, and the answer is a method: the author lets the detailed account of the experiments in paragraphs 3–4 carry a favorable view. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The author never states an opinion outright; the view must be pieced together from words such as “exciting” and “could be much smarter than first believed” in paragraph 5. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The choices name ways of writing in abstract terms, sharing, comparing, critiquing and explaining, so each must be held against what the whole article actually does. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Settle first on how the author regards the raven research, then check each choice against what the article actually does from beginning to end, not against a single paragraph.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Notices that two experiments are described and assumes they are set side by side, but the article reports the stone test and the bartering test in turn without comparing results.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the doubt that “some scientists” raise about training for the author’s own criticism, though the author calls the results “exciting” and moves past the objection.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the point that ravens may be smarter than believed but overstates it: the author hedges with “could be,” discusses only ravens, and never calls older beliefs wrong.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the author’s point of view, what the author thinks about studying animal intelligence. It also asks how the author mainly shows that view. Think about the whole article, not one paragraph.
Find the author’s view
In paragraph 5, the author says the results “are exciting.” The author also says the experiments “show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed.” So the author is interested in this research and hopeful about it.
See how the article is built
Most of the article explains the experiments. Paragraph 3 tells why the researchers planned two of them. Paragraph 4 gives the details step by step: the stone, the box, the bottle cap, the trades and the long wait. The author lets these details show why the research matters. Then the author calls the results exciting.
Check each choice
- A fits. The author shares details of experiments that tested whether an animal can plan.
- B does not fit. The two experiments are told one after the other. Their results are never compared.
- C does not fit. The doubt comes from “some scientists,” not the author. The author answers it with “Regardless.”
- D does not fit. It goes too far. The author says ravens “could be” smarter, which means maybe. The article never calls old beliefs wrong.
Watch out: D is tempting because paragraph 1 describes old beliefs. But “could be” is not the same as “are.”
Choose the answer
The author shows a view mostly through details of the experiments. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. The author does think ravens may be smarter than people believed. But the author is careful and says they “could be.” D says experiments prove old beliefs wrong, which is too strong. What the author mostly does is share the experiments’ details. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 3 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 19Passage Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
by Grace Livingston Hill
With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.
It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.
The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her. Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.
There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her wrist.
In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get out like this.
She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train, as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and rolled down the short bank, while the train . . . ran giddily off into the night.
The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they hurried by her—one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.
Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that there was none!
The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the lonely night.
No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was heavy.
A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine’s drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.
cinders: track bed made from the residue of burnt coal
From A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS by Grace Livingston Hill—Public Domain
Question
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Hard words minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Seizes on “so real to her mind” and blames her imagination, though the station she expected is truly missing and the danger she faces is real.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears surprise in “gasped” and “lo!” but takes it for eagerness about an adventure, when it is shock at finding no station on either side.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Makes a general claim about how Margaret handles stress, which could fit almost any paragraph, while this one reports a single discovery that turns the plot.
Working it out, step by step
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?
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!”
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.
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.
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
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
Question 4 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 30Passage 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
Paragraphs 1–2 contribute to the development of the central idea of the excerpt by
- Arevealing the respect Wade had for his horse.
- Bemphasizing Wade’s high expectations of his horse and himself.
- Cindicating that Wade and his horse understood the cattle business.
- Ddemonstrating Wade’s ability to gauge a horse’s competence.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraphs 1–2 contribute to the development of the central idea of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. The description of Peroxide Jim in paragraph 1 indicates that the horse was a fine animal (“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” [paragraph 1]). The statement in paragraph 2 that Wade’s “faith in Peroxide Jim was complete” supports the central idea of the excerpt that Wade believed in Peroxide Jim’s abilities even before the horse turned the herd and saved the cattle.
B. Incorrect. Paragraphs 1–2 do not emphasize Wade’s high expectations for himself, nor are these expectations a central idea of the excerpt. The narrator expresses a high opinion of Wade’s abilities in his comparison of Peroxide Jim and Wade, referring to the horse as a “complement” (paragraph 1) for Wade; however, Wade showed complete trust in the horse’s ability to save the herd without his help, as evidenced by Wade dropping the reins to allow the horse to control the situation (paragraph 12).
C. Incorrect. The paragraphs refer to Peroxide Jim’s ability to handle cattle; in fact, paragraph 2 says that “the horse knew the cattle business.” It can be inferred that Wade had this knowledge as well, but this idea is not the focus of paragraphs 1–2 and is not the central idea of the excerpt.
D. Incorrect. Wade’s ability to judge a horse’s competence is not a central idea of the excerpt. The event described in the text is proof that Wade knew how to judge a horse’s ability: Wade trusted Peroxide Jim, and Peroxide Jim did not let him down. The option puts the focus on Wade and one of his strengths, when the central idea and focus of the excerpt is Peroxide Jim’s abilities and strengths, not Wade’s.
Question analysis
This central-idea question asks how the first two paragraphs of “The Spirit of the Herd,” which introduce the buckskin horse Peroxide Jim and the ranch boss Wade, contribute to the excerpt’s central idea. Students connect these opening details to the story of the stampede that follows. The narrator’s old-fashioned rhetorical questions can make the paragraphs’ point hard to pin down.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how opening paragraphs build a central idea is typical grade 7 work. The two paragraphs are short, but the narrator’s rhetorical questions and old-fashioned phrasing must be decoded, and the central idea must come from the rest of the excerpt.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; 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 opening paragraphs talk about both Wade and his horse, so every choice can find a foothold in them. The question turns on the excerpt as a whole, which ends by giving the race to Peroxide Jim, and only Wade’s regard for the horse points toward that ending. Students lose the point by picking a skill of Wade’s own, which his trust only implies, or by repeating “knew the cattle business,” a line said of the horse alone.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Respect is never named; it must be read from Wade “saving this horse for emergency work” and from his “faith in Peroxide Jim” being “complete” in paragraph 2. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks how two opening paragraphs serve the excerpt’s central idea, so students must know where the story ends, with the race credited to the horse, before judging them. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 1 makes its point through two old-fashioned rhetorical questions, beginning “And why should he not” and “Are there not superior horses,” whose answers students must supply. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Restate paragraphs 1 and 2 in plain words, decide what the excerpt as a whole is mainly about, and pick the option that links the two.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Takes “superior horses as well as superior men” as Wade’s demands on both, but the paragraphs show only his trust in the horse, never his expectations of himself.
C Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Repeats “knew the cattle business,” which paragraph 2 says of the horse alone, and treats that background detail as the point the excerpt builds toward.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Credits Wade with a talent for judging horses, which his trust implies, but the paragraphs show faith in one horse, and the excerpt’s focus is that horse’s deeds.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraphs 1 and 2 help build the central idea. The central idea is the most important idea of the whole excerpt. So first find the central idea. Then see how the opening leads to it.
Find the central idea
The excerpt ends in paragraph 16: “Whose race was it? It was Peroxide Jim’s, according to Wade.” The horse saved the herd on his own, and Wade gives him the credit. The central idea is that Peroxide Jim is a remarkable horse who earns Wade’s trust.
Read paragraphs 1 and 2
Paragraph 1 says “Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work.” Paragraph 2 says “though there was nothing like sentiment about the boss of the P Ranch riders, his faith in Peroxide Jim was complete.”
Work out what they show
Sentiment means soft, tender feelings. Wade was a tough boss, not a soft one. Faith means trust. Even so, he trusted this horse completely. Saving the horse for the hardest jobs shows the same respect. The rest of the excerpt proves that respect was deserved.
Check each choice
- A fits. The paragraphs show how much Wade respected his horse.
- B does not fit. They never say what Wade expects of himself.
- C does not fit. “The horse knew the cattle business” is said about the horse, and it is only background.
- D does not fit. His trust may hint that he judges horses well. But the paragraphs show faith in one horse, and the excerpt is about what that horse does.
Choose the answer
The opening shows Wade’s respect, and the ending shows the horse deserved it. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. Wade’s trust does hint that he knows good horses. But paragraphs 1 and 2 show his faith in one horse, not a skill at judging horses. The excerpt is about that horse. Wade’s respect points straight to the end, where he gives the race to Peroxide Jim. That is A.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)
Question 5 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 31Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd””.
Question
How does paragraph 3 convey the effect of the setting on the cattle drive?
- AIt shows how the growing darkness created challenges for the riders in getting the herd to move.
- BIt describes how the changing elevation contributed to the dangerousness of the environment.
- CIt describes how the desert created an uncomfortable feeling of isolation for the riders and the cattle.
- DIt shows how the steep terrain made it difficult for the cattle to keep moving forward.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how paragraph 3 conveys the effect of the setting on the cattle drive.
A. Incorrect. The riders were not trying to move the herd through the darkness. Instead, the reference to the growing darkness (“overtaken by the dusk”) indicates that the riders had halted the animals for the night because moving the herd across the desert in the darkness would have been much too dangerous because of the sheer drop-off at the edge of the tableland. The riders needed the daylight to navigate the herd safely through the “pass descending to the next lower bench.”
B. CORRECT. Paragraph 3 describes the land where the herd was as being “as level as a floor” but “rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below.” The drop was “a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet”—any animal or person could fall over that edge. It was the change in height, from flat tableland to sheer drop-off, that made the terrain so dangerous.
C. Incorrect. The use of the word “desert” in the first sentence of the paragraph does not highlight the isolation of the setting or indicate that the riders and the herd were uncomfortable being alone. Instead, the word merely establishes the setting where the action occurred: “it lay as level as a floor, rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below.”
D. Incorrect. The excerpt does not indicate that the steep terrain made it difficult for the herd to move forward. The herd was not expected to navigate the steep terrain. Instead, the steep terrain presented a danger to the herd that must be avoided. The riders intended to move the herd safely through passes that descended gradually to lower elevations.
Question analysis
This setting question on “The Spirit of the Herd” asks how paragraph 3, which describes the high desert where the herd has stopped for the night, conveys the setting’s effect on the cattle drive. Students must understand unusual landform words, one explained in a footnote, and work out what the land means for the herd. Several choices name a real feature of the scene.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how setting affects a story, usually from plainly worded description. This paragraph relies on terms such as tablelands, benches and rim rock, and never names the effect, so students must work it out from the description.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Hard words moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 1160 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
Paragraph 3 reads like a surveyor’s report, flat land ending in a sheer drop, with no word of fear. Students must turn its landforms into a picture and see that a herd camped a mile from a three-hundred-foot fall is in danger. The strongest wrong answer gets the cliff right but makes it a barrier to the drive, and others seize on the dusk or on the loneliness a desert suggests.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about steep terrain blocking the herd and the right one both rest on the drop at the rim; they differ only in its effect, a hazard to avoid or an obstacle to movement. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
The paragraph’s landforms, “tablelands, or benches,” “rim rock,” a “pass descending to the next lower bench” and a “perpendicular fall,” must be pictured before the danger is clear. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The paragraph never calls the drop dangerous; students must infer it from “sheer rock” and “about three hundred feet,” a danger that becomes real only when the herd stampedes toward the rim. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Make a quick sketch of the land paragraph 3 describes and mark where the herd is halted, then ask what that setting means for the drive and test each choice against it.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns “overtaken by the dusk” into a struggle to get the herd moving, though the herd was halted for the night and the paragraph stresses the drop, not darkness.
C Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes a desert must feel lonely, a common association, though the paragraph uses “desert” only to place the herd on a level plain and says nothing of isolation.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly notices the sheer drop but makes it an obstacle to forward movement, when the herd was headed for a pass and the cliff was a hazard to avoid.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about setting, the place and time of a story. How does the land in paragraph 3 affect the cattle drive? A cattle drive is a trip where riders move a large herd of cattle across the land.
Read paragraph 3
The herd is camped on high, flat land “rimmed by sheer rock, from which there was a drop to the bench of sage below.” The herd “was now halted within a mile of the rim rock on the east, where there was a perpendicular fall of about three hundred feet.”
Picture the land
The note says tablelands are “flat areas of land sharply elevated from the surrounding area.” A bench is another name for one. Picture giant steps. The herd is on a high step. Its edge is sheer rock, a straight drop. Perpendicular means straight up and down. So the herd has stopped within a mile of a cliff about 300 feet high.
Work out the effect
Elevation is how high the land is. Here the elevation changes suddenly, from flat ground to a steep cliff. A scared herd could run right over the edge. That makes the place dangerous. Later, this danger comes true when the stampede races toward the rim.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The herd was halted for the night. The riders were not trying to move it.
- B fits. The sudden drop makes the place dangerous.
- C does not fit. The paragraph says nothing about feeling lonely.
- D does not fit. The herd was headed for a pass, an easier way down. The cliff was a danger to avoid.
Choose the answer
The change in height, from flat land to a sheer drop, makes the setting dangerous. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, because it also points to the steep drop. But the herd was not trying to climb down the cliff. It was headed for a pass and had stopped for the night. The drop matters because the herd could fall over it. That danger is what B describes.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 6 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 33Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Goes a step past the sentences: the horse clearly mattered, but they stress what he knew and did on his own, not that Wade would have failed without him.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes a rider trains his own horse, a common idea, but the excerpt never says who trained Peroxide Jim, and these sentences stress what he did undirected.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Draws on “without a false step or a tremor of fear,” which comes after the quoted sentence in paragraph 16; the two sentences show his understanding, not his courage.
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.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 7 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 36Passage 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
Read this sentence from paragraph 1.
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.”
The author most likely includes the quotation from the Scottish traveler in order to
- Asuggest that people around the world saw the direct contribution of nature and industry to the United States.
- Bcompare the natural and industrial attractions in the United States at that time.
- Cconvey the idea that the United States offered both natural and industrial attractions.
- Dimply that the natural resources in the United States contributed to the development of industry.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks why the author most likely includes the quotation from the Scottish traveler in paragraph 1 of the passage.
A. Incorrect. While it is likely that people outside the United States recognized that both the natural landscape and the bustling industry were significant, the quotation from the Scottish traveler is meant to convey the variety of the types of attractions in the U.S., not to make a general statement about their contribution.
B. Incorrect. The Scottish traveler mentions both “American scenery” and “American industry” in the quotation, but the intent is to highlight that they are each points of interest. The quotation does not provide a comparison of the two attractions.
C. CORRECT. The quotation emphasizes the idea that the United States offers different attractions. The Scottish traveler highlights the two places in the United States that he will most remember: first, the beautiful natural formation of Niagara Falls (“ ‘the glory of American scenery’ ”) and second, the industrial city of Lowell (“ ‘the glory . . . of American industry’ ”).
D. Incorrect. The Scottish traveler mentions both “American scenery” and “American industry” in the quotation but does not imply that the natural resources contributed to the development of industry.
Question analysis
This reading question asks why the author of a National Park Service article about Lowell, Massachusetts, quotes a Scottish traveler who named Niagara and Lowell as the sights he would remember longest from his American journey. Students must work out the job a quotation does in an opening paragraph, and the traveler's compressed, old-fashioned wording has to be untangled first.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 readers regularly explain why an author includes a quotation. This one adds a sentence in older English built on a compressed “the one…, the other…” pattern, but it is a single sentence in a plainly organized opening paragraph, so the demand stays typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 15, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 115 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 the work is translating the traveler's compressed remark into plain words: Niagara stands for American scenery, Lowell for American industry, and both are high points of his trip. Students who see the two placed side by side often take the pairing for a comparison, while others read more into it, a worldwide verdict or a link between waterfalls and mills. The question rewards stating only what the remark does in the paragraph, which is to set Lowell beside Niagara as a sight worth the journey.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The comparison choice names the same pair as the key, Niagara's scenery and Lowell's industry; it differs only in the verb, “compare” instead of conveying that the country offered both kinds of attraction. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why the author placed the traveler's remark in paragraph 1, so its job, backing the sentence before it about tourists visiting the industrious city, matters more than its content. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The 37-word sentence ends in the compressed, old-fashioned “the one the glory of American scenery, the other of American industry,” where the verb and the second “glory” are left out. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Put the traveler's remark into plain modern words, reread the sentence before it about who came to Lowell, and pick the purpose that fits both without reading more into the remark than it says.
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.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Stretches one Scottish visitor's memory into what “people around the world” saw, perhaps from the paragraph's “global recognition,” and adds a “direct contribution” that the remark never claims.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Takes the remark's side-by-side pattern, “the one … the other,” for a comparison, though the traveler weighs neither against the other and simply names each as a highlight.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Connects Niagara's waterfalls to the Pawtucket falls that powered Lowell's mills in paragraph 2, a link between nature and industry that the traveler's remark never draws.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks about the author’s purpose. You need to say why the author put the Scottish traveler’s words into paragraph 1. Don’t just restate what he says. Ask what job his words do in the paragraph.
Find the quotation and its neighbor
The traveler’s words are in paragraph 1: “Niagara and Lowell are the two objects I will longest remember in my American journey.” He ends with “the one the glory of American scenery, the other of American industry.” Now look at the sentence just before it. It says European tourists came to “visit the industrious city that was becoming a popular tourist destination.”
Put his words in plain English
The old-fashioned ending leaves words out. “The one” means the first place he named, Niagara. “The other” means the second place, Lowell. Glory means the finest thing, the pride. Industry means factories and the work done in them. So he is saying: Niagara Falls is the best of America’s natural beauty, and Lowell is the best of its industry. Both are the sights he will remember longest.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. One visitor is not “people around the world.” He also never says nature or industry made a “direct contribution” to the country.
- B is wrong. He names the two places side by side, but he never weighs one against the other.
- C is right. He names a natural wonder and an industrial wonder as the two highlights of his trip. So America offered both kinds of attraction.
- D is wrong. He never says nature helped industry grow. The waterfalls that powered the mills come up in paragraph 2, not in his words.
Watch out: “The one” and “the other” set the two places side by side. That can feel like a comparison, which leads to B. But he praises both. He does not compare them.
Choose the answer
The author uses the quotation to show that America had two kinds of sights worth the trip: natural ones like Niagara and industrial ones like Lowell. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. It names the same pair, nature and industry. But to compare is to show how two things are alike or different. The traveler doesn’t do that. He simply names Niagara and Lowell as two highlights. C says just that: the country offered both kinds of attraction.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park” as printed (page 50)
Question 8 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 37Uses the passage above: “Massachusetts: Lowell National Historical Park”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- A lot to read minor
- Complex sentences minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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)
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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Seizes on paragraph 5's clause that Irish workers built the canals, mills and boardinghouses, one fact about construction rather than the account of mills and workers that shows Lowell's importance.
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Sees that paragraphs 3 to 6 follow the mill girls and the immigrants who replaced them, but leaves out the mills themselves, the heart of paragraph 2's industrial picture.
D True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Recalls paragraph 6's “ethnic melting pot” and paragraph 1's “ethnic neighborhoods,” which are real, but the city's diversity says nothing about its standing as an industrial city.
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.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 9 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 39Uses 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Expects a turn toward complaint because the mill girls later strike, but this sentence is hopeful about “independent industrial city life,” and the protests wait until paragraph 4.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Restates what the sentence says, women escaping a “constricted lifestyle,” instead of what it does, and the paragraph goes on to life in Lowell rather than rural hardship.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees the dates “early to mid-1800s” and expects a then-and-later contrast, though the sentence opens the mill girls' story and the passage sets up no such comparison.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 10 of 106
2026 Practice Test A English, question 40Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “part of the city's history from its birth” and building the canals as founding the city, though paragraph 2 says Boston merchants founded Lowell in 1821.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Remembers that the hostility toward Irish Catholics “eventually disappeared” and overlooks “Initially, … slow to welcome,” turning a gradual change into a ready acceptance.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Sees the Irish and the mill girls named in one sentence and assumes they worked side by side, a relationship the passage never describes; the Irish later replaced them.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 11 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 9Passage A Miracle Mile
A Miracle Mile
In the 1950s people compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest and nicknamed the feat a “dream mile.” Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier. One of them was a twenty-five-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister.
Roger Bannister had tasted failure during the 1952 Olympics. There, he was favored to win the 1,500-meter competition, a distance slightly shorter than a mile, but he finished in a dismal fourth place instead. Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain. Determined to redeem himself, Bannister postponed his plans to retire from racing and focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.
Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning. The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed. For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap. In between intervals, he let his body recover for two minutes.
By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target. Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days. The rest from running permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed. When Bannister returned to the track, he completed ten quarter-mile-long intervals at fifty-nine seconds each. He finally felt prepared to attempt to break the world record.
As a member of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), Bannister joined the AAA team for a track meet against Oxford University. The event took place on a cinder track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Bannister and his two AAA teammates, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, were close friends and frequent running partners. Chataway and Brasher agreed to help Bannister accomplish his goal by being his “rabbits.”
In track and field, rabbits are runners who enter the race solely to pace a teammate for a segment of the course. Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo. Additionally, by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort. When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.
Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted “Faster!” at Brasher. Brasher, however, remained composed and maintained his current steady but grueling pace, completing the first two laps in a desirable one minute and fifty-eight seconds. Then Chataway surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half. At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway. Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.” Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. The ecstatic crowd erupted the moment the timekeeper announced the word “three.”
Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners. Over the years, the record continued to fall. However, the current record, 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, has stood unbroken since 1999. Some question whether this record represents the limits of human ability. But perhaps there is another Bannister, an athlete who, with willpower and dedication, will accomplish the miraculous.
Question
Read these sentences from paragraph 7.
Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.”
The sentences contribute to the development of ideas in the passage by showing that Bannister
- Aknew that he was about to achieve the goal he had worked toward.
- Bwas no longer experiencing personal disappointment from his past failure in the Olympics.
- Cfelt grateful to his teammates for helping him take the lead.
- Dwas satisfied that his training had helped him perfect his running technique.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the sentences from paragraph 7 contribute to the development of ideas in the passage.
A. CORRECT. The sentences from paragraph 7 show that toward the end of the race, Bannister knew that the goal of breaking the four-minute-mile barrier was within his grasp and that he had the focus necessary to achieve it. The sentence following Bannister’s quotation states that he did indeed meet his goal, crossing “the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds” (paragraph 7).
B. Incorrect. The feelings Bannister expressed in the sentences from paragraph 7 did not erase those feelings related to his loss at the 1952 Olympics, which were what drove him to the achievement he was about to make.
C. Incorrect. While the quotation states that Bannister felt “unity,” this pertains to his running, not to his work with the team. The sentences from paragraph 7 capture Bannister’s focus on his chance to break the barrier and what he was feeling at that moment.
D. Incorrect. The sentences from paragraph 7 express Bannister’s realization that he was on the verge of reaching a goal. The sentences show that in the seconds before crossing the finish line, Bannister was fully focused on the end goal and was not thinking about his training or his running technique.
Question analysis
This question quotes Roger Bannister’s own words from his famous race, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come,” and asks how they contribute to the development of ideas in “A Miracle Mile.” Students interpret an athlete’s description of a feeling and decide what it shows about him. Each choice links the quotation to a different part of his story.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what a quoted sentence adds to a passage is everyday grade 7 work, and these two sentences are short. Their abstract phrase “a great unity of movement and aim” takes some interpreting, which keeps the demand typical rather than light.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 93 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Bannister’s words describe a feeling, and each choice explains it by a different part of his story. The right reading comes from where the quotation sits: on the back straight, seconds from the finish, so “the moment of a lifetime” is the record within reach. Students who take “unity of movement” as polished form, or “no pain” as the end of his Olympic hurt, tie the quotation to his training or his past instead of to this race.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The quotation never names the record; students must link “the moment of a lifetime had come” to the four-minute goal and to the finish in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds reported right after it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“A great unity of movement and aim” is abstract, and “There was no pain” can be heard as emotional relief, so the words invite readings about technique, teamwork or old disappointment. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read the quotation together with the sentences around it in paragraph 7, put Bannister’s state of mind into your own words, and test each choice against what the quotation itself says.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “There was no pain” as the end of the hurt from his 1952 fourth place, but the pain meant is the strain of the race, and the quotation never looks back.
C Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Takes “unity” in its everyday sense of people pulling together and credits his rabbits, though the unity is of his own “movement and aim,” just after he passed Chataway to run alone.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the training of paragraphs 3 and 4 and reads “unity of movement” as perfected technique, but the quotation records a feeling during the race, not a verdict on his preparation.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what Bannister’s words show about him at that moment in the race. To answer, you need to know where the quotation comes. So read the sentences just before it and just after it.
Find where the quotation comes
Paragraph 7 tells the story of the race. Just before the quotation, “Bannister bolted past Chataway.” Bolted means ran off suddenly and fast. Chataway was his second rabbit, a teammate who set the pace. Now Bannister was in front, near the end. Just after the quotation, “Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.” That is under four minutes.
Put his words in your own words
He says “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come.” The moment of a lifetime is the most important moment a person ever has. For Bannister, that was breaking the four-minute mile. “A great unity of movement and aim” means his body and his goal were working as one. He could feel that he was about to do it.
Check each choice
- A fits. He senses that his big goal is about to happen.
- B does not fit. “There was no pain” means he felt no strain in the race. He is not thinking back to 1952.
- C does not fit. The unity is of his own “movement and aim,” not of his team. He had just passed Chataway to run alone.
- D does not fit. The words describe a feeling during the race. They say nothing about his training or his technique, which means his way of running.
Watch out: D is tempting because “unity of movement” sounds like perfect running form. But Bannister is not judging his training here. He is feeling the big moment arrive.
Choose the answer
The quotation shows Bannister sensing that his goal was near, and the next sentence shows he reached it. So the answer is A, “knew that he was about to achieve the goal he had worked toward.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. His training did help him, and he was running well. But the quotation is about a feeling: “the moment of a lifetime had come.” It looks ahead to the finish, not back at his practice. A matches that feeling of a goal about to be reached.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 12 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 14Passage 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 paragraph 2 from the excerpt.
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.
This paragraph helps develop the plot by establishing that the narrator
- Adislikes writing refusal letters for the animals offered to the zoological society.
- Battempts to predict what the professor would say in the refusal letters.
- Cbelieves that many of the animals offered are not acceptable for the zoological society.
- Dresents the professor’s insistence on reviewing the refusal letters.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how paragraph 2 helps develop the plot.
A. Incorrect. As paragraph 1 indicates, writing such letters is one of the main parts of the narrator’s job (“and I was always busy, part of the day, in dictating answers to correspondents”), and he shows no indication of disliking this work. The letters are to inform people whether the zoo will accept their animals.
B. Incorrect. Paragraph 2 indicates that the narrator offers his letters to the professor merely for official approval. At the start of the excerpt, the narrator is confident in his reply and does not anticipate that his response will differ from that of the professor, so he has no need to “predict what the professor would say.”
C. CORRECT. The phrase “uncompromising refusals” in paragraph 2 indicates the confidence that the narrator initially has in his belief that the animals described in the letters are not of value to the society. This confidence is badly shaken as the plot unfolds, as when Professor Farrago states that “ ‘I am daring to believe that it is the great auk itself’ ” (paragraph 23). The narrator’s transition from an attitude of dismissive doubt to one of budding hopefulness is a major part of the plot (“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” [paragraph 34]).
D. Incorrect. The narrator does not resent the professor’s review of the letters; instead, the phrase “of course” in paragraph 2 shows that he expects to submit the letters to the professor as part of his job.
Question analysis
In this plot question on an excerpt from Robert W. Chambers’s novel In Search of the Unknown, students read paragraph 2, in which a zoo employee describes answering people who offer animals for sale. The question asks what the paragraph establishes about the narrator. Its old-fashioned vocabulary and its long, dash-broken sentence make the narrator’s attitude harder to pin down.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one paragraph develops a plot is regular grade 7 work, and this one is quoted in full. Its early-1900s wording, with words such as “proprietors” and “uncompromising,” adds some load but no unusual reasoning.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Hard words moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 94 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The paragraph’s attitude sits in its adjectives: lynxes that are “mangy,” coyotes that are “moth-eaten” and refusals that are “uncompromising.” Students who read that scorn as the narrator’s mood about his job, or who hear grumbling in “of course,” choose a feeling about the work instead of a judgment of the animals. The plot point is that the narrator starts out sure the offers are worthless, the confidence the great auk letter is about to test.
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
“Proprietors,” “uncompromising,” “mangy” and “moth-eaten” carry the meaning: the owners of shabby animals get firm refusals, and a student who misses these words cannot tell what the narrator thinks of the offers. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The paragraph is one inverted sentence that opens with “To the proprietors of,” reaches “I returned” only midway and ends with a dash clause about the professor’s review. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
Three wrong choices repeat the paragraph’s “refusals” and “letters,” while the right one restates the scorn for the animals as a judgment that they do not suit the society. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Paraphrase paragraph 2 in plain modern words, noting what each descriptive word reveals about the narrator, then keep only a choice those words actually support.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Moves the scorn of “mangy” and “moth-eaten” from the animals to the task, though the refusals are “courteous” and paragraph 1 presents answering letters as routine daily work.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Builds a guessing game from his sending each reply to Professor Farrago, though he expects his refusals simply to be approved and nothing shows him second-guessing the professor.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears irritation in the dash and “of course,” but the phrase marks the review as routine, and his clash with the professor begins only with the great auk letter.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what paragraph 2 tells you about the narrator, the person telling the story. It also asks how that sets up the plot, the chain of events in a story. The paragraph is one long, old-fashioned sentence. So put it in plain words first.
Put paragraph 2 in plain words
Proprietors are owners. People wrote offering animals to the zoo. The narrator lists some: “mangy lynxes, moth-eaten coyotes, and dancing bears.” Mangy means with patchy, sick-looking fur. Moth-eaten means old and worn out. He sent the owners “courteous but uncompromising refusals.” Courteous means polite. Uncompromising means firm, with no chance of changing his mind.
Decide what it shows about him
The words “mangy” and “moth-eaten” show what he thinks of the animals. To him, they are shabby and not good enough for the zoo. He turns them all down. This sets up the plot. When the letter about the great auk comes, he is ready to reject it too. That is where the story’s conflict begins.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. His refusals are polite, and paragraph 1 shows that answering letters is his everyday job. Nothing says he dislikes it.
- B does not fit. He sends his replies to the professor to be approved. He is not guessing what the professor would say.
- C fits. He judges that the animals offered are not good enough.
- D does not fit. “Of course” shows that the review is normal. He does not resent it, or feel bitter about it.
Watch out: A is tempting because the narrator sounds scornful. But his scorn is for the animals, not for the job.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 2 shows the narrator turning down animals he thinks are unfit. So the answer is C, “believes that many of the animals offered are not acceptable for the zoological society.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. The narrator’s words do sound scornful. But the scorn is aimed at the animals, “mangy” and “moth-eaten,” not at the job of writing letters. His refusals are even “courteous.” C names his real judgment: these animals are not right for the zoo.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed (page 21)
Question 13 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 16Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown”.
Question
How does the exchange between the professor and the narrator in paragraphs 8–11 contribute to the development of the characters?
- AIt establishes the conflict between the professor and the narrator concerning the validity of the letter.
- BIt suggests a theme of collaboration because the narrator and the professor regularly work together.
- CIt reveals the characters’ traits by contrasting the narrator’s distrust with how easily the professor is deceived by what he reads.
- DIt hints that the resolution will involve the narrator accepting the professor’s opinion about the content of the letter.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the exchange between the professor and the narrator in paragraphs 8–11 contributes to the development of the characters.
A. CORRECT. Paragraphs 8–11 help develop the characters by revealing the difference between the opinions of the narrator and the professor. The narrator believes without any doubts that Halyard, the man who wrote the letter about the auks, is either “ ‘a liar or a fool’ ” (paragraph 9), while the professor believes in the possibility that the writer of the letter could actually be telling the truth (“I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my surprise, he appeared to waver” [paragraph 8]).
B. Incorrect. In paragraph 8, the narrator reacts to the letter writer with “a contemptuous tolerance,” and he is shocked to learn that the professor actually agrees with the man (paragraph 11) whom the narrator has bluntly condemned as a liar or a fool (“ ‘In my opinion,’ said I, ‘he’s one or the other.’ ” [paragraph 10]). The exchange presents an emphatic disagreement between the narrator and the professor, and it does not show them working together in a collaborative manner.
C. Incorrect. Although the narrator initially distrusts the contents of the letter and shows “contemptuous tolerance for the writer” (paragraph 8), the excerpt portrays the professor as experienced and intelligent, not as one who is easily deceived.
D. Incorrect. While the narrator does begin to consider the professor’s perspective at the end of the excerpt, paragraphs 8–11 primarily serve to establish the difference of opinion between the narrator and the professor about the writer of the letter.
Question analysis
This question on the excerpt from In Search of the Unknown asks how a short exchange in paragraphs 8–11, in which the narrator and Professor Farrago discuss a letter about a bird, contributes to the development of the two characters. Students must read what each man says and decide what the exchange adds. Some choices describe the pair accurately in part only.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 The task matches the grade 8 standard on how lines of dialogue reveal character, but the four paragraphs are short and the two speakers’ positions are stated outright, so the demand stays at a typical grade 7 level.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what minor
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 90 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 paragraphs are short and the disagreement is plain, so most students see that the men differ about the letter. The difficulty lies in the wording of the choices. One describes the contrast in terms of character, which suits the stem, but calls the professor easily deceived, a judgment only the narrator holds. The right choice speaks of a conflict, which sounds like plot rather than character, so students must trust that the conflict is what reveals the two men.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice that contrasts the narrator’s distrust with an easily deceived professor and the right one both set the men’s views of the letter against each other; they part on whether the professor is fooled. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks about the characters, while the right choice names a conflict over the letter, so students must see that the disagreement itself is what reveals each man. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The professor’s side is four words, “He isn’t—in mine,” and students must read them as openness to the letter’s truth, set against the narrator’s flat “one or the other.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Sum up in a phrase what each man says and does in paragraphs 8–11, then check every part of each choice against those four paragraphs, since a choice can describe one character correctly and the other not.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
The wrong answers, classified
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Rests on a true fact, that the narrator submits his work to the professor, but in paragraphs 8–11 the two disagree sharply and nothing shows them cooperating.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the narrator’s distrust right but adopts his view that the professor is gullible, though the professor only declines to call the writer a liar or a fool and stays calm.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Knows that the narrator later comes to share the professor’s hope, in paragraph 34, but in paragraphs 8–11 he still insists the writer is “one or the other.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what paragraphs 8–11 show about the two characters. Look at what each man says about the letter. Then compare their views.
Find the narrator’s view
In paragraph 8, the narrator reads the letter with “a contemptuous tolerance for the writer.” Contemptuous means full of scorn. He thinks the writer is “either a very innocent victim or a very stupid swindler.” A swindler is a cheat. In paragraph 10, he says the writer is a liar or a fool: “he’s one or the other.”
Find the professor’s view
The professor does not agree. In paragraph 8, the narrator notices that “to my surprise, he appeared to waver.” To waver means to be unsure. In paragraph 11, the professor answers, “He isn’t—in mine.” He means that in his opinion the writer is not a liar or a fool. So the two men clash over whether the letter is true. A clash like this is a conflict.
Check each choice
- A fits. The two men disagree about whether the letter can be trusted. Validity means whether something is true.
- B does not fit. They do work together, but here they disagree.
- C does not fit. The narrator’s distrust is right, but the professor is not fooled. He calmly refuses to call the writer a liar.
- D does not fit. The narrator starts to hope later, in paragraph 34. In paragraphs 8–11 he does not budge.
Watch out: C is tempting because half of it is true. The narrator does distrust the letter. But the idea that the professor has been fooled is only the narrator’s view.
Choose the answer
Paragraphs 8–11 set the narrator’s scorn against the professor’s open mind. So the answer is A, “It establishes the conflict between the professor and the narrator concerning the validity of the letter.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice. It is right about the narrator’s distrust. But it speaks of “how easily the professor is deceived.” Deceived means tricked. The story never shows that. He stays calm and thinks for himself. A describes both men correctly: they disagree about the letter.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 14 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 18Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown”.
Question
How does the interaction between the narrator and the professor in paragraphs 26–28 contribute to the development of the theme?
- AIt illustrates the professor’s patience as the narrator argues against making the expedition.
- BIt reveals the narrator’s frustration with his limited role in making decisions for the zoological society.
- CIt emphasizes the professor’s desire to acquire new specimens for the zoological society at any cost.
- DIt shows the narrator’s acceptance of his assignment despite his personal objections.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the interaction between the narrator and the professor in paragraphs 26–28 contributes to the development of the theme.
A. Incorrect. Paragraphs 26–28 do not show the narrator arguing against making the expedition. He instead argues that it is unnecessary for the professor to pay to send extra men on the expedition. The narrator points out that he can ask for assistance if he does, in fact, find great auks (“ ‘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’ ” [paragraph 28]).
B. Incorrect. When the professor criticizes the narrator’s blind acceptance of the theory about the existence of the auks, the narrator is frustrated and embarrassed. This frustration does not stem from his inability to make decisions for the zoological society.
C. Incorrect. The professor states that “ ‘what I want you to do is to get those birds here safely’ ” (paragraph 27), which indicates that his main priority is the birds’ safety rather than acquiring specimens regardless of the consequences (i.e., at any cost).
D. CORRECT. Paragraph 26 describes the professor and the narrator making practical plans for the expedition (“we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized the expenses I might incur”), indicating the narrator’s acceptance of his assignment while also revealing that he does not anticipate a “successful termination to the expedition.” Paragraph 28 further describes the personal objections of the narrator, who believes that adding extra men to the expedition is pointless (“ ‘a useless expense’ ”), since he does not expect to find any great auks to bring back.
Question analysis
This theme question on In Search of the Unknown asks how paragraphs 26–28, in which the narrator and Professor Farrago talk over supplies, expenses and how many men to bring, contribute to the development of the theme. Students must decode formal, old-fashioned phrasing, then judge what the interaction shows. Every choice sounds like something the excerpt might say.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 theme questions trace an idea through clear events. Paragraphs 26–28 are dense with formal phrasing such as “allowing no margin for a successful termination,” and each choice pairs a real detail with a claim, which pushes the task above grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 76 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Each choice pairs a real feature of the scene with a claim, and the claims must be checked against three short paragraphs of formal prose. The narrator does object, bluntly, so the choice that has him arguing against the trip draws strongly; what he rejects is the cost of extra men, while he plans the trip itself. Students who decode “allowing no margin for a successful termination” see the whole picture: he is going, and he expects to fail.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
Paragraph 26 is a 36-word sentence that ends “allowing no margin for a successful termination to the expedition,” formal wording for planning as if the search will fail. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The narrator never says he accepts the trip; his acceptance shows in the planning, and his objection in the blunt “None” and “a useless expense” of paragraph 28. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks about the theme, yet every choice describes a character’s attitude, so students must judge which attitude these paragraphs show rather than look for a stated theme. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Translate each of paragraphs 26–28 into plain modern words, then check each choice’s claim about the narrator or the professor against exactly what those three paragraphs show.
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.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the professor’s patience right, since he answers “Never mind that,” but the narrator never argues against going; he refuses only to take men along.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries over the grudging obedience of paragraph 25, “nothing to do but to obey,” though in paragraphs 26–28 the narrator sets his own return date and decides how many men to take.
C Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Inflates the professor’s wish for the birds into a desire for specimens “at any cost,” though the two men itemize expenses and he asks for the birds to arrive safely.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraphs 26–28 build the theme. A theme is a big message of a story. Read the three paragraphs. Decide what the narrator does and what he thinks.
Read paragraph 26
Paragraph 26 says “Together we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized the expenses I might incur.” Articles are supplies, and itemized means listed one by one. So the narrator is planning the trip. But he sets a return date “allowing no margin for a successful termination to the expedition.” A margin is extra room. He leaves no extra time in case he finds the birds. He plans as if he will find nothing.
Read paragraphs 27 and 28
The professor asks how many men he will take. The narrator answers bluntly, which means in a short, plain way. He takes none. Extra men would be “a useless expense, unless there is something to bring back.” He still thinks the birds are not real. Yet he does not refuse to go. He accepts the job while doubting it.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The professor is patient, but the narrator never argues against going. He only refuses to take men.
- B does not fit. Here the narrator makes decisions himself, like his return date and how many men to take.
- C does not fit. They count the costs, and the professor wants the birds safe. That is not “at any cost.”
- D fits. He plans the trip but shows he thinks it is pointless.
Watch out: A is tempting because the professor does stay calm. But the narrator is planning the trip, not fighting it.
Choose the answer
The narrator does the job while making his doubts clear. So the answer is D, “It shows the narrator’s acceptance of his assignment despite his personal objections.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. The professor does answer calmly, “Never mind that.” But A says the narrator argues against making the trip. He does not. He helps plan it and only objects to taking men. D captures both parts: he goes, and he still doubts.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 15 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 20Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown”.
Question
How does paragraph 34 help develop the plot of the excerpt?
- AIt shows that the narrator is beginning to consider the possibility of finding the great auks.
- BIt demonstrates that the narrator is struggling to understand why the professor thinks the great auks exist.
- CIt establishes that the narrator is willing to let the professor overrule him about the great auks.
- DIt emphasizes that the narrator feels a sense of urgency to complete the expedition to locate the great auks.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 34 helps develop the plot of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. Despite his initial disbelief, the narrator admits in paragraph 34 that he is starting to feel the “same strange hope” the professor feels, which is to find the great auks (paragraph 33).
B. Incorrect. While the narrator does make an effort in paragraphs 11–22 to understand the professor’s thinking, paragraph 34 reveals that the narrator has been affected by the professor’s “strange hope” for the auks and is beginning to share this hope “in spite of” himself.
C. Incorrect. The narrator describes a feeling of hope in paragraph 34 that would not be present if he had simply been overruled by the professor and did not share any of the professor’s belief in the possibility that the auks exist. In addition, it was established before paragraph 34 that the narrator was willing to be overruled (“I drew a chair up beside his desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving” [paragraph 25]).
D. Incorrect. The narrator does not express a sense of urgency in paragraph 34 to complete the expedition. Instead, he expresses hope that the great auks might really exist.
Question analysis
This plot question on In Search of the Unknown asks how paragraph 34, a single long sentence near the end of the excerpt, helps develop the story of the narrator’s assignment to bring back two great auks. Students must put its formal phrasing into plain words and connect it to the conversation that comes before it.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a paragraph moves a plot forward is regular grade 7 work, and paragraph 34 is a single sentence. Its formal wording, such as “in spite of me” and “stir my pulses,” has to be put into plain words first.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1066 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 79 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Put into plain words, the paragraph has the narrator admitting that the professor’s hope is starting to take hold of him, which is the turn the question asks about. The losses come from reading it through earlier scenes: his obedience in paragraph 25 makes giving way to the professor look like the point, and the word “strange” makes puzzlement look likely. The paragraph records a change in what he believes, not in what he does.
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 34 is one 31-word sentence that turns on “on the contrary” and breaks its main clause with “in spite of me,” so its point, a hope beginning to stir, arrives late. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“To stir my pulses” means to excite, and a student who reads it as a racing heart may take it for haste to leave rather than hope that the birds exist. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Restate paragraph 34 in plain modern words, then test each choice against what this paragraph itself says about the narrator.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes “the same strange hope” as the narrator puzzling over the professor’s belief, though the sentence says that hope is now stirring in the narrator himself.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in paragraph 25, where the narrator draws up a chair because he must obey, but paragraph 34 shows him starting to share the hope, not yielding to an order.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads stirring pulses as eagerness to finish the trip quickly, though the excitement is about the chance that the birds exist, and the paragraph says nothing of speed.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraph 34 moves the story forward. Read that paragraph closely. Then decide what has changed for the narrator.
Read paragraph 34 closely
Paragraph 34 says “But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was conscious that the same strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite of me, to stir my pulses, too.” On the contrary means the opposite is true. Cherished means held dear. To stir his pulses means to make his heart beat faster with excitement.
Put it in your own words
The professor hopes the great auks are real. Now the narrator feels that same hope starting in himself. “In spite of me” means he did not want to feel it, but he does. Before, he called the letter writer a liar or a fool. Now he is starting to think the birds might really be found.
Check each choice
- A fits. He begins to hope that the birds could be found.
- B does not fit. He is not puzzling over the professor’s belief. He is starting to share it.
- C does not fit. Giving in to the professor came earlier, in paragraph 25: “there was nothing to do but to obey.” Paragraph 34 is about hope, not obeying.
- D does not fit. Nothing in the paragraph is about hurrying.
Watch out: D is tempting because a racing pulse can sound like rushing. But the excitement is about the birds, not about speed.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 34 shows the narrator’s doubt starting to turn into hope. So the answer is A, “It shows that the narrator is beginning to consider the possibility of finding the great auks.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice. The narrator did agree to obey the professor. But that happened in paragraph 25, and he was not happy about it. In paragraph 34, something new happens. He feels “the same strange hope” as the professor. A names that change.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 16 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 22Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Notices the jab at “you young fellows” and the narrator’s thought of “dotage,” but two passing remarks about age are not how the author builds the contrast across the excerpt.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Overstates the professor’s role, since he asks a few calm questions and then simply assigns the trip, never working to win the narrator over.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Knows that the professor is the superior, but no line of dialogue explains how either man got his position; the talk is about the letter, not their ranks.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 17 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 23Passage Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything
Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything
Located underground near Geneva, Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) helps scientists study and understand how the smallest particles of matter interact with one another. The LHC propels atomic particle beams along a 17-mile-long ring.
There are the things the world is made of,
things we can see and feel, and then
there are the things even smaller, things that seem
to exist only when we are looking right at them.
So beneath the level of molecules are atoms,
and beneath the level of atoms, we find
protons, electrons, neutrons; and beneath that—
what, exactly? Because we are talking about
everything here: your fingernail,
the candy at the back of your mouth,
the coffee your teacher drank this morning,
your little sister, and the stuffed dog
she used to carry around with her everywhere.
And everywhere.
Everything and everywhere
are made up of the same stuff, whatever
it is. How do we find it? We can listen for it
in the wavelengths from deep space,
talking back to us from unimaginable
distances. Or we can build long,
deep circular tunnels beneath the surface
of this Earth and race particles
(like racing cars, only very tiny cars
flashing along at close to the speed of light)
until everything we think we know
bangs against everything else we know.
And there, in the explosion, in the darkness,
briefly incandescent, they appear:
the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons;
the baryons and the mesons. Their names
sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands
playing terrible music in someone’s garage.
The one thing we know for sure
is that they spin. This is how gravity
enters our world, how our world is held
both together and apart, what keeps
together the pencil in your hand right now
as well as separate from, say,
Jupiter. They spin, and it is only down there
in the darkness—in the vast garage
where physicists jot down
what they can, whatever seems most real—
that they let us perceive their wild dancing,
combusting to the music they make.
Question
Read lines 5–8 from the poem.
So beneath the level of molecules are atoms,
and beneath the level of atoms, we find
protons, electrons, neutrons; and beneath that—
what, exactly?
The lines help develop a central idea of the poem by revealing the speaker’s
- Ainterest in determining how the parts of matter work together.
- Bcuriosity about what makes up matter.
- Cdesire to prove that particles make up matter.
- Dquestions about what tools are needed to study matter.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what lines 5–8 reveal about the speaker to help develop a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. In lines 5–8, the speaker is demonstrating knowledge about the structure of matter, not demonstrating interest in how matter’s parts work together; for example, “beneath the level of molecules are atoms, / and beneath the level of atoms, we find / protons, electrons, neutrons” (lines 5–7).
B. CORRECT. Lines 5–8 show the connection between the particles by using the words “beneath the level” repeatedly. The progression of particles of matter, from atoms to subatomic particles, “protons, electrons, neutrons” (line 7), ends with a question. By asking, “what, exactly?” (line 8), the speaker questions the mysteries that are still unsolved about the nature of matter, which is a central idea of the poem.
C. Incorrect. The speaker expresses curiosity in line 8 (“what, exactly?”) but does not use language in lines 5–8 that expresses a desire to prove a point. The poem does not show any conflict, either from within or from other scientists, about the concept that particles make up matter.
D. Incorrect. While the poem is about the Large Hadron Collider, which, according to the introductory text before the poem, is a tool that “helps scientists study and understand how the smallest particles of matter interact with one another,” lines 5–8 do not suggest the use of tools but rather question what comes after the “protons, electrons, neutrons” (line 7).
Question analysis
This question on the poem “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything,” about the Large Hadron Collider, quotes lines 5–8, which move from molecules down to atoms and smaller particles. Students decide what the lines reveal about the speaker and how that develops a central idea of the poem. The choices name related attitudes toward matter and science, so precise reading matters.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand: the four lines are quoted in the question and use everyday words, so a single step of interpretation links them to the speaker’s attitude and to the poem’s larger subject.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 76 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The lines move down level by level, molecules, atoms, protons, and then stop at a question, so the speaker’s curiosity is close to the surface. The choice about how the parts work together comes nearest to the right one, helped by the head-note, which says the collider studies how particles “interact.” Students who notice that the lines list what lies beneath what, and never how things interact, settle on curiosity about what matter is made of.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The speaker never names a feeling; the curiosity shows in the dash and the question “what, exactly?” that cut off a confident list of layers. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The choice about how the parts of matter work together and the right one both give the speaker an interest in matter; they part on its object, how parts interact or what matter is made of. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Read lines 5–8 as one sentence, describe in a word or two what the speaker is doing in them, and pick the choice that matches those exact lines.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Keeps the speaker’s interest in matter but shifts it from what lies beneath atoms to how parts interact, the subject the head-note gives the collider, not these lines.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the confident list of layers as a case being argued, though the speaker treats them as known and ends on a question, seeking rather than proving.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps ahead to stanza 3, where the speaker asks “How do we find it?” and describes tunnels, but lines 5–8 say nothing about tools or ways of studying matter.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what lines 5–8 show about the speaker, the voice talking in the poem. It also asks how that fits a central idea, a main point of the whole poem. Decide what the speaker is doing in these lines.
Read lines 5–8
The lines say “So beneath the level of molecules are atoms, / and beneath the level of atoms, we find / protons, electrons, neutrons; and beneath that— / what, exactly?” Matter is the stuff everything is made of. A molecule is a tiny group of atoms joined together. Protons, electrons and neutrons are the even tinier parts of an atom.
See what the speaker is doing
The speaker goes down layer by layer: molecules, then atoms, then the parts of atoms. Then the list stops with a dash and a question: “what, exactly?” The speaker does not know what lies beneath, and wants to know. That is curiosity. The whole poem keeps asking what everything is made of.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The lines ask what is underneath, not how the parts work together.
- B fits. The speaker wonders what matter is made of at its smallest.
- C does not fit. The speaker is not trying to prove a point. The lines end with a question.
- D does not fit. Ways to search, like tunnels, come later, in lines 17–22. Lines 5–8 do not mention them.
Watch out: A is tempting because the note before the poem says scientists study how particles “interact,” or act on one another. But lines 5–8 are only about what lies beneath.
Choose the answer
The question “what, exactly?” shows a speaker who wants to know what matter is made of. So the answer is B, “curiosity about what makes up matter.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice, since it also shows interest in matter. But A is about how the parts work together. Lines 5–8 never talk about that. They go down layer by layer and end with “what, exactly?” That question asks what matter is made of, so B fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed (pages 32–33)
Question 18 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 26Uses the passage above: “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything”.
Question
Read lines 30–32 from the poem.
Their names
sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands
playing terrible music in someone’s garage.
The speaker refers to familiar objects and events in the lines most likely to
- Aexplain confusing information in simple terms to help the reader understand more about the topic.
- Bdemonstrate how scientific ideas can be explained by describing situations that many people are familiar with.
- Cemphasize that the process being used to research particles is still in the early stages of development.
- Dsuggest that the scientific language used to describe particles seems silly by making a humorous comparison.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks why the speaker refers to familiar objects and events in lines 30–32.
A. Incorrect. In lines 30–32, the speaker only gives an opinion about what the names sound like and does not simplify confusing information about how these newly discovered particles function or exist.
B. Incorrect. In lines 30–32, the speaker is only describing what the names of the particles sound like: “dinosaurs or maybe bands” (line 31). These descriptions illustrate the speaker’s opinion but do not explain specific scientific ideas.
C. Incorrect. In lines 30–32, the mention of the names of the particles sounding like “dinosaurs or maybe bands” (line 31) reveals the speaker’s opinion about the names but does not explain the process of researching the particles.
D. CORRECT. The phrase “their names” (line 30) refers to the scientific names of the particles: “the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons; / the baryons and the mesons” (lines 29–30). In lines 30–32, the speaker expresses the opinion that these scientific terms sound nonsensical, much like the strange scientific names of dinosaurs or silly band names.
Question analysis
In “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything,” the speaker says the names of particles sound like dinosaurs or bands playing in someone’s garage. This question asks why the speaker refers to such familiar things in lines 30–32. Students must read the comparison’s tone and purpose, and the choices offer several reasons poets compare science with everyday life.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why a speaker includes a comparison is typical grade 7 work on word choice and tone. The three lines are quoted and their images are everyday ones, but the choices state purposes that differ in subtle ways.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 97 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two choices give the textbook reason for an everyday comparison, to make hard science easier, and they draw students who answer from what comparisons usually do. These lines explain nothing; they say how the particles’ names sound, and “terrible music in someone’s garage” is a joke at the expense of the jargon. Students who trace “Their names” back to the list before it and hear the teasing tone reach the right purpose.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks why the speaker makes the comparison, and two choices offer the usual reason for likening science to everyday things, making it easier to grasp, which these lines do not do. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The humor has to be heard: names that sound like dinosaurs or like bands “playing terrible music in someone’s garage” are being teased, which signals a joke, not an explanation. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
“Their names” points back to the list in lines 29–30, quarks, leptons, bosons, baryons and mesons, and students must see that the lines judge those words, not the particles. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Find what “Their names” refers to in the lines just before, then ask what the comparison says about those names and in what tone, and match the purpose to both.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Assumes that comparing science with familiar things is meant to simplify it, but these lines explain nothing about particles; they only say what the names sound like.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns three lines into a general claim about teaching science through familiar situations, though no scientific idea is described here, only the sound of some names.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “someone’s garage” as an amateur workshop and concludes that particle research is just beginning, a meaning the lines, which tease the names, never suggest.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the speaker compares the particles’ names to familiar things. Familiar means well known from everyday life. First find what “Their names” points to. Then decide what the comparison says about those names, and in what tone.
Find what their names means
Lines 29–30 list the particles: “the quarks, the leptons, and the bosons; / the baryons and the mesons.” Then the speaker says “Their names / sound like dinosaurs or maybe bands / playing terrible music in someone’s garage.” So “their names” means these science words.
Hear the joke
Dinosaurs have long, strange names. A garage band is a group of beginners who practice in a garage. Their music is often loud and bad. The speaker is teasing the science words. They sound odd and a little silly. This is a humorous, or funny, comparison.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The lines explain nothing about particles. They only say how the names sound.
- B does not fit. No science idea is explained here.
- C does not fit. “Garage” is part of the band joke. It does not say the research is new.
- D fits. The joke makes the science names sound silly.
Watch out: A is tempting because comparisons to everyday things often make science easier. But these lines make fun of names. They do not explain anything.
Choose the answer
The speaker compares the particle names to dinosaurs and bad garage bands to poke fun at them. So the answer is D, “suggest that the scientific language used to describe particles seems silly by making a humorous comparison.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. Writers often compare science to everyday things to make it simpler. But ask what these lines explain. Nothing about how particles work is made clearer. The lines only say the names sound like “bands / playing terrible music.” That is a joke about the words, so D fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 19 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 27Uses the passage above: “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything”.
Question
Read lines 36–39 from the poem.
both together and apart, what keeps
together the pencil in your hand right now
as well as separate from, say,
Jupiter.
The poet includes these lines most likely to emphasize that
- Ait is important for physicists to continue their research about particles.
- Bthese particles have a powerful effect on everything.
- Cthe discoveries about particles provide little information.
- Dthe study of particles and the study of objects in space are similar.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for the most likely reason the poet includes lines 36–39 in the poem.
A. Incorrect. While the poem implies that the research is important, lines 36–39 do not point to a need for more research. Instead, the lines explain the power of the particles in the universe.
B. CORRECT. The particles that are “Everything and everywhere” (line 15) make up the objects mentioned in lines 36–39: a “pencil in your hand” and the planet “Jupiter.” Even though these objects are different from each other and extremely far apart in the universe, they are made up of and affected by these particles. The “powerful effect” is that the particles keep the objects “both together and apart” (line 36).
C. Incorrect. While the physicists can only “jot down / what they can, whatever seems most real” (lines 41–42), the discoveries about particles are ongoing and informative. The speaker shares that the particles are “everything and everywhere” (line 15) and that they “spin” (line 34), and that “this is how gravity / enters our world” (lines 34–35).
D. Incorrect. The speaker states that particles keep together objects in space, such as Jupiter, as well as objects on Earth, such as “the pencil in your hand right now” (line 37). However, in lines 36–39, the speaker is not comparing the study of subatomic particles with the study of objects in space (astronomy); the speaker is implying that because particles are “everything and everywhere” (line 15), the study of particles affects our understanding of everything in the universe, regardless of location.
Question analysis
This question asks why the poet of “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” includes lines 36–39, about what keeps a pencil in your hand together and separate from the planet Jupiter. The quoted lines begin partway through a sentence, so students must read the lines before them to see what the sentence is about before judging the poet’s purpose.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why a poet includes certain lines is typical grade 7 work. The quoted lines start partway through a sentence, so students must read lines 33–35 to see what the sentence is about, an extra step but not an unusual one.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 346 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 75 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The explanation of C reversed cause and effect in the poem; one word was changed.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The quoted lines are the tail of a sentence, and without its start they read like a list of objects. Students who go back to lines 33–35 see that the spin of the particles is what holds things “together and apart,” and the pencil and Jupiter show how far that reaches. Those who read the fragment alone fasten on Jupiter and think of astronomy, while those who read on to the physicists who “jot down / what they can” may decide that little is known.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The quoted lines begin mid-sentence with “both together and apart, what keeps,” so students must read back to lines 33–35 to learn that the subject is the particles’ spin, “how gravity / enters our world.” (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The lines never say “everything”; students must see that a pencil in your hand and a distant planet stand for things near and small and things far and huge, so the effect reaches all matter. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read lines 33–39 as one sentence, work out what the subject of “what keeps” is, and then ask what point the two examples in lines 37–39 are meant to make.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes the lines push for more research, a common message in writing about science, but they state what the particles do, not what physicists should go on doing.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Draws on “The one thing we know for sure” in line 33 and the physicists who “jot down / what they can” in lines 41–42, but lines 36–39 state confidently what the particles do.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees a planet next to a pencil and builds a comparison between particle physics and astronomy, though the lines show one force acting on both objects, not two fields of study.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: Rejecting C, the handbook's explanation says the particles “spin” “because ‘this is how gravity / enters our world’”. The poem says it the other way round: “The one thing we know for sure / is that they spin. This is how gravity / enters our world”, so the spinning is how gravity enters. It now says the particles “spin”, and that “this is how gravity / enters our world”. The answer, B, is unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the poet includes lines 36–39. The lines start in the middle of a sentence. So read the whole sentence, from line 33, to see what it is about.
Read lines 33–39 as one sentence
Lines 33–34 say “The one thing we know for sure / is that they spin.” “They” means the tiny particles. Then the poem goes on: “This is how gravity / enters our world, how our world is held / both together and apart, what keeps / together the pencil in your hand right now / as well as separate from, say, / Jupiter.”
Work out what it means
“This” points back to the spinning. The spinning is how gravity comes into our world. Gravity is the pull that draws things toward each other. So the particles’ spin holds a pencil together and keeps it apart from Jupiter. A pencil is small and close. Jupiter is a huge planet, far away. Together they stand for everything.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The lines say what particles do. They do not say physicists must keep working.
- B fits. The particles affect everything, from a pencil to a planet.
- C does not fit. These lines state facts with confidence. The physicists who “jot down / what they can” come later, in lines 41–42.
- D does not fit. The pencil and Jupiter are things the particles affect. They are not two subjects of study being compared.
Watch out: D is tempting because Jupiter is in space. But the lines show one force acting on both objects, not two kinds of science.
Choose the answer
A small pencil and a giant planet show that the particles’ effect reaches everything. So the answer is B, “these particles have a powerful effect on everything.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice, since it also notices Jupiter. But D is about studying particles and studying space. The lines are not about study. They say the spin is “what keeps / together the pencil in your hand” and keeps it apart from Jupiter. Small and near, huge and far: that means everything, so B fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 20 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 31Passage Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy
Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy
Inside the 40,000-acre Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northern Oklahoma, herds of bison roam on the scenic land that is home to hundreds of different species of plants and animals. While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.
Fires that are started by lightning or other natural circumstances are inevitable, and the results can be disastrous. However, hundreds of years ago the American Indian people who inhabited the Great Plains area between Minnesota and Texas realized that these fires could also be helpful. The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas. The American Indian people began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on, which enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.
Today conservationists at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and farmers in the Great Plains continue to use controlled burns for land management. Intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there. The fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients. Additionally, the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil.
One common target of controlled burns at the preserve and the surrounding area is the invasive red cedar tree. A single red cedar tree can consume up to 40 gallons of water per day, taking this vital resource away from other plant life. These tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them. The fast-growing red cedar trees tend to crowd out prairie grasses, the primary food source for wild and domestic animals that make the prairie their home. An imbalance in one component of the prairie’s ecosystem affects the entire web of life. Controlled burns help maintain this ecosystem’s delicate balance.
Of course, these controlled fires are intended to burn only a portion of an area. A total burn, which is a risk with an uncontrolled wildfire, would destroy all wildlife as well as the crops farmers plant for income. The key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when. Conservation experts at the preserve employ the “patch-burn” approach, meaning they rotate which portion of land is burned each year. They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned, and then they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land. This patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate. The following year, conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve, while the land burned the previous year regrows healthier than before.
Researchers have tracked and studied the variety of plant species and animals that live on the preserve, and their studies show that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out. The patch-burn system is so successful that the conservationists at the preserve provide training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land. Burning land to make it healthy may seem counterintuitive, but strategic controlled fires have helped the prairie sustain life for hundreds of years and, with careful management, will continue to do so.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 6.
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.
The author includes this sentence to show that
- Athe conservationists are better qualified to lead preservation efforts than farmers are.
- Bthe conservationists are eager to involve others in the preservation of the prairie.
- Cthe conservationists’ efforts will restore the original beauty and biodiversity of the region.
- Dthe conservationists’ training program should serve as a model for other conservation organizations.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the author intends to show by using the second sentence in paragraph 6 in the passage.
A. Incorrect. Although the author refers to the conservationists as “experts” in paragraph 5 and states that conservationists “provide training to prairie farmers” (paragraph 6), the second sentence in paragraph 6 does not imply that the conservationists are better qualified to lead preservation efforts than farmers are. Instead, the sentence shows that conservationists believe that prairie farmers are capable of performing the controlled burns that contribute to overall conservation efforts.
B. CORRECT. The conservationists are eager to involve others in the preservation of the prairie, because “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” and that the process has “helped the prairie sustain life for hundreds of years” (paragraph 6). The second sentence in paragraph 6 describes how conservationists are sharing their knowledge about preservation techniques with people who live on the prairie.
C. Incorrect. Although the author points out in paragraph 6 that “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 idea that controlled burns may help restore the original biodiversity of the prairie is not the focus of the second sentence in paragraph 6, which notes only that conservationists are providing training to farmers about controlled burns.
D. Incorrect. The author mentions in paragraph 6 that the patch-burn system has been “successful” and suggests in the last sentence of the paragraph that the use of controlled burns will continue to benefit the prairie ecosystem. These details imply that this system will continue to be used and may even become more widespread. However, the second sentence in paragraph 6 merely describes a patch-burn training program that already exists and does not suggest that this program should serve as a model for other organizations.
Question analysis
This question quotes a sentence from the last paragraph of the prairie article, about the preserve's conservationists training farmers to run controlled burns on their own land, and asks why the author includes it. Students must work out what this one sentence contributes, and because every choice sounds like something a successful program might show, the test is whether the sentence itself supports it.
- 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 sentence is everyday grade 7 work. The sentence is short and plainly worded, and the choices stay close to the passage's ideas, so each must be measured against what the sentence itself says.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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
Every choice reads something into one plain sentence, so the decision is how far the sentence lets a reader go. Teaching farmers to burn their own land shows a wish to spread the work, which the right choice calls eagerness to involve others. The wrong choices go further: to a ranking of experts over farmers, to restoring the region’s original beauty, or to a model for other organizations, none of which the sentence states.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why the author includes the training sentence, so students must say what it adds after the studies of restored biodiversity, not merely restate that farmers are trained. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Nothing in the sentence calls the conservationists “eager”; that has to be read from their choosing to teach their method to farmers so that it spreads beyond the preserve. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Restate the sentence in your own words, then ask what it adds to the paragraph's account of the patch-burn system's success, rejecting any choice that claims more than the sentence says.
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.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads experts training farmers as a ranking of who should lead, though the sentence shows trust that farmers can run burns themselves, not a claim of superior qualifications.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Draws on the sentence before, where studies show “the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity,” and adds “original beauty,” though the training sentence itself is about sharing the method.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Takes “so successful” as an endorsement and stretches one preserve’s training of local farmers into a model that other conservation organizations should follow, a recommendation the author never makes.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks why the author put one sentence in the passage. The sentence says the patch-burn system works so well that the preserve’s experts train farmers. You need to decide what that sentence shows, and no more.
Read the sentence closely
The sentence says “the conservationists at the preserve provide training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land.” Conservationists are people who work to protect nature. Conducting means carrying out. So the experts teach farmers to do the burns themselves.
Decide what it shows
Why would experts teach their method to others? Because they want more people to help. Their method works, so they share it. Then the burns can happen on farms too, not only at the preserve. That shows they want others to join in protecting the prairie. Preservation means keeping something safe and healthy.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Teaching farmers shows trust that farmers can do it. It doesn’t say experts should lead instead of farmers.
- B is right. Training farmers brings more people into caring for the prairie.
- C is wrong. Restored biodiversity comes from the sentence before. Biodiversity means many kinds of living things. This sentence is about sharing the method.
- D is wrong. The author never says other groups should copy this program.
Watch out: The words “so successful” make D sound right. But the sentence only says the preserve trains local farmers. It doesn’t call the program a model for others.
Choose the answer
The experts share their method so farmers can help too. So the answer is B: “the conservationists are eager to involve others in the preservation of the prairie.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because “so successful” sounds like high praise. But D adds an idea the sentence never states: that other groups should copy the program. B stays with what the sentence shows, experts teaching farmers so they can help.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed (page 41)
Question 21 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 36Passage Letter from Brooklyn
Letter from Brooklyn
by Jacob Scheier
I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.
“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.
brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past
Question
How does the structure of the poem affect the poem’s meaning?
- AThe lack of a rhyming pattern suggests that the beauty of each passing day is unique.
- BThe lengths of the sentences represent the complexity of the thoughts being represented.
- CThe use of complete sentences implies the speaker’s appreciation for the clear beginning and ending of each season.
- DThe single long stanza reflects the continuous flow of the speaker’s thoughts.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the structure of the poem affects its meaning.
A. Incorrect. Though the poem lacks a rhyming pattern, such a structure is not related to the uniqueness of the passing days. The speaker is savoring “the early edge of fall” (line 7) and describes walks taken on “these days” (line 17), but the beauty the speaker appreciates is attributed to the fall season rather than to a unique day. Further, the poem is primarily concerned with broad seasonal shifts, not the passing of each day, and the absence of rhyme does not suggest that each day is unique in its beauty.
B. Incorrect. The poem includes both long sentences (such as the one in lines 7–12) and short sentences (such as those in lines 5 and 6). However, the sentence lengths are not connected with the complexity of the ideas expressed.
C. Incorrect. A complete sentence serves to present the beginning and the end of a single thought, but the poem is not primarily concerned with the speaker’s thoughts on the “clear beginning and ending of each season.” Though it contrasts the speaker’s feelings and experiences during different seasons, the poem does not present descriptions focused specifically on the beginnings or ends of these seasons.
D. CORRECT. Unlike poems that are broken into stanzas reflecting unified groups of thoughts, this poem is one long stanza. This structure serves to emphasize the uninterrupted flow of the speaker’s thoughts from time to time and experience to experience without a clear break between any specific thoughts.
Question analysis
This poetry question asks how the structure of Jacob Scheier's “Letter from Brooklyn,” a poem about walking through the city in early fall, affects its meaning. Students must look at how the poem is built, its sentences, line breaks, stanzas and lack of rhyme, and decide which feature really shapes what the poem says.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 standards ask how a poem's form shapes its meaning. Here each choice names a feature of form that students must first confirm in the poem and then link to its meaning, a typical grade 7 poetry task on a short poem.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 70 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Checking whether a feature exists rules out little here, since the poem is unrhymed, its sentences vary widely and it has one stanza. The decision rests on which feature matches what the speaker does: thoughts move from future to present to memory without a break. The strongest pull ties the lack of rhyme to the uniqueness of each day, which sounds like the poem’s theme of rare moments but is not something rhyme or its absence can show.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question is about form, so students must ask what the single unbroken stanza does: it carries the speaker from the coming cold back to the present walk without a pause. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Three choices name features the poem really has, no rhyme, sentences from five words to six lines, and one stanza, so the meaning each feature is given is what separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Students must know what a stanza and a rhyming pattern are, and that a poem without stanza breaks has no white space marking separate groups of thought. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: For each choice, first check that the poem really has the feature named, then ask whether that feature fits what the speaker is doing throughout the poem, not just in one line.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Applies the habit of finding meaning in free verse, linking the missing rhyme to each day’s unique beauty, which echoes “how rare that is” but follows from nothing in the form.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Rightly sees sentences ranging from five words to six lines, but gives their length a job, matching complex thoughts, that the poem never connects to it.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Assumes complete sentences marking each season’s clear start and end, though the last four lines are a fragment and the poem follows fall’s gradual early turn.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how the poem’s structure shapes its meaning. Structure means how the poem is built: its stanzas, its sentences and its rhyme. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line. It is like a paragraph in a poem.
Look at how the poem is built
The poem has 26 lines and no blank lines, so it is one long stanza. The lines don’t rhyme. The sentences have many lengths. Line 5, “The weather will turn cold,” is short. The sentence in lines 7–12 runs six lines.
Follow the speaker’s thoughts
The speaker is the voice talking in the poem. Line 1 jumps ahead: “I can already see how this will end.” Line 6 comes back: “But that all happens later.” Then the speaker describes the fall air, then the walk, then a lonely feeling. One thought slides into the next with no stop. One unbroken stanza matches that steady flow.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The poem has no rhyme. But missing rhyme can’t show that each day’s beauty is unique, or one of a kind.
- B is wrong. The sentences do vary in length. But the poem doesn’t link long sentences to hard thoughts.
- C is wrong. The poem isn’t about each season’s clear start and end. It describes fall just starting to turn.
- D is right. The single stanza matches thoughts that flow on with no breaks.
Watch out: Three choices name real features of the poem. So don’t stop at Is this true? Ask whether that feature really creates the meaning the choice gives it.
Choose the answer
Continuous means going on without stopping. So the answer is D: “The single long stanza reflects the continuous flow of the speaker’s thoughts.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because the poem does praise a rare moment. But rhyme, or no rhyme, can’t show that each day is unique. One long stanza can show thoughts flowing without a stop. That is how the speaker thinks, from line 1 to line 26.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
Question 22 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 38Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.
Question
Read lines 5–6 from the poem.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
How do the lines develop a central theme of the poem?
- AThey highlight a contrast between the different seasons.
- BThey show the sequence of the changes that are expected to occur.
- CThey warn about a problem that requires thoughtful preparation.
- DThey emphasize the importance of valuing the present.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how lines 5–6 develop a central theme of the poem.
A. Incorrect. In this poem, the speaker describes the impressions of one day in one season: “For now it is the early edge of fall, / leaves green still while the air narrows, / is slightly crisp” (lines 7–9). Despite the reference in line 5 to the eventual arrival of cold weather, lines 5–6 primarily emphasize the speaker’s wish to stay focused on the present moment. A contrast between seasons is not a central theme of the poem.
B. Incorrect. The words “The weather will turn cold” in line 5 refer to one change that is expected to occur, but lines 5–6 do not show a sequence of changes. The line that follows returns to the present: “For now . . .” (line 7).
C. Incorrect. Although the statement that the weather “will turn cold” in line 5 could be construed as a warning, there is no support in lines 5–6 for the idea that some problems require thoughtful preparation. The speaker is reflecting on a fleeting experience, not preparing to solve a problem.
D. CORRECT. Immediately after the line “The weather will turn cold” (line 5), the speaker returns to the current moment: “But that all happens later” (line 6). These lines help develop a central theme by emphasizing the speaker’s choice to value and focus on the present moment. The “But” at the start of line 6 shows the speaker pulling back from the future and refocusing on the present, thus emphasizing the importance of savoring “the moment I am walking inside of” (line 22).
Question analysis
This theme question quotes two short lines from early in “Letter from Brooklyn,” where the speaker says the weather will turn cold, and asks how they develop a central theme of the poem. Students must work out what the pair of lines does at that point and connect it to the whole poem, since each choice describes something two lines about the future could plausibly do.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how particular lines develop a poem's theme is core grade 7 work. These two lines are short and plainly worded, so the demand lies in relating them to the theme of the whole poem, which is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 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
Two short, plain lines carry a theme only when read with their neighbors: the speaker forecasts cold, then dismisses it with “But that all happens later” and returns to “For now.” Students who read line 5 alone take the pair as a forecast and look for contrast, sequence or warning. The tempting contrast choice has some truth, since “But” does mark a turn, yet the turn is from future to present, not from one season to another.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Line 6 never says the present matters; students infer it from “But” pulling back from the forecast and from “For now” in line 7 turning to the early fall around the speaker. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how two lines develop a theme, so students must see their job, setting the future aside, rather than their content, a prediction of cold weather. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Read the lines just before and after lines 5–6, decide what the speaker does with the thought of cold weather, and connect that to what the poem as a whole keeps returning to.
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 part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees cold weather set against early fall and hears contrast in “But,” yet the turn in line 6 is from later to now, and the poem never weighs one season against another.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Takes the opening forecast, tiring of the bridge and the tourists and then the cold, as a sequence, though lines 5–6 name one change and then set it aside.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats the coming cold as a problem to plan for, though the speaker makes no preparations and simply dismisses the future with “But that all happens later.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how lines 5–6 help build a theme. A theme is a big message about life that a poem keeps coming back to. So ask what these two lines do in the poem. Then link that to the whole poem.
Read the lines in place
Lines 1–5 look ahead. The speaker will grow tired of the bridge and the tourists, and “The weather will turn cold.” Then line 6 says, “But that all happens later.” Line 7 begins “For now it is the early edge of fall.” So the speaker thinks of the future, then pushes it aside.
Put it in your own words
“But” marks a turn. The speaker turns from later back to now. It is like saying, Sure, winter is coming, but it isn’t here yet. Then the poem spends many lines enjoying the fall walk. Line 22 speaks of “the moment I am walking inside of.” So lines 5–6 help show a big idea: enjoy the present while you have it.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The turn is from later to now, not from one season to another. The poem doesn’t compare seasons.
- B is wrong. Lines 5–6 name one change, cold weather, and then set it aside. That is not a sequence, or series of steps.
- C is wrong. The speaker doesn’t get ready for the cold. The speaker simply says it “happens later.”
- D is right. The lines push the future aside so the speaker can enjoy the present.
Watch out: A is tempting because “But” signals a contrast. Ask what is being contrasted. It is later and now, not two seasons.
Choose the answer
Valuing means treating something as precious. So the answer is D: “They emphasize the importance of valuing the present.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because line 6 does turn with “But.” Yet the turn moves from the future back to “For now.” The poem never weighs one season against another. It keeps coming back to the present moment, which is what D says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 23 of 106
2026 Practice Test B English, question 41Uses the passage above: “Letter from Brooklyn”.
Question
Read these lines from the poem.
I can already see how this will end. (line 1)
How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of. (lines 21–22)
The lines develop a central idea of the poem by
- Asuggesting the speaker’s desire to find a way to break free from the repetitive pattern of daily life.
- Brevealing the speaker’s feelings of disappointment over the predictable change in season.
- Cemphasizing the speaker’s awareness of the future significance of the present moment in the setting.
- Dshowing the speaker’s anticipation of specific emotions caused by an intimate knowledge of the setting.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how line 1 and lines 21–22 develop a central idea of the poem.
A. Incorrect. Although these lines suggest that life is governed by repetitive patterns, such as the change of seasons, they do not suggest that the speaker wishes to break free from these natural cycles of change, and a desire for freedom is not a central idea of the poem.
B. Incorrect. Although the speaker acknowledges that colder weather will inevitably bring disappointment, the speaker does not suggest in these lines that the predictability of changing weather is itself disappointing. Rather, the speaker recognizes the value of enjoying the present moment.
C. CORRECT. These lines connect the present warmer weather with the future colder weather and develop the central idea that the present “moment I am walking inside of” must be embraced because the speaker will be “nostalgic” for it in the future.
D. Incorrect. In these lines, the speaker is aware that specific emotions will occur in the future, during cold weather, but this awareness is only part of the more complex central idea of the poem, which is that current emotions and feelings must be recognized, experienced, and appreciated.
Question analysis
This central-idea question pairs the first line of “Letter from Brooklyn” with lines 21–22, where Brooklyn makes the speaker nostalgic “for the moment I am walking inside of,” and asks how they develop a central idea of the poem. Students must link excerpts from opposite ends of the poem, untangle a paradoxical image and choose among four abstract statements.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how lines develop a central idea. Here two excerpts twenty lines apart must be read together, one of them built on a paradox, and the four choices are long and abstract, well beyond typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 99 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
This is among the hardest questions in the set because the two excerpts must be joined through a paradox and then matched to four long, abstract statements. Line 1 foresees an ending; lines 21–22 miss a moment while it is still happening, so both look at now from the future. Students who see only the foresight pick the choice about anticipated emotions, while those who hear gloom in “how this will end” settle on disappointment or a wish to escape.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
Lines 21–22 are a paradox: “nostalgic,” glossed as yearning for the past, is aimed at “the moment I am walking inside of,” so the speaker already feels the present as a future memory. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about anticipating “specific emotions” shares the key’s link between future and present; it differs by tracing those feelings to knowing the setting well, which neither excerpt says. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The excerpts are the poem’s first line and lines 21–22, twenty lines apart, and what joins them, the speaker looking ahead at the present, shows only when they are read side by side. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Paraphrase each excerpt on its own, using the glossary's meaning of “nostalgic,” then decide what the first line and the last two share and match that to a choice.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links “how this will end” and growing tired of the bridge to a dull routine and imagines a wish to escape it, which the poem never expresses.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears resignation in “I can already see how this will end” and reads it as disappointment with the seasons, missing that the speaker treasures the present walk.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees the speaker foreseeing feelings in line 1, but traces them to an “intimate knowledge of the setting,” while lines 21–22 long for the present moment itself.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question gives two pieces of the poem: line 1 and lines 21–22. You need the central idea they build together. A central idea is the main point the poem keeps working toward. Read each piece alone first, then join them.
Read line 1
Line 1 says “I can already see how this will end.” The speaker looks ahead. Lines 2–5 then list what will come: growing tired of the bridge, and the cold. So the speaker already pictures the future while living in the present.
Read lines 21–22
The lines say “How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” The glossary says nostalgic means “yearning for the past.” Yearning means longing. But the speaker longs for now, a moment still happening. That is a paradox, an idea that seems impossible but makes sense. The speaker knows this walk will be a precious memory.
Join the two pieces
Both pieces look at the present from the future. In line 1, the speaker sees the end coming. In lines 21–22, the speaker already misses the walk. So the speaker knows this present moment will matter later. Significance means importance.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never wants to break free from daily routine.
- B is wrong. Line 1 can sound gloomy. But the speaker isn’t upset with the seasons. The speaker treasures the walk.
- C is right. The speaker sees that this moment in Brooklyn will be precious later.
- D is wrong. The speaker does foresee feelings. But neither piece says they come from knowing the place well.
Watch out: D gets the looking-ahead part of line 1 right. But lines 21–22 long for the moment itself, not for feelings caused by knowing the city.
Choose the answer
So the answer is C: “emphasizing the speaker’s awareness of the future significance of the present moment in the setting.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because line 1 does show the speaker foreseeing feelings. But D says they come from an “intimate knowledge of the setting.” Neither piece says that. Lines 21–22 miss the moment while it is still happening. C captures that: the present will matter in the future.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 24 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 8Passage Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”
Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”
by Rupert Brooke
The real secret of the beauty and terror of the Falls is not their height or width, but the feeling of colossal power and of unintelligible disaster caused by the plunge of that vast body of water. If that were taken away, there would be little visible change, but the heart would be gone.
The American Falls do not inspire this feeling in the same way as the Canadian. It is because they are less in volume, and because the water does not fall so much into one place. By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile. They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam. Seen from opposite, when the sun is on them, they are blindingly white, and the clouds of spray show dark against them. With both Falls the colour of the water is the ever-altering wonder. Greens and blues, purples and whites, melt into one another, fade, and come again, and change with the changing sun. Sometimes they are as richly diaphanous as a precious stone, and glow from within with a deep, inexplicable light. Sometimes the white intricacies of dropping foam become opaque and creamy. And always there are the rainbows. If you come suddenly upon the Falls from above, a great double rainbow, very vivid, spanning the extent of spray from top to bottom, is the first thing you see. If you wander along the cliff opposite, a bow springs into being in the American Falls, accompanies you courteously on your walk, dwindles and dies as the mist ends, and awakens again as you reach the Canadian tumult. And the bold traveller who attempts the trip under the American Falls sees, when he dare open his eyes to anything, tiny baby rainbows, some four or five yards in span, leaping from rock to rock among the foam, and gambolling beside him, barely out of hand’s reach, as he goes. One I saw in that place was a complete circle, such as I have never seen before, and so near that I could put my foot on it. It is a terrifying journey, beneath and behind the Falls. The senses are battered and bewildered by the thunder of the water and the assault of wind and spray; or rather, the sound is not of falling water, but merely of falling; a noise of unspecified ruin. So, if you are close behind the endless clamour, the sight cannot recognise liquid in the masses that hurl past. You are dimly and pitifully aware that sheets of light and darkness are falling in great curves in front of you. Dull omnipresent foam washes the face. Farther away, in the roar and hissing, clouds of spray seem literally to slide down some invisible plane of air.
Beyond the foot of the Falls the river is like a slipping floor of marble, green with veins of dirty white, made by the scum that was foam. It slides very quietly and slowly down for a mile or two, sullenly exhausted. Then it turns to a dull sage green, and hurries more swiftly, smooth and ominous. As the walls of the ravine close in, trouble stirs, and the waters boil and eddy. These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible. Close in its bands of rock the river surges tumultuously forward, writhing and leaping as if inspired by a demon. It is pressed by the straits into a visibly convex form. Great planes of water slide past. Sometimes it is thrown up into a pinnacle of foam higher than a house, or leaps with incredible speed from the crest of one vast wave to another, along the shining curve between, like the spring of a wild beast. Its motion continually suggests muscular action. The power manifest in these rapids moves one with a different sense of awe and terror from that of the Falls. Here the inhuman life and strength are spontaneous, active, almost resolute. . . . A place of fear.
One is drawn back, strangely, to a contemplation of the Falls, at every hour, and especially by night, when the cloud of spray becomes an immense visible ghost, straining and wavering high above the river, white and pathetic and translucent. The Victorian lies very close below the surface in every man. There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara. I could not get out of my mind the thought of a friend, who said that the rainbows over the Falls were like the arts and beauty and goodness, with regard to the stream of life—caused by it, thrown upon its spray, but unable to stay or direct or affect it, and ceasing when it ceased. In all comparisons that rise in the heart, the river, with its multitudinous waves and its single current, likens itself to a life, whether of an individual or of a community. A man’s life is of many flashing moments, and yet one stream; a nation’s flows through all its citizens, and yet is more than they. In such places, one is aware, with an almost insupportable and yet comforting certitude, that both men and nations are hurried onwards to their ruin or ending as inevitably as this dark flood. Some go down to it unreluctant, and meet it, like the river, not without nobility. And as incessant, as inevitable, and as unavailing as the spray that hangs over the Falls, is the white cloud of human crying. . . . With some such thoughts does the platitudinous heart win from the confusion and thunder of a Niagara peace that the quietest plains or most stable hills can never give.
From LETTERS FROM AMERICA by Rupert Brooke—Public Domain
diaphanous: sheer, translucent
platitudinous: clichéd, common
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible.
Which statement best describes how the sentence fits into the overall structure of the excerpt?
- AIt signals a change from the positive aspects of the Falls to the negative aspects.
- BIt indicates a progression from the literal description of the water to a discussion of timeless truths.
- CIt reinforces a shift from the qualities of the Falls to the qualities of the river.
- DIt introduces a contrast between the obvious and the hidden features of the rapids.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the statement that best describes how the sentence from paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Although in paragraph 2 the author describes the beauty of the Falls as both an “ever-altering wonder” and an “assault of wind and spray,” in paragraph 3 the author does not signal a change from the positive aspects of the Falls to the negative aspects. Instead, the author provides a description of the river and the rapids below the Falls.
B. Incorrect. While the author compares the water of the river to “a slipping floor of marble, green with veins of dirty white, made by the scum that was foam” in paragraph 3, the statement that the lower rapids are “more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible” does not indicate a progression from the literal description of the water to a discussion of timeless truths. Instead, the author is merely describing all aspects of the rapids, both literally and figuratively.
C. CORRECT. The first sentence of paragraph 3 moves the description “beyond the foot of the Falls” to “the river” and then the paragraph begins to describe this location in further detail (“a dull sage green,” “hurries more swiftly,” “smooth and ominous,” “waters boil and eddy”) before reinforcing this shift by confirming it again with the words “These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls.”
D. Incorrect. Although the author states that the waters of the rapids “boil and eddy” and suggests that the rapids are “less intelligible,” these statements do not introduce a contrast between the obvious and the hidden features of the rapids. They merely describe a feature and the sight of the lower rapids.
Question analysis
This text structure question quotes a sentence from paragraph 3 of Rupert Brooke’s “Niagara Falls,” in which the lower rapids are called “more terrifying than the Falls,” and asks how it fits the excerpt’s overall organization. It rewords a question from the 2018 handbook’s Test B. Every choice describes a turn the essay could plausibly take, so students need a clear picture of what each paragraph covers.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 A typical grade 7 structure question asks what one paragraph adds. This one asks where a sentence from the middle of paragraph 3 fits in the whole essay, which means summing up four long paragraphs of century-old prose.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Much to keep track of moderate
- Hard words moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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
A sentence that compares the rapids with the Falls is easy to misplace, because both of its subjects appear elsewhere in the excerpt. The strongest pull is a real turn in the essay, from describing water to musing on destiny, that comes a paragraph later, while “more terrifying” draws students who forget that terror runs through the excerpt from its first sentence. The 2026 verb “reinforces” rewards those who saw that paragraph 3 had already left the Falls with “Beyond the foot of the Falls the river.”
How, not what major Working it out
The task is to place one sentence in the essay’s plan, and the sentence pulls the wrong way: it mentions “the Falls” and “more terrifying,” though its job is to confirm that paragraph 3 has already moved downstream to the rapids. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Much to keep track of moderate Working it out
Placing the sentence takes a summary of all four long paragraphs at once: the Falls’ power, the two Falls’ beauty and the trip behind them, the river below, and the night thoughts on destiny. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
“Less intelligible” means harder to make sense of; a student who takes it as harder to see is led toward a contrast between obvious and hidden features of the rapids. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Sum up each of the four paragraphs in a few words, find where this sentence sits in that outline, and choose the description of the essay’s movement at exactly that point.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes “more terrifying” as the essay’s first turn from the Falls’ beauty to their dangers, but this sentence is about the rapids, and paragraph 1 already speaks of “unintelligible disaster.”
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Names a turn the excerpt really makes, from describing the water to “thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires,” but that turn comes in paragraph 4, not at the rapids.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads “less intelligible” as less visible and finds a contrast between obvious and hidden features, though rapids that “boil and eddy” and leap like “a wild beast” are in plain view.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a text structure question. Structure is the plan of a piece of writing: what each part does and how the parts connect. You get one sentence from paragraph 3. You must decide what job it does in the plan of the whole excerpt. So first sum up what each of the four paragraphs is about.
Sum up the four paragraphs
- Paragraph 1: the real secret of the Falls is “the feeling of colossal power.” Colossal means huge.
- Paragraph 2: the two Falls, their colors, the rainbows, and the scary trip behind the water.
- Paragraph 3: the river below the Falls and its wild rapids.
- Paragraph 4: the author goes back to the Falls at night and thinks about life and destiny, or what happens in the end.
See where paragraph 3 begins
Paragraph 3 opens with “Beyond the foot of the Falls the river is like a slipping floor of marble.” Beyond the foot means past the bottom. So the author has already left the Falls. He follows the river as it “hurries more swiftly” and the waters “boil and eddy,” or swirl. Then comes the sentence: “These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible.” Rapids are a stretch of fast, rough water. Less intelligible means harder to make sense of.
Decide what the sentence does
The sentence names the new place: the lower rapids. It also sets the rapids against the Falls. That tells you again that the essay has moved from the Falls to the river below them. To reinforce something is to make it stronger. The sentence reinforces a shift, or change of subject, that the paragraph’s first sentence began.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Terror is not new here. Paragraph 1 already speaks of “unintelligible disaster,” and paragraph 2 calls the trip behind the Falls “a terrifying journey.”
- B does not fit. The essay does turn to big, timeless ideas, but in paragraph 4, not here.
- C fits. The sentence confirms the move from the Falls to the river.
- D does not fit. The rapids are in plain sight. “Less intelligible” means harder to understand, not hidden.
Watch out: B names a real turn in the essay. But it comes one paragraph later, with “thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires.”
Choose the answer
The sentence names the rapids and compares them with the Falls. That confirms the essay has moved downstream. So the answer is C, “It reinforces a shift from the qualities of the Falls to the qualities of the river.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because the essay really does move from describing water to big ideas about life. But that move comes in paragraph 4, at night. The sentence in paragraph 3 is still describing water. Its job is to name the rapids and confirm that the essay has left the Falls for the river.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed (pages 134–135)
Question 25 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 20Passage Bird Talk
Bird Talk
by Carl Sandburg
And now when the branches were beginning to be heavy,
It was the time when they once had said, “This is the
beginning of summer.”
The shrilling of the frogs was not so shrill as in the
first weeks after the broken winter;
The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more
anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.
The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups
reached across the green pastures.
Tee whee and tee whee came on the breezes, and the grackles
chuzzled their syllables.
And it was the leaves with a strong soft wind over them
that talked most of all and said more than any others
though speaking the fewest words.
It was the green leaves trickling out the gaunt nowhere
of winter, out on the gray hungry branches—
It was the leaves on the branches, beginning to be heavy,
who said as they said one time before, “This is the be-
ginning of summer.”
We shall never blame the birds who come
where the river and the road make the Grand Crossing
and talk there, sitting in circles talking bird talk.
If they ask in their circles as to who is here
and as to who is not here and who used to be here,
Or if instead of counting up last year as against
this year, they count up this year as against next
year, and have their bird chatter about who is here
this year who won’t be here next year,
We shall never blame the birds.
If I have put your face among leaf faces, child,
Or if I have put your voice among bird voices,
Blame me no more than the bluejays.
“Bird Talk” by Carl Sandburg—Public domain.
Question
Read lines 6–7 from the poem.
The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more
anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.
What idea from the second stanza do the lines help develop?
- AThe birds are eager for the return of warmer months.
- BThe birds are most likely to thrive during the spring.
- CThe birds naturally adjust to the seasonal changes.
- DThe birds instinctively prepare for the future.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how lines 6–7 from the poem develop an idea from the second stanza.
A. Incorrect. In lines 2–3, the tree branches exclaim that “ ‘This is the / beginning of summer,’ ” and the birds respond by taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7); however, the birds’ eager reaction to the return of warmer weather is not referenced in the second stanza of the poem, which is more about the nature of birds generally than the changing of the seasons.
B. Incorrect. Birds are more likely to thrive in warmer weather as evidenced by some birds’ migration to a warmer climate during winter, and the creatures in the first stanza are responding to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) in their own way, such as the birds who are taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7). However, the thriving of birds during a particular season is not the focus of the second stanza; rather, it is focused on the general nature of birds.
C. CORRECT. The birds are taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7) in light of warmer weather, but they are not making a big to-do of the change because “a home is a home; worms are worms” (line 7) any time of the year. Such a natural adjustment to seasonal changes is reflected in the second stanza, where the birds “count up this year as against next / year” (lines 26–27) because they are well accustomed to the cyclical nature of things.
D. Incorrect. Although the birds’ actions of “hops and zigzags” (line 6) may indicate some sort of preparation, these actions are not preparation but rather the internalized cognizance of the change that has occurred with little conscious thought. As revealed in the second stanza, birds do not ponder much about past or future but rather adapt naturally as things change.
Question analysis
This question on Carl Sandburg’s poem “Bird Talk” quotes lines 6–7, where the birds hop and zigzag “a little more anxious,” and asks which idea from the second stanza they help develop. Students must link two compressed lines in the first stanza to a later stanza about birds gathered at the Grand Crossing, and every choice sounds like a fair claim about birds.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 poetry questions ask what one line or stanza shows on its own. Here two compressed lines from the first stanza must be tied to an idea the second stanza never states, in Sandburg’s loose, unusual phrasing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 70 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The stem runs in an unusual direction: two lines from the first stanza must help develop an idea that only the second stanza holds, and the poem never states it. Students who read “next year” as planning are drawn to preparation, a choice built on the key’s own frame, while others answer from the first stanza’s summer or from what they know about birds. The question rewards hearing the birds’ roll call of who is gone as the same matter-of-fact acceptance as “worms are worms.”
Reading between the lines major Working it out
Neither stanza states the shared idea: students must hear calm acceptance in “a home is a home; worms are worms” and in birds tallying “who won’t be here next year,” then call it adjusting to change. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about instinctive preparation shares the key’s shape, birds acting by nature as time passes; it differs only in what the birds do, prepare for the future rather than adjust to the seasons. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
Lines 6–7 sit in the first stanza and the idea lives in the second, lines 20–29, so students must carry two lines across the poem and match them to the gathering at the Grand Crossing. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“A home is a home; worms are worms” says nothing on its surface; its meaning, a shrug that life goes on as it always has, has to be read from the repetition. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Paraphrase the second stanza first: what are the birds doing and saying at the Grand Crossing? Then reread lines 6–7 and ask which idea about birds both passages share.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Hears “a little more anxious” as eagerness for the summer announced in lines 2–3, an idea of the first stanza, while the second stanza never mentions weather or warmth.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in the real fact that birds do well in warm weather, which neither lines 6–7 nor the birds’ talk of who is gone says, and the poem’s season is summer, not spring.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Sees nest-building in “a home is a home” and planning in counting “this year as against next / year,” but the birds only note who will be missing and make no preparations.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question points in an unusual direction. Lines 6–7 are in the first stanza. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line. But the idea you need is in the second stanza, lines 20–29. The question asks which idea in stanza 2 these earlier lines also help build. So find the idea in stanza 2 first. Then see how lines 6–7 support it.
Find the idea in stanza 2
In stanza 2, birds sit “in circles talking bird talk.” They ask “who is here / and as to who is not here and who used to be here.” They also talk about “who is here / this year who won’t be here next year.” The birds simply count the changes. They are not upset by them. The speaker says, “We shall never blame the birds.” The idea: birds take the changes that time brings as a normal part of life.
Read lines 6–7 closely
Lines 6–7 say “The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.” As summer comes, the birds hop about a little more nervously and busily. That is a small change. Then the speaker shrugs: “a home is a home; worms are worms.” Life goes on as it always does. The birds change a little and carry on, with no fuss.
See what the two parts share
Both parts show birds meeting change calmly. In lines 6–7, the season turns, and the birds adjust a little. To adjust is to change a little to fit something new. In stanza 2, the birds note who has come and gone, and life goes on. So lines 6–7 help build stanza 2’s idea: birds naturally adjust to the changing seasons.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Stanza 2 never mentions warm weather or being eager for it.
- B does not fit. Nothing in the poem says birds do best in spring. The poem’s season is the start of summer.
- C fits. Both parts show birds taking seasonal change calmly, as a matter of course.
- D does not fit. The birds talk about next year, but they make no plans for it.
Watch out: D is tempting because “a home is a home” can sound like nest building. But the birds only count who will be missing. They do not get ready for anything.
Choose the answer
Lines 6–7 and stanza 2 both show birds accepting change as natural. So the answer is C, “The birds naturally adjust to the seasonal changes.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. Like C, it says birds act by nature as time passes. But D says they prepare, or get ready. In stanza 2, the birds talk about next year only to count who “won’t be here next year.” In lines 6–7, they hop about and carry on. They adjust to change. They do not plan for it.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Bird Talk” as printed (page 32)
Question 26 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 22Uses the passage above: “Bird Talk”.
Question
How does the repetition of “ ‘This is the beginning of summer’ ” in lines 2–3 and lines 18–19 contribute to the meaning of the poem?
- AIt suggests that the shift to summer occurs in the same way each year.
- BIt emphasizes the idea that living things are prepared for the change of season.
- CIt highlights the idea that the first signs of summer are surprising each year.
- DIt builds expectations about what the natural world looks like during a change of season.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the repetition of a phrase contributes to the meaning of the poem in terms of conveying information about a cyclical event.
A. CORRECT. This phrase is used twice verbatim, in both cases to show the figurative words spoken by the branches (lines 2–3) and the leaves on the branches (lines 18–19). Repetition of this phrase conveys the idea that the transition to summer occurs in the same manner each subsequent year and thus evokes the same response from nature.
B. Incorrect. While living things—branches and leaves—both make identical figurative utterances, they do so not because they have prepared for such an event. Rather, these living things take the change in stride because of the sameness and expectedness of the seasonal shifts, which occur in the same way each time.
C. Incorrect. Even though the branches and leaves have been imbued by the speaker with some degree of consciousness in their figurative ability to speak, they are not surprised by the change in seasons. They say the same thing each year because the same thing occurs each year in the same way.
D. Incorrect. Certain lines of the poem do describe the natural world during the change of seasons, such as lines 8–9: “The yellow spreads of the dandelions and buttercups / reached across the green pastures.” However, this repeated phrase serves to evoke a sense of sameness and inevitability; it is not a phrase related to the physical appearance of the natural world, only the way the natural world responds to the seasonal change with simple acceptance for its sameness. The repeated lines do not hold any sort of expectation or anticipation for the coming of summer; they help relay observations made about the state of the season.
Question analysis
This poetry question asks how the repetition of “This is the beginning of summer,” said by the branches in lines 2–3 and by the leaves in lines 18–19 of Sandburg’s “Bird Talk,” contributes to the poem’s meaning. Students must judge what the repetition does, not only what the words say, and the four choices read the repeated line in quite different ways.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what a repeated phrase adds to a poem is familiar grade 7 work. Both passages are pointed out by line number, so the task is to judge the effect of the repetition rather than to find it.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 79 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Both quotations are pointed out, so the work is deciding what the echo adds. Students who know that repetition emphasizes may grab a choice that begins “emphasizes,” and those who hear the quoted words as a cry of discovery may pick surprise, even though that choice shares the key’s “each year.” Reading the lead-ins, “once had said” and “one time before,” settles it: the line is an old, expected announcement.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what repeating the line does for the poem, not what the line says, so students must judge an effect of structure: the same words open the first stanza and close it. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The clue is in the lead-ins, “they once had said” in line 2 and “as they said one time before” in line 18, which present the announcement as words said at this point in earlier years. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Reread each quoted passage together with the line that leads into it, then decide what the poet gains by having the branches and the leaves say the same words.
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
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Moves from the calm, repeated announcement to the claim that branches and leaves were ready for summer, but saying the same words again shows recurrence, not preparation.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Keeps the idea of “each year” but hears the quoted words as a cry of surprise, though “once had said” and “one time before” make them a familiar, expected announcement.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Gives the repeated line the job of the stanza’s pictures, the dandelions and green pastures, though it names when summer begins and says nothing about how the land looks.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about repetition, which means using the same words more than once. The words “This is the beginning of summer” appear in lines 2–3. They come back in lines 18–19. You need to work out what saying them twice adds to the poem’s meaning.
Read the words that lead in
Look at the words just before each quotation. Line 2 says “It was the time when they once had said.” Line 18 says the leaves “said as they said one time before.” Both lead-ins point to the past. The branches and leaves have said these words before, at this same time in other years.
Work out what the repetition shows
The same words come back, just as summer itself comes back. Each year the branches get heavy, the leaves come out, and it is summer again. The change happens the same way every time. So the repeated line works like a yearly announcement that nobody finds strange. It shows that the shift to summer follows a familiar pattern.
Check each choice
- A fits. The repeated words show summer arriving the same way each year.
- B does not fit. Saying the words again shows that summer returns. It does not show that living things got ready for it.
- C does not fit. Something said “one time before” is familiar, not surprising.
- D does not fit. The line only names a time. Pictures like the yellow dandelions show how the land looks.
Watch out: C also says “each year,” so it can look right. But the quoted words are calm, like an old saying, not a cry of surprise.
Choose the answer
The repeated line is an old announcement, made again because summer comes again. So the answer is A, “It suggests that the shift to summer occurs in the same way each year.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, because it also points to something that happens each year. But C says the first signs of summer are a surprise. The lead-ins say the opposite. The branches “once had said” these words, and the leaves said them “one time before.” Words said many times before are expected. They show a pattern, not a surprise.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 27 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 24Uses the passage above: “Bird Talk”.
Question
Throughout the poem, the poet conveys the speaker’s point of view by
- Agradually moving the speaker’s attention from one element of nature to another.
- Bproviding the speaker’s motivation for describing the landscape in great detail.
- Chighlighting the speaker’s emotional response as each season passes.
- Dshifting the speaker’s focus from external observations to personal reflection.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
This question asks for an explanation of how the poet conveys the speaker’s point of view on the natural world and the change of seasons as presented in the poem.
A. Incorrect. Though in the first stanza the speaker describes various elements of nature such as branches, frogs, birds, flowers, and leaves, these elemental shifts are not precisely gradual and occur only in the first stanza. Further, the first stanza, though appreciative of the natural world, is primarily descriptive and does not develop the speaker’s perspective to the degree that other parts of the poem do.
B. Incorrect. While it may be inferred that the speaker describes the landscape to such a degree because it has revealed a seasonal shift, that this is indeed the speaker’s motivation is never explicitly conveyed by the poet.
C. Incorrect. Multiple seasons do not pass in the poem; only the shift to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) occurs in an endless cycle. Further, the speaker does not reveal an emotional response; it is the responses of nature that the speaker describes.
D. CORRECT. The first stanza is the speaker’s observations of the natural world embracing a new season. In the second stanza, the speaker begins to reflect on how the natural world, as embodied by the birds, calmly accepts seasonal change in its perpetual sameness. The reflection continues in the third stanza, where it is revealed that the speaker has been addressing these observations to a child.
Question analysis
This point-of-view question asks how the poet of “Bird Talk” conveys the speaker’s point of view throughout the poem. Students must keep in mind the long opening description of early summer and the two shorter stanzas after it, and decide which description of the poet’s method holds from the first line to the last.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 point-of-view questions often ask what a speaker thinks. This one asks how the poet conveys that view across all three stanzas of a long free-verse poem, and the choices name methods in general terms, closer to grade 8 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 54 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The first stanza takes up 19 of the poem’s 32 lines and moves steadily from branches to frogs, birds, flowers and leaves, so a choice that describes it alone feels right. The point of view shows only when the poem turns to “We” and then to “I” addressing a child, and that third stanza is three hard lines. Students must keep the whole poem’s course in mind and choose the method that holds from first line to last.
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The answer depends on all three stanzas at once: the long catalog of the season in lines 1–19, the shift to “We shall never blame the birds,” and the closing “If I have put your face … child.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about moving from one element of nature to another and the key both describe a shift in the speaker’s attention; they differ in what shifts, nature to nature or the outside world to the speaker’s own thoughts. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the poet conveys a point of view, a method, so a choice must describe what the speaker does across the poem, not what the speaker sees. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The last stanza is cryptic, “Blame me no more than the bluejays,” and students who miss that the speaker is now talking about putting a child into the poem lose the move to reflection. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Write one phrase for what the speaker attends to in each stanza, then keep only a choice that describes the whole sequence, not one stanza.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Describes the first stanza well, its walk from branches to frogs, birds, flowers and leaves, but misses the later turn to “We” and to the speaker’s own “I.”
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Supplies a reason for all the description, perhaps from the closing words to a child, but the speaker never says why the landscape is described, and the reflection is not a motive.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees that the poem follows nature through a change of season but makes it many seasons and hands the creatures’ reactions, such as the birds’ anxious hops, to the speaker as feelings.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about point of view: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, sees things. It also asks how the poet shows that view across the whole poem. So look at what the speaker pays attention to in each of the three stanzas. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line.
Follow the speaker through the stanzas
- Stanza 1, lines 1–19: the speaker describes the world outside. There are branches, frogs, birds, flowers and leaves at the start of summer.
- Stanza 2, lines 20–29: the speaker starts to judge and think. “We shall never blame the birds.”
- Stanza 3, lines 30–32: the speaker says “I” and talks to a child: “If I have put your face among leaf faces, child.”
Name the change in focus
The poem starts with external observations, or things the speaker sees and hears outside. It ends with personal reflection, or the speaker’s own thoughts. In the last stanza, the speaker admits to putting a child’s face and voice into the poem. The speaker asks to be blamed “no more than the bluejays.” Since “We shall never blame the birds,” that means not at all. This move from looking outward to looking inward is how the speaker’s view comes through.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Moving from branches to frogs to birds happens only in stanza 1. It misses the turn to “We” and “I.”
- B does not fit. The speaker never says why the landscape is described.
- C does not fit. Only one change of season happens, the start of summer. The anxious feelings belong to the birds, not the speaker.
- D fits. The speaker moves from describing nature to thinking about it.
Watch out: A describes stanza 1 very well. But the question says “Throughout the poem,” so the answer must cover all three stanzas.
Choose the answer
The speaker starts by watching nature and ends by thinking aloud to a child. So the answer is D, “shifting the speaker’s focus from external observations to personal reflection.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. Stanza 1 really does move from one part of nature to another. But that is only 19 of the 32 lines. In stanzas 2 and 3, the speaker turns to “We” and then “I,” and shares personal thoughts. Only D describes the speaker’s path from the first line to the last.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 28 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 26Passage 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
How does the poem’s form contribute to the poem’s meaning?
- AThe use of one continuous stanza and the pattern of the lines mimic the long and winding shape of the mound.
- BThe uneven line lengths emphasize the variety of ways people interpret the meaning of the mound.
- CThe dashes throughout the poem highlight the speaker’s changing thoughts about the significance of the mound.
- DThe lack of a regular rhyme scheme and meter convey that the speaker struggles to comprehend the vastness of the mound.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the poem’s form contributes to the poem’s meaning.
A. CORRECT. The poem is structured as one long stanza. The line lengths throughout the poem and the line indents (such as those in lines 7–10) create a visual effect so that the poem itself mimics the shape of the Serpent Mound.
B. Incorrect. The uneven line lengths in the poem do not indicate the different interpretations of the mound; separate stanzas or other stopping points would more effectively point to contrasting ideas.
C. Incorrect. The dashes in the poem lead to further explanation of a thought, not a change of thought.
D. Incorrect. The lack of regular rhyme and meter is intended to create a conversational tone rather than show the speaker’s struggle to grasp how large the mound is.
Question analysis
This question about poetic form asks how the form of “Serpent Mound,” a poem set in 1846 at the ancient earthwork in Adams County, Ohio, contributes to its meaning. Students must consider features such as the single stanza, the uneven lines, the dashes and the lack of rhyme, and decide which feature the poem actually puts to work, and how.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Asking how a poem’s form adds to its meaning is a grade 7 standard. Each choice names a feature that is easy to check on the page and pairs it with a meaning that must also be tested, a typical demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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
Every choice names something really on the page, so the work is in the meaning each attaches. The strongest pull pairs the uneven lines with the poem’s real ending, three readings of the oval mound, and the free-verse choice can lean on line 25’s “some idea of the whole thing.” Seeing the key takes a step back from the words to the poem’s outline, which on the test means scrolling through all 41 lines.
How, not what major Working it out
This is a form question: students must see that the single stanza and the indents stepping right and back, as in lines 6–12, draw a winding body on the page, an effect of layout, not of words. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about uneven line lengths names nearly the same feature as the key, the shape of the lines, but gives it another meaning: the mound’s many interpretations instead of its long, winding form. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The choices assume “stanza,” “rhyme scheme” and “meter,” and the idea that a poem’s outline can picture its subject, which the poem never explains. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Test each choice in two steps: confirm that the feature it names is really in the poem, then ask whether the poem supports the meaning the choice attaches to it.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Pairs two real things, the uneven lines and the different readings of the mound at the end, but nothing ties the line lengths to those readings, which come only in lines 29–41.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Spots the dashes in lines 9, 29 and 31, but each one leads into more detail on the thought before it, not into a change in what the speaker thinks of the mound.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links free verse to line 25, where a climbed tree gives only “some idea of the whole thing,” but that is about seeing the shape, and the speaker never seems overwhelmed by it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about form. Form is how a poem is built and how it looks on the page. It includes stanzas, which are groups of lines set apart by blank lines. It also includes line lengths, indents, rhyme and rhythm. An indent is space at the start of a line that pushes it to the right. You need the choice that ties a real feature of form to the poem’s meaning.
Look at the shape on the page
Don’t read the words yet. Just look. The poem is one long block of 41 lines with no blank lines. So it is one continuous stanza. Its lines do not all start at the left edge. Some are pushed in one step, some two, and some three. The steps go in and come back out, again and again.
Follow the lines in and out
Take lines 6–12. Line 6 starts one step in. Lines 7 and 8 start two steps in. Lines 9 and 10 start three steps in. Line 11 comes back to two steps, and line 12 is back at the left edge. The same swing out and back happens again in lines 19–27 and in lines 33–41. Look down the whole poem. Its left edge curves out and back like a snake winding down the page.
Connect the shape to the mound
The poem is about a giant earth mound shaped like a snake. Line 18 calls it “the sinuous body.” Sinuous means full of curves. Line 26 shows “the serpent’s body undulating, slithering.” Undulating means moving in waves. The one long stanza is like the snake’s long body. The lines curving in and out are like its winding shape. The poem looks like what it describes.
Check each choice
- A fits. The single stanza and the winding lines copy the mound’s long, curving shape.
- B does not fit. The lines are uneven. But the different ideas about the mound come only at the end, in lines 29–41. The line lengths are not tied to them.
- C does not fit. The dashes in lines 9, 29 and 31 lead into more detail. They do not show the speaker’s thoughts changing.
- D does not fit. The poem has no rhyme scheme, or pattern of rhymes, and no meter, or steady beat. But the speaker never struggles to grasp how big the mound is.
Watch out: B is tempting because both of its parts are true. But nothing links the line lengths to the different ideas about the mound.
Choose the answer
The poem’s one long stanza and its in-and-out lines draw a winding snake on the page. So the answer is A, “The use of one continuous stanza and the pattern of the lines mimic the long and winding shape of the mound.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. It also points to how the lines look, and the poem does give different ideas about the mound. But the uneven lines run through the whole poem, while those ideas come only at the end. The in-and-out pattern draws a shape, not a set of opinions. That shape is the mound’s long, winding body.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Serpent Mound” as printed (page 40)
Question 29 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 28Uses the passage above: “Serpent Mound”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Pictures men absorbed in measuring who ignore the child, though nothing says so and one of them later suggests the mound looks “as if swallowing the sun.”
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads a secret aim into the visit, but lines 1–2 show the men carrying measuring tools in the open, and the poem never hints at any other purpose.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps to line 35, where the speaker likes a museum man’s phrase; in lines 1–2 the men have only arrived, and the speaker guides them because Ma says to.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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 30 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 29Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Knows the men came “with their measuring tapes and sketchbooks,” so any new feature seems one to record, but the lines after 28 dwell on what the oval means, not on recording it.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices that lines 24–28 describe the serpent’s body just before the oval appears, but line 28 moves on to the mouth end and never sets head and body side by side.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries over lines 16–17, where the humps are “all but / invisible” until you are close, to the oval mound, which the poem never calls hard to see.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 31 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 35Passage 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
Read this sentence from paragraph 5.
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.
The sentence contributes to the overall meaning of the excerpt by
- Aindicating that the attempt to grow crops aboard the ISS is an important endeavor.
- Bdescribing the health effects of spending a significant length of time in space.
- Crevealing why certain kinds of foods are more appealing in space than on Earth.
- Demphasizing the difficulty of preserving the nutrients in the crops grown in space.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how a sentence from paragraph 5 contributes to the overall meaning of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. The sentence explains that astronauts’ current food supply consists of dehydrated foods along with vitamin and mineral supplements that lose nutritional value over time. These details support the idea that growing fresh crops in space, as described in the excerpt, is important for astronauts’ nutrition during long missions.
B. Incorrect. While the sentence mentions food and nutrients and astronauts spending “upwards of 100 days in space,” it does not describe the overall health effects of being in space for this long. Instead, the sentence focuses on the limitations of the food available to astronauts.
C. Incorrect. While the sentence does mention that astronauts eat packaged and dehydrated food while in space and that the food and supplements provided are limited in nutritional value, it does not mention the appeal of foods eaten in space compared with foods eaten on Earth.
D. Incorrect. The sentence explains that supplements can lose their nutritional value over time, but it does not mention whether crops grown in space might also lose nutrients.
Question analysis
This question quotes a sentence from paragraph 5 of the space-farming excerpt about the dehydrated, pre-packaged meals astronauts eat on missions of 100 days or more and the vitamin supplements that lose value in storage. Students explain how the sentence contributes to the overall meaning of the excerpt, which means looking past what it says to the job it does in the article.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one sentence adds to a text’s overall meaning is a core grade 7 skill. The quoted sentence is long but plainly worded, and the paragraph around it is easy to follow, so the task matches typical grade 7 reading.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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 sentence is easy to understand but easy to misuse: its last clause about supplements losing value invites a choice about nutrients fading, and its “100 days” invites one about health. Students who ask what problem the sentence sets up, and notice that the next sentence answers it with Spencer’s goal, see that it explains why growing food in orbit matters.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the sentence does for the whole excerpt, so its facts about dehydrated meals and fading supplements matter only as the problem that crops grown aboard the ISS would solve. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The key names none of the sentence’s facts, while the nutrient choice echoes “lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored” and so looks better supported by the quoted words. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The sentence never says why its facts matter; the reason appears only in the next one, Spencer’s goal of plants that “sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Put the sentence into your own words, note exactly what it says loses value, and then decide what role that fact plays in the excerpt as a whole, not just within the sentence.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “upwards of 100 days in space” and the talk of vitamins as a warning about astronauts’ health, though the sentence describes their food, not what a long mission does to the body.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Links “dehydrated and pre-packaged” to Spencer’s later longing for crunch and turns it into a comparison of how appealing food is in space and on Earth, which the sentence never makes.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees nutritional value fading in storage but moves the problem from the stored supplements, which the sentence names, to crops grown in space, which it never mentions.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks about the job one sentence does in the whole article. Don’t just restate the sentence. Ask why the author put it here. What bigger idea does it help explain?
Read the sentence closely
The sentence is in paragraph 5. It says astronauts can spend “upwards of 100 days in space.” Upwards of means more than. Their meals “come dehydrated and pre-packaged.” Dehydrated means dried out. Their vitamins and minerals come in pills called supplements. And those pills “lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.” So they get less healthy the longer they sit.
See what comes right after it
The next sentence shows why this matters: “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.” To sustain means to keep going. So the sentence sets up a problem. Food on long trips is dried, packaged and weak. Fresh crops grown in space would solve it. That makes the pepper project worth doing.
Check each choice
- A is right. The sentence shows the problem that fresh crops would fix. So it shows that growing crops on the ISS is important.
- B is wrong. It mentions “100 days,” but it tells about food, not what space does to the body.
- C is wrong. It never compares how food tastes in space and on Earth.
- D is wrong. The things that lose value are the stored supplements, not crops grown in space.
Watch out: D uses words close to the sentence’s own. But it moves the problem to the wrong thing.
Choose the answer
The sentence explains why fresh food grown in space matters. So the answer is A, “indicating that the attempt to grow crops aboard the ISS is an important endeavor.” An endeavor is a serious effort.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because the sentence does say that something loses value over time. But it is the supplements in storage that “lose nutritional value.” The sentence never says crops grown in space lose nutrients. Fresh crops are the fix, not the problem. That is why A fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)
Question 32 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 39Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.
Question
The description in paragraph 5 of Lashelle Spencer’s goal develops a central idea of the excerpt by
- Aillustrating that certain types of packaged foods available in space lack particular flavors.
- Bsupporting the notion that spending more than 100 days in space is detrimental to astronauts’ health.
- Coffering an example of how the limited selection of on-mission meals becomes less appealing over time.
- Dmaking an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the description of Lashelle Spencer’s goal in paragraph 5 develops a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Although Spencer mentions how astronauts miss certain eating experiences like the “fresh pop” and “green flavor” not found in packaged and dehydrated food, a central idea of the excerpt is that there is a need to provide fresh, healthy foods for long missions, not that food flavor should be improved.
B. Incorrect. While the excerpt focuses on how spending more than 100 days in space affects nutrition, it does not discuss specific ways in which spending long periods of time in space is detrimental to the health of astronauts.
C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 states that astronauts “can spend upwards of 100 days in space,” the excerpt does not develop a central idea that existing meals in space become less appealing over time.
D. CORRECT. The paragraph explains that astronauts currently rely on supplements for vitamins and minerals, which lose their nutritional value over time. Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” supporting a central idea that astronauts need more nutritionally valuable food to sustain them while in space for long periods of time.
Question analysis
Lashelle Spencer’s goal for growing plants in space is described in paragraph 5 of the WIRED excerpt, and this central-idea question asks how that description develops a central idea of the whole excerpt. Students must connect a single sentence about a scientist’s aim to the article’s larger point, and every choice draws on details from that same paragraph.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students trace how a central idea develops, usually through a plainly stated example. Here the goal’s connection to the central idea runs through the sentences around it, and the choices are abstract restatements, which asks more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 75 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Every choice draws on paragraph 5, and none mentions growing plants, which leaves students looking for the goal without finding it. The flavor quotation that follows the goal is the most memorable detail and the easiest wrong pick. The key works only through context: the goal answers the problem the previous sentence sets out, crews depending on supplements that weaken in storage, which is why it serves the article’s case for fresh food on long missions.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Spencer’s goal names healthy plants and healthy astronauts but no supplements; its link to the key runs through the sentence before it, where vitamins sit in supplements that “lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
No choice restates the goal of growing plants itself, so none can be matched at a glance; each must be tested for whether it ties the goal to the excerpt’s concern with nutrition on long missions. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
How, not what minor Working it out
The question asks how the description develops a central idea, its role in the article, so knowing what Spencer wants is only the first step toward the answer. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The central idea must come from the whole excerpt: paragraph 3’s “nutritional and psychological benefits,” paragraph 8’s “nutritional needs of astronauts” and paragraph 9’s “nutritional content of crops.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: State a central idea of the whole excerpt in your own words, reread Spencer’s goal with the sentences around it in paragraph 5, and pick the option that connects the goal to that central idea.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Settles on the most quotable detail nearby, the “fresh pop of flavor” missing from packaged food, a side remark about taste rather than the nutritional need behind her goal.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Stretches “upwards of 100 days in space” and “healthy astronauts” into a claim that long missions damage health, though the excerpt describes only food and supplements that lose value.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Blends supplements that lose value “the longer they’re stored” with the missing crunch into meals that grow less appealing over time, an idea paragraph 5 never states.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A central idea is a main point the whole article keeps coming back to. This question asks how Spencer’s goal, in paragraph 5, helps build one of those main points. So first, find the goal. Then connect it to the big idea.
Find the goal and the sentence before
Paragraph 5 says: “Spencer’s goal is to create the conditions necessary for cultivating healthy plants in space, so those plants can sustain healthy astronauts on long-term missions.” Cultivating means growing. The sentence just before it shows why she has this goal. Astronauts’ “vitamins and minerals are isolated in supplements, which lose nutritional value the longer they’re stored.”
Connect the goal to the big idea
Today astronauts get vitamins from pills, called supplements. Those pills lose their health value as they sit. Spencer wants fresh plants grown in space to keep astronauts healthy instead. So her goal points to a problem: relying on weak pills. The article returns to food and health again and again. Paragraph 8 mentions “the nutritional needs of astronauts.” Nutritional means having to do with healthy food.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The “fresh pop of flavor” line comes after the goal. It is about taste, a side point.
- B is wrong. The article never says long trips in space harm astronauts’ health.
- C is wrong. It is the stored supplements that lose value over time, not meals that get less tasty.
- D is right. The goal answers a problem: astronauts depend on supplements that weaken in storage. That ties to the article’s idea that astronauts need healthy fresh food on long trips.
Watch out: Spencer’s flavor quote is the most memorable line nearby, so A pulls hard. But her goal is about health, not taste.
Choose the answer
Spencer wants healthy plants because pills are not enough. So the answer is D, “making an important point about the astronauts’ current reliance on supplements for vitamins and minerals.” Reliance means depending on something.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Spencer really does miss the crunch and flavor of fresh food. But her goal is to “sustain healthy astronauts,” which is about health. Health is the big idea the article keeps returning to. D connects the goal to that idea through the supplements that lose value.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 33 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 41Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- A lot to read moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 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.
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)
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)
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)
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
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly hears a call for larger, continuous harvests in “from day one,” then adds a criticism of the crew, though Spencer describes an ideal and blames no one.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Connects the quotation to the 137-day cycle because both concern time, but Spencer neither explains why the cycle lasted that long nor suggests packing more peppers into it.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Ties the quotation to the foil, sealing and freezing in paragraph 2 and to improving that method, though Spencer’s improvement is growing plants all mission long, not storing peppers.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 34 of 106
2026 Practice Test C English, question 42Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming””.
Question
How is the discussion of the genetic engineering of the peppers consumed on the ISS (paragraphs 7–8) important to the excerpt as a whole?
- AIt provides a detail that helps the reader identify a particular variety of pepper consumed on the ISS.
- BIt indicates that the peppers eaten on the ISS resulted from a collaboration between scientists and astronauts.
- CIt allows the reader to understand how the peppers consumed on the ISS differ from most peppers grown on Earth.
- DIt suggests that the peppers consumed on the ISS are of a type that could be grown in natural conditions.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the discussion of the genetic engineering of the peppers consumed on the ISS (paragraphs 7–8) is important to the excerpt as a whole.
A. Incorrect. Although paragraph 7 names the NuMex Española Improved chile pepper as the variety grown on the ISS, this detail is not further developed and does not play a significant role in the overall focus of the excerpt. The passage emphasizes the process and purpose of developing the pepper rather than the pepper itself.
B. Incorrect. While paragraph 7 notes that Paul Bosland collaborated with colleagues to develop the seeds for the experiment, this fact alone is not the reason why the discussion of genetic engineering is important to the excerpt. The key point is that the pepper variety in the experiment was specifically modified to meet the needs of both astronauts and space cultivation. Who participated in the development of the peppers is secondary.
C. CORRECT. Paragraph 7 explains how specialists selected a pepper variety and genetically engineered the seeds for the experiment, while paragraph 8 adds that the variety developed also needed to provide astronauts with proper nutrition and be capable of growing in space. These details are important to the excerpt as a whole because they illustrate how the peppers grown on the ISS differ from most peppers cultivated on Earth in both purpose and design.
D. Incorrect. The details about the genetic engineering of the pepper seeds highlight that the variety was modified to suit specific space-related requirements. However, the excerpt does not discuss whether this type of pepper could be grown in natural conditions on Earth or if doing so is even a goal. Instead, these paragraphs are important because they explain how the pepper was adapted to address astronauts’ nutritional needs and the constraints of space farming.
Question analysis
Paragraphs 7–8 of the ISS pepper excerpt explain that a scientist at the Chile Pepper Institute genetically engineered the seeds grown aboard the space station. This text-structure question asks why that discussion matters to the excerpt as a whole. Students must look past what the two paragraphs say to what they add to the article’s larger account of farming in space.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a section contributes to a whole text is standard grade 7 reading. The two paragraphs in question are short and the four choices are brief single sentences, so the demand matches ordinary grade 7 structure questions.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 98 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The paragraphs are short, but the question asks what they add, not what they say, and the key states something the article leaves implicit. The trap is the collaboration choice: “Working with NASA” and Bosland’s colleagues suggest teamwork, and the excerpt as a whole does pair scientists with astronauts, but the peppers were developed on the ground. Students who instead pick the named variety have found a true detail without a purpose.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why paragraphs 7–8 matter to the excerpt as a whole, so naming what they say, a variety bred at Bosland’s institute, is not enough; their contribution to the account must be stated. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The excerpt never says the space peppers differ from Earth peppers; that follows from a variety bred for “the nutritional needs of astronauts” and “the logistics of growing a plant in space.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 8 turns on “cultivated,” “accommodate” and “logistics,” and paragraph 7 needs its footnote for “genetically engineered,” words a reader must decode to see why the variety is special. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Restate what paragraphs 7 and 8 say about how the pepper was developed and why, then ask what that information adds to the excerpt’s account of farming in space as a whole.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Notices that paragraph 7 names the NuMex Española Improved variety, a true detail, but naming it is not why the discussion of genetic engineering matters to the excerpt.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “Working with NASA” as teamwork with the crew, though Bosland worked with his Chile Pepper Institute colleagues and the space agency; the astronauts only grew what he developed.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Knows that chile peppers grow in ordinary fields and assumes this one could too, though paragraphs 7–8 present a variety designed for space and say nothing about natural conditions.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks why paragraphs 7 and 8 matter to the whole article. Those paragraphs tell how the peppers’ seeds were made. Don’t just repeat what they say. Ask what they add to the article’s story of farming in space.
Find what paragraphs 7 and 8 say
Paragraph 7 says Paul Bosland and his colleagues “genetically engineered the NuMex Española Improved chile pepper seeds grown in Plant Habitat-04.” The footnote explains that they “combined parts of DNA from different plants to produce a new plant.” Paragraph 8 says Bosland developed “a variety that could accommodate both the nutritional needs of astronauts as well as the logistics of growing a plant in space.”
Put it in plain words
A variety is one special kind of a plant. To accommodate means to meet the needs of. Logistics are the practical details of getting a job done. So this pepper was made for space. It had to feed astronauts well. It also had to grow in a small box in orbit. The scientists even chose how hot it would be: “maybe the astronauts need a little spice in their life.”
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The pepper’s name is a true detail. But knowing its name is not why these paragraphs matter.
- B is wrong. Bosland worked “with NASA” and his colleagues, not with the astronauts. The crew only grew the seeds he made.
- C is right. The paragraphs show that this pepper was designed for space. Most peppers on Earth were never made to meet astronauts’ needs or to grow in orbit.
- D is wrong. The paragraphs never say this pepper could grow in a normal field. They show it was made for space.
Watch out: “Working with NASA” can sound like teamwork with the crew. That is the trap in B.
Choose the answer
These paragraphs show that the space peppers were specially made, unlike ordinary peppers. So the answer is C, “It allows the reader to understand how the peppers consumed on the ISS differ from most peppers grown on Earth.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, since the article does show scientists and astronauts working together. But paragraphs 7 and 8 are about seeds made on the ground by Bosland’s team. What they add is that the pepper was designed for astronauts’ needs and for space. That is how it differs from most peppers, as C says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 35 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 1Passage A Memory Revolution
A Memory Revolution
A high school senior logs on to a computer at the library to double-check the application due date listed on a college admissions website. Nearby, a librarian helps a group of biology students use a database to search for recent studies about mammals. In the past few decades, the Internet has become an integral component of daily life for many people. The seemingly limitless power of search engines made the Internet search extremely common, and today people increasingly rely on the Internet’s vast accumulation of sources to access all types of information. Scientists are beginning to examine how this reliance is modifying the strategies people use to store and prioritize information in their mind.
A Dependable and Valuable Asset
Psychologist Benjamin Storm from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and researchers Sean Stone and Aaron Benjamin devised an experiment to study students’ tendency to depend on the Internet for facts. To begin, the scientists divided sixty participants into multiple groups, including an “Internet” group and a “memory” group, and placed them in front of computers. The Internet group was required to use the search engine Google to answer eight challenging trivia questions. In contrast, participants in the memory group were permitted to use only their personal knowledge to answer the questions. In the second round, the researchers administered notably easier questions. This time, they allowed each group the option of using Google as they answered. Their results showed that 83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round, while only 63 percent of the memory group chose to do so.
People’s growing inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information, particularly facts and figures, is called cognitive offloading. Canadian researcher Evan F. Risko and British researcher Sam Gilbert, who have written extensively about the topic, say a similar process has been taking place for centuries. In the past, people used resources like encyclopedias to assist their memories; however, today the Internet, serving as a vast extended memory, allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information. Consequently, people’s minds are free for other cognitive feats, such as connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.
Filing Information Away
The use of the Internet also appears to be modifying the strategies people use to store information in their mind. Researchers Betsy Sparrow from Columbia University, Jenny Liu from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Daniel Wegner from Harvard University conducted several studies to discover how people efficiently manage their information intake.
To begin, the researchers examined how people evaluate which information deserves their effort to remember. For this experiment, participants read forty trivia facts, such as “An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain,” and typed the statements into a computer file. Half the participants had been previously told the file would be saved, while half believed it would be erased. Next, the participants wrote down every fact they could recall. Those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.
In another experiment, the same researchers tested the ability of study participants to remember where to access information. For this trial, participants read and typed trivia statements, which they saved in folders with generic names such as “Facts” and “Items.” After spending ten minutes writing down all the facts they could recall from memory, participants were asked which folder contained a particular fact based on a keyword. For example, “Which folder has the fact about ostriches?” Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself, correctly identifying 49 percent of the folders for specific facts while remembering only 23 percent of the actual trivia. The researchers concluded that our memory is adapting to the Internet age by prioritizing where to locate information even when the specific details are forgotten. According to Sparrow, the Internet has become an important form of transactive memory, an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory.
As the Internet’s resources continue to expand our “external” memory, some question whether the process may cause people to depend too heavily on technology. However, Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, says, “Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.”
Question
The details in paragraph 3 about cognitive offloading convey a central idea of the passage by
- Asuggesting that reliance on the Internet for information is inevitable.
- Bdemonstrating how the methods used to store and find information have changed over time.
- Cexplaining how encyclopedias and the Internet are similar sources of information.
- Dimplying that more information can be understood now than ever before.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the details in paragraph 3 about cognitive offloading convey a central idea of the passage.
A. Incorrect. Although paragraph 3 describes the Internet as “a vast extended memory,” it does not present reliance on the Internet for information as inevitable. The paragraph states that the Internet “allows people to digitally access and retrieve much larger volumes of information” and indicates that this benefit leaves people free to focus on “connecting data, learning new information, or solving problems.” However, these details about the benefits of the Internet do not express an opinion about the inevitability of Internet reliance.
B. CORRECT. A central idea of the passage is that the Internet is changing how people retain information. Paragraph 3 supports this idea by stating that “a similar process has been taking place for centuries” and that “in the past,” resources such as encyclopedias were used to store and find information. The details provided in paragraph 3 about encyclopedias and the Internet show that people have always used resources to remember information and that these resources change over time as people develop new ways to “assist their memories.”
C. Incorrect. While paragraph 3 does compare the use of encyclopedias to obtain information in the past with the use of today’s Internet, this comparison fails to convey the central idea of the passage that the Internet is changing how people remember information.
D. Incorrect. Although paragraph 3 states that “much larger volumes of information” are available on the Internet than what has been available in previous methods of information storage, such as encyclopedias, this fact does not relate to an increase in the ability to understand that information and is not a central idea of the passage.
Question analysis
This central-idea question on “A Memory Revolution,” an article about how relying on the Internet affects the way people remember, asks how the details about cognitive offloading in paragraph 3 convey a central idea of the passage. The paragraph mentions encyclopedias, the Internet and freed-up minds, and the choices each build on a different detail, so students must see what the paragraph adds to the article as a whole.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Tying one paragraph’s details to a central idea is regular grade 7 work. Paragraph 3 is short, but terms such as “cognitive offloading” and “extended memory” are abstract, and students must settle on the article’s central idea before judging the paragraph.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 61 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate statement about paragraph 3 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
Paragraph 3 is built on a then-and-now contrast: encyclopedias once helped people remember, and today the Internet does the same job on a far larger scale. Students who notice only the pairing take it for a likeness, while those who stop at the opening “growing inclination to rely on the Internet” are tempted to call the reliance unstoppable. The point goes to students who first name the article’s central idea, that the Internet is changing how people remember, and then read the paragraph as one stage in a long history.
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The key’s “methods used to store and find information have changed over time” appears nowhere in paragraph 3, while the wrong choices stay near its own wording: reliance on the Internet, encyclopedias beside the Internet, and more information. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The choice calling encyclopedias and the Internet similar sources sets up the same old-and-new pairing as the key; it parts only on likeness versus change, which the paragraph’s “however, today” decides. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The paragraph explains its idea in abstract terms, “cognitive offloading,” “a vast extended memory” and “other cognitive feats,” which must be decoded before its then-and-now structure shows. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Put the article’s central idea about the Internet and memory into your own words first, then test each choice against what paragraph 3’s sentences actually say, not against a word it shares with them.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the “growing inclination to rely on the Internet” and a process “taking place for centuries,” then hardens them into “inevitable,” a claim the paragraph never makes.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Sees, accurately, that paragraph 3 sets encyclopedias beside the Internet as aids to memory, but stops at the likeness and misses the “however” that turns the comparison into a change.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Matches “much larger volumes of information” to more information and swaps the paragraph’s “access and retrieve” for “understood,” though reaching more facts is not grasping them better.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option A says that paragraph 3 “does not discuss reliance on the Internet for information.” It does: the paragraph opens “People’s growing inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information, particularly facts and figures, is called cognitive offloading.” What the paragraph does not do is present that reliance as inevitable, which is why Option A is wrong, as the explanation’s last sentence says. The site now reads “it does not present reliance on the Internet for information as inevitable.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a central idea question. A central idea is a main point the whole article makes. Here the main point is that the Internet is changing how people remember. The question asks how paragraph 3 adds to that point. Paragraph 3 is about “cognitive offloading,” so first work out what that term means.
Read paragraph 3 closely
Paragraph 3 begins: “People’s growing inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information, particularly facts and figures, is called cognitive offloading.” Then it says “a similar process has been taking place for centuries.” Next comes the key sentence: “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.”
Put the paragraph in plain words
An inclination is a habit of leaning toward something. Cognitive means having to do with thinking. To offload is to hand a load to someone else. So cognitive offloading means letting an outside tool do some of your remembering. People have done this for a long time. Long ago they used encyclopedias, books full of facts. Today they use the Internet. The word “however” marks the change from then to now. So the paragraph shows the tools for storing and finding facts changing over time.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The paragraph does talk about people relying on the Internet. But it never says that reliance is inevitable, which means it cannot be avoided.
- B fits. The paragraph moves from encyclopedias “in the past” to the Internet “today.” That is a change in how people store and find information.
- C does not fit. The paragraph does set the two side by side. But it uses them to show a change, not to say they are alike.
- D does not fit. People can “access and retrieve” more information. That means find it and pull it up, not understand it.
Watch out: C is tempting because encyclopedias and the Internet both help memory. Read past the likeness to the word “however.”
Choose the answer
Paragraph 3 shows people moving from encyclopedias to the Internet to help them remember. That supports the article’s point that the Internet is changing memory. So the answer is B, “demonstrating how the methods used to store and find information have changed over time.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice. Paragraph 3 does compare encyclopedias and the Internet. But the comparison makes a point about change: the Internet now holds “much larger volumes of information.” B names that change. C stops at the likeness, so it misses what the paragraph adds to the article.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed (pages 3–4)
Question 36 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 3Uses the passage above: “A Memory Revolution”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Hard words minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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)
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
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes the worry about depending on technology launched the research, though it appears only after the studies, and paragraph 2 says its experiment set out to study a “tendency to depend on the Internet.”
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Credits paragraphs 2 and 6 with benefits found elsewhere, the freed-up minds of paragraph 3 under the heading “A Dependable and Valuable Asset,” though the two studies report results without calling them good.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly sees an opposing view raised but hears the studies as optimistic and the ending as cautious, when Pinker’s quotation answers the worry at once and closes on “keep us smart.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 37 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 9Passage Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”
Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”
by Orville Wright
In 1903 brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted experiments related to flying machines. These experiments would eventually lead to air travel becoming a reliable form of transportation.
During the night of December 16, 1903, a strong cold wind blew from the north. When we arose on the morning of the 17th, the puddles of water, which had been standing about camp since the recent rains, were covered with ice. The wind had a velocity of 10 to 12 meters per second (22 to 27 miles an hour). We thought it would die down before long, and so remained indoors the early part of the morning. But when ten o’clock arrived, and the wind was as brisk as ever, we decided that we had better get the machine out and attempt a flight. We hung out the signal for the men of the Life Saving Station.1 We thought that by facing the flyer into a strong wind, there ought to be no trouble in launching it from the level ground about camp. We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing.
Final Preparations
We laid the track on a smooth stretch of ground about one hundred feet north of the new building. The biting cold wind made work difficult, and we had to warm up frequently in our living room, where we had a good fire in an improvised stove made of a large carbide2 can. By the time all was ready, J. T. Daniels, W. S. Dough and A. D. Etheridge, members of the Kill Devil3 Life Saving Station; W. C. Brinkley of Manteo, and Johnny Moore, a boy from Nags Head,4 had arrived.
We had a “Richard” hand anemometer with which we measured the velocity of the wind. Measurements made just before starting the first flight showed velocities of 11 to 12 meters per second, or 24 to 27 miles per hour. . . .
Audacity—and Calculation
Wilbur having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th, the right to the first trial now belonged to me. After running the motor a few minutes to heat it up, I released the wire that held the machine to the track, and the machine started forward in the wind. Wilbur ran at the side of the machine, holding the wing to balance it on the track. Unlike the start on the 14th, made in a calm, the machine, facing a 27-mile wind, started very slowly. Wilbur was able to stay with it till it lifted from the track after a forty-foot run. One of the Life Saving men snapped the camera for us, taking a picture just as the machine had reached the end of the track and had risen to a height of about two feet. The slow forward speed of the machine over the ground is clearly shown in the picture by Wilbur’s attitude. He stayed along beside the machine without any effort.
Flight
The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center. This gave it a tendency to turn itself when started; so that it turned too far on one side and then too far on the other. As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet, and then as suddenly dart for the ground. A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight. As the velocity of the wind was over 35 feet per second and the speed of the machine over the ground against this wind ten feet per second, the speed of the machine relative to the air was over 45 feet per second, and the length of the flight was equivalent to a flight of 540 feet made in calm air. This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.
From “How We Made the First Flight” by Orville Wright—Public Domain/Federal Aviation Administration
1Life Saving Station: one of the rescue stations along the Atlantic coastline that provided assistance to mariners in distress
2carbide: a very hard material composed of carbon and other heavy metals
3Kill Devil: the town of Kill Devil Hills in eastern North Carolina
4Nags Head: a town in eastern North Carolina
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
Wilbur having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th, the right to the first trial now belonged to me.
The sentence contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt by
- Ademonstrating the challenge of the extreme winter conditions during the flight.
- Brevealing how many tries it took for Wilbur Wright to finally get the machine to take flight.
- Cdemonstrating that both Orville and Wilbur Wright were eager to pilot what could potentially be the first flight.
- Dsuggesting a sense that both brothers felt confident they would soon succeed in completing the first flight.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 4 does not refer to the challenge of the winter conditions during the flight attempt.
B. Incorrect. While the sentence from paragraph 4 specifically references a previous flight several days earlier, it does not state how many attempts came before Wilbur’s attempt on December 14.
C. CORRECT. The sentence from paragraph 4 indicates that the Wright brothers had agreed to take turns attempting to achieve the first flight, which suggests their eagerness to each be the first to successfully fly the machine.
D. Incorrect. Orville’s trial came about simply because the brothers took turns, which would suggest that there was no greater likelihood of success or reason to be more confident at that moment than there had been for previous attempts.
Question analysis
This question quotes the sentence that opens the “Audacity—and Calculation” section of Orville Wright’s account, in which he explains that the first trial on December 17 was his because Wilbur had used his turn on the 14th. Students decide how the sentence contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt. Several choices bring in other parts of the story, so students must stay with what this one sentence shows.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what one quoted sentence adds is routine grade 7 work. This sentence is short but opens with an old-fashioned “Wilbur having used his turn” construction, and its point about the brothers is implied rather than stated.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 7, 816 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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 sentence is about whose turn it is, and the question asks what that arrangement says about the brothers. A quick reader may lose the subject in the opening phrase and think Wilbur is still trying, or may carry the cold of earlier paragraphs into a sentence that never mentions it. The harder call is between eagerness and confidence: the heading “Audacity—and Calculation” makes confidence sound right, but a failed attempt three days earlier gives no reason for it.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The choice about confidence matches the key’s frame, both brothers feeling something about the first flight; it differs in one word, confident instead of eager, and only eagerness follows from taking turns. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The sentence names no feeling; eagerness has to be read from the turn-taking itself, the brothers alternating for “the right to the first trial,” a chance each wanted to be his. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The sentence opens with an absolute phrase, “Wilbur having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th,” whose subject is not the subject of the main clause, so a reader can lose track of who flies. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Untangle the sentence first: say who used a turn, when, and who goes next. Then ask what the arrangement it describes suggests about the two brothers, and test each choice against that.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries the frozen puddles and “biting cold wind” of paragraphs 1 and 2 into this sentence, which says nothing about the weather and is only about whose turn it was.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Loses the subject of the opening phrase and has Wilbur keep trying until he flies, though the sentence mentions one failed attempt and gives this trial to Orville.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “the right to the first trial” and the heading “Audacity—and Calculation” as confidence, but taking turns says nothing about their odds, and the attempt on the 14th had failed.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one sentence adds to the excerpt. The sentence is short, but it starts in an old-fashioned way. First untangle who did what. Then ask what the sentence tells you about the two brothers.
Untangle the sentence
The sentence is “Wilbur having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th, the right to the first trial now belonged to me.” The first part gives a reason. In plain words: Wilbur already had his turn on the 14th. Unsuccessful means it failed. The second part says: so now it is my turn. The “me” is Orville, who wrote the excerpt. A trial here is a try.
Ask what taking turns shows
The brothers took turns trying to fly. Each one had a “right” to a turn. You take turns when both people want the same chance. Each brother wanted to be the pilot. This could be the first flight in history, so both were eager. Eager means they really wanted it.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The sentence says nothing about the cold or the wind.
- B does not fit. It mentions only one failed try by Wilbur. And this trial was Orville’s, not Wilbur’s.
- C fits. Taking turns shows that each brother wanted to fly the machine.
- D does not fit. Nothing in the sentence shows confidence. The last try had failed, and it was simply Orville’s turn.
Watch out: D is tempting because the section heading is “Audacity—and Calculation.” Audacity means boldness. But taking turns shows eagerness, not a belief that they would succeed.
Choose the answer
The turn-taking shows that both brothers wanted to fly. So the answer is C, “demonstrating that both Orville and Wilbur Wright were eager to pilot what could potentially be the first flight.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong choice. Both C and D describe how the brothers felt about the first flight. But the sentence gives no reason to feel sure of success. It even mentions “the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th.” What it does show is that each brother wanted his own turn. That is eagerness, so C fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”” as printed (pages 13–14)
Question 38 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 11Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight””.
Question
How do the details in paragraph 5 about the uneven nature of the flight convey a central idea of the excerpt?
- Aby explaining how the flawed design of the machine caused it to turn unpredictably in the air and brought the first flight by a person to an abrupt end
- Bby indicating that the difficulty in controlling the flight was caused by the rudimentary instruments of the machine and the inexperience of the pilot
- Cby explaining how the pilot and the plane overcame adverse conditions in order to complete the first piloted flight
- Dby indicating that the gradual change in wind velocity created an extreme environment in which to maneuver the plane and maintain its flight
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the details in paragraph 5 about the uneven nature of the flight convey a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 explains that the rudder was unbalanced and the effect that this issue had on the flight, but the rudder was only part of the reason for the short flight. The length of the flight is not a central idea of the excerpt.
B. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 does explain that the equipment contributed to the difficulty of controlling the plane’s flight, the lack of control over the flight is not a central idea of the excerpt, which focuses instead on the Wright brothers’ achievement of a successful flight despite the challenges involved.
C. CORRECT. The details in paragraph 5 describe the difficulties that the weather conditions and mechanical issues presented and how Orville’s flight was successful despite those problems. The Wright brothers’ ability to overcome difficult circumstances and complete the first flight is a central idea of the excerpt.
D. Incorrect. While paragraph 5 does emphasize the difficulty caused by the wind, it does not describe a “gradual change” in the wind, only that it was irregular.
Question analysis
This central-idea question asks how the details in paragraph 5 of Orville Wright’s “How We Made the First Flight,” which describe the machine darting up and down because of uneven air, a hard-to-control front rudder and the pilot’s inexperience, convey a central idea of the excerpt. The paragraph also includes speeds and distances, and students must decide what its details mean for the account as a whole.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a paragraph’s details to a central idea is regular grade 7 work. This paragraph is long and technical, with a rudder problem and a calculation of speeds, and most choices restate its problems accurately, so students must decide what the details add up to.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- A lot to read minor
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 7, 816 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 115 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 paragraph 5 is about trouble, the uneven air, a rudder balanced too near the center, an inexperienced pilot and a dart that ended the flight, and two wrong choices describe that trouble accurately. What turns the details into a central idea is the paragraph’s last sentence, which calls the 12-second flight the first of its kind in history. Students who stop before it, or who take the problems as the point, miss that the excerpt is a story of success.
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The key’s “overcame adverse conditions” sums up the paragraph in new words, while the wrong choices repeat its own: the rudder’s “tendency to turn itself,” the dart that “ended the flight,” the “lack of experience” and “the velocity of the wind.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
A lot to read minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 5 runs about 250 words, and its problems and a 61-word speed calculation all come before the closing sentence, the only one that presents the flight as a success. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The paragraph never says anyone overcame anything; students must set its problems beside its last sentence, a machine that “sailed forward” and landed “as high as that from which it started,” to see success despite them. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Note what each part of paragraph 5 describes, from its first sentence to its last, then decide what the excerpt as a whole is about and choose the option that ties the two together.
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.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Gets the rudder and the dart that ended the flight right but builds on that one failure, dropping the paragraph’s closing point that the short flight was still history’s first.
B True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Restates the paragraph’s own explanation of the erratic course, inexperience and a hard-to-control rudder, which is accurate, but treats the lack of control as the point when the excerpt builds toward success.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Picks up “the velocity of the wind” and the hard flying but invents a “gradual change” in the wind, when the paragraph speaks only of “the irregularity of the air.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a central idea question. A central idea is a main point of the whole excerpt. Paragraph 5 describes an uneven, bumpy flight. The question asks how those details support a main point. So read the whole paragraph, including its last sentence.
Find the problems in paragraph 5
Paragraph 5 begins “The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine.” Erratic means jumpy and hard to predict. The front rudder, a part that steers, was hard to control. The machine “would rise suddenly to about ten feet, and then as suddenly dart for the ground.”
Read the last sentence
Then the paragraph turns. It says “This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight.” Nevertheless means “even so.” The wind, the hard steering and the pilot’s inexperience all worked against him. Even so, the flight worked. Conditions that work against you are called adverse.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The rudder problem and the sudden end are real. But A stops there and misses that the flight was a first.
- B does not fit. Paragraph 5 does blame the rudder and the pilot’s inexperience. But the excerpt is about success, not about the lack of control.
- C fits. The problems show what Orville overcame to make the first flight.
- D does not fit. The paragraph never says the wind changed gradually, or slowly. It speaks of “the irregularity of the air.”
Watch out: B is tempting because it repeats the paragraph’s own reasons for the bumpy flight. But true details are not the same as the main point.
Choose the answer
The problems in paragraph 5 make the success at the end more impressive. So the answer is C, “by explaining how the pilot and the plane overcame adverse conditions in order to complete the first piloted flight.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. It is true that the rudder and the pilot’s “lack of experience” made the flight hard to control. But that is only the first part of paragraph 5. The last sentence calls the flight the first of its kind. The problems show what had to be overcome. C ties the details to that success.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 39 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 14Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight””.
Question
The use of chronological structure contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt by
- Aoutlining the actions that the Wright brothers took to prepare for and successfully complete the first flight.
- Bidentifying the primary factors that allowed the Wright brothers to overcome obstacles and achieve the first flight.
- Cshowing how the Wright brothers applied lessons learned from their previous flight attempts to accomplish the first flight.
- Ddemonstrating how the Wright brothers analyzed the impact of wind velocity to identify the ideal conditions for the first flight.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the use of chronological structure contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. Through the chronological structure, Orville addresses all stages of the flight in a way that builds from flight concerns and preparations for takeoff to his experiences during the flight and his successful landing.
B. Incorrect. While obstacles are presented within the excerpt, the chronological structure emphasizes the events that ended in the successful achievement of flight on that day rather than how the Wright brothers overcame obstacles.
C. Incorrect. The chronological structure of the excerpt does not show that the Wright brothers applied lessons learned from their previous attempts at flight; instead, the structure describes Orville’s December 17 attempt.
D. Incorrect. While Orville’s narrative certainly shows a strong need to analyze wind speed, this idea is not conveyed through the chronological structure of the excerpt. Additionally, the description of the first flight on December 17 indicates that it did not take place in ideal conditions (“We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind” [paragraph 1] and “The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air” [paragraph 5]).
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks how the chronological structure of Orville Wright’s “How We Made the First Flight,” an account that begins on the night of December 16, 1903, contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt. Students must see what telling events in time order does for the account. Each choice names a purpose that could suit a story of the first airplane flight.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Grade 7 structure questions often ask how a less obvious pattern, such as problem and solution, shapes ideas. This excerpt is plainly told in time order, with dates and section headings, so recognizing what that order does is a lighter task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 7, 816 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 87 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The excerpt is plainly chronological, with a date in its first sentence and headings that move from “Final Preparations” to “Flight,” so the structure is easy to recognize. The difficulty is in saying what that order does. The strongest pull sounds like the excerpt’s central idea, success over obstacles, but ranking the causes of success is analysis, not sequence, and the other choices invent lessons from the failed attempt on the 14th or a search for ideal winds.
How, not what minor Working it out
The question asks what telling events in time order does, and the excerpt moves from the night of December 16 through laying the track and the launch to the flight, so the structure’s job is to trace those steps. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The choice about the primary factors shares the key’s ending, achieving the first flight; it differs in its first half, an analysis of what made success possible, which a time order does not set out. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Skim the section headings and the first sentence of each paragraph to see how the excerpt moves through time, then test each choice against what a time order can do.
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
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Expects the structure to explain why the flight succeeded, a fair summary of the excerpt’s message, but time order tells events as they happened and never ranks which factors mattered most.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Builds on the failed attempt of the 14th and assumes the brothers learned from it, though the excerpt only contrasts that calm start with this windy one.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Recalls the anemometer readings and the risk estimate and turns them into a search for ideal conditions, though the brothers flew in a wind whose difficulties and added dangers they admitted.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a structure question. Chronological structure means telling events in time order, from first to last. The question asks what that order does for the excerpt. So first check how the excerpt moves through time.
Trace the order of events
Look at the section headings and the start of each paragraph.
- Paragraph 1 starts “During the night of December 16, 1903.” The brothers decide to fly.
- Under “Final Preparations,” they lay the track and measure the wind.
- Under “Audacity—and Calculation,” Orville takes off.
- Under “Flight,” the machine flies and lands.
Say what the time order does
The story moves step by step. It goes from getting ready, to taking off, to flying, to landing. Each step leads to the next. By the end, you have followed everything the brothers did to make the first flight happen. The last sentence says the machine “had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.”
Check each choice
- A fits. Time order lays out what the brothers did to prepare and then to fly.
- B does not fit. Primary factors are the main causes. Time order tells events as they happen. It does not rank which causes mattered most.
- C does not fit. The excerpt mentions the failed try on the 14th. But it never says what they learned from it.
- D does not fit. They did not wait for ideal, or perfect, conditions. They flew in a strong wind and knew its dangers.
Watch out: B is tempting because the excerpt does show success over problems. But naming the main causes of success is a different job from telling events in order.
Choose the answer
The time order walks you through the preparations, the takeoff and the flight. So the answer is A, “outlining the actions that the Wright brothers took to prepare for and successfully complete the first flight.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. The excerpt does show the brothers succeeding despite problems. But time order cannot explain which factors mattered most. It just tells events in the order they happened. That is what A says: the time order outlines the actions, from getting ready to completing the flight.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 40 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 15Passage 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Picks up “protected area” from paragraph 1 and turns it into Darimont’s reason for choosing the site, though the paragraph never says what he thought of the rainforest.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Credits Darimont with expecting different groups of wolves, though it was Starr who drew that line; paragraph 2 says the question “took Darimont by surprise.”
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Supplies a familiar custom, asking an elder’s permission before research begins, though paragraph 1 says Darimont went to the First Nations “to learn what they knew about these wolves.”
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.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed (pages 23–24)
Question 41 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 16Uses the passage above: “Wolves of the Sea”.
Question
Why does the author include details about the conversation between Starr and Darimont in paragraph 2?
- Ato explain why Starr had closely observed the relationship between the two groups of wolves Darimont wanted to study
- Bto show that Darimont was hoping to work with Starr and to study both groups of wolves in the area
- Cto highlight that Darimont was unfamiliar with the area and expected Starr to help him find wolves to study
- Dto emphasize that the question asked by Starr caused Darimont to review his initial assumption about the wolves
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks why the author includes details about the conversation between Starr and Darimont in paragraph 2.
A. Incorrect. The details in paragraph 2 do not explain why Starr had closely observed the two groups of wolves. Instead, they convey that Starr believed the wolves to be separate groups (“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”), a supposition that intrigued Darimont and ultimately changed the course of his research study.
B. Incorrect. Although paragraph 1 indicates that Darimont did hope to work with Starr (“he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves”), Darimont did not initially plan to study both groups of wolves in the area because, as the conversation in paragraph 2 indicates, he did not initially know they were two distinct groups of wolves.
C. Incorrect. The details about the conversation in paragraph 2 highlight that Darimont was eager to learn from Starr’s knowledge of the wolves (“Darimont was intrigued by Starr’s classification of the wolves as two different groups”), but they do not indicate that Darimont expected Starr’s help to find the wolves.
D. CORRECT. According to paragraph 2, Starr wanted to know which group of wolves Darimont planned to study—“the timber wolves (mainland wolves) or the coastal wolves on the islands.” The author states that the question “took Darimont by surprise,” adding that “Darimont was intrigued by Starr’s classification of the wolves as two different groups.” The author adds that Darimont was initially “hesitant to accept the idea” that the wolves were separate groups but ultimately spent years studying the two groups of wolves. These details indicate that the question Starr posed to Darimont forced Darimont to reevaluate his initial assumption “that the wolves that are sometimes spotted swimming between islands and eating salmon are the same wolves that live on the mainland” and investigate Starr’s observation that the wolves had separated into two distinct groups.
Question analysis
In paragraph 2 of “Wolves of the Sea,” the Heiltsuk elder Chester Starr asks Darimont whether his team will study the timber wolves or the coastal wolves on the islands. This question asks why the author includes the details of that conversation, so students must explain what a short exchange does for the passage, not just what was said.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why an author includes a detail is everyday grade 7 structure work. The paragraph in question is short and plainly written, and each choice can be checked against it directly, so the demand is typical of grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 91 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The paragraph is short and the turn in it is clear: a question surprises Darimont, he doubts it, and he sets out to test it. The main risk is the choice that mixes a true fact from paragraph 1, that Darimont wanted to learn from Starr, with a plan to study two groups he did not yet know existed. Students who keep the order of events straight, what Darimont believed before and after Starr spoke, rule it out.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why the conversation is there, so students must say what Starr’s question about “the timber wolves … or the coastal wolves” does to Darimont’s research, not just repeat it. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Paragraph 2 never says Darimont rethought anything; the review of his assumption is pieced together from “took Darimont by surprise,” “hesitant to accept” and the ten-year study that followed. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read all of paragraph 2, not just Starr’s question, and say in your own words why the conversation matters to the research; then reject choices that add facts the paragraph never gives.
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.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Assumes the conversation is there to show how Starr came to know the two groups, but paragraph 2 reports only his question, never how or why he watched the wolves.
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly recalls that Darimont hoped to learn from Starr, but he could not have planned to study “both groups” before Starr’s question told him there were two.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns Darimont’s wish to learn what the Heiltsuk knew into a newcomer asking a local guide to find wolves for him, a reason the passage never gives.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the author’s purpose. Why did the author put the talk between Starr and Darimont into paragraph 2? Don’t just retell the talk. Ask what it does to Darimont and his research.
Find the conversation
Paragraph 2 opens with Starr’s question. He asked which wolves the team would study, “the timber wolves (mainland wolves) or the coastal wolves on the islands.” Next, “The question took Darimont by surprise.” Why? “Biologists had always believed” that the island wolves were “the same wolves that live on the mainland.”
Follow what happens next
Darimont “was intrigued,” which means curious. Still, “At first, he was hesitant to accept the idea.” Hesitant means unsure and slow to agree. Then, “To find out,” his team studied the wolves for ten years. So Starr’s question made Darimont rethink his first belief. He had assumed, or believed without checking, that all the wolves were one group.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The paragraph gives Starr’s question. It never says how or why Starr watched the wolves.
- B is wrong. Darimont did hope to learn from Starr. But he could not plan to study both groups before he knew there were two.
- C is wrong. Nothing says Darimont needed Starr to help him find wolves.
- D is right. The question surprised Darimont and sent him to test his first idea. His initial assumption means that first idea.
Watch out: B mixes a true fact from paragraph 1 with a plan Darimont did not have yet. Keep the order of events straight.
Choose the answer
The talk shows Starr’s question changing how Darimont thought about the wolves. So the answer is D, “to emphasize that the question asked by Starr caused Darimont to review his initial assumption about the wolves.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer. It is true that Darimont wanted to work with Starr. But before Starr spoke, Darimont thought all the wolves were one group. So he had no plan to study two groups. D fits the order of events: Starr asks, Darimont is surprised, and then he tests his old idea.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 42 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 18Uses the passage above: “Wolves of the Sea”.
Question
The author uses the word “admits” in paragraph 5 most likely to
- Anote that Darimont’s genetic research verified a theory based solely on field observations.
- Bimply that Darimont’s study was disappointing because the conclusion that he reached was not original.
- Cemphasize that Darimont’s study ultimately confirmed an idea that he had initially doubted.
- Dhighlight that Darimont’s results led him to draw a conclusion from his research that his team did not agree with.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the most likely reason why the author uses the word “admits” in paragraph 5.
A. Incorrect. The word “admits” highlights the surprising difference between Darimont’s initial idea and the conclusion he ultimately drew from the results of the study. Though Darimont’s genetic research did, in fact, verify the field observations of the wolves, this does not explain the author’s use of the word “admits” in paragraph 5.
B. Incorrect. The conclusion that Darimont reached was actually quite original, since biologists widely believed the two separate groups of wolves to be one (“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” [paragraph 2]). The author uses the word “admits” in paragraph 5 to emphasize how unexpected Darimont found the conclusion to be (“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?” [paragraph 2]), not to indicate that the study was a disappointment.
C. CORRECT. The use of “admits” emphasizes that Darimont found the idea of two species of wolves “ ‘totally bizarre at first’ ” (paragraph 5) but ultimately proved it to be correct. Paragraph 2 suggests that Darimont, like other scientists, “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.” Therefore, the results of the study were likely to strike biologists as bizarre, and the use of the word “admits” in paragraph 5 highlights Darimont’s shift from doubt to confirmation.
D. Incorrect. Darimont’s team conducted the research that helped him confirm Starr’s idea and draw the conclusion that the wolves were separate species (“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” [paragraph 4]). However, the opinions of Darimont’s research team are not described in the passage, and the word “admits” does not indicate that they disagreed with his conclusion.
Question analysis
This word-choice question asks why the author of “Wolves of the Sea” uses the verb “admits” to introduce Darimont’s own comment in paragraph 5, the passage’s last paragraph. Students must weigh what this one verb adds to the quotation, beyond simply reporting speech, and test four explanations that each make a claim about Darimont’s study.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why an author picked one word is typical grade 7 work. “Admits” is a familiar verb and the quotation it introduces is short, though students must look beyond that one sentence to judge what the verb conveys.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 72 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A stray comma in the explanation was removed.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two choices describe what the study did, and both are accurate, so truth alone does not settle the question; the stem asks what one verb adds. Students who remember that the DNA backed up what had been observed can stop there without asking why Darimont would need to admit anything. The other two choices read the concession in “admits” as disappointment or as a dispute with the team, neither of which the passage describes.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why the author chose “admits” over a neutral verb like “says,” so students must hear the verb’s sense of conceding an earlier mistake and link it to Darimont’s “totally bizarre” first reaction. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The verification choice and the key both say the study confirmed an earlier idea; only the key adds that Darimont had doubted it, which is the part “admits” actually conveys. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Compare “admits” with a neutral verb such as “says,” decide what extra meaning it carries, and then check which choice that meaning explains, rather than which choice is simply true of the study.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Chooses a fact the passage supports, that the DNA work backed up what had been observed, but that says nothing about why Darimont “admits” his first reaction.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “admits” as a reluctant confession that the study let him down, perhaps because Starr knew first, though the finding was new to biologists and Darimont sounds grateful.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “admits” as giving way in an argument and imagines a team that rejected the conclusion, though the passage never reports what Darimont’s team thought.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In its explanation of Option B, the DOE ends the quotation from paragraph 2 with a comma before the citation: “…the same wolves that live on the mainland,” [paragraph 2]. Nothing follows in the sentence, and the passage has a period there, so the site drops the comma.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the author chose one word, “admits.” The author could have written says. So ask what extra meaning “admits” adds.
Find the word in paragraph 5
Paragraph 5 opens, “It turned out that Chester Starr was right all along.” Next comes “It sounded totally bizarre at first,” admits Darimont, “that there could be two versions of the species.” Bizarre means very strange. He now sees that this “skepticism” showed his “ignorance of indigenous knowledge at the time.” Skepticism means doubt. Indigenous means belonging to the people who first lived in a place.
Work out what “admits” means
To admit something is to say it is true, even if you would rather not. People often admit a mistake. So “admits” tells you Darimont first doubted Starr’s idea and now owns up to it. Back in paragraph 2, he “was hesitant to accept the idea.” Then his study proved that same idea right.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The DNA work did back up what people had seen. But that fact does not explain why Darimont has to admit anything.
- B is wrong. Nothing says Darimont was let down. He sounds thankful for what he learned.
- C is right. “Admits” shows a change from doubt to agreement. His study confirmed, or proved true, an idea he once found strange.
- D is wrong. The passage never says what his team thought. No one argues with him.
Watch out: A is true about the study, so it is tempting. But the question asks what the word “admits” does, not what the study found.
Choose the answer
“Admits” stresses that Darimont once doubted Starr’s idea but came to see it was right. So the answer is C, “emphasize that Darimont’s study ultimately confirmed an idea that he had initially doubted.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Like C, it says the study confirmed an earlier idea. But A leaves out the doubt. You only admit something you once got wrong or pushed away. C includes that change, from finding the idea “totally bizarre” to accepting it. That change is what “admits” adds.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 43 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 23Passage 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links darkness with mystery, a common pairing, but nothing in the stanza is hidden or puzzling; the stress falls on how dark the country night was.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes a child out in the dark must be afraid, but the stanza is full of wonder, with “jewels” in the sky and crickets singing, and shows no fear.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Knows italics can mark insistence but reads “night” as one particular evening, though the speaker means country nights in general, at a fair held “year after year.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed (page 32)
Question 44 of 106
2026 Practice Test D English, question 24Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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.
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)
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
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads solitude into the country scene and company into the city, though the speaker watched with a mother, sister and cousin, and the repeated words link the scenes.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices that both lines describe sounds, the crickets’ song and people’s voices, which is true, but that is what the lines say, not why the words are repeated.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Assumes the repetition must refer to the fireworks of the title, though “rising and falling” describes crickets and voices and compares neither one to fireworks.
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).
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 45 of 106
2025 Practice Test A English, question 10Passage Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”
Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”
by Hilary Wilson
In ancient Egypt, literacy was the key to success. However, contrary to popular belief, not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs. Many relied instead on the simpler hieratic script for the multitude of everyday documents generated by the Egyptian bureaucracy.
Hieroglyphs—“the Words of God”—compose a writing system with more than 1,000 distinct characters, the meanings of which were lost for 1,500 years before they were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Including both ideograms (which convey a whole word or idea, either concrete or abstract, in a single sign) and phonograms (representing either an alphabetic sound or a group of consonants), [the writing system] was used in formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls as well as on elaborate funerary papyri. For everyday purposes, however, scribes used a shorthand version of the hieroglyphic script known as hieratic, which was quicker to write and more economical of space. The two writings existed side by side for at least 2,500 years.
Scraps of ancient hieratic writing, mostly penned by student scribes on limestone flakes called ostraca, suggest that no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything. Horemheb (d.1292 B.C.) is a good example. Born of middle-ranking parents, his scribal training led to an army career. From Scribe of Recruits, during the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 B.C.), Horemheb rose through the military ranks and, by the rule of Tutankhamun (1332–1323 B.C.), he was commander in chief of the Egyptian forces. As a close adviser of the young Pharaoh, Horemheb was appointed “Deputy of the King throughout the Two Lands,” and might have expected to succeed to the throne should the king die childless. He had to wait a few years, but eventually Horemheb achieved the pinnacle of his career by becoming the last king of the 18th Dynasty, making his mark by instituting dramatic reforms to the organisation of the army, the judiciary and administration in general. The lasting success of these changes owed much to his scribal background. . . .
But education was not available to all. Government departments and major temples supported schools, where boys commenced their training at six or seven, sometimes earlier. To these boarding establishments . . . family or household servants delivered the students’ food and drink rations daily for several years, during which time the student was not contributing to the family’s income. Boys from poorer families could only hope to be educated with support from a wealthier relative or patron, or through apprenticeship to an older scribe, perhaps the local clerk or land agent, who would teach them the basics of the scribe’s craft. This limited the scope for employment but such “on the job” training allowed apprentices to help out at home while learning. . . .
Scribal education began with the elementary principles of the hieratic script. The lowliest scribes, who trained for just five or six years, probably learned only the rudiments of the hieroglyphic script. Students were set exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting on basic-format letters, reports and contracts, while absorbing the good advice contained in the texts. Surviving examples of copy-work sometimes include tutors’ corrections added in red. Some significant Egyptian literary works survive almost exclusively from student copies.
A schoolboy “dictionary” of hieroglyphs with their hieratic equivalents shows that a knowledge of more than 450 signs was required for everyday writing purposes. Lessons in record-keeping and filing and labelling enabled any half-competent scribe to perform that most essential of all scribal functions: the making and updating of lists. For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs. Those with the best handwriting or drawing skills might follow the craft of creating beautifully illustrated copies of funerary texts, commonly called Books of the Dead. Others could become draughtsmen, artists or architects. Doctors compiled their own collections of medication recipes, treatments and associated incantations, many copied from texts found in the House of Life, the temple library. Lawyers had to be familiar with the corpus of civil and religious laws and precedents found in the official records, which were administered by archivists. Egypt’s bureaucratic society depended on the skills of an army of scribes of all ranks from filing clerk to tax assessor. For young Egyptians, “be a scribe” was the best of career advice.
From “Scribe Like an Egyptian” by Hilary Wilson from HISTORY TODAY, August 8, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by History Today Ltd. Company.
bureaucracy: an administrative staff of government officials
funerary papyri: a sheet or scroll of papyrus containing religious images and hieroglyphs meant to help the deceased be reborn in the afterlife
rudiments: basics
schoolboy: slang that refers to materials used during the course of receiving an education
draughtsmen: people who draw plans of machinery or structures
corpus: a collection of writings
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 2.
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.
The author’s purpose for including the sentence is to
- Aexplain that hieroglyphs were reserved for royal and religious purposes.
- Bdemonstrate the methods experts use to interpret hieroglyphs.
- Cclarify the significance of hieroglyphs in language and literature.
- Ddescribe the basic features of hieroglyphs and how they were typically used.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for an explanation of the author’s purpose for including a sentence in paragraph 2 that describes the two types of hieroglyphs and the main uses of this particular writing system.
A. Incorrect. The sentence explains that hieroglyphs were used for formal inscriptions, but it does not suggest that these inscriptions were limited to royal and religious contexts.
B. Incorrect. The sentence describes the two basic types of hieroglyphs, ideograms and phonograms, but it does not address how experts interpret the ancient writing system. A sentence earlier in the paragraph explains that the hieroglyphs were deciphered by Champollion, but it does not explain how he deciphered them.
C. Incorrect. Although the sentence explains that the hieroglyphs were typically used for formal inscriptions, it does not provide an explanation of the significance or importance of hieroglyphs in the Egyptian language.
D. CORRECT. The sentence explains that hieroglyphs included both phonograms and ideograms that were used in formal inscriptions and funeral papyri; therefore, this sentence achieves the purpose of describing the basic features of hieroglyphs as conveying either words and ideas or sounds, in addition to explaining the common uses for the writing system.
Question analysis
This author’s-purpose question quotes a long, technical sentence from paragraph 2 of “Scribe Like an Egyptian” about the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system, and asks why the author includes it. Students must make sense of its specialist vocabulary before they can say what the sentence contributes to the paragraph and to the article.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why an author includes a sentence is regular grade 7 work. This one is long, with definitions in parentheses and a bracketed insert, but it is quoted in full, so the task stays within one sentence.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences moderate
- Hard words minor
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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 parentheses are set aside, the sentence says two simple things: what kinds of signs hieroglyphs were, and where they appeared. The wrong purposes each go one step beyond that, turning tombs and temples into an exclusive royal and religious use, borrowing Champollion’s deciphering from the sentence before, or claiming a significance the sentence never weighs. Students who untangle the syntax first find the matching purpose quickly.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The quoted sentence runs fifty words, two parenthetical definitions come before the verb, and its subject, the bracketed “[the writing system],” appears only after thirty words of description. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Ideograms,” “phonograms” and “funerary papyri” are specialist terms; the parentheses define the first two, but students who stall on them may not reach the sentence’s plain point about where the signs were used. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks why the author includes the sentence, so students must match the job it does in paragraph 2 to a purpose, and only one purpose stays within what the sentence actually covers. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Restate the quoted sentence in plain words, setting the parentheses aside at first, then choose the purpose that fits everything the sentence says and nothing more.
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.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls” and “funerary papyri” as royal and religious only, though the sentence names where hieroglyphs usually appeared, not a rule reserving them.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Remembers that Champollion deciphered the signs, which the sentence before reports, and takes this sentence for an account of how experts read them, though it never mentions interpreting.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Chooses an important-sounding purpose, the significance of hieroglyphs in language and literature, though the sentence never says why the script mattered or mentions any literature.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the author put this sentence in paragraph 2. In other words, what job does the sentence do? First work out what the sentence says. Then pick the purpose that matches all of it and adds nothing extra.
Untangle the long sentence
The sentence is long, so set the parentheses aside at first. The main part says the writing system “was used in formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls as well as on elaborate funerary papyri.” An inscription is writing carved or painted on something. Funerary means having to do with burials. Papyri are scrolls made from papyrus, a kind of early paper.
Read the parentheses
Now add back the two kinds of signs. Ideograms “convey a whole word or idea” in one sign. Phonograms stand for “either an alphabetic sound or a group of consonants.” Consonants are letter sounds like b, t and m. So one kind of hieroglyph shows a meaning, and the other shows a sound.
Sum up the sentence’s job
Put the two parts together. The sentence tells what hieroglyphs were made of: signs for ideas and signs for sounds. It also tells where people usually used them: on tombs, temples and burial scrolls. So its job is to describe what hieroglyphs were like and how they were used.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The sentence says where hieroglyphs usually appeared. It never says they were reserved, or kept only, for kings and religion.
- B does not fit. The sentence before it says Champollion figured out the signs. This sentence never says how experts read them.
- C does not fit. The sentence never says why hieroglyphs mattered, and it never mentions literature.
- D fits. It names both parts: the basic features and the usual uses.
Watch out: Tombs and temples sound royal and religious, so A tempts. But “used in” is not the same as “reserved for.”
Choose the answer
The sentence describes the two kinds of signs and where they were usually used. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice. Tombs and temples do suggest kings and religion. But the sentence only lists where hieroglyphs were used. It never says they were kept for those uses alone. D matches everything the sentence says and adds nothing it doesn’t.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the test
Question 46 of 106
2025 Practice Test A English, question 17Passage 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.
The text of this excerpt is not reproduced here for copyright reasons. Read it as printed on the test under “The original DOE question” on each question’s page.
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.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 80 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.
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)
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)
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
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Chooses a theme loose enough to fit almost any story; the sentences show the parents’ pasts and a sudden realization, not a series of challenges.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears stress and confusion in Ellen’s “funny feeling,” though the sentences suggest a quiet, wistful realization, and nothing in the excerpt shows her confused about leaving.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Seizes on Mom cooking “as though she were a New Englander herself” and adds that adapting was easy, which the sentence never says; it praises her skill, not the ease of learning.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the test
Question 47 of 106
2025 Practice Test A English, question 18Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 80 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.
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)
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)
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
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees that the remark prompts Dad’s offer to drive Ellen into town but credits it with revealing his reasons, which neither the remark nor his offer gives; Ellen guesses one later.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Turns Ellen’s coming departure into an emotional withdrawal, though after speaking she grows no more distant; she worries about her parents and, in the flashback, clings to Mom.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Recalls paragraph 1’s comment that Mom thinks no farther ahead than tomorrow morning, but the remark shows nothing of the kind: Mom answers it at once with a plan of her own.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 48 of 106
2025 Practice Test A English, question 22Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 80 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.
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)
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)
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
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes a farmer’s absence must mean more chores, perhaps from Dad’s reminder about the cow and Mom’s “I’ll manage,” though the flashback never shows Ellen and Mom burdened with extra work.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Sees the warmth between Ellen and her parents and stretches it into a bond that lasts through a long separation, though the memory ends the night Dad leaves.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Ties the flashback to Ellen’s unease about leaving but misplaces the worry: what troubles her is how her parents will manage without her, not whether leaving will be too hard.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 49 of 106
2025 Practice Test A English, question 37Passage 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Connects the breeze that clears the dust in paragraph 9 to Wade’s alertness, but the change that alerted him was the moist wind of paragraph 6, and he was watchful even earlier.
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the clearing dust and the herd’s steady circling as a lull, then calls the riders unprepared, though they were tense and ready, singing to the herd on fresh horses.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees leadership in Wade’s resolve that “He must keep them going,” which is there, but paragraph 9 does not introduce it: he had saved his best horse and started the singing earlier.
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.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)
Question 50 of 106
2025 Practice Test B English, question 15Passage A Miracle Mile
A Miracle Mile
In the 1950s people compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest and nicknamed the feat a “dream mile.” Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier. One of them was a twenty-five-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister.
Roger Bannister had tasted failure during the 1952 Olympics. There, he was favored to win the 1,500-meter competition, a distance slightly shorter than a mile, but he finished in a dismal fourth place instead. Bannister’s performance was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain. Determined to redeem himself, Bannister postponed his plans to retire from racing and focused on the ultimate prize—breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.
Bannister attacked the elusive milestone with a positive attitude and logical planning. The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed. For these workouts, Bannister ran an interval of ten consecutive laps on a quarter-mile track, aiming for sixty seconds each lap. In between intervals, he let his body recover for two minutes.
By early 1954, Bannister had succeeded in lowering his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds, but he had to shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target. Frustrated by the plateau he had reached, Bannister took a break from training and went mountain climbing for three days. The rest from running permitted his muscles to recuperate and left him feeling refreshed. When Bannister returned to the track, he completed ten quarter-mile-long intervals at fifty-nine seconds each. He finally felt prepared to attempt to break the world record.
As a member of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), Bannister joined the AAA team for a track meet against Oxford University. The event took place on a cinder track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Bannister and his two AAA teammates, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, were close friends and frequent running partners. Chataway and Brasher agreed to help Bannister accomplish his goal by being his “rabbits.”
In track and field, rabbits are runners who enter the race solely to pace a teammate for a segment of the course. Typically, a runner settles in behind the rabbit and allows the rabbit to set an appropriate tempo. Additionally, by running behind the rabbit, the runner conserves about 15 percent of his or her effort. When the starting pistol fired, Brasher pounced into the lead, and Bannister followed behind his first rabbit.
Propelled by the excitement, Bannister lost his instinctive feel for his pace and shouted “Faster!” at Brasher. Brasher, however, remained composed and maintained his current steady but grueling pace, completing the first two laps in a desirable one minute and fifty-eight seconds. Then Chataway surged forward, leading Bannister at this same punishing rate for another lap and a half. At the beginning of the back straightaway of the track, Bannister bolted past Chataway. Bannister said, “I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim.” Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. The ecstatic crowd erupted the moment the timekeeper announced the word “three.”
Soon after Bannister’s achievement, four other athletes matched his performance. A new mindset had taken root among runners. Over the years, the record continued to fall. However, the current record, 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, has stood unbroken since 1999. Some question whether this record represents the limits of human ability. But perhaps there is another Bannister, an athlete who, with willpower and dedication, will accomplish the miraculous.
Question
How does the author’s use of chronological structure contribute to the development of ideas in the passage?
- AIt presents the increasing physical effects of Bannister’s training methods as he prepared to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
- BIt shows the increase in Bannister’s confidence in his ability to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
- CIt emphasizes the key events in Bannister’s life that inspired him to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
- DIt highlights the progression of Bannister’s training and details about his successful attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the author’s use of chronological structure contributes to the development of ideas in the passage.
A. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions the “plateau” Bannister dealt with and the break that “permitted his muscles to recuperate,” the chronological structure of the passage focuses mainly on the progression of Bannister’s process over time.
B. Incorrect. Even though the passage suggests that Bannister’s ability to break the four-minute-mile barrier improved and that he felt “prepared to attempt to break the world record” (paragraph 4), the chronological structure of the passage primarily serves to show how Bannister’s progress over time led to his success.
C. Incorrect. The chronological structure of the passage begins with an acknowledgment that Bannister was inspired to break the four-minute-mile barrier by his loss at the 1952 Olympics (paragraph 2); however, the overall organization of the passage highlights his dedicated efforts over time to break the four-minute-mile barrier.
D. CORRECT. The chronological structure of the passage follows the progression of Bannister’s training from his loss at the 1952 Olympics to the race where he ran the first sub-four-minute mile on May 6, 1954 (paragraph 5).
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks how the chronological structure of “A Miracle Mile,” an article about Roger Bannister’s attempt to run a mile in under four minutes, contributes to the development of its ideas. The article moves from the 1950s to the present day, and each choice names a thread a reader might trace through it, so students must decide which one the time order really follows.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how an author organizes a text. Here the stem names the structure, and the article moves through dated events in plain prose, so seeing what the order brings out is lighter than most grade 7 structure questions.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 84 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The article tells Bannister’s story in order, and the right choice simply names what that order follows: training that improves, then the race itself. Each wrong choice picks a thread the text touches without tracing, a confidence present from the start, a physical toll mentioned once, an inspiration that comes only from 1952. Students who sum up each paragraph in a few words see that only the training and the race run all the way through.
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem names the structure and asks what it does, so students must say which thread the time order follows from the 1952 Olympics to May 6, 1954, not retell the events. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each wrong thread has a foothold: “a positive attitude” and “finally felt prepared” for confidence, muscles that needed to “recuperate” for physical effects, and the 1952 loss for inspiration. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
A thread counts only if it runs from paragraph 2 to paragraph 7, so it must cover both the training of paragraphs 3 and 4 and the race told in paragraphs 5 to 7. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Note in a few words what each paragraph covers, in order, then choose the description that matches what the whole sequence follows rather than one detail along the way.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Recalls the plateau and the muscles that needed to “recuperate” in paragraph 4, but the article tracks lap times falling from sixty-one to fifty-nine seconds, not a physical toll that grows.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Follows Bannister from “Frustrated by the plateau” to “finally felt prepared” and “the moment of a lifetime,” but he began with “a positive attitude,” and the order traces training, not confidence.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Starts from the 1952 Olympic loss that left him “Determined to redeem himself,” but that single event belongs to paragraph 2, and the later paragraphs follow training and a race, not further inspirations.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a structure question. Chronological structure means telling events in time order, from first to last. The question asks what that order helps the passage show. So sum up each paragraph in a few words. Then see which thread runs through all of them.
Sum up each paragraph in order
- Paragraph 1: In the 1950s, a four-minute mile seemed impossible.
- Paragraph 2: Bannister loses at the 1952 Olympics and sets his goal.
- Paragraph 3: He makes a training plan.
- Paragraph 4: By early 1954, his laps get faster.
- Paragraph 5: A race is set for May 6, 1954. Two teammates will set his pace.
- Paragraphs 6–7: The race is run. He finishes in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
- Paragraph 8: Other runners match him, and over the years the record is lowered.
See what the order follows
Most of the passage follows two things. First, his training improves step by step. The track is a quarter mile, so four laps make a mile. Sixty seconds a lap would be exactly four minutes. He goes from sixty-one seconds a lap to fifty-nine, so the goal comes within reach. Second, the passage gives details of the race. It is set up in paragraph 5 and run in paragraphs 6 and 7. Progression means step-by-step progress.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. His body comes up only now and then, as when a rest “permitted his muscles to recuperate” in paragraph 4. Recuperate means recover. The passage never tracks effects that grow, and A leaves out the race.
- B does not fit. He had “a positive attitude” from the start, in paragraph 3. The order follows what he did, not how sure he felt.
- C does not fit. Only one event inspired him, the 1952 loss in paragraph 2. After that come training and the race.
- D fits. The order traces his training and then the record-breaking race.
Watch out: B is tempting because he “finally felt prepared” in paragraph 4. But that is one moment, not the thread of the whole passage.
Choose the answer
The time order follows Bannister’s training as it improves, then the race where he broke the barrier. So the answer is D, “It highlights the progression of Bannister’s training and details about his successful attempt to break the four-minute-mile barrier.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice. Bannister does end up ready, and he “finally felt prepared” in paragraph 4. But he began with “a positive attitude,” so his confidence does not build from low to high. The paragraphs follow his training and then the race itself. Only D names both.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)
Question 51 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 11Passage Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”
Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”
by Zitkala-Sa
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) was a Native American writer, musician, teacher, and political activist who was raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. In 1900 she published “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” (the term Indian was commonly used at the time to refer to Native American people) to expose readers to what life is like on a reservation.
Soon after breakfast Mother sometimes began her beadwork. On a bright, clear day, she pulled out the wooden pegs that pinned the skirt of our wigwam1 to the ground, and rolled the canvas part way up on its frame of slender poles. Then the cool morning breezes swept freely through our dwelling, now and then wafting the perfume of sweet grasses from newly burnt prairie.
Untying the long tasseled strings that bound a small brown buckskin2 bag, my mother spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads, just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette. On a lapboard she smoothed out a double sheet of soft white buckskin; and drawing from a beaded case that hung on the left of her wide belt a long, narrow blade, she trimmed the buckskin into shape. Often she worked upon small moccasins for her small daughter. Then I became intensely interested in her designing. With a proud, beaming face, I watched her work. In [my] imagination, I saw myself walking in a new pair of snugly fitting moccasins. I felt the envious eyes of my playmates upon the pretty red beads decorating my feet.
Close beside my mother I sat on a rug, with a scrap of buckskin in one hand and an awl in the other. This was the beginning of my practical observation lessons in the art of beadwork. From a skein3 of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews my mother pulled out a single one. With an awl she pierced the buckskin, and skillfully threaded it with the white sinew. Picking up the tiny beads one by one, she strung them with the point of her thread, always twisting it carefully after every stitch.
It took many trials before I learned how to knot my sinew thread on the point of my finger, as I saw her do. Then the next difficulty was in keeping my thread stiffly twisted, so that I could easily string my beads upon it. My mother required of me original designs for my lessons in beading. At first I frequently ensnared many a sunny hour into working a long design. Soon I learned from self-inflicted punishment to refrain from drawing complex patterns, for I had to finish whatever I began.
After some experience I usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares. These were some of the set forms. My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience. The quietness of her oversight made me feel strongly responsible and dependent upon my own judgment. She treated me as a dignified little individual as long as I was on my good behavior; and how humiliated I was when some boldness of mine drew forth a rebuke from her!
In the choice of colors she left me to my own taste. I was pleased with an outline of yellow upon a background of dark blue, or a combination of red and myrtle-green. There was another of red with a bluish-gray that was more conventionally used. When I became a little familiar with designing and the various pleasing combinations of color, a harder lesson was given me. It was the sewing on, instead of beads, some tinted porcupine quills, moistened and flattened between the nails of the thumb and forefinger. My mother cut off the prickly ends and burned them at once in the centre fire. These sharp points were poisonous, and worked into the flesh wherever they lodged. For this reason, my mother said, I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.
Always after these confining lessons I was wild with surplus spirits, and found joyous relief in running loose in the open again. Many a summer afternoon a party of four or five of my playmates roamed over the hills with me. We each carried a light sharpened rod about four feet long, with which we pried up certain sweet roots. When we had eaten all the choice roots we chanced upon, we shouldered our rods and strayed off into patches of a stalky plant under whose yellow blossoms we found little crystal drops of gum. Drop by drop we gathered this nature’s rock-candy, until each of us could boast of a lump the size of a small bird’s egg. Soon satiated with its woody flavor, we tossed away our gum, to return again to the sweet roots.
From “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” by Zitkala-Sa—Public Domain
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BEADWORK IN SOUTH DAKOTA
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1500s | The Dakota use beads made from bones, shells, stones, and animal teeth. European traders bring glass beads to North America. |
| Late 1600s | The Dakota begin trading with the French in Minnesota. |
| 1830s | The Dakota begin using glass beads in clothing, artwork, and decorations in place of Native-made beads. |
| 1862–1865 | The Dakota are expelled from their homelands in Minnesota as a result of the U.S.-Dakota War. |
| 1900s–1920s | The Dakota create items to sell outside their community. |
Source: MNopedia
1wigwam: hut with an arched framework of poles covered with bark, mats, or animal hides
2buckskin: leather made from the skin of a male deer
3skein: coiled length of yarn or other thread loosely wound on a reel
Question
The author’s use of sequence in paragraphs 1 and 2 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt by
- Alisting the many steps that are involved in the process of beading in order to explain its difficulty and complexity.
- Bconveying the importance of following the steps of the beading process in a precise order to work most efficiently.
- Cemphasizing the time required to fully prepare for and execute the many large and small tasks in the activity of beading.
- Ddetailing each step in preparation for beading in order to highlight the author’s enthusiasm for the work.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the author’s use of sequence in paragraphs 1 and 2 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author does list the steps her mother takes in preparation to do beadwork, such as “untying the long tasseled strings” of the bag of beads, spreading the beads beside her on a mat, and using “a long, narrow blade” to trim the buckskin into shape. However, the language used to describe this sequence does not indicate that preparing to work with beads is difficult or complex.
B. Incorrect. Although the author’s description of untying the bag of beads, spreading the beads upon a mat, smoothing out a sheet of buckskin, and trimming the buckskin into shape in paragraph 2 indicates that the mother follows a certain routine, it does not place any emphasis on working most efficiently by following the steps of the beading process in a precise order.
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author describes her mother “untying the long tasseled strings that bound a small brown buckskin bag,” “spread[ing] upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads,” “smooth[ing] 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” to trim the buckskin. Although these descriptions do outline the steps in her process for creating beadwork, they do not emphasize the time required to do so, since the author does not mention in the excerpt how long it took her mother to fully prepare for and complete the large and small tasks in the activity of beading.
D. CORRECT. In paragraph 1, the author describes how the morning begins with her mother rolling up the canvas of the wigwam and allowing the breeze to come in. In paragraph 2, the author uses sensory language and precise sequencing to describe the way her mother prepares the beading materials by untying “the long tasseled strings that bound a small brown buckskin bag,” spreading the “bunches of colored beads” beside her, and smoothing out “a double sheet of soft white buckskin.” This combination of sequence and sensory language highlights the author’s enthusiasm for beadwork by emphasizing that the author pays close attention to her mother’s preparations.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the step-by-step description of a mother preparing her beadwork, in the opening paragraphs of Zitkala-Sa's memoir, contributes to the excerpt's ideas. Every choice agrees that steps are listed, so students must judge which purpose the text actually supports and resist reasons that only sound likely for a craft.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 structure questions usually ask what a paragraph adds to a topic. This one asks what an ordered description achieves, in dense 1900 prose where the purpose is never stated outright, which goes beyond typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 95 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misquotation 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
All four choices agree that the paragraphs lay out steps, so the question turns entirely on purpose, and three of the purposes sound like natural reasons to describe a craft. Nothing in paragraphs 1 and 2 calls the work hard, slow or a matter of efficiency; what they do show is a child following every move and becoming intensely interested. Students who look for the narrator's own reaction find the purpose, while those who reason from the steps alone drift to difficulty or time.
How, not what major Working it out
The stem asks what the ordered account of untying the bag, spreading the beads, and smoothing and trimming the buckskin does for the excerpt, a purpose the author never states. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The difficulty choice shares the right one's frame, steps laid out in order to show something, and differs only in what they show: how hard beading is, or how eagerly the girl watched. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The enthusiasm has to be pieced together from the close attention to each step and from “intensely interested” and “a proud, beaming face” in paragraph 2. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 2 uses literary word order, as in “my mother spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads,” which slows the reading of the very steps in question. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: For each choice, look in paragraphs 1 and 2 for words that would prove its purpose; a purpose that no sentence states or shows can be ruled out.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees that paragraph 2 lists many preparation steps, then decides the list must show that beading is difficult and complex, which nothing in these paragraphs says.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads the sequence as instructions about doing the steps in a precise order for efficiency, a purpose a watching child's memories never suggest.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reasons that so many steps must take a long time, perhaps recalling the “many a sunny hour” of paragraph 4, but paragraphs 1 and 2 never mention time.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice C, the handbook quotes paragraph 2 as “spread[ing them] upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads.” In the excerpt, the bunches of colored beads are what the mother spreads (“my mother spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads”). The inserted “them” refers to nothing and turns the beads into a place. The quotation now reads “spread[ing] upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads,” which is how the handbook itself reads the sentence in its reason for rejecting choice A (“spreading the beads beside her on a mat”).
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
Sequence means the order in which things happen. Paragraphs 1 and 2 tell the steps of a morning in order. The question asks why the author tells them step by step. What does that careful order help show?
List the steps
In paragraphs 1 and 2, the mother:
- rolls up the side of the wigwam to let in the breeze,
- unties a bag made of buckskin (soft deer leather),
- spreads her beads on a mat,
- smooths out a sheet of buckskin, and
- trims it into shape with a blade.
Find the author’s reaction
Right after the steps, the author tells how she felt. “Then I became intensely interested in her designing. With a proud, beaming face, I watched her work.” Intensely means very strongly. A beaming face has a big, happy smile. She noticed every little step because she was so excited. The details show her enthusiasm, or eager interest.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The steps are listed, but nothing says beading is hard or complex.
- B is wrong. Nothing says the steps must go in a set order to save effort.
- C is wrong. Paragraphs 1 and 2 never say how long anything takes.
- D is right. The careful details show how closely the girl watched, with eager interest.
Watch out: A is tempting because there are many steps. But many steps don’t prove a task is hard. The author never calls it difficult.
Choose the answer
The step-by-step order shows a child following every move her mother makes. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Like D, it says the steps are listed to show something. But no word in paragraphs 1 and 2 calls beading hard. The author does say she was “intensely interested” and had “a proud, beaming face.” That shows enthusiasm, so D fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed (pages 42–43)
Question 52 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 15Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 7.
Always after these confining lessons I was wild with surplus spirits, and found joyous relief in running loose in the open again.
Which sentence best describes how this sentence fits into the overall structure of the excerpt?
- AIt introduces a shift from the author’s demanding relationship with her mother to her more relaxed relationships with friends.
- BIt signals a change from the challenging aspects of life on the reservation to the advantages of living on the prairie.
- CIt highlights a contrast between the focus and control required while working and the freedom of having fun outside.
- DIt concludes the progression of events in the narrative by describing the sequence of events at the end of the author’s day.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks which sentence best describes how the sentence from paragraph 7 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Though the author feels humiliated “when some boldness of mine drew forth a rebuke from” her mother (paragraph 5) and characterizes her lessons with her mother as “confining” (paragraph 7), the overall passage does not portray a demanding relationship between the author and the mother. The shift introduced in the sentence from paragraph 7 is not from one of the author’s relationships to another; it is from work to play.
B. Incorrect. In paragraph 6, the author explains how working with porcupine quills is difficult because the “sharp points were poisonous, and worked into the flesh wherever they lodged.” Although this sentence suggests that working with porcupine quills was challenging, the sentence from paragraph 7 does not signal a change from the challenging aspects of life on the reservation to the advantages of living on the prairie. Most of paragraph 6 describes the author’s pleasure in creating designs in different colors.
C. CORRECT. In the sentence from paragraph 7, the author refers to her beadwork lessons as “confining” and states that after the lessons, she “was wild with surplus spirits” and “found joyous relief” in being outside and running around. The phrases “surplus spirits” and “joyous relief” highlight a sense of freedom that stands in strong contrast to the “confining” nature of the author’s beadwork lessons, which required intense focus and control.
D. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author describes how “many a summer afternoon” after her beadwork lessons, she and her friends used “a light sharpened rod” to gather “sweet roots” and “little crystal drops of gum.” She then explains that they later “tossed away our gum, to return again to the sweet roots.” However, the sentence from paragraph 7 does not conclude the progression of events in the narrative by describing the sequence of events at the end of the author’s day; the sentence appears at the beginning of paragraph 7 and provides a contrast with events from the previous paragraph.
Question analysis
This reading question quotes the sentence that opens the last paragraph of Zitkala-Sa's excerpt, where she tells how she felt after her beadwork lessons, and asks how it fits the overall structure. Several choices describe a turn or a contrast, so students must pin down exactly what is being set against what.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one sentence fits a text's structure is grade 7 reading. The sentence is quoted and its wording is vivid, but the student must connect it to the paragraphs on both sides of it, a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 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 sentence clearly marks a change, and every choice names some change, so the work lies in saying exactly what is set against what. The excerpt contrasts careful, controlled work with free play, and the word “confining” carries that contrast. Students lose the point by making the turn about people, reading one rebuke as a hard relationship, or about the day's timeline, when the sentence describes what always happened after lessons.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the sentence works in the excerpt's structure, so students must name the turn it marks, from the “confining” lessons of paragraphs 3–6 to running loose outdoors. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The relationships choice also describes a move from lessons with her mother to play with friends, and differs from the right one only in calling the bond with her mother demanding. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
Old-fashioned phrasing such as “wild with surplus spirits” and “joyous relief” has to be decoded as a burst of energy after hours of holding still. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Compare paragraph 6 with paragraph 7 and name what changes between them in a few words, then pick the choice whose two halves match both sides of that change.
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.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Notices the move from lessons with her mother to play with friends, but the excerpt shows a quiet, respectful teacher, not a demanding relationship; the turn is from work to play.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Inflates the move outdoors into a contrast between hardships of reservation life and the prairie's advantages, a far broader claim than one sentence about lessons supports.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Takes the sentence as closing a day's events, since the excerpt begins after breakfast and paragraph 7 turns to afternoons, though it opens its paragraph with a contrast.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how one sentence fits the structure of the excerpt. Structure means how the parts are put together. You need to know what change this sentence marks.
Read the sentence closely
The sentence opens paragraph 7: “Always after these confining lessons I was wild with surplus spirits, and found joyous relief in running loose in the open again.” Confining means keeping you shut in or held still. “Surplus spirits” means extra energy. “Joyous relief” is a happy feeling of being free at last.
Compare what comes before and after
Paragraphs 3 to 6 show the lessons. The girl sits still and works with care. She learns to knot thread, plan designs and handle sharp quills. The rest of paragraph 7 shows her roaming the hills with friends. So this sentence turns from careful work to free play.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The mother is a quiet, respectful teacher, not a demanding one. The shift is from work to play.
- B is wrong. The sentence sets lessons against play. It says nothing about reservation life being hard or the prairie being better.
- C is right. “Confining” lessons are set against “running loose in the open.”
- D is wrong. The sentence starts paragraph 7 and tells what always happened after lessons. It doesn’t end the story.
Watch out: A is tempting because the girl goes from her mother to her friends. But the sentence contrasts how she felt during lessons and after them.
Choose the answer
The sentence contrasts the focus that work needs with the freedom of playing outside. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. It also sees a move from lessons with her mother to play with friends. But A calls the relationship demanding. The mother teaches quietly and treats her daughter “as a dignified little individual” (paragraph 5). The real contrast is in the word “confining,” which sets held-still work against free play. That is C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 53 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 18Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.
Question
The table after paragraph 7 expands on a central idea in the excerpt because it shows that
- Athe craft the author was learning was a tradition that endured through many generations and changes.
- Bthe author’s family incorporated traditional materials into their craft as a way of resisting the influence from European traders.
- Cthe uniqueness of the cultural tradition that the author learned as a child was eventually recognized in Europe.
- Dthe author was able to incorporate color into her craftwork as a result of trade with other peoples.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the table after paragraph 7 expands on a central idea in the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. The table provides the chronology from the 1500s, when the Dakota created beadwork using “beads made from bones, shells, stones, and animal teeth,” to the 1830s, when the Dakota began “using glass beads,” and the 1900s, when they created items to “sell outside their community.” Thus, the table helps expand on a central idea by showing that the craft the author was learning is a tradition that has endured through many generations.
B. Incorrect. Although the table shows that the Dakota used “beads made from bones, shells, stones, and animal teeth” in the 1500s and that by the 1830s began “using glass beads in clothing, artwork, and decorations in place of Native-made beads,” it does not provide any information about the type of materials used by the author’s family.
C. Incorrect. While the information included in the table states that “European traders [brought] glass beads to North America” in the 1500s and that by the 1920s the Dakota created “items to sell outside their community,” there is no mention of whether the uniqueness of Dakota beadwork was recognized in Europe.
D. Incorrect. The table indicates that by the late 1600s the Dakota began trading with French traders from Europe who brought glass beads to the Americas and that by the 1830s the Dakota were “using glass beads in clothing, artwork, and decorations in place of Native-made beads.” However, the table provides no information about whether this work incorporated color. Therefore, the table does not show that the author was able to incorporate color into her craftwork as a result of trade with other peoples.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how a table titled A Brief History of Beadwork in South Dakota, printed after Zitkala-Sa's excerpt, expands on one of its central ideas. Students must read a short timeline of beads, trade and war and connect it to a girl learning beadwork, while avoiding choices that sound historically likely but go beyond the table.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Connecting a table to a text's central idea is grade 7 work. The table is short and plainly worded, and linking a people's history to one girl's lessons is a typical grade 7 step.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- Combines ideas moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 87 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A date in the explanation was corrected to match the table.
- Students, last 30 days
- 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 table holds plenty of tempting raw material: European traders, glass beads, sales outside the community. Wrong answers build unsupported stories out of it, about resistance, European recognition or the arrival of color, and the last is the hardest to resist because the excerpt is full of colored beads. Students who sum up the table in one phrase, a craft carried on through centuries of change, can check each choice against what the rows actually say.
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The table runs from the 1500s to the 1920s, and its point appears only when the five rows are read as a timeline: new beads, trade, war and expulsion, yet the beadwork goes on. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Combines ideas moderate Working it out
Students must join the table's history of the Dakota to one girl's lessons in paragraphs 3–6 and see that the craft she learns belongs to that long line. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Endurance is never stated; it has to be drawn from a beadwork history that spans four centuries, from bone and shell beads to items made for sale, through every change between. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read the table from top to bottom and say in a few words what it shows over time, then pick the choice that fits that pattern and also connects to the excerpt.
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.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Imagines the family holding to traditional materials to resist traders, though the 1830s row shows the Dakota taking up glass beads in place of Native-made ones.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Joins the European traders of the first row to the sales outside the community in the last and concludes that Europe recognized the craft, which no row states.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Links the excerpt's colored beads to the glass beads traders brought and assumes trade supplied the color, but the table never mentions color, so that link comes from outside it.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice D, the handbook says that “by 1830” the Dakota were using glass beads in clothing, artwork and decorations. The table places that change in the 1830s (“The Dakota begin using glass beads …”), and the handbook’s own reason for rejecting choice B says “by the 1830s.” The explanation now reads “by the 1830s.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The excerpt ends with a table, a chart of facts in rows. You need to see how the table adds to a central idea of the excerpt. A central idea is an important message.
Read the table as a timeline
- 1500s: the Dakota make beads from bones, shells, stones and teeth.
- Late 1600s: they begin trading with the French.
- 1830s: they use glass beads “in place of Native-made beads.”
- 1862–1865: a war forces them out of their homelands.
- 1900s–1920s: they make items to sell outside their community.
Find the pattern
The beads change. Trade begins. A war drives the people from their land. But through all of it, the beadwork goes on for hundreds of years. The girl in the excerpt is learning this same craft from her mother. So the table shows her craft is a tradition, a custom passed down through many generations.
Check each choice
- A is right. The craft lasted through many changes over hundreds of years.
- B is wrong. The table shows the Dakota took up glass beads, not that they resisted traders.
- C is wrong. No row says Europe ever praised the craft.
- D is wrong. The table never mentions color.
Watch out: D is tempting because the excerpt is full of colored beads, and traders brought glass beads. But the link to color is a guess. The table doesn’t say it.
Choose the answer
The table shows beadwork lasting through centuries of change, just like the craft the girl learns. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. Traders did bring glass beads, and the girl’s beads are colorful. But no row of the table says trade gave the Dakota color. Nothing ties it to the author’s own work either. A sums up what the rows actually show: a craft that went on through change.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 54 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 20Passage 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- How, not what moderate
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads the words through line 8's “sometimes fall short” as failed communication, but the cat does hear and turn toward the call, and the ending hopes such sounds can bring someone home.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees the neighbor stop calling and calls her desperate and quick to quit, though she has given up only “for now” and is still waiting inside.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes an owner and a pet share a silent understanding, but “here here” is spoken aloud, and the poem offers it as words animals cannot follow.
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.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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
The passage “At Dusk” as printed (page 48)
Question 55 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 28Passage Champion of the Channel
Champion of the Channel
In 1926 an editor at the London Daily News predicted that Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals, would fail in her attempt to swim across the English Channel. He claimed that “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance they must remain forever the weaker sex.” Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours. Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.
Crossing the English Channel is a daunting task for any swimmer. At its narrowest point, the channel measures twenty-one miles across. Its icy waters hover around sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and its unruly tides and currents toss swimmers about like bobbing corks. Stinging jellyfish, seaweed, and floating debris from shipwrecks and lost cargoes present added hazards.
For decades the channel’s perils have defeated countless swimmers. Ederle, too, failed in her first attempt to cross the channel in 1925. Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water. Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again. Ederle knew that if she did not complete the challenge this time, she might never get the opportunity to set this record, because a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well.
To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment. She and her sister Meg discovered that melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges, effectively waterproofing Ederle’s goggles against hammering waves. The sisters also designed a two-piece silk swimsuit for Ederle. During her first channel-crossing attempt she had worn a standard one-piece swimsuit that, after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel, had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable. Unlike the cumbersome typical bathing suit, this silk invention weighed little and allowed for easy movement.
On August 6, 1926, Ederle waded into the channel near Cape Gris-Nez, France. At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation. Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular. Driving forward, she fought to clear her mind and find what she called her “sphere,” a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away. Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.
Throughout Ederle’s swim, two tugboats accompanied her. One carried newspaper reporters who wired dispatches of her progress to shore. The other, displaying a sign that read “This way, ole kid!” with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends. Her coach played songs, such as “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” on a phonograph so that Ederle could time her strokes to the rhythm. Using a net, her coach also passed her baby bottles of broth for nourishment.
For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile. However, as she neared the English shore, a sudden fierce storm erupted. The tides and waves forced Ederle backward, and she fought the stubborn swells for several hours. The salty water caused her tongue to swell and inflamed her ears. Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea. Finally, as she neared the English shore, the storm abated, and the tide turned. No longer fighting against her, the sea pushed her toward the shore and victory.
After fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes, Ederle, on wobbly legs, stepped onto the English shore. The waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky. Ederle had swum into history.
When Ederle returned to New York, she received a parade, where thousands of people shouted “Trudy!” Not only were everyday American citizens proud of Ederle, but she also inspired them to be more active. Over the next few years, more than 60,000 people credited her with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates. Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.
SOLO SWIMS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
|
Earliest Speed Records |
||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 1875 | Matthew Webb (M) | 21 hours, 45 minutes |
| 1923 | Enrico Tiraboschi (M) | 16 hours, 33 minutes |
| 1926 | Gertrude Ederle (F) | 14 hours, 31 minutes |
| 1926 | Arnst Vierkotter (M) | 12 hours, 38 minutes |
| Current Speed Records | ||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 2012 | Trent Grimsey (M) | 6 hours, 55 minutes |
| 2006 | Yvetta Hlavacova (F) | 7 hours, 25 minutes |
Question
Which statement describes how the author’s use of a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?
- ADetailing the challenges presented by the cold channel waters highlights the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
- BDescribing Ederle’s physical difficulties during her swim provides evidence of the team effort required to ensure her safety.
- CExplaining the difficulties that arose early in the effort helps predict the additional obstacles that occurred during Ederle’s attempt.
- DIllustrating Ederle’s process of blocking out her discomfort shows that swimming the channel was both a mental and a physical challenge.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the ideas presented in the passage.
A. Incorrect. The details in paragraph 5 do not provide a connection between the cold temperature of the water and the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
B. Incorrect. The difficulties Ederle encountered were only partially relieved by her team, and her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety are not explained in the passage.
C. Incorrect. The paragraph does not focus on the relationship between the problems Ederle encountered at the start of her swim and the problems she encountered during or near the end of her swim.
D. CORRECT. The paragraph describes how the water’s temperature made Ederle uncomfortable and made it difficult for her to regulate her stroke. The paragraph continues with the explanation of how she overcame these issues by focusing her mind on the sea and tuning out the distractions in her surroundings (“the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away” [paragraph 5]).
Question analysis
Gertrude Ederle's cold, stiff first hours in the English Channel are told as problem and solution, and this text-structure question asks what that pattern adds to the passage's ideas. Students must spot the troubles she met in the cold water and how she handled them, then pick the abstract statement that accounts for both halves of the pattern.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 A problem-and-solution question about one paragraph is familiar grade 7 fare, yet these four answers are general claims about the swim, each tied to a real hardship, so students need a clear map of the paragraph before judging them.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 95 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The opening halves of the choices are all accurate, which moves the whole decision onto their second halves. Readers who notice only the physical side of the paragraph, the cold and the stiffness, reach for training, teamwork or foreshadowing to explain it. The paragraph's turning point is a mental one, clearing her mind until the noise faded, and only the statement that names both a mental and a physical challenge accounts for the problem and the solution together.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks what paragraph 5's pairing of problems (bone-chilling water, stiff limbs, irregular strokes) with solutions (finding her “sphere”, the American crawl) does for the passage, so retelling the hardships earns nothing. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice opens with a fair description of paragraph 5, the cold water, her physical difficulties, the early struggle, so only what each claims that description shows can be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The mental half of the solution is told in images, a place where “the sea became her only companion” and gulls and engines “faded away”, which must be read as blocking out discomfort. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Sort paragraph 5 into two lists, what went wrong for Ederle early in the swim and what she did about it, then ask what that pairing shows about the swim as a whole.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that coping with icy water proves good training, a natural idea from sports, but paragraph 5 never mentions training and credits her focus and her stroke.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the tugboat crew of paragraph 6, the coach passing broth and playing songs, though paragraph 5 shows Ederle coping alone and never raises her safety.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Treats the early shivering and stiffness as a setup for the storm of paragraph 7, a link the paragraph never makes, since it resolves its own problems with a steady pace.
Working it out, step by step
Learn what the question asks
A problem-and-solution structure tells about a difficulty and then how someone deals with it. The question asks what this pattern in paragraph 5 adds to the ideas of the passage. So first sort the paragraph into problems and solutions.
List the problems in paragraph 5
When Ederle waded in, “she shivered in the bone-chilling water.” Next, “Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular.” Limbs are arms and legs. Irregular means uneven, not steady. All of these are troubles with her body.
List her solutions
Ederle “fought to clear her mind.” She looked for what she called her “sphere.” There, “the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.” In other words, she shut out the noise and her discomfort. Then, using the American crawl, she “settled into a steady pace.”
Connect problems and solutions
The problems were physical, which means of the body. A big part of the fix was mental, which means of the mind. She calmed her thoughts so her body could keep working. So the paragraph shows that the swim tested her mind as well as her body.
Check each choice
- D fits: blocking out her discomfort shows the swim was “both a mental and a physical challenge.”
- A is wrong because paragraph 5 never mentions her training.
- B is wrong because her team on the tugboats appears in paragraph 6, and her safety is never discussed.
- C is wrong because the early troubles are solved inside this paragraph instead of setting up later ones.
Watch out: A storm does hit in paragraph 7, so C may look right. But paragraph 5 does not point ahead to it.
Choose the answer
Only D explains both the problem and the way Ederle solved it. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is tempting, since a storm really does strike in paragraph 7. But paragraph 5 never hints at it. The paragraph ends with its problem solved, as Ederle is “briskly breaking through waves.” D explains both halves of the pattern: troubles of the body, eased by the mind.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
Question 56 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 34Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
The table builds on the information in the passage mainly by
- Aemphasizing that people have continued to swim across the channel and have significantly improved the speed record.
- Bsuggesting that Ederle inspired many women to swim across the channel to attempt to break the current speed record.
- Crevealing that other women competed with Ederle to set a record time for swimming across the English Channel.
- Dproviding a comparison between the earliest channel-swimming records and the current record times.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the table mainly builds on the information in the passage.
A. CORRECT. The table supports the information in the passage by showing that people have continued to swim the channel and have significantly improved on past records. The information in the table about records set by those who came after Ederle builds on the idea that “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” (paragraph 9).
B. Incorrect. Even though paragraph 9 states that Ederle “inspired [everyday American citizens] to be more active” and the table presents the time for the current female record holder, there is no indication in the passage or in the table that the subsequent female record holders were inspired to swim across the channel by Ederle.
C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 3 mentions that Ederle had a female rival and the table includes the speed record of another female swimmer, the passage does not provide information about other female swimmers competing with Ederle to set the channel-swim record.
D. Incorrect. Although paragraph 1 mentions that Ederle “broke the men’s record by two hours” and the table allows for comparisons between the earliest speed records and those of the present day, the passage mentions no channel-swim records set after Ederle’s swim, so it says nothing about current record times. The table allows for comparison, but this aspect of the table does not build on the information presented in the passage.
Question analysis
This question asks how a table of English Channel speed records, from Matthew Webb's 1875 crossing to a 2012 record, builds on the passage about Gertrude Ederle. Students must read times from two eras and decide what the table adds to the text, while the choices mix accurate observations about the table with claims neither source supports.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Relating a table to a passage is within grade 7 standards, but here the student must compare records from two eras, connect them to ideas in the text and choose among closely worded statements, well above typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 78 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A self-contradictory 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
This is one of the hardest questions on the test because a wrong choice describes the table exactly, in its own words. The passage stops with Ederle's 1926 record, and what the table adds is the rest of the story: swimmers kept crossing, and the record fell to under seven hours. Students who describe what the table contains, rather than what it tells a reader who has finished the passage, lose the point.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The comparison choice repeats the table's own headings, “Earliest Speed Records” and “Current Speed Records”, and is literally true; only the stem's “builds on the information in the passage” and “mainly” separate it from the choice about the falling record. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The student must compare times across the table's two sections, from Webb's 21 hours 45 minutes in 1875 and Ederle's 14 hours 31 minutes to Grimsey's 6 hours 55 minutes in 2012. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what the table adds to a passage that ends in 1926, so the student must say what its later rows extend, not what its layout holds. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Read both sections of the table and say what it adds to Ederle's story, then keep only a choice that the table shows and that connects to an idea the passage itself develops.
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
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes Ederle inspired many women to chase the record, but the table lists one later woman, Yvetta Hlavacova in 2006, and nothing links her or anyone else to Ederle.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Joins the rival female swimmer of paragraph 3 to Hlavacova's 2006 time, inventing a contest among women in Ederle's day that neither the table nor the passage shows.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Describes the table's layout, earliest records beside current ones, which is accurate, but stops at what it contains instead of saying what the comparison adds to Ederle's story.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice D, the handbook notes that paragraph 1 says Ederle “broke the men’s record by two hours,” and then says “there is no mention in the passage of past, present, or future channel-swim records.” Paragraph 1 does mention a past record: the one Ederle broke. What the passage never mentions is a record set after hers, which is what the table’s “Current Speed Records” add. The explanation now says the passage mentions no channel-swim records set after Ederle’s swim, so it says nothing about current record times. The reason for rejecting D is otherwise unchanged.
Working it out, step by step
Understand the question
To build on something means to add to it. So this asks what the table adds to what the passage already tells you. Don’t just describe what is in the table. Ask what a reader learns from it after finishing the passage.
Read the table’s two parts
The table has two parts, “Earliest Speed Records” and “Current Speed Records.” These rows matter most:
Year Swimmer Time 1875 Matthew Webb 21 hours, 45 minutes 1926 Gertrude Ederle 14 hours, 31 minutes 2012 Trent Grimsey 6 hours, 55 minutes Compare the times
Ederle swam for 14 hours and 31 minutes. Half of her time would be about 7 hours and 15 minutes. Grimsey’s 2012 time, 6 hours and 55 minutes, is even faster than that. So people kept swimming the channel after 1926, and the record got much faster.
See what the passage leaves out
The passage does mention one record. In paragraph 1, Ederle “broke the men’s record by two hours.” But the passage stops in 1926. It never tells of any record set after her swim. The table adds that later part of the story: swimmers kept crossing, and the record kept falling.
Check each choice
- A fits: people kept crossing and “significantly improved the speed record,” and significantly means by a lot.
- B is wrong because nothing links any later woman to Ederle, and the table lists only one later woman.
- C is wrong because Ederle is the only woman of her time in the table, and Hlavacova swam 80 years later, in 2006.
- D is wrong because it only names what the table holds, not what the comparison adds to Ederle’s story.
Watch out: D uses the table’s own headings, so it sounds right. But the question asks what the table adds, not how it is laid out.
Choose the answer
The table carries the story past 1926 and shows the record falling far below Ederle’s time. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes closest, because the table really does set the earliest and current records side by side. But D stops at describing the table. A says what that comparison shows a reader who has finished the passage: the record kept falling, from Ederle’s 14 hours and 31 minutes to under 7 hours.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 57 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 35Passage 5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books
5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books
by Shaunacy Ferro
Though e-book1 readers have become a more common sight around town, traditional books still have their evangelists.2 According to The New York Times, e-book sales have been falling in 2015. Print definitely isn’t dead. In fact, according to some research, it may actually be a better choice for some readers. While scientists are still trying to tease out exactly how digital reading affects us differently, here are five ways e-books might be inferior to their dead-tree cousins.
E-books can reduce reading comprehension.
In a study of middle schoolers, West Chester University researchers found that students who read on iPads3 had lower reading comprehension than when they read traditional printed books. They discovered that the kids sometimes skipped text in favor of interactive features in the e-books, suggesting that certain multimedia in children’s e-books can be detrimental to the practice of reading itself. However, the researchers noted that some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension, and that those might be more helpful than game-type interactive graphics.
Young kids can get distracted by e-books.
Similar results were found by a small study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center that consisted of 32 kids reading e-books and print books with their parents. It found that “enhanced” e-books might be distracting. Kids who read enhanced e-books—ones with interactive, multimedia experiences—were more engaged with them physically, but in the end they remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.
You remember less about a book’s timeline.
Another study of adults also found that e-books can be hard to absorb. The researchers asked 25 people to read a 28-page story on a Kindle4 and 25 to read the story in paperback, then asked the readers to put 14 events from the story in chronological order. Those who read the story on a Kindle performed worse on the chronology test than the book readers, though they performed about the same as print readers in other tests. Earlier research by the same scholars, from Stavanger University in Norway, found that Norwegian 10th graders also remembered more about texts if they read them in print rather than on a computer screen.
They’re not great as textbooks.
While e-book textbooks are often cheaper (and easier to carry) than traditional door-stop5 textbooks, college students often don’t prefer them. In some surveys of college kids, the majority of students have reported preferring print books. However, a 2012 study from the UK’s National Literacy Trust of kids ages 8 to 16 found that more than 50 percent of children reported preferring screen reading.
They’re tiring.
Staring at a lit screen can be tiring for the eyes and the brain. A 2005 study from Sweden found that reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload than reading on paper. Furthermore, staring at LED6 screens at night can disrupt sleep patterns. A 2014 Harvard study found that people who used e-readers with LED screens at night slept worse and were more tired the next day. So, if you’re going to go for an e-book, go for one without the backlight.
The take-away message? If you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book. And if you’re going to be up all night studying, turn off the backlight.
However, all this may not mean that reading on a Kindle is really going to melt your brain. For instance, reading an e-book on a computer is a much different experience than reading on a Kindle, which is specifically designed for consuming books. So, too, is playing with an interactive e-book on an iPad, compared to using a simpler e-book device that only presents the text, with no opportunities to click away into digital distractions.
And some studies have found that part of the difference between the way people absorb information from e-books versus paper might be due to approaching e-books differently—in one test, participants didn’t regulate their study time with digital books like they did with paper texts, leading to worse performances. It’s possible that our expectations of e-book reading—as well as the different designs of the digital reading experience on a computer or iPad or Kindle—might affect how we approach the text and how much effort we put into studying them. As generations of e-book readers evolve, and people become more accustomed to the idea of sitting down with a digital textbook, these factors could change—for better or for worse.
“5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” by Shaunacy Ferro from MENTAL FLOSS, October 2, 2015. Copyright © 2015 Mental Floss, Inc.
1e-book: an electronic book, a publication made available digitally for reading on a computer or other device
2evangelists: advocates or supporters
3iPads: tablet computers
4Kindle: device for reading e-books
5door-stop: a reference to the idea that some textbooks are large and heavy enough to hold a door open
6LED: Light-emitting diode; LEDs are often used as a backlight for electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets.
Question
The details in paragraph 1 convey a central idea of the passage by noting that
- Afewer people are buying e-books than printed books.
- Bprinted books have some advantages over e-books.
- Cprinted books rely on natural materials more than e-books.
- Dsome people recommend buying printed books over e-books.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the details in paragraph 1 convey a central idea of the passage. A specific central idea that needs to be identified in order to correctly answer this question is that reading a digital book “might be inferior” (paragraph 1) to reading a traditional book.
A. Incorrect. In paragraph 1, the author notes that despite the popularity of e-books, their sales fell in 2015, leading to the author’s statement that “print definitely isn’t dead.” While these statements suggest that readers still purchase and enjoy printed books, sales information between print and e-books is not compared. Therefore, these details do not convey a central idea of the passage.
B. CORRECT. The author states in paragraph 1 that “according to some research,” reading a traditional book “may actually be a better choice for some readers” because “digital reading affects us differently.” The author then supports this statement throughout the passage, detailing five advantages that printed books have over e-books. This detail helps convey a central idea of the passage.
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 1, the author refers to printed books as “traditional books” and the “dead-tree cousins” of e-books. Although these references suggest that printed books rely on natural materials more than e-books do, the author does not provide additional details in the passage to convey this idea. Therefore, this detail does not help convey a central idea of the passage.
D. Incorrect. Although the author states in paragraph 1 that “traditional books still have their evangelists,” the author does not provide additional statistics or details in the passage to convey the idea that some people recommend buying printed books over e-books. Therefore, this detail does not help convey a central idea of the passage.
Question analysis
This central-idea question asks how the details in the opening paragraph of a magazine article comparing printed books and e-books convey one of the passage's central ideas. Students must connect the introduction to what the rest of the article goes on to develop, while each choice seizes on something the first paragraph mentions.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Connecting an opening paragraph to a central idea is a grade 6 and 7 skill. This article is plainly organized, with a short introduction and bold headings, so the task is lighter than typical grade 7 central-idea work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 46 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Paragraph 1 packs four separate details into five sentences, and three of them become wrong choices: the falling e-book sales, print's “evangelists” and the joke about dead trees. The question rewards checking which detail the rest of the article develops, and the five bold headings that follow each name a way print beats the screen. Students who judge each choice against paragraph 1 alone can find support for all four.
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice recasts “may actually be a better choice” and “e-books might be inferior” in new words, while the wrong choices echo “sales”, “evangelists” and “dead-tree cousins”. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 1 is playful, calling print's supporters “evangelists” and paper books “dead-tree cousins”, and both phrases must be read as jokes rather than as claims. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Read paragraph 1, then skim the bold headings to see which of its statements the rest of the article develops; a central idea is one the passage keeps returning to.
Traps
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “e-book sales have been falling” as print outselling e-books, a comparison of sales the paragraph never makes and the rest of the article never mentions.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “dead-tree cousins” as a point about what books are made of, when it is a joking name for paper books and the article never discusses materials.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Rests on the opening remark that print still has its “evangelists”, a single detail about supporters that the article drops in favor of research findings.
Working it out, step by step
Know what a central idea is
A central idea is a main point that the whole passage keeps coming back to. So you need a detail in paragraph 1 that the rest of the article develops. A detail that shows up once and is then dropped doesn’t count.
Read paragraph 1 closely
Paragraph 1 makes several points. It says e-book “sales have been falling.” It says print still has its “evangelists,” which the footnote explains means supporters. Then comes the key line: print “may actually be a better choice for some readers.” The paragraph ends by promising “five ways e-books might be inferior,” or worse, compared with paper books.
Use the headings as a map
The bold headings show what the rest of the article is about. Two of them are “E-books can reduce reading comprehension” and “They’re tiring.” Each heading names one way paper books may beat e-books. So the point the article develops is that print has some advantages.
Check each choice
- B fits: the five sections that follow each give one advantage of printed books.
- A is wrong because the paragraph says e-book sales fell, not that fewer e-books than print books are sold.
- C is wrong because “dead-tree cousins” is a joke name for paper books, and the article never discusses materials.
- D is wrong because the supporters are mentioned once, and the article reports research instead of advice.
Watch out: A starts from a real detail but adds a comparison the paragraph never makes.
Choose the answer
The article keeps returning to the ways print may be better than e-books. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes close, because paragraph 1 does say print has supporters. But the article never returns to them. Instead, every section after paragraph 1 gives research showing one way print may beat e-books. That is why B, “printed books have some advantages over e-books,” is the central idea.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed (pages 58–59)
Question 58 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 38Uses the passage above: “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices the move from research findings to practical advice and calls it a new purpose, but the advice serves the aim stated in paragraph 1, showing print may be better.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Rightly hears the author's own voice in the take-away, but introducing that view is what paragraph 1 does; paragraph 7 restates it as advice drawn from the studies.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Places the article's hedge too early: the author softens the stance only in paragraph 8, “all this may not mean”, while paragraph 7's advice keeps the same position.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 59 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 40Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 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.
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)
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)
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
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Treats the casual phrases of paragraphs 7 and 8, such as “melt your brain”, as opinions beyond the research, when the advice there grows directly out of the studies.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets paragraph 8's point about devices right but adds variation by individual, which paragraphs 7 and 8 never mention, and the studies in paragraph 6 compare screens with paper, not readers.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Infers from paragraph 8's device comparisons that the author wants more research on more devices, a sensible thought that the passage never states.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 60 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 44Passage 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
Read these sentences from paragraph 4.
I’m not sure why I decided to take a look. It was still an hour before sunrise, and I knew exactly what the bars looked like in the moonlight, but for some reason, I couldn’t resist.
The sentences contribute to the overall structure of the excerpt by
- Aintroducing the mysterious creature that the narrator discovers.
- Bindicating a shift from the narrator recalling the past to the narrator reflecting on the present.
- Cestablishing a struggle with fear that the narrator must overcome.
- Dbuilding tension through indicating that the narrator is going to see something unexpected.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for an explanation of how selected sentences from paragraph 4 contribute to the overall structure of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. These sentences set a tense and mysterious tone for what is about to happen in the excerpt, but they do not introduce the creature the narrator discovers.
B. Incorrect. While the narrator reveals that he is familiar with the terrain (“I knew exactly what the bars looked like in the moonlight”), this does not show the narrator recalling the past or reflecting on the present; it demonstrates the narrator’s knowledge of the mudflats.
C. Incorrect. These sentences reveal the narrator’s curiosity, which is his prime motivation for venturing out to the mudflats, and his familiarity with the terrain shows that at this point, he does not feel afraid.
D. CORRECT. The narrator creates a feeling of mystery and suspense with language that shows how the situation is unknown. Phrases such as “I couldn’t resist” and “I’m not sure why” reveal the narrator’s curiosity, as well as the tension of feeling drawn to explore the mudflats in the moonlight.
Question analysis
This text-structure question quotes the narrator's admission that he cannot say why he decided to walk out onto the dark mudflats, and asks how these sentences contribute to the structure of the excerpt from The Highest Tide. Students must judge what the sentences do at this point in the story, not just what they say, and the choices name four quite different jobs.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a piece of narration shapes a story's structure is grade 7 literary work. The sentences are quoted and short, but the student must look past what they say to the effect they create, a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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
The sentences say little on their own, the narrator going out before dawn to a place he knows well, so their purpose shows only from where they sit, right before the sound in paragraph 5. Students who know the ending tend to read the fear and the creature back into this moment, which is why the choices about fear and about introducing the creature pull. The narrator's own puzzlement about why he went is what builds the suspense.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what the two sentences do in the story, so their content, an early hour and a familiar view of the sandbars, matters only as a setup for what comes next. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Nothing is said to be coming; the tension must be inferred from an unexplained pull, “I'm not sure why” and “for some reason, I couldn't resist”, just before the strange sound. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Place the two sentences in the order of events, what came before and what comes right after, and ask what job they do for a reader at that point in the story.
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
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps ahead to the creature, which is first heard in paragraph 5 and seen in paragraph 6; these sentences only explain why the narrator went out.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices the present-tense “I'm not sure” and reads it as a shift in time, but it is a passing comment, and the narration around it stays in the past.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reads the fear of paragraphs 6 and 8 into this moment, but here the narrator is pulled by curiosity, and fear arrives only when he hopes to find nothing.
Working it out, step by step
Know what the question asks
This asks about structure: what job these two sentences do in the story. Think about where they sit. Then ask how they make a reader feel about what will happen next.
Look at the sentences closely
The narrator says, “I’m not sure why I decided to take a look.” He knows “exactly what the bars looked like in the moonlight.” The bars are sandbars, so there should be nothing new to see. Yet “for some reason, I couldn’t resist.” He can’t explain why he feels pulled out onto the flats.
See what comes right after
The next paragraph begins, “I heard it long before I saw it.” A strange sound leads him to a giant creature. So his mysterious pull comes just before something unexpected. Tension is the nervous feeling of waiting to find out what happens. These sentences build that feeling.
Check each choice
- D fits: the sentences build tension by hinting that something unexpected is coming.
- A is wrong because the creature doesn’t appear yet, since he first hears it in paragraph 5.
- B is wrong because “I’m not sure” is a short comment, and the story stays in the past.
- C is wrong because he is curious here, and fear comes later, when he hopes he will “find nothing at all.”
Watch out: C reads his later fear back into this moment. Right now he is drawn forward, not scared.
Choose the answer
The sentences make you wonder what is waiting out on the flats. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C comes closest, because the narrator is badly scared by the end. But in these sentences he feels pulled by a curiosity he can’t explain. That unexplained pull, just before a strange sound, builds suspense. D names that job.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed (pages 64–65)
Question 61 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 53Passage Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”
Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”
by Emma Marris
The author of this opinion article attended a symposium, or conference, in Missoula, Montana, at which biologists and other scientists discussed species of plants and animals that are not native to the areas in which they live.
Invasive species are scary. It was ecologist Charles Elton, back in the 1950s, who introduced the militaristic “invasion” metaphor to describe exotic plants and animals—but there’s no question some can be extremely destructive.
The brown tree snake has eaten a dozen kinds of forest birds in Guam to extinction; zebra mussels clog pipes around the Great Lakes; the common house cat turns out to be, in Australia, a mercilessly effective killer of cute, fluffy marsupials like the bilby and the numbat.
As scientists have sounded the alarm about these pests, the public has gotten the message. Citizen groups rip out non-native plants. Native gardens have become increasingly popular, both as ways to celebrate the unique flora of each region and as tiny hot spots of diversity. Native trees provide food for native bugs, which feed native birds. Food chains developed over thousands of years of co-evolution unfold in our backyards. . . .
So we’ve learned, scientists and laypeople alike, that native species are good and non-natives are bad.
Julian Olden, a biologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who co-organized the symposium, recently polled nearly 2,000 ecologists. Among his findings: a substantial number of them said they would immediately eradicate a hypothetical non-native forest plant, even if it were shown to have no effect on the forest. Olden calls this the “guilty even when proven innocent” approach.
That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.
Exotics Are Everywhere
Climate change is making it harder even to decide who the invaders are.
How, scientists at the symposium wondered, do you define “native” on a warming planet, when plants and animals are already moving toward the poles or up mountainsides in search of climate conditions they can tolerate? Should we consider them “invasive” in their new homes? Regardless of what we label them, conservationists will be reluctant to remove them from their new environs—to do so would stymie1 their chances of adapting to the warmer future we’re creating.
And then there are the non-natives that we actually like. Most domestic crops are exotic in most of the places they’re grown, but there are even wild exotics that “do good,” forming useful relationships with native species.
Edwin Grosholz of the University of California, Davis, told the recent symposium about one such relationship. On beaches in his state, non-native spartina grass has become important habitat for the endangered California clapper rail, a plump shorebird with a downward curving bill more at home on land than in the air. A project to rip out and poison the spartina—which grows in dense swaths that exclude many other shorebirds—saw clapper rail numbers go tumbling downward.
There are other examples like that. The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher nests in “invasive” tamarisk shrubs. Many native (and beautiful) Hawaiian flowers are now pollinated by the Japanese white-eye bird—because the native pollinators have been driven extinct by other non-native species.
Should we impose further risk on already endangered natives by severing these relationships? Or should we admire the resilience of nature and let such “well-behaved” exotics stay? . . .
Leave them alone, more and more conservationists are arguing, and stop focusing obsessively on categorizing species as native or non-native. Mark Davis, an ecologist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, once considered himself an “invasion biologist”—but not anymore. “I am actively trying to get the field to retire the invader narrative,” he said in Missoula.
A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing
After all, nativeness is just one environmental value, and arguably not as important as preventing extinctions and preserving biodiversity. In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.
This is the thinking behind, for example, installing the Aldabra tortoise on the islands of Mauritius. The islands lost their own large tortoises, and the fruiting plants that formerly had their seeds moved around by these fruit-loving reptiles have been on the decline. A tortoise that’s related to the island’s large tortoises—a non-native from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean that was intentionally introduced in 2004—is now handling some of that work.
Most of the time, for the time being, conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives. We can and should do that in places where it is feasible and important to us.
From “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil” by Emma Marris from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, July 24, 2014. Copyright © 2014 by National Geographic Society.
1stymie: hinder or interfere with
Question
The author’s use of cause and effect in paragraphs 10–11 mainly emphasizes the idea that
- Asome non-native species have helped their environments while others have had harmful impacts.
- Battempts to remove non-native species have seldom produced desired results.
- Csome endangered native species have flourished because of the presence of non-native species.
- Dinteractions between endangered native species and non-native species must be carefully monitored.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks what the author’s use of cause and effect in paragraphs 10–11 mainly emphasizes.
A. Incorrect. The examples of cause and effect discussed in paragraphs 10–11, such as the spartina grass helping the clapper rail and the Japanese white-eye bird pollinating Hawaiian flowers, are all instances in which non-native species have helped their new environments.
B. Incorrect. While paragraph 10 does mention that efforts to eradicate the non-native spartina grass hurt the native clapper rail shorebird, the main emphasis in both paragraphs 10–11 is on the fact that certain non-native species have helped native species.
C. CORRECT. Paragraphs 10–11 focus on several examples of non-native species that have helped endangered native species flourish: non-native spartina grass providing “important habitat for the endangered California clapper rail” (paragraph 10), non-native tamarisk shrubs providing nesting places for the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher (paragraph 11), and the non-native Japanese white-eye bird pollinating Hawaiian flowers (paragraph 11).
D. Incorrect. While paragraphs 10–11 describe several interactions between non-native and native species, they never discuss monitoring these interactions.
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks what the cause-and-effect examples in two paragraphs of an article about non-native species mainly emphasize. The paragraphs describe a shorebird, a flycatcher and Hawaiian flowers, and students must decide what the examples have in common rather than fixing on any one of them.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Analyzing what a cause-and-effect structure emphasizes is grade 7 work, but these examples involve unfamiliar species and endangered status, and more than one choice is partly supported by the paragraphs, which raises the demand above typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- An unfamiliar subject minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 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 paragraphs mention harm as well as help, so a balanced statement about both looks accurate and even fair-minded. What the cause-and-effect pairs stress, though, is endangered natives depending on non-natives, and the right answer captures that while overstating it, since a bird whose numbers held up only with spartina's help can hardly be said to have flourished. Students must prefer the statement of the main emphasis to one that is partly supported but off the point.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right choice and the help-and-harm choice both say non-natives have aided their surroundings; they part on harm, which the paragraphs do mention, spartina crowding out shorebirds and other non-natives killing Hawaii's pollinators, but only in passing. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Paragraph 10 states its cause and effect backwards, removing spartina sent clapper rail numbers “tumbling downward”, and the student must turn that around into the grass's presence helping the bird. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
An unfamiliar subject minor Understanding the question
Five unfamiliar species crowd two paragraphs, spartina grass, the California clapper rail, tamarisk shrubs, the southwestern willow flycatcher and the Japanese white-eye, and each one's role must be kept straight. (Recht & Leslie, 1988; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: List each cause-and-effect pair in paragraphs 10 and 11, the species involved and what happened to them, then pick the statement that holds for the examples taken together.
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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Accurately notes helpful and harmful non-natives, but the harm is mentioned only in passing, and it leaves out what every example stresses, endangered natives depending on non-natives.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Generalizes from the single spartina project in paragraph 10 to removal attempts in general, a “seldom” claim that neither paragraph makes.
D Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Adds a sensible-sounding call for careful monitoring, the kind of advice scientists often give, but neither paragraph says anything about watching over these relationships.
Working it out, step by step
Know what the question asks
In a cause-and-effect pattern, one thing makes another happen. You need the main idea that the causes and effects in paragraphs 10 and 11 stress. Start by listing each pair.
List each cause and effect
- Paragraph 10: non-native spartina grass gives the endangered clapper rail a home, so when people ripped out the grass, clapper rail numbers went “tumbling downward.”
- Paragraph 11: the endangered willow flycatcher nests in non-native tamarisk shrubs.
- Paragraph 11: native Hawaiian flowers are now pollinated by a non-native bird, the Japanese white-eye.
Find the common thread
Endangered means at risk of dying out. Pollinated means a bird or bug carries pollen between flowers so they can make seeds. In every pair, a native species depends on a non-native one. The newcomer gives it a home, a place to nest or a pollinator. Two of the natives, the clapper rail and the flycatcher, are endangered. So the paragraphs stress that some endangered natives do better because non-natives are there.
Check each choice
- C fits: some endangered natives have “flourished,” or done well, because non-natives are present.
- A is wrong because harm comes up only in passing, while every example stresses a native getting help.
- B is wrong because one removal project is not enough to say removal “seldom” works.
- D is wrong because the paragraphs never mention monitoring, or watching over, these relationships.
Watch out: The paragraphs do mention harm. Spartina crowds out some other shorebirds, and other non-natives wiped out Hawaii’s native pollinators. So A sounds balanced, but it misses the main point.
Choose the answer
The causes and effects show struggling natives, two of them endangered, helped by non-natives. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A comes closest, because the paragraphs mention harm as well as help. But the harm is only a side note. Every cause and effect shows a native relying on a non-native, and two of those natives are endangered birds. C names that main point, even though “flourished” is a strong word for birds that are still endangered.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed (pages 68–70)
Question 62 of 106
2024 Test A English, question 55Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil””.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- 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.
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)
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
A Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Builds on the Aldabra tortoise standing in for Mauritius's lost tortoises, a single example, and misses the closing point that most conservation still means removing non-natives.
C Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns “In some cases” into a consensus that non-natives enhance biodiversity, though the section limits the claim and the article shows ecologists divided over it.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Draws a rule about healthy habitats from the Mauritius example, though the section never defines a healthy habitat or says it should hold a mix of species.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 63 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 16Passage 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
How does the author’s use of comparison in paragraphs 4 and 5 contribute to the development of ideas in the excerpt?
- AIt identifies why many adults are never able to learn a second language.
- BIt demonstrates why the study of adult language learning tries to include physical activity.
- CIt highlights why more is known about language learning in children than about language learning in adults.
- DIt explains why adults were the subjects of the study rather than children.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the author’s use of comparison in paragraphs 4 and 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does not claim that adults are never able to learn a second language, only that “it becomes harder to learn a second language after childhood.”
B. Incorrect. The issue of physical activity is never addressed in these paragraphs. They compare the relative ease with which children and adults learn languages.
C. Incorrect. Paragraph 4 does not claim that more is known about language learning in children; in fact, it says that children simply absorb language easily and does not attempt to explain how.
D. CORRECT. Because adult brains lose the “innate language capability” of children and have less plasticity when it comes to language learning, the study chose to focus on adults and how exercise might help them learn new languages.
Question analysis
This text structure question asks how the comparison in paragraphs 4 and 5 of Gretchen Reynolds’s article about exercise and learning a new language moves the article forward. Students must connect what those paragraphs say about children’s and adults’ language learning to the study that follows, and judge four explanations of why the comparison matters.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a section fits into an article is grade 7 work. Here students must link a comparison of children and adults to the study described later, and the article never states that link outright, which keeps it a solid grade 7 task.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 764 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
Paragraphs 4 and 5 are easy to summarize, children pick up a language easily and adults do not, but the question asks what that contrast sets up. Students who connect it to the article’s opening, about exercise and plasticity, decide it explains the exercise, while paragraph 6 shows it explains the choice of subjects. Reading the sentence right after the comparison, which recruits college-age learners to study “this process,” is the decisive step.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The article never says why the study used adults; the reader must join paragraph 5’s point that adult brains lose plasticity for language to paragraph 3’s “adult brain” and paragraph 6’s “this process.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the comparison of children and adults does in the excerpt, so a fair summary of paragraphs 4 and 5 is not enough; its job in setting up the study must be named. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Sum up what paragraphs 4 and 5 compare, then read the paragraphs just before and after them and ask what that comparison sets up for the rest of the article.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Turns paragraph 5’s point that a second language “becomes harder” to learn after childhood into the absolute claim that many adults are never able to learn one.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Links paragraph 5’s lost plasticity to the exercise idea of paragraph 1, but the reason for adding exercise comes from paragraphs 1 and 2; paragraphs 4 and 5 never mention it.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads the contrast between children and adults as a claim about how much scientists know, though paragraph 4 says only that children absorb language without being taught.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the author compares two things in paragraphs 4 and 5. A comparison shows how two things are alike or different. You need to say what this comparison does for the rest of the article. So find what is compared. Then see what comes next.
Find the comparison
Paragraph 4 is about children: “As young children, almost all of us picked up our first language easily.” Paragraph 5 is about adults: “by early adulthood, the brain generally begins to lose some of its innate language capability.” Innate means something you are born with. Then it says “it becomes harder to learn a second language after childhood.” So children learn languages easily, and adults find it harder.
See what the comparison sets up
In paragraph 3, “language learning and the adult brain” is named as the study’s focus. Right after the comparison, paragraph 6 says: “To see what effects exercise might have on this process, the researchers first recruited 40 college-age Chinese men and women.” This process means the way adults lose some of that easy learning. So the comparison explains why the study used adults. Adults are the ones who need the help.
Check each choice
- D fits. Adults lose some of their skill with language, so the study tested adults.
- A says adults are “never able” to learn. Paragraph 5 only says it “becomes harder.”
- B brings in exercise. But paragraphs 4 and 5 never mention exercise.
- C says scientists know more about children. Paragraph 4 says nothing about what scientists know.
Watch out: B is tempting because the whole article is about exercise. But the reason to try exercise comes from paragraphs 1 and 2, not from this comparison.
Pick the answer
The comparison shows that adults struggle with new languages more than children do. That is why the researchers studied adults. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because exercise is the study’s big idea. But paragraphs 4 and 5 compare only children and adults. They never mention exercise. Their job is to show why adults, not children, were the people studied. That is D.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed (pages 171–172)
Question 64 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 17Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language””.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 6.
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.
Which statement describes the function of the sentence in the overall structure of the excerpt?
- AIt indicates a shift from describing the results of the study to describing the process.
- BIt introduces the aspect of the research that was most critical to determining the results.
- CIt marks the change from explaining why the study was conducted to explaining how the study was conducted.
- DIt shows how questions were raised that could be addressed in further research.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the first sentence from paragraph 6 functions in the overall structure of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. While paragraph 6 begins to describe how the study was carried out, the results of the study have not been discussed in previous paragraphs.
B. Incorrect. The population used for the study is an important detail that helps describe who participated in the study, as well as an ideal situation (college-age people trying to learn a new language), but this is not critical information used to determine the results.
C. CORRECT. While paragraphs 4 and 5 address why the study focuses on adult language learning, the first sentence of paragraph 6 begins to give details about how the study was conducted, including describing the population being studied: “40 college-age Chinese men and women who were trying to learn English.”
D. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 6 does not include examples or discuss questions for further research; it simply introduces the subjects recruited for the study.
Question analysis
This question quotes the sentence in which researchers recruit 40 college-age Chinese students learning English, and asks what job that sentence does in the structure of the article on exercise and language learning. Students must keep track of what the article has covered by that point and what it turns to next, then judge four descriptions that each name a shift or a purpose.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Naming the job a sentence does in an article’s structure is standard grade 7 work. The sentence opens with a clear signal phrase, and students need only recall what the paragraphs before and after it cover.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 764 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 106 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The sentence announces its own job with “To see what effects exercise might have on this process,” which points back to the reasons for the study and forward to its method. The main risk is misplacing the results: paragraphs 4 and 5 report facts about how brains learn language, which can pass for findings, but the study’s results come only in paragraphs 13 to 15. Students who outline the article’s order before reading the choices find this quick.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what the sentence does in the excerpt’s plan, so students must see that paragraphs 1–5 explain why the study was done and that “To see what effects” opens the account of its method. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about a shift “from describing the results” both say the sentence turns to how the study was run; they differ only in what they say came before it. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Note what paragraphs 1 through 5 mainly do and what paragraphs 7 through 12 mainly do. The quoted sentence sits between them, so describe the shift it makes.
Traps
- Reversed relationship: Cause and effect, or the order of events, turned around.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reversed relationship (King et al., 2004)
Rightly sees the turn to the study’s process but puts the results first, perhaps taking paragraph 5’s facts about the adult brain as findings, though results come in paragraphs 13–15.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly notes that the sentence introduces who took part, then calls the 40 college-age learners the most critical factor in the results, a judgment the excerpt never makes.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Fits the open questions of paragraph 2 and the limits in paragraphs 18 and 19, not this sentence, which simply names the students recruited.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what job one sentence does in the article’s plan. The sentence begins paragraph 6: “To see what effects exercise might have on this process.” To answer, look at what comes before it and what comes after it.
See what comes before the sentence
Paragraphs 1 to 5 explain why the study was done. Paragraph 2 says “many questions have remained unanswered about movement and learning.” Paragraph 5 says adult brains lose some of their skill with language. The words “this process” in the sentence point back to that. These paragraphs give reasons. They give no results yet.
See what comes after the sentence
The sentence says the researchers “first recruited” students. To recruit means to sign people up. After that, paragraphs 7 to 12 tell how the study worked. The students were split into two groups. One group rode bikes. Everyone took quizzes. The results come later, in paragraphs 13 to 15. So the sentence is where the article turns from why to how.
Check each choice
- C fits. It marks the change from why the study was done to how it was done.
- A says the article turns away from the results. But no results come before this sentence.
- B says this was the most important part of the study. The article never says that.
- D is about questions for later research. Those come up in paragraphs 18 and 19, not here.
Watch out: A is tempting because it also says the sentence turns to the process. Check its first half too.
Pick the answer
The method is the way the study was carried out. This sentence ends the reasons and starts the method. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer. Like C, it says the sentence starts describing how the study was done. But A says the article was describing results before this. It wasn’t. The results, such as the cyclists doing better on quizzes, come in paragraphs 13 to 15.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 65 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 23Passage 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
Paragraph 1 contributes to the setting of the excerpt by establishing that
- Athe story’s location is a plentiful place that allows The People to enjoy a comfortable gathering.
- Bthe events in the story occurred in the past and are being remembered by The People.
- Cthe camp in the story is changing and that the changes are causing problems for The People.
- Dthe story’s plot begins as The People are observing their land and what it offers them.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 1 contributes to the setting of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. Paragraph 1 describes summer “when salmon spawn,” “huckleberries ripen,” and The People gather for “their annual camas harvest.” These descriptions show the abundance of food in the place where the excerpt occurs.
B. Incorrect. Although the setting refers to past events, the narration is not by The People. In addition, the voice narrating the excerpt is not an element of the setting.
C. Incorrect. Nothing in paragraph 1 suggests that the camp is changing in any way. The People gather annually in this place. In addition, the language used to describe the setting does not suggest any problems.
D. Incorrect. The People are not making observations about the setting in paragraph 1. They are described as performing actions, such as gathering “for the work and festivities of their annual . . . harvest.”
Question analysis
This setting question asks what the opening paragraph of Zoa L. Swayne’s narrative Do Them No Harm! establishes about the time and place of the Nez Perce camas harvest. The paragraph is one long sentence crowded with unfamiliar names, so students must look past them to the details and decide what kind of place and season they describe.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Seeing how an opening paragraph sets the scene matches the grade 6 standard, which names setting directly. The paragraph is one long sentence with unfamiliar Nez Perce names, but its details are concrete and the task is a single inference.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 76 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The paragraph is crowded with names, but its details are concrete: fish, berries, a harvest, festivities. Students who add them up see abundance and a happy gathering; those who look past them reach for ideas about who tells the story or about changes to come. The choice about The People observing their land is the subtle one, because the land’s gifts are there but no one in the paragraph is watching them.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Paragraph 1 never calls the place plentiful; that has to be inferred from salmon that “spawn in the little streams,” huckleberries that “ripen,” and many villages gathering for the camas harvest. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
Paragraph 1 is a single sentence that opens with “In the moon of Ta-Yum,” a second time phrase and a “when” clause, so its subject, “people from many villages,” arrives only halfway through. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Underline every detail in paragraph 1 about time, place and activity, then decide what overall impression of the setting they create before reading the choices.
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.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly notes that the story is set in the past, then adds that The People are remembering it, though an outside narrator tells the story.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Senses change in the coming cold of later paragraphs and reads trouble into the opening, though paragraph 1 describes a yearly gathering with no hint of problems.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees what the land offers, salmon, berries and camas, but has The People surveying it, when paragraph 1 shows them gathering to work and celebrate, not observing.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The setting of a story is where and when it takes place. This asks what paragraph 1 tells you about the setting. The paragraph is one long sentence with many new names. Look past the names to the details.
Find the details
Paragraph 1 says it is “the hottest days of summer.” It is a time “when salmon spawn in the little streams and huckleberries ripen in the high mountains.” To spawn means to lay eggs. To ripen means to get ready to eat. People from many villages come to the Oyaip Prairie “for the work and festivities” of their yearly harvest. Festivities are celebrations.
Decide what the details show
Fish, berries and a harvest all mean food. So this is a place with plenty to eat. Many villages come together to work and to celebrate. So it is a happy gathering, too. The paragraph shows a rich, friendly place.
Check each choice
- A fits: a plentiful place where The People gather in comfort. Plentiful means having a lot.
- B: the story does happen in the past. But a narrator tells it. A narrator is the voice telling the story. The People are not remembering it.
- C: nothing in paragraph 1 is changing or causing problems. The gathering happens every year.
- D: The People are not studying the land. They have come to work and celebrate.
Watch out: D mentions what the land offers, which is in paragraph 1. But no one in the paragraph is watching the land.
Pick the answer
Paragraph 1 sets up a place full of food and good company. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is a close wrong answer, because the land’s gifts, fish, berries and camas, are all in paragraph 1. But D says The People are observing the land. They are not. They have come “for the work and festivities” of the harvest. A sums up what the details show: plenty of food and a happy gathering.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed (pages 177–178)
Question 66 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 25Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!”.
Question
How do paragraphs 7 and 9 convey a central idea of the excerpt?
- Aby explaining that The People often explore different areas, which shows the value of trying new things
- Bby revealing that The People must complete many tasks, which shows the necessity of being organized
- Cby suggesting that The People are influenced by the weather, which shows their close relationship with nature
- Dby demonstrating that The People work together, which shows the importance of contributing to the community
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how paragraphs 7 and 9 convey a central idea of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. Paragraphs 7 and 9 describe activities that The People do at the Red Bear camp. They do not describe The People exploring new areas.
B. Incorrect. While paragraph 7 lists some of the activities that The People did to help, neither paragraph emphasizes that The People need to be organized.
C. Incorrect. Paragraph 9 mentions how the sun blessed the Red Bear camp. However, these paragraphs do not otherwise mention weather.
D. CORRECT. Paragraph 7 lists activities that The People do with one another. Paragraph 9 states that “all were busy with their daily tasks.” Everyone is contributing to the community in their preparation for winter.
Question analysis
This central idea question asks how two short paragraphs, one listing the camp’s chores and one describing a peaceful day, convey a central idea of the Nez Perce narrative. Each choice joins a statement about The People with a broader lesson, so students must check that both parts are supported by those two paragraphs.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking paragraphs to a central idea is standard grade 7 work. Both paragraphs are short and plainly worded, but each choice pairs a claim about The People with a broader lesson, and both halves must hold.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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
Both paragraphs are short and plainly worded, and paragraph 7’s first sentence nearly states the idea. The wrong choices each pair something near the text with a lesson it does not teach: the division of jobs read as a call for organization, the blessing of the sun read as dependence on weather. Checking that each half of a choice appears in paragraphs 7 and 9 avoids them.
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about many tasks both start from paragraph 7’s list of jobs; they part on the lesson drawn, contributing to the community or being organized. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The lesson is never stated: “Everyone helped in some way” and “All were busy with their daily tasks” have to be read as a picture of a community where each person contributes. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Note what paragraphs 7 and 9 actually describe, then check both halves of each choice: the detail must appear there and the lesson must follow from it.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the summer of travel and gathering in paragraph 6 into exploring new places, though paragraph 5 says each group camps where its parents and grandparents camped.
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees the many tasks of paragraph 7, but the stress falls on everyone helping, and neither paragraph draws a lesson about being organized.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Links the sun that “blessed” the camp in paragraph 9 with the coming cold of paragraphs 4 and 6, but paragraphs 7 and 9 dwell on daily work, not weather.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
A central idea is a big point the story keeps showing. This asks how paragraphs 7 and 9 show one. Each choice has two parts: something The People do, and a lesson. Both parts must come from these paragraphs.
Read paragraphs 7 and 9
Paragraph 7 begins “Everyone helped in some way.” Then it lists jobs. Men fished and hunted. Women dug and roasted camas. Other women and older children picked and dried berries. Paragraph 9 says “All were busy with their daily tasks.”
Decide what the paragraphs show
Every person has a job, and every job helps the whole group. The food they gather will feed everyone through the winter. So the paragraphs show people working together. The lesson is that each person’s part matters to the community. A community is a group of people who live and work together.
Check each choice
- D fits. The People work together, which shows that helping the community matters.
- A: no one explores new places. Paragraph 5 says they camp where their parents and grandparents camped.
- B: there are many tasks, but nothing says being organized is the point. The point is that everyone helps.
- C: paragraph 9 mentions the sun once. The paragraphs are about work, not weather.
Watch out: B starts out right, with many tasks. But its lesson doesn’t come from the text.
Pick the answer
Both paragraphs stress that everyone takes part in the work. That shows how much each person gives to the group. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because paragraph 7 does list many jobs. But the paragraph stresses who does them: “Everyone helped in some way.” Nothing says the jobs need careful planning. D draws the lesson the paragraphs really show: each person pitches in for the group.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 67 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 26Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!”.
Question
In paragraph 8, the author repeats the word “played” most likely to
- Aemphasize how much the adults enjoy observing the children.
- Bshow how everyone finds a way to enjoy being at the gathering.
- Cindicate the variety of activities available at the gathering.
- Dcharacterize the manner in which the children master the work of adults.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks what is the most likely reason that the author repeats the word “played” in paragraph 8.
A. Incorrect. Paragraph 7 describes the different tasks that the adults were doing at this time. They were not watching the children play, because they were busy working.
B. Incorrect. While everyone enjoys being at the gathering, the word “played” does not describe the activities of the adults. As described in paragraph 7, the adults are working together at various tasks.
C. Incorrect. The word “played” is used before phrases describing what the children did. It is not used to list activities available for all at the gathering.
D. CORRECT. The word “played” appears before different activities that the children did, such as pretending to hunt, take care of the babies, and take care of the animals. They played by pretending to do adult activities. The last sentence states that the children “learned how to live through their play.”
Question analysis
This word-choice question asks why the author repeats the word “played” in a short paragraph about the younger children at the Nez Perce camp. Students must see what the repetition builds toward and match it to answer choices written in more abstract, formal wording than the simple paragraph itself.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why an author repeats a word is common grade 7 work on word choice. The paragraph is five short sentences, but the choices are worded abstractly, so students must translate the paragraph’s point into the test’s more formal language.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 53 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The paragraph is five short sentences, and the repetition is obvious; the challenge is saying what it adds up to. Students who stop at the repeated word see a list of games and settle on variety, while those who read to the final sentence find that the play is practice for adult life. The abstract wording of the right choice has to be matched to that plain final sentence.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why “played” is repeated four times, so students must name the effect of the pattern, which the closing sentence, “They learned how to live through their play,” spells out. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Playing at hunting, with babies and with horses copies grown-up work, as the hunters of paragraph 7 show, and students must see that likeness to connect the play with learning adult tasks. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice uses none of paragraph 8’s words, while one wrong choice borrows “enjoy being” together from paragraph 4 and another names the “gathering.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Read paragraph 8 to the end and ask what the string of “played” sentences adds up to, then match that idea to a choice even if the wording differs.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines adults happily watching the children, though paragraph 7 shows the adults busy fishing, hunting, digging and drying food.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Stretches the children’s play to everyone at the gathering, though the adults in paragraph 7 are working, so the repetition describes only the children.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices that each “played” introduces a different activity and takes the point to be variety, missing the last sentence about learning to live through play.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The author uses the word “played” over and over in paragraph 8. Repeating a word is a way to make a point. You need to figure out what point the repetition makes.
Read paragraph 8
Paragraph 8 says: “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.” The last sentence tells you where the list was going.
See what the play has in common
The children “played at hunting,” which means they pretended to hunt. Caring for babies and horses is grown-up work, too. In paragraph 7, the adults hunt, fish and gather food. So the children copy adult work when they play. The last line says “They learned how to live through their play.” Their games are practice for grown-up life.
Check each choice
- D fits. The repeated word shows how the children learn adult work by playing. To master something means to learn to do it well.
- A: the adults aren’t watching. Paragraph 7 shows them busy working.
- B: only the children play. The adults are working.
- C: the play does vary, but variety isn’t the point. The last sentence is.
Pick the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because each “played” leads to a new activity. But the paragraph builds to learning, not to variety. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because hunting, babies and horses are different kinds of play. But the paragraph doesn’t stop at the list. It ends with “They learned how to live through their play.” Each kind of play copies adult work, so D explains why the word is repeated.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 68 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 27Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!”.
Question
How do paragraphs 11–13 affect the plot of the excerpt?
- AThey establish a feeling of mystery by presenting different points of view about the arriving people.
- BThey contribute to the rising action by developing the idea that the arriving people could present a problem.
- CThey lead to a turning point by describing the moment that the crowd realizes why the strangers have come.
- DThey explain the cause of the main conflict by providing background information about the strangers.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how paragraphs 11–13 affect the plot of the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. The paragraphs contain questions about the arriving people. They do not present differing points of view.
B. CORRECT. The paragraphs ask questions in which the characters wonder whether the arriving people are friends or enemies, or whether they might be bringing good news or bad news. By suggesting that the arriving people could present problems such as these, the paragraphs contribute to the rising action.
C. Incorrect. The paragraphs do not lead to a turning point. Instead, they lead to the climax—the moment the characters discover who the visitors are. This means the paragraphs contribute to the rising action.
D. Incorrect. Paragraphs 11–13 ask questions. They do not provide background information about the strangers; instead, they ask for it.
Question analysis
This plot question asks how paragraphs 11–13, a series of questions the villagers ask as riders approach their camp, affect the plot of the Nez Perce narrative. Students must know terms such as rising action and turning point and apply them precisely, since several choices describe these paragraphs in ways that sound right but place them wrongly in the story.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 plot questions usually ask what one event causes. Here students apply terms such as rising action and turning point to three short paragraphs of questions, which matches the grade 8 focus on how parts of a story propel the action.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 77 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Paragraphs 11–13 contain nothing but questions, so the answer depends on what questions do in a plot. Friends or enemies, good news or bad, they raise the chance of trouble and build toward the arrival. The trap is that they also create mystery, and the choice that says so fails only on one phrase about differing viewpoints. A second risk is jumping ahead: at this point no one even knows who the riders are, let alone why they came.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about mystery both see the questions building uncertainty about the riders; only the claim of “different points of view,” when the questions are “in every mind,” separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what paragraphs 11–13 do for the plot, so students must place a run of unanswered questions in the story’s shape rather than retell them. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The choices rely on plot terms the excerpt never explains, rising action, turning point and main conflict, and judging them means knowing what each one names. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Note what the villagers know and do not yet know in paragraphs 11–13, then compare that with what happens later in the excerpt to place these paragraphs in the plot.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly feels the mystery in the villagers’ questions but adds “different points of view,” though the whole camp shares the same questions.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps ahead to the recognition in paragraphs 17–23; in paragraphs 11–13 the crowd does not yet know who the riders are, let alone why they came.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices the hunters gone two summers and the families who never returned, but those details arrive as questions, and the excerpt has no conflict they explain.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraphs 11–13 move the story along. You need some plot words. The plot is the order of events in a story. The rising action is the part where tension builds. Tension is the feeling that something big may happen. A turning point is the moment when things change.
Read paragraphs 11 to 13
These paragraphs are all questions. Paragraph 11 asks: “Were they friends or enemies? Did they bring good news or bad?” In paragraph 12, “Who can it be?” is one of “the questions in every mind.” Paragraph 13 asks if the riders are the hunters who left “two summers past.”
Decide what the questions do
The words “enemies” and “bad” news show the camp is worried. The riders might bring trouble. No one knows yet. So the questions build tension as the riders get closer. That is rising action. The answers come later. The crowd knows the hunters in paragraph 18. They learn who the woman is in paragraphs 22 and 23.
Check each choice
- B fits. The questions raise the chance of a problem and build tension.
- A: there is mystery, but not “different points of view.” Everyone asks the same questions.
- C: in these paragraphs, no one knows who the riders are yet, let alone why they came. So nothing here is the moment the crowd realizes anything.
- D: the paragraphs ask about the strangers. They give no background facts about them.
Pick the answer
Watch out: A is very close. The questions do create mystery. But one wrong phrase, “different points of view,” rules it out. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because the questions do make the scene mysterious. But the questions are “in every mind,” so there are no different points of view. B names what the questions do for the plot: they hint that the riders could bring trouble, and they build tension.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 69 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 31Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Reading between the lines minor
- 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.
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)
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
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Assumes the yearly trek means constant moving, but paragraph 5 stresses returning to the same sites, and paragraphs 23–24 say nothing about travel.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Links customs kept “beyond the memory of man” to storytelling, likely recalling Wat-ku-ese telling her story at the end, but neither cited section is about retelling.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Fixes on the naming of Wat-ku-ese in paragraph 24, one vivid detail, and ignores the camp locations in paragraph 5 that the theme must also explain.
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.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 70 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 52Passage 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
Read this sentence from paragraph 5.
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.
The sentence contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt by
- Aemphasizing the bristlecone pine’s precise growth pattern.
- Bsuggesting that things that seem well established face threats.
- Cdescribing the pace of the life cycle of the bristlecone pine.
- Dexplaining the reason for the bristlecone pine’s longevity.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the first sentence of paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
A. Incorrect. While “two-hundredths of an inch” is a reference to the bristlecone pine’s growth pattern, the point of the reference—and of the entire sentence—is to emphasize the incredibly slow pace of the pine’s life cycle.
B. Incorrect. While “wars raged” is a threat that empires face, the point of mentioning wars and the rise and fall of empires is to emphasize the bristlecone pine’s slow-paced life cycle by contrasting its slowness with the big, dramatic changes taking place in human history during that life cycle.
C. CORRECT. Making reference to huge changes in human history such as the rise and fall of empires and the raging of wars provides a sharp contrast to the incredibly slow growth of the bristlecone pine.
D. Incorrect. This sentence describes how slowly the bristlecone pine grows in contrast to how dramatically human history changes in the same time span but never explains the reasons for the pine’s longevity.
Question analysis
This text structure question quotes a sentence from paragraph 5 of Alex Ross’s excerpt on bristlecone pines, the one that begins “Empires rose and fell; wars raged.” Students must explain how the sentence contributes to the development of ideas, and the choices offer four plausible readings of its purpose.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly explain how a sentence develops an idea. This sentence adds demanding vocabulary such as “implacable” and mixes human history with a botanical detail, but it is printed with the question, so the overall demand stays typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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
The sentence sets the rise and fall of empires beside a tree that adds a sliver of trunk each year, and its job is the contrast between those two speeds. Students who stop at the opening clauses read a warning about threats, and those who know the excerpt is about age expect the sentence to explain that age. Holding the whole sentence together shows that it describes how slowly the tree lives.
How, not what moderate Working it out
Students must work out why an article about a tree mentions empires and wars: the human upheavals are a fast-moving backdrop that makes the tree’s “slow-motion existence” look slower still. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Implacable,” meaning relentless and unstoppable, describes the tree’s steady life, and students who do not know it lose part of the contrast the sentence builds. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Ask why an article about a tree mentions empires and wars at all, and what the sentence’s last clause adds; then pick the purpose the whole sentence serves.
Traps
- 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.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Takes the figure “about two-hundredths of an inch” as a sign of precision, though “about” makes it approximate and the number is there to show how little the trunk grows.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Treats the falling empires and raging wars as the sentence’s point, a warning that established things are threatened, when they serve as a backdrop of rapid change.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Joins the tree’s slow growth to its great age and concludes that the sentence explains its longevity, but it only shows the tree outlasting history; paragraph 4 gives the reasons.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the job of one sentence, the first one in paragraph 5. You need to decide what it adds to the excerpt’s ideas. Look at both halves of the sentence, the part about people and the part about the tree.
Look at both halves of the sentence
The first half is about human history: “Empires rose and fell; wars raged.” These are huge, fast changes. The second half is about the tree. It “continued its implacable slow-motion existence.” It added “about two-hundredths of an inch to the diameter of its trunk each year.”
Work out what the sentence shows
Implacable means steady and impossible to stop. Slow-motion means extremely slow. Diameter is the distance straight across the trunk. Two-hundredths of an inch is a tiny amount. While whole empires came and went, the tree barely grew. This contrast, a side-by-side difference, makes the tree’s pace of life seem even slower.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The amount is “about” two-hundredths of an inch, so it is not exact. The number is there to show how little the tree grows.
- B does not fit. Empires and wars are a background of fast change, not a warning about threats.
- C fits. The sentence shows how slowly the tree lives and grows.
- D does not fit. The sentence shows the tree outlasting history but never says why it lives so long. Paragraph 4 gives those reasons.
Choose the answer
The sentence sets fast human history beside the tree’s tiny yearly growth. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is tempting, because the sentence does show a very old tree. But showing that something lasts is not the same as explaining why. The sentence gives no cause. It only sets fast human change beside slow growth, and that describes the pace of the tree’s life, as C says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed (pages 193–194)
Question 71 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 55Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees””.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines major
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Joins the paragraph’s mention of climate change to the trees’ survival and makes resisting it the secret of their success, but the paragraph only reports fears and gives no such cause.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Links the remark that no two old trees look alike to their survival, a connection paragraph 7 never draws; the detail shows only that they seem like individuals.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Relies on the paragraph’s real remarks about people calling the trees elders, sentinels and sages, but that human attachment is a side point, not a central idea of the excerpt.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 72 of 106
2024 Test B English, question 57Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence in several places moderate
- How, not what moderate
- 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.
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)
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
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the brief mentions of the Great Pyramid, the Old Kingdom and fallen empires, which mark how long the tree has lived, into a comparison with empires that lasted millennia.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Takes paragraph 6’s contrast between a tree that “may look dead” and one that “clings to life” for the author’s method throughout, though it is one striking detail among many.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Hardens the closing “they may survive humanity” into a confident claim that the tree will thrive, and calls the excerpt an argument, though it mostly describes.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 73 of 106
2023 Test B English, question 11Passage Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”
Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”
by Mandalit Del Barco
“La Cocina” means “the kitchen” in Spanish. It’s also the name of a business incubator1 based in San Francisco’s Mission District. Since it began in 2005, it’s been helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.
Over the years, many of its alumni have found success: more than 50 chefs in its program have become self-sufficient business owners, and many of them have opened their own brick-and-mortar restaurants. Two alumnae of its culinary program . . . were even recognized as semi-finalists for prestigious James Beard awards.2
A new cookbook, We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream, tells some of their stories.
Executive director Caleb Zigas says the nonprofit La Cocina grew out of two grassroots economic development organizations3 who found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets. The vendors needed an affordable commercial kitchen space and technical assistance in order for their businesses to be legally viable. La Cocina provided just such a space, in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.
Zigas says as many as eight businesses can work in the kitchen space at La Cocina at any one time. Some can prep for a farmers’ market sale, corporate catering gigs or weddings, while others might be making and packaging their food products.
“It’s just an incredible and exciting range of techniques, flavors, perspectives, age, language. And that’s a really beautiful thing,” he says. . . .
Twice a year, La Cocina hosts “F&B: Voices from the Kitchen,” a storytelling project where their chefs can tell their own stories, as they do in the new cookbook. Some of the chefs will be on tour to promote the book, whose proceeds will go to support La Cocina entrepreneurs.
NPR4 caught up with . . . La Cocina chefs, who shared their stories:
Mariko Grady, Aedan Fermented Foods
At La Cocina, you can often hear Mariko Grady singing or humming as she prepares miso, koji, and amasake. Her fermented products come in four different flavors, including mushroom and chicken, to be used in soups and sauces. She originally brought the fermenting rice and barley koji seeds from Japan, where she had a 30-year career as a singer and dancer with the prestigious modern theatrical dance group she founded, Pappa Tarahumara. They performed around the world, and 16 years ago, had a one-night show in San Francisco. The man who would become her husband was in the audience. She soon joined him in San Francisco, often returning to Tokyo to rehearse. But after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, her company disbanded. . . . Grady focused on nourishing her family and creating a line of fermented products that she sells online, at local Bay Area stores and at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. She began at La Cocina in 2012 and named her business after her son, Aedan. (Written in Kanji characters, the name means “wisdom” and “handed down from generation to generation.”) . . . Her fermented products are “also full of wisdom about how to relate to nature and how to create a healthy life,” she says. . . .
Shani Jones, Peaches Patties
Shani Jones is a native San Franciscan. Her father was born in New Orleans, her mother, in Jamaica. She says their home was always filled with a variety of spices and dishes like jerk chicken and Jamaican patties—savory pastries filled with beef or chicken. Jones says she learned to cook from her mother, whose nickname was Peaches. After returning from college in Atlanta, Jones worked on her doctorate in organizational leadership and management while driving a Lyft5 car. She often told passengers about her idea of opening a catering company with her mom’s recipes. They steered her to La Cocina, where she developed her own business, named after her mother. Five years later, she caters and runs a kiosk6 at a small food cooperative in Bernal Heights, where some of her handmade patties have an Ethiopian twist, “because my husband is Ethiopian.” Jones has big aspirations for Peaches Patties: “The ultimate goal,” she says, “is to be the patty kingpin7 of the West Coast.”
From “The Food Business Incubator That Helps Immigrant Women Pursue The American Dream” by Mandalit Del Barco from WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY, June 19, 2019. Copyright © 2019 NPR.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR LA COCINA APPLICANTS
| Level of Income | La Cocina considers assets and access to opportunity when screening applicants. La Cocina’s mission is to support entrepreneurs who face barriers to becoming successful in the food industry. Applicants must be classified as low- or very-low-income earners according to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Guidelines for San Francisco. |
|---|---|
| Business Plan | Applicants must have a business plan that is ready to be put into action. La Cocina will help applicants refine an existing business plan. Applicants without a business plan should contact one of La Cocina’s partner organizations for guidance in developing one. |
| Viable Product | The applicant’s food must not only be delicious but also stand out. For a business to make a profit, there also has to be a market for the food. |
| Entrepreneurial Work Ethic | La Cocina is excited to work with entrepreneurs who are motivated and passionate about growing their business. Succeeding in the food industry requires a lot of heart and hard work. |
| Community Spirit | The 30+ entrepreneurs who share La Cocina’s kitchen are from many different backgrounds. La Cocina values the community it has created and expects each entrepreneur to be active in bringing the spirit of La Cocina to the wider world. In order to succeed in the La Cocina kitchen, accepted applicants must be flexible and willing to work closely with others. |
Source: La Cocina
1business incubator: company that helps new and startup companies develop by providing services such as management training and office space
2James Beard awards: an award named after American cook and author James Beard, considered one of the highest honors in the culinary industry
3economic development organizations: organizations whose mission is to promote economic improvement within a specific geographical area
4NPR: National Public Radio, a nonprofit media organization that produces and distributes news and cultural programming
5Lyft: ride-sharing company where people use their own cars to provide rides to customers
6kiosk: cart or small structure with one or more open sides that is used to vend merchandise or services
7kingpin: the leader in a group or undertaking
Question
Paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas about La Cocina in paragraph 1 by
- Aspecifying how La Cocina helps local food entrepreneurs become successful.
- Bexplaining what kind of goals La Cocina tries to set for local food entrepreneurs.
- Cproviding background information about local food entrepreneurs in San Francisco.
- Ddescribing how Caleb Zigas discovered the need to provide assistance to local food entrepreneurs.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas about La Cocina in paragraph 1.
A. CORRECT. Paragraph 4 lists ways that La Cocina provides support to local food entrepreneurs. This supports the statement in paragraph 1 that La Cocina has been “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.”
B. Incorrect. Paragraph 1 simply states that La Cocina tries to help local food entrepreneurs develop their businesses, but neither paragraph describes or mentions any goals that La Cocina sets for local food entrepreneurs.
C. Incorrect. While paragraph 4 mentions some background information on where local food entrepreneurs were found, these details do not directly support any ideas in paragraph 1.
D. Incorrect. The description of the process by which Caleb Zigas realized there was a need for La Cocina provides background for the organization, but it does not directly support any ideas in paragraph 1.
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks how paragraph 4 of the La Cocina article contributes to the development of ideas about the nonprofit in paragraph 1. Paragraph 4 gives executive director Caleb Zigas’s account of how La Cocina started and whom it served, so students must set the two paragraphs side by side and decide what the later one adds.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one paragraph develops an idea from another is core grade 7 structure work. Both paragraphs are short and plain, but paragraph 4 holds several kinds of information and several choices echo its details, so close checking is needed.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 61 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Paragraph 4 opens with background, the grassroots groups that found people cooking at home and selling on the streets, and only its last sentence says what La Cocina provided. Students who stop at the opening find the background choice accurate and the Zigas choice plausible, since his name leads the paragraph. The question rewards asking which part of paragraph 4 builds on paragraph 1’s claim about helping entrepreneurs develop businesses, and that part is the list of services.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how paragraph 4 develops paragraph 1, so students must match paragraph 1’s general “helping local food entrepreneurs … develop their small businesses” to paragraph 4’s specifics: kitchen space, business plans, city permits. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Paragraph 4 mixes an origin story told by Zigas, the vendors’ needs and La Cocina’s services, and the wrong choices draw on the first two, so each must be checked for who did what. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The two paragraphs are separated by the alumni successes and the cookbook, so paragraph 1’s statement of what La Cocina does must be carried across them and set beside paragraph 4. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Write down what paragraph 1 says La Cocina does, then go through paragraph 4 sentence by sentence and ask which sentences expand on that statement; check who does what in each choice.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Equates help with “business plans” with setting goals and so credits paragraph 4 with explaining La Cocina’s targets for entrepreneurs, a purpose neither paragraph serves.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Rightly notes that paragraph 4 describes people cooking at home and selling food on the streets, but that background is about the vendors and adds nothing to paragraph 1’s point about La Cocina.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads “Caleb Zigas says” as Zigas making the discovery, but in paragraph 4 two grassroots organizations found the home cooks, and Zigas only tells how La Cocina grew out of them.
Working it out, step by step
Understand the question
This is a question about how a text is put together. You need to see how paragraph 4 builds on an idea from paragraph 1. Find the idea in paragraph 1 first. Then ask what paragraph 4 adds to it.
Find the idea in paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 says that since 2005, La Cocina has been “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.” An entrepreneur is a person who starts a business. Notice that this statement is general. It tells you that La Cocina helps, but not how.
See what paragraph 4 adds
Paragraph 4 opens with a little history. Two grassroots groups “found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets.” (Grassroots means started by ordinary people in a community.) Then the paragraph gets specific. La Cocina gave those cooks a kitchen, “in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.” Those are the actual ways it helps.
Check each choice
- A is right. Paragraph 4 names the help: a kitchen, business plans and city permits. That shows how La Cocina helps cooks succeed.
- B is wrong. Neither paragraph mentions goals that La Cocina sets for the cooks.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 4 does describe the cooks selling on the streets. But that is background about the cooks. It doesn’t build on paragraph 1’s idea about La Cocina.
- D is wrong. Zigas only tells the story. In paragraph 4, it is the two grassroots groups that found the cooks. Zigas discovers nothing there.
Watch out: C is tempting because its facts are true. A true detail is still wrong if it doesn’t answer the question.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 1 says that La Cocina helps. Paragraph 4 spells out exactly how it helps. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
The strongest wrong choice is C. It describes the start of paragraph 4 correctly. But the question asks how paragraph 4 develops an idea about La Cocina. Only the list of services does that. It turns paragraph 1’s general word, helping, into real examples.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed (pages 158–160)
Question 74 of 106
2023 Test B English, question 12Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator””.
Question
The quotation from Caleb Zigas in paragraph 6 conveys a central idea of the excerpt by
- Ashowing appreciation for the vibrant diversity of La Cocina.
- Bcommunicating La Cocina’s goal of helping people of varying abilities.
- Cdescribing a typical scenario at La Cocina.
- Demphasizing La Cocina’s focus on creating products.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the quotation from Caleb Zigas in paragraph 6 conveys a central idea of the excerpt.
A. CORRECT. A central idea of the excerpt is that La Cocina’s entrepreneurs are a group of people cooking a diverse range of cuisines. This quotation from the executive director of La Cocina conveys this idea by emphasizing the diversity of both the cooking methods and the chefs themselves.
B. Incorrect. While La Cocina’s goal is “helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women” (paragraph 1), the organization does not necessarily have a goal of helping people without solid cooking skills. Per the table that describes the “Qualifications for La Cocina Applicants,” the applicant’s food must be delicious, which speaks to the skill required for all participants.
C. Incorrect. The quotation describes the diversity of people and cooking techniques found at La Cocina, but it does not reference “a typical scenario.” Paragraphs 9 and 10 more closely describe examples of typical La Cocina chef entrepreneurs.
D. Incorrect. Applicants to La Cocina must have a food that is a “viable product,” but this quotation emphasizes the diversity of chefs and cuisines, not the requirements chefs must meet to enter the program.
Question analysis
This question looks at paragraph 6 of the La Cocina article, a two-sentence quotation in which executive director Caleb Zigas sums up what he sees at the nonprofit. Students must decide how the quotation conveys a central idea of the excerpt, which means restating Zigas’s words in their own and connecting them to the article as a whole.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Showing how a quotation supports a central idea is grade 6 and 7 work. This quotation is two sentences in everyday words, and its meaning sits close to the surface, so the demand is lighter than typical grade 7 reading.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines minor
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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 quotation is short and warm, and most students hear its enthusiasm for variety at once. The wrong choices come from reading it with paragraph 5 still in mind, a kitchen busy with market and catering prep and with food products being packaged, or from turning a range of cooking styles into a range of skill. Students who restate the quotation in their own words before reading the choices avoid all three.
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
Zigas never says “diversity”; students must see that his list, “techniques, flavors, perspectives, age, language,” describes variety among the cooks and their food, and that “a really beautiful thing” expresses appreciation. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks how the quotation conveys a central idea, so students must name what Zigas’s words do for the excerpt, not just what they say, and link them to the mix of chefs profiled later. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Reread the quotation and say in your own words what Zigas finds exciting; then choose the option that matches your words and also fits the rest of the article.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns Zigas’s “range of techniques” and “age” into people of differing ability, though he celebrates variety in cooking styles and backgrounds, and the table requires every applicant’s food to be delicious.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Carries paragraph 5’s scene, eight businesses prepping for markets, catering and weddings, into the quotation, which describes no typical scenario but sums up the variety Zigas sees.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Links “flavors” and “techniques” to the packaged food products of paragraph 5 and makes products the point, though Zigas is praising the mix of people and cooking styles.
Working it out, step by step
Know what a central idea is
A central idea is an important idea that runs through a whole text. This question asks how one quotation from Caleb Zigas, the head of La Cocina, shows a central idea. Start by putting his words into your own.
Read the quotation in paragraph 6
Zigas says, “It’s just an incredible and exciting range of techniques, flavors, perspectives, age, language.” A range is a wide mix. Techniques are ways of cooking. Perspectives are ways of seeing the world. Then he adds, “And that’s a really beautiful thing.”
Say it in your own words
In plain words, Zigas loves how different everyone at La Cocina is. The cooks are young and old. They speak different languages. They cook in different ways and make food with different flavors. He calls this mix “beautiful,” so he is praising it. A word for this kind of mix is diversity. The chef stories show it too. Mariko Grady brought her koji seeds from Japan. Shani Jones gives some patties an Ethiopian twist.
Check each choice
- A is right. Vibrant means lively and full of energy. Zigas shows appreciation, or praise, for the lively mix of people and foods.
- B is wrong. A range of cooking styles is not a range of skill. The table says every applicant’s food “must not only be delicious but also stand out.”
- C is wrong. The busy kitchen scene is in paragraph 5. The quotation sums up a feeling. It doesn’t describe a usual day.
- D is wrong. Zigas is praising people and styles, not products for sale.
Choose the answer
The quotation praises the wide mix of people and cooking at La Cocina, an idea the chef stories also show. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because Zigas does mention “age” and “techniques.” But he is talking about variety, not about how good the cooks are. A matches both halves of his quotation: the mix of people and food, and the word “beautiful.”
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 75 of 106
2023 Test B English, question 32Passage Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”
Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”
by Orville Wright
In 1903 brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted experiments related to flying machines. These experiments would eventually lead to air travel becoming a reliable form of transportation.
During the night of December 16, 1903, a strong cold wind blew from the north. When we arose on the morning of the 17th, the puddles of water, which had been standing about camp since the recent rains, were covered with ice. The wind had a velocity of 10 to 12 meters per second (22 to 27 miles an hour). We thought it would die down before long, and so remained indoors the early part of the morning. But when ten o’clock arrived, and the wind was as brisk as ever, we decided that we had better get the machine out and attempt a flight. We hung out the signal for the men of the Life Saving Station.1 We thought that by facing the flyer into a strong wind, there ought to be no trouble in launching it from the level ground about camp. We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower speed in landing.
Final Preparations
We laid the track on a smooth stretch of ground about one hundred feet north of the new building. The biting cold wind made work difficult, and we had to warm up frequently in our living room, where we had a good fire in an improvised stove made of a large carbide2 can. By the time all was ready, J. T. Daniels, W. S. Dough and A. D. Etheridge, members of the Kill Devil3 Life Saving Station; W. C. Brinkley of Manteo, and Johnny Moore, a boy from Nags Head,4 had arrived.
We had a “Richard” hand anemometer with which we measured the velocity of the wind. Measurements made just before starting the first flight showed velocities of 11 to 12 meters per second, or 24 to 27 miles per hour. . . .
Audacity—and Calculation
Wilbur having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th, the right to the first trial now belonged to me. After running the motor a few minutes to heat it up, I released the wire that held the machine to the track, and the machine started forward in the wind. Wilbur ran at the side of the machine, holding the wing to balance it on the track. Unlike the start on the 14th, made in a calm, the machine, facing a 27-mile wind, started very slowly. Wilbur was able to stay with it till it lifted from the track after a forty-foot run. One of the Life Saving men snapped the camera for us, taking a picture just as the machine had reached the end of the track and had risen to a height of about two feet. The slow forward speed of the machine over the ground is clearly shown in the picture by Wilbur’s attitude. He stayed along beside the machine without any effort.
Flight
The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center. This gave it a tendency to turn itself when started; so that it turned too far on one side and then too far on the other. As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet, and then as suddenly dart for the ground. A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight. As the velocity of the wind was over 35 feet per second and the speed of the machine over the ground against this wind ten feet per second, the speed of the machine relative to the air was over 45 feet per second, and the length of the flight was equivalent to a flight of 540 feet made in calm air. This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.
From “How We Made the First Flight” by Orville Wright—Public Domain/Federal Aviation Administration
1Life Saving Station: one of the rescue stations along the Atlantic coastline that provided assistance to mariners in distress
2carbide: a very hard material composed of carbon and other heavy metals
3Kill Devil: the town of Kill Devil Hills in eastern North Carolina
4Nags Head: a town in eastern North Carolina
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 5.
A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight.
How does the sentence contribute to the paragraph?
- AIt details the need for the pilot to have quick reflexes while flying the machine.
- BIt presents the idea that the difficulty of operating the machine shortened the flight.
- CIt describes the shift in wind speed that made flying nearly impossible.
- DIt provides an overview of the flight’s progression from takeoff to landing.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the sentence contributes to paragraph 5.
A. Incorrect. The sentence focuses on the “sudden dart” of the plane, which ended the flight. According to the paragraph, this sudden dart was caused by the difficulty of controlling the front rudder “on account of its being balanced too near the center.” The sentence does not detail the need for the pilot to have quick reflexes.
B. CORRECT. The sentence presents the idea that the difficulty of operating the machine brought the flight to a quicker end than it might otherwise have had. According to paragraph 5, “control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center. This gave it a tendency to turn itself when started.” These sentences show that one such “dart” shortened the flight.
C. Incorrect. Although it describes the abrupt end of the flight, the sentence does not describe the shift in wind speed. The word “dart” refers instead to a change in the height, or altitude, of the machine.
D. Incorrect. Although it includes the detail that the flight ended “a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air,” the sentence does not provide an overview of the entire flight’s progression. The sentence from paragraph 5 omits the flight’s takeoff and only describes its rather abrupt ending.
Question analysis
This question on “How We Made the First Flight,” Orville Wright’s account of the first airplane flight in 1903, quotes the sentence from paragraph 5 reporting that a sudden dart ended the flight a little over 120 feet from where the machine rose into the air. Students must decide what the sentence contributes to the paragraph, which also traces the machine’s erratic course and its speed against the wind.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining what one sentence adds to its paragraph is regular grade 7 work. This sentence is long, measured in feet and written in early twentieth-century prose, and its role becomes clear only within the paragraph, which keeps the task typical but careful.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 7, 816 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 100 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Read alone, the sentence is just a report of where the flight stopped, so its contribution has to come from the paragraph around it. The two distances, from the end of the track and from the point of liftoff, make it look like a start-to-finish summary, which is the strongest pull. Students who reread the sentences about the badly balanced rudder see that the dart ending the flight was one of those control problems, so the sentence shows the flight cut short by them.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what the sentence does in paragraph 5, and its role shows only beside the sentences before it: the rudder balanced “too near the center,” its tendency to turn itself, and the darts toward the ground. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The sentence’s subject, “A sudden dart,” and its verb, “ended,” are 29 words apart, separated by two distance phrases joined by “or,” so a reader can lose sight of the main statement. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The sentence names no cause; students must infer from “As a result the machine would rise suddenly … and then as suddenly dart for the ground” that this dart came from the hard-to-control rudder. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Reread the sentences on either side of the quoted one, say in your own words what this sentence adds to them, and reject any choice that claims details the sentence does not contain.
Traps
- 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.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reasons from the erratic course and the “lack of experience” that piloting needed quick reflexes, but the sentence reports only how the flight ended and says nothing about the pilot’s reactions.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Connects the dart with the “irregularity of the air” and the wind figures that follow, but the dart was the machine diving toward the ground, and the sentence mentions no wind.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees the end of the track and the point of liftoff named in the sentence and takes it for an overview of the whole flight, though both serve only to locate where it ended.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one sentence does for its paragraph. The sentence says a “sudden dart” ended the flight. To see its job, read the sentences just before it.
Read the sentences before it
Paragraph 5 explains why the flight was hard to control. “The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center.” A rudder is a flat part that swings to steer. Because it was badly balanced, it turned too far one way, then too far the other. “As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet, and then as suddenly dart for the ground.”
Work out what the sentence adds
Here, a dart is a quick dive toward the ground. The sentence says one of these dives, a little over 120 feet from where the machine took off, “ended the flight.” So the dart was not just bad luck. It came from the steering problem just described. The sentence shows the result: the hard-to-control machine cut its own flight short.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Reflexes are quick, automatic reactions. The sentence never mentions the pilot or how fast he reacts.
- B is right. The dart came from the hard steering, and it ended the flight early.
- C is wrong. The sentence says nothing about wind. The dart was the machine diving, not the wind changing.
- D is wrong. The sentence tells only how the flight ended. The two distances just show where it stopped.
Watch out: D is tempting because the sentence names both the end of the track and the point where the machine “rose into the air.” But those places only measure where the flight ended.
Choose the answer
The sentence shows that the machine’s steering problem brought the flight to a quick end. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, since the sentence gives two distances that seem to cover the whole flight. But it skips the takeoff and the time in the air. B explains why the sentence matters in paragraph 5: it shows the result of the hard-to-control rudder.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”” as printed (pages 13–14)
Question 76 of 106
2023 Test B English, question 36Passage Cross-Purposes
Cross-Purposes
What I am is built: concrete and steel.
I defy gravity. I am what every athlete
wants: to remain at the apex of the leap,
up in the air. And yet I am useful, too:
cars, trucks, people, even trains
make their way across my broad back.
Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.
What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older
than anything else you know. No human
built me. I am gravity’s best friend; I pool
and flow wherever gravity takes me.
I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest,
and I catch everything: from the hills,
the mountains. It all washes down through me.
What you are is an accident,
what happens to rain when rain gives in
to Earth’s gravitational pull.
You are some tears dribbling from a mountain’s
eye, running down the pavements
of small towns, into the cities, to the sea.
You are the path of least resistance.
What I am is power. You, of course,
have none: you are a static lump, an artifact
slowly decaying. But my regal flow
nourishes grasses, permits empires to rise.
Those who made you will break you,
in time, replacing you with yet another
clumsy structure. I have seen. I know.
“Clumsy”? Being rebuilt makes me
a friend of time, does it not? And it means
that I have siblings—those “clumsy” structures,
my sisters and brothers.
We stitch across the rip you make.
We are steel thread to the human needle.
We bind you up. We sew you.
And I sow into you; in every cranny
of your superstructure my vapors cling.
They bring out your softness, your rust.
Boast your best, and boast better yet.
I am listening to the bright hum
of the wind in your wires. Because I am,
above all else, patient. I will wait for you.
ospreys: large birds
Question
How does the similar construction of line 1 and line 8 contribute to the meaning of the poem?
- AIt introduces the intended permanence of the structure and the ever-changing fluidity of the water.
- BIt shows that the structure can bridge the gap caused by the water.
- CIt suggests that the inflexible structure has more limitations than the adaptable water does.
- DIt contrasts the stability of the structure with the instability of the water.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contributes to the meaning of the poem.
A. CORRECT. In line 1, the first speaker asserts, “What I am is built: concrete and steel,” and in line 8 the second speaker states, “What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older.” The similarity in the construction of these lines contributes to the meaning of the poem by establishing each speaker’s defining feature.
B. Incorrect. The focus of the lines is defining the speakers’ individuality, not how one speaker resolves a problem created by the other.
C. Incorrect. The structure is not stating in line 1 that it is limited because it was built to stand in place; on the contrary, the structure is stating that this sense of purpose and permanence is its strength.
D. Incorrect. Although in these lines the first speaker asserts “I am . . . built: concrete and steel” (line 1) and the second speaker asserts “I am . . . motion” (line 8), the construction of these lines does not contrast the stability and instability of the speakers. Rather, each speaker highlights its own features.
Question analysis
In “Cross-Purposes,” a poem in which a human-made structure and a body of water take turns speaking, line 1 and line 8 open the first two stanzas with the same words, “What I am is.” This question asks how that similar construction contributes to the poem’s meaning, and several choices describe the two speakers in nearly the same terms, so every word counts.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 A typical grade 7 poetry question asks what a repeated phrase emphasizes. This one asks what two parallel lines from personified speakers set up, and the choices turn on abstract words with fine shades of meaning, which goes beyond grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 71 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Students who notice that both lines begin “What I am is” usually see the opposition between something built and something moving, and then face two choices that state it in near-synonyms. The deciding question is whether either speaker is being judged, and lines 1 and 8 only declare, each speaker naming its nature with pride. Words like “instability,” “limitations” and “bridge the gap” bring in criticism or later stanzas, so every word of a choice has to be weighed against the two lines alone.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about stability both set the built structure against moving water; they part only on “instability,” which turns the water’s motion into a weakness the proud water never admits. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the shared opening “What I am is” contributes, so students must see that it gives each speaker a matching self-definition, “built” in line 1 and “motion” in line 8. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The structure never says it is a bridge; students must infer that from “concrete and steel” and the traffic crossing its “broad back,” then read both personified speakers’ boasts as self-portraits to compare. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices turn on abstract words the poem never uses, “permanence,” “fluidity,” “instability,” “inflexible” and “adaptable,” and their shades of judgment decide the question. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Set line 1 beside line 8 and name, in a word of your own, what each speaker says it is; then test every word of each choice against those two lines alone.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps ahead to the fifth stanza’s “We stitch across the rip you make,” but lines 1 and 8 only introduce the two speakers, and neither mentions a gap or crossing it.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Accepts the fair labels “inflexible” and “adaptable” and draws a verdict from them, that the structure is more limited, which the water argues later but lines 1 and 8 never state.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure’s stability right, but “instability” makes the water’s motion a flaw, while line 8 offers motion as the water’s defining strength, followed by its claim to be older than anything.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is about the poem’s structure, or how it is put together. Lines 1 and 8 are built the same way. You need to see what that matching pattern adds to the poem’s meaning.
Set the two lines side by side
Line 1: “What I am is built: concrete and steel.”
Line 8: “What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older”Both lines begin with the same four words: “What I am is.” Line 1 opens the first stanza, and line 8 opens the second. (A stanza is a group of lines, like a paragraph in a poem.) So each speaker begins by naming what it is.
Name what each speaker is
The first speaker is a structure, most likely a bridge, since traffic and trains “make their way across my broad back.” It is “built” of concrete and steel, so it is meant to stand for many years. The second speaker is water. It is “motion,” always flowing and changing shape. The matching lines introduce the two speakers side by side: one made to last, one always moving.
Check each choice
- A is right. Permanence means lasting without change. Fluidity means flowing easily. These words fit “built” and “motion.”
- B is wrong. A gap first shows up in line 33: “We stitch across the rip you make.” Lines 1 and 8 say nothing about it.
- C is wrong. Inflexible means unable to bend. Adaptable means able to change. But lines 1 and 8 never call either speaker more limited. In line 2, the structure even brags, “I defy gravity.”
- D is wrong. Instability means being shaky or likely to fail. It turns the water’s motion into a flaw. Yet the water boasts that it is “older / than anything else you know.”
Watch out: D sets up the same pairing as A. The one word that sinks it is “instability.”
Choose the answer
The matching openings introduce a structure built to last and water that never stops moving. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. It also pairs the steady structure with the moving water. But “instability” suggests the water is weak or can’t be trusted. The water is proud of its motion. A describes both speakers the way they see themselves.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
Question 77 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 12Passage 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
What is the most likely reason the author uses the word “surprisingly” in paragraph 1?
- Ato argue that Marsh’s ideas are more applicable in the present than they were during his lifetime
- Bto show that Marsh introduced ideas a century before they became widely accepted
- Cto emphasize that Marsh was unaware that his ideas would help begin a conservation movement
- Dto prove that there would be fewer issues with the environment today if people had accepted Marsh’s ideas earlier
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks for the reason the word “surprisingly” was used in paragraph 1. The beginning of paragraph 1 leads the reader to expect that Marsh was part of the modern environmental movement that began in the 1960s. Therefore, the fact that Marsh’s influential book was published one hundred years earlier is surprising, and so Option B is correct.
Option A is incorrect because, while Marsh’s ideas have had a resurgence in popularity since the 1960s (paragraph 1), Marsh’s observations about deforestation in Vermont (paragraph 2) and land mismanagement in Italy (paragraph 3) indicate that his ideas were just as applicable in his time as they are today.
Option C is incorrect because, while Marsh could not have been aware that his ideas would lead to the start of a conservation movement, paragraph 1 indicates that Marsh introduced the principles of the environmentalist movement before it became popular.
Option D is incorrect because, while it is possible that a greater awareness of human impact on the environment during Marsh’s time could have prevented certain environmental issues today, this idea is conjecture and does not explain the author’s reason for using the word “surprisingly.”
Question analysis
This reading question asks why the author of a passage about the environmental thinker George Perkins Marsh uses the word surprisingly in the opening paragraph. Students must see what the earlier sentences lead a reader to expect and how the next fact contrasts with it, while avoiding choices that read too much into one word.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why an author chose a particular word is common grade 7 reading work. This one rests on reading the first paragraph closely and noticing what the word contrasts, a typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 12, 523 words; 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
Students have to reconstruct the expectation that the word overturns, and the paragraph sets it up quietly by naming the 1960s first. Most errors come from attaching the surprise to the wrong sentence, Marsh's absence from the movement, or from turning one adverb into a broad argument about past and present. The question rewards rereading the sentences around the word and asking which fact is unexpected.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The surprise is never explained; the reader must see that the first two sentences lead one to place Marsh in the 1960s, so the date 1864 breaks that expectation. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks why the author chose the single word “surprisingly”, a judgment about the effect of a word rather than a fact the paragraph states. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Reread the sentences just before the word and ask what a reader would expect at that point. The surprise is whatever breaks that expectation.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Stretches the point that Marsh's ideas outlived him into a claim that they fit today better than in his own time, which the paragraph never argues.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Ties the surprise to the preceding sentence about Marsh not being part of the movement, but the word introduces the 1864 date, not anything Marsh knew or foresaw.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Builds a what-if, that the world would have fewer environmental problems had people listened sooner, which goes far beyond what a single adverb can signal.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the author chose one word, “surprisingly.” A word like this tells you the next fact is not what you’d expect. So find what a reader expects, and then find the fact that breaks it.
Read what comes before the word
Paragraph 1 says the book’s message “greatly influenced ecologists during the beginning of the modern environmentalist movement in the 1960s.” Ecologists are scientists who study how living things and nature fit together. Then it says: “Marsh was not, however, part of this movement.” After reading this, you might guess Marsh wrote in the 1960s, or just a bit before.
Find the surprise
The next sentence is: “Surprisingly, Man and Nature was first published in 1864.” From 1864 to the 1960s is about 100 years, or a century. So Marsh had these ideas a whole century before most people accepted them. That is the surprise.
Check each choice
- B: Marsh introduced ideas “a century before they became widely accepted.” This matches the gap from 1864 to the 1960s.
- A: the paragraph never says his ideas fit today better than in his own time.
- C: the paragraph says nothing about what Marsh knew or expected.
- D: the paragraph never says we would have fewer problems if people had listened sooner. That is only a guess.
Watch out: C seems linked to the sentence just before, about Marsh not being in the movement. But “surprisingly” comes right before a date, 1864.
Pick the answer
The surprise is how early Marsh’s ideas came, about a hundred years ahead of the movement. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because it also links Marsh to the later movement. But the surprising fact is a date, not something Marsh knew or didn’t know. B explains the surprise: his ideas came about a century before they caught on.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “An Early Warning” as printed (page 52)
Question 78 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 18Passage 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
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
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.
How does this sentence fit into the overall structure of the passage?
- AIt emphasizes that Ederle’s attempt to swim across the channel led other female swimmers to attempt the challenge.
- BIt presents the reason why Ederle prepared to cross the channel again immediately after her initial failure.
- CIt shows Ederle’s realization that she had to rethink her methods if she wanted to be the first woman to cross the channel.
- DIt indicates that Ederle had learned from her mistakes and was working to fix them before her next attempt.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the passage.
Option B is correct because it explains that Ederle’s awareness of another female swimmer preparing to make an attempt to swim the channel directly influenced Ederle’s decision to make her second attempt as quickly as possible. Ederle wanted to be the first woman to successfully swim across the channel.
Option A is incorrect because the passage does not provide information about other female swimmers who were inspired by Ederle to swim across the channel.
Option C is incorrect because, although Ederle did rethink her methods between her first and second attempts, the sentence does not show any sort of realization nor does it address her reasoning for rethinking her methods.
Option D is incorrect because the sentence is not related to Ederle’s process for learning from her mistakes.
Question analysis
This reading question quotes a sentence about a rival swimmer from a passage on Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim and asks how it fits the passage's overall structure. Students must see how the sentence connects her failed first attempt to what came next, and the choices differ in small but important ways.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Explaining how one sentence fits a passage's structure is a grade 7 standard, but the choices differ by shades of meaning and the sentence must be read against the paragraphs on either side, which goes beyond typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 133 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- The handbook’s answer key was corrected, because its own explanation supports a different choice.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The sentence sits at a hinge, right before a paragraph about new goggles and a new swimsuit, so it is easy to read that paragraph's content back into it. What the sentence itself offers is a motive, the rival's plans, for trying again without delay. Students who paraphrase the sentence before reading the choices avoid the trap; those who match choices to the surrounding story fall into it.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right choice and the rethinking-methods one both tie the sentence to her next attempt and to being first across; only the sentence's silence about methods separates them, and even the DOE handbook keyed the wrong one. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what the sentence does in the passage, bridging the failed 1925 attempt and the new equipment of paragraph 4, rather than what it says. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The “because” clause gives a motive for urgency, a rival preparing her second attempt, which the student must connect to Ederle's decision to try again. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Reread the sentence along with the two sentences before it, put what this sentence itself says into your own words, and only then compare the choices with it.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reversed relationship: Cause and effect, or the order of events, turned around.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reversed relationship (King et al., 2004)
Reads the rival's attempt as a result of Ederle's, reversing the sentence, in which the rival's plans come first and spur Ederle on.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the aim right, being the first woman to cross, but adds a realization about rethinking her methods that the sentence never mentions and paragraph 4 only implies.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the fixes of paragraph 4, the waxed goggles and the silk suit, though this sentence is about a rival's threat and says nothing about past mistakes.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Answer key: The handbook keys this question G (C on this site). But its explanation of the correct answer, that knowing a rival was preparing her own attempt made Ederle decide to make her second attempt as quickly as possible, describes F (B here), and its reason for rejecting F, that the sentence shows no realization about rethinking her methods, describes G (C here). The quoted sentence gives a reason for urgency and says nothing about her methods, which the passage turns to in paragraph 4. The key is now B, and the explanation’s option letters were swapped to match its reasoning.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what job the sentence does in the passage. It’s not just what the sentence says, but why it is there. So look at what comes right before it and right after it.
Read the sentence in its place
Paragraph 3 says Ederle failed in 1925. Then: “Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again.” Undeterred means not discouraged. Next comes the sentence: “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.”
Put it in your own words
A rival is someone trying to reach the same goal. Another woman was getting ready to try again too. If she made it first, Ederle could never be the first woman across. So Ederle had to try again, and soon. The sentence gives the reason she hurried to try again.
Notice what the sentence leaves out
The sentence says nothing about her goggles, her swimsuit, or her methods. It doesn’t mention any mistakes she made. Those ideas come later, in paragraph 4. So any choice about fixing her methods goes beyond this sentence.
Check each choice
- B: it gives the reason she got ready to cross again so soon. A rival might beat her.
- A has it backward. Here the rival’s plan pushes Ederle, not the other way around. Nothing says Ederle led other women to try.
- C is about rethinking her methods. The sentence never mentions methods.
- D is about learning from mistakes. The sentence never mentions mistakes either.
Watch out: C is the trickiest. It gets her goal right, to be the first woman across. But “rethink her methods” is not in this sentence.
Pick the answer
The sentence explains why Ederle rushed to try again after she failed. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer. Ederle did improve her gear later, and she did want to be first. But this sentence never says she needed new methods. It gives only her reason to hurry: a rival was about to try again. That is exactly what B says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
Question 79 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 21Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
Which statement describes how the author’s use of problem-and-solution in paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?
- ADetailing the challenges that the cold channel waters presented highlights how effective Ederle’s training was.
- BDescribing Ederle’s physical difficulties during her swim provides evidence of the team effort required in order to ensure her safety.
- CExplaining the difficulties that arose early in the effort helps predict the additional problems that occurred during Ederle’s attempt.
- DIllustrating Ederle’s process of blocking out her discomfort shows that swimming the channel was both a mental and a physical challenge.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks how a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the ideas presented in the passage.
Option D is correct because the paragraph describes how the water’s temperature made Ederle uncomfortable and made it difficult for her to regulate her stroke. The paragraph continues with the explanation of how she overcame these issues by focusing her mind on the sea and tuning out the distractions in her surroundings (paragraph 5: “. . . the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.”).
Option A is incorrect because the details in paragraph 5 do not provide a connection between the cold temperature of the water and the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
Option B is incorrect because the difficulties Ederle encountered were only partially relieved by her team, and her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety are not explained in the passage.
Option C is incorrect because the paragraph does not focus on the relationship between the problems Ederle encountered at the start of her swim and the problems she encountered during or near the end of her swim.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the problem-and-solution structure of one paragraph about Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim helps develop the passage's ideas. Students must identify the difficulties she faced at the start of the swim and how she overcame them, then judge which abstract statement describes that pattern without adding details the paragraph lacks.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Analyzing how a paragraph's structure develops ideas is grade 7 content, but the choices are abstract claims about purpose, the paragraph's problems and solutions must be identified first, and every choice mentions real difficulties, more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 95 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The first halves of the choices are all true, which pushes the whole judgment onto what each says the paragraph accomplishes. The paragraph's solution is mental, clearing her mind until the noise faded, so a reading that sees only physical problems reaches for training, teamwork or foreshadowing. Students who list the problems and the fixes before reading the choices see that only one statement accounts for both.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks how a problem-and-solution pattern in paragraph 5 develops the passage's ideas, so the student must name the pattern's effect, not retell the cold and the stiffness. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Every choice opens with an accurate phrase about paragraph 5's difficulties, the cold water or the early struggle, so only each choice's second half can be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The solution is told in images, finding her “sphere”, where “the sea became her only companion”, which must be read as a mental strategy. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: List the problems paragraph 5 names and how Ederle got past each one, then choose the statement that accounts for the problems and the solutions alike.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that getting through the cold shows good training, a natural idea from sports, but paragraph 5 never mentions training and credits her mind and stroke instead.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Imports the support team from paragraph 6's tugboats, while paragraph 5 centres on Ederle's own body and mind and says nothing about a team or her safety.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads the early stiffness and shivering as foreshadowing of the later storm, a structural link the paragraph never makes, while ignoring how she overcame the cold.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook reads “her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety is not explained”. It now reads “are not explained”, since the subject is “efforts”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
In a problem-and-solution pattern, the author shows a problem and then how someone deals with it. You need to say what this pattern in paragraph 5 adds to the passage. So first find the problems. Then find the solutions.
Find the problems
At first Ederle “shivered in the bone-chilling water.” Then: “Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular.” Limbs are arms and legs. Irregular means uneven. These are problems with her body.
Find the solutions
Next, “she fought to clear her mind” and find her “sphere.” Her sphere was “a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.” That is a calm place in her mind. She shut out the noise and her discomfort. Then, with the American crawl, she “settled into a steady pace.”
Decide what the pattern shows
The problems are in her body: cold, stiff, and uneven. Much of the solution is in her mind: focusing and shutting out the world. So the paragraph shows that the swim tested both her body and her mind.
Check each choice
- D: blocking out her discomfort shows the swim was “both a mental and a physical challenge.” Mental means of the mind.
- A: paragraph 5 never mentions her training.
- B: the team on the tugboats is in paragraph 6. Paragraph 5 is about Ederle alone.
- C: paragraph 5 doesn’t use the early trouble to hint at later problems. It shows her getting past it.
Watch out: A storm does come later, in paragraph 7, so C can seem right. But paragraph 5 ends with her solving the problem, not with a warning.
Pick the answer
Only D explains both the problems and the way she solved them. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because more trouble does come later, in the storm. But paragraph 5 doesn’t hint at the storm. It ends with Ederle “briskly breaking through waves.” D explains the whole pattern: body problems solved partly by the mind.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 80 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 22Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- How, not what moderate
- 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.
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)
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)
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
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Credits strength and mental fortitude, which the hours against the swells partly show, but the paragraph's turn on “Yet” stresses her joy, not her toughness.
B Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Inflates the swollen tongue and inflamed ears into reaching “the edge of her physical capabilities”, an extreme the paragraph never claims.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees both the storm and her feelings but makes the weather the cause of her emotions, when she felt happy in spite of it.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 81 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 25Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.
Question
The table contributes to the development of the topic of the passage mainly by
- Aemphasizing that people have continued to swim across the channel and have significantly reduced the speed record.
- Bsuggesting that Ederle inspired women to swim across the channel in an attempt to break the current speed record.
- Crevealing that Ederle is not the only woman who has set a record time for swimming across the English Channel.
- Dproviding a comparison between channel-swimming records of the early twentieth century and current records.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks for an explanation of how the table at the end of the passage contributes to the development of the topic of the passage. The table provides information about the earliest speed records set for crossing the channel, including Ederle’s, and information about present-day records, which are much faster.
Option A is correct because the information in the table develops the topic of Ederle’s historic swim across the channel by indicating that people have continued to swim the channel and have found new ways to set speed records over time.
Option B is incorrect because, even though the table presents the time for the current female record holder, there is no indication in the passage or in the table that the record holder was inspired by Ederle.
Option C is incorrect because, although the table shows that another woman, Yvetta Hlavacova, set a record time, the passage itself does not discuss other female swimmers’ successful swims across the channel, so this detail is not the main way the table develops the topic.
Option D is incorrect because, although the table allows for the comparison of times, the topic of the passage is related to Ederle’s record in comparison with other swimmers of her time, not present-day swimmers.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the table of English Channel swim records at the end of the Gertrude Ederle passage contributes to the topic. Students must read times from two eras, compare them, and decide what the table mainly adds, which is harder than it looks because several choices say something true about the table.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Explaining how a table adds to a passage goes beyond typical grade 7 reading questions: the student must compare times across eras, notice who set them, and choose among statements several of which are partly true of the table.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 84 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
Every choice says something about the table, and two are literally true of it, so the question hinges on the word “mainly”. Students lose the point by describing what the table holds, a comparison or a second woman, instead of what the comparison shows: the record has kept falling since Ederle's day. Reading the times, not just the headings, makes that drop visible.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The right choice and the comparison one cover the same contrast between old and current records; the right one states its result, a much faster record, while the other only names the comparison and its “early twentieth century” leaves out 1875. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The table splits records into earliest and current sets, and the student must compare times across them, from 21 hours 45 minutes in 1875 down to 6 hours 55 minutes in 2012. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks how the table develops the passage's topic, so the student must say what it adds beyond the text, not just what it lists. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Read the table's headings and compare the times, then ask what a reader learns from it that the passage alone does not say, and pick the choice that names that.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes Ederle inspired later women to chase the record, but neither the table nor the passage connects Yvetta Hlavacova or any other swimmer to her.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Notices Yvetta Hlavacova, a second woman among the record holders, which is true of the table but is one entry, not its main contribution.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Describes what the table contains, early and current records side by side, rather than what that comparison adds, and its “early twentieth century” leaves out Webb's 1875 swim.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook rejects choice C because “the passage does not provide information about other female swimmers’ successful swims across the channel.” But the table lists a second woman, Yvetta Hlavacova (2006, 7 hours, 25 minutes), so C is true of the table. The explanation now says C is wrong because that one detail is not the table’s main contribution: the passage does not discuss other female swimmers, and the table mainly shows how far the record has fallen since Ederle’s time.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what the table adds to the passage. Don’t just say what is in the table. Say what you learn from it that the passage itself does not tell you.
Read the key rows of the table
The table has two parts, “Earliest Speed Records” and “Current Speed Records.” Here are three of its rows:
Year Swimmer Time 1875 Matthew Webb 21 hours, 45 minutes 1926 Gertrude Ederle 14 hours, 31 minutes 2012 Trent Grimsey 6 hours, 55 minutes Compare the times
Ederle took about 14 and a half hours. Half of that is about 7 and a quarter hours. The 2012 record is under 7 hours. So today’s record is less than half of Ederle’s time. This shows two things. People kept swimming the channel long after Ederle. And they got much faster.
See what the passage leaves out
The passage ends with Ederle’s parade and the people she inspired. It never says what happened to the record later. The table adds that part of the story: the record kept falling, by a lot.
Check each choice
- A: people kept swimming the channel and “significantly reduced the speed record.” Significantly means by a lot. The table shows this.
- B: nothing says later women were inspired by Ederle.
- C: the table does show another woman, Yvetta Hlavacova, with a record. But that is one row, not the table’s main point.
- D only names what is in the table, not what it shows. Also, the first record is from 1875, not the twentieth century.
Watch out: D describes the table’s contents. The question asks what the table contributes, or adds.
Pick the answer
The table shows that the record has fallen a long way since Ederle’s time. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because the table does set old and new records side by side. But D stops at naming the comparison. A says what the comparison shows. The record dropped from over 21 hours to under 7 hours. That is what the table adds to the passage.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 82 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 27Passage Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad
Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad
by Mark Twain
Now and then, while we rested, we watched the laborious ant at his work. I found nothing new in him—certainly nothing to change my opinion of him. It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be a strangely overrated bird. During many summers now I have watched him, when I ought to have been in better business, and I have not yet come across a living ant that seemed to have any more sense than a dead one. I refer to the ordinary ant, of course; I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, . . . and dispute about religion. Those particular ants may be all that the naturalist paints them, but I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham.
I admit his industry, of course; he is the hardest working creature in the world—when anybody is looking—but his leather-headedness is the point I make against him. He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do? Go home? No; he goes anywhere but home. He doesn’t know where home is. His home may be only three feet away; no matter, he can’t find it. He makes his capture, as I have said; it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else; it is usually seven times bigger than it ought to be; he hunts out the awkwardest place to take hold of it; he lifts it bodily up in the air by main force, and starts—not toward home, but in the opposite direction; not calmly and wisely, but with a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength; he fetches up against a pebble, and, instead of going around it, he climbs over it backwards, dragging his booty after him, tumbles down on the other side, jumps up in a passion, kicks the dust off his clothes, moistens his hands, grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then that, shoves it ahead of him a moment, turns tail and lugs it after him another moment, gets madder and madder, then presently hoists it into the air and goes tearing away in an entirely new direction; comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top—which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple; when he gets up there he finds that that is not the place; takes a cursory glance at the scenery, and either climbs down again or tumbles down, and starts off once more—as usual, in a new direction. At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from, and lays his burden down. Meantime, he has been over all the ground for two yards around, and climbed all the weeds and pebbles he came across. Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever. He traverses a good deal of zig-zag country, and by and by stumbles on his same booty again. He does not remember to have ever seen it before; he looks around to see which is not the way home, grabs his bundle, and starts. He goes through the same adventures he had before; finally stops to rest, and a friend comes along.
Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it. Evidently the proprietor does not remember exactly where he did get it, but thinks he got it “around here somewhere.” Evidently the friend contracts to help him freight it home. Then, with a judgment peculiarly antic (pun not intentional), they take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions. Presently they take a rest, and confer together. They decide that something is wrong, they can’t make out what. Then they go at it again, just as before. Same result. Mutual recriminations follow. Evidently each accuses the other of being an obstructionist. They warm up, and the dispute ends in a fight. They lock themselves together and chew each other’s jaws for a while; then they roll and tumble on the ground till one loses a horn or a leg and has to haul off for repairs. They make up and go to work again in the same old insane way, but the crippled ant is at a disadvantage; tug as he may, the other one drags off the booty and him at the end of it. Instead of giving up, he hangs on, and gets his shins bruised against every obstruction that comes in the way. By and by, when that grasshopper leg has been dragged all over the same old ground once more, it is finally dumped at about the spot where it originally lay. The two perspiring ants inspect it thoughtfully and decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all, and then each starts off in a different direction to see if he can’t find an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it. . . .
Science has recently discovered that the ant does not lay up anything for winter use. . . . He does not work, except when people are looking, and only then when the observer has a green, naturalistic look, and seems to be taking notes. This amounts to deception, and will injure him for the Sunday schools. He has not judgment enough to know what is good to eat from what isn’t. This amounts to ignorance, and will impair the world’s respect for him. . . . He cannot stroll around a stump and find his way home again. This amounts to idiocy, and once the damaging fact is established, thoughtful people will cease to look up to him. It is strange beyond comprehension that so manifest a humbug as the ant has been able to fool so many nations and keep it up so many ages without being found out.
we: the author and his fictional travel companion
From A TRAMP ABROAD by Mark Twain—Public Domain
Question
The central idea that “the average ant is a sham” (paragraph 1) is conveyed mainly through the
- Acomical descriptions of the inability of the ants to accomplish the task at hand.
- Bcomparison between ants from other countries and the ants being observed.
- Ckeen observations that the level of intelligence of ants is mostly overstated.
- Dconclusion that ants value objects that are of little practical use to them.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks how the central idea that “the average ant is a sham” (paragraph 1) is expressed in the excerpt. The excerpt focuses on the author’s humorous explanation of the ineffective struggles of two ants to accomplish a task, and the excerpt concludes with the statement that ants are not as smart as people think: “the ant has been able to fool so many nations” (paragraph 4). This point is stated in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because the reference to ants in other locations is a detail mentioned only in paragraph 1 and is not directly related to the central idea mentioned in the question.
Option C is incorrect because, while the narrator does observe the ants, the observations made are highly opinionated and not characterized as especially insightful or perceptive.
Option D refers to the detail in paragraph 2 that states that the objects ants seek out are “generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else” (paragraph 2), but this is not the main way the author conveys the premise that ants are a sham or false, and therefore, Option D is incorrect.
Question analysis
This central idea question hands students Mark Twain's claim that “the average ant is a sham” and asks how the excerpt mainly conveys it. Every choice points to something that really appears in the text, so students must judge which one does most of the work across the whole excerpt.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Typical grade 7 central idea work asks students to find the idea; here it is supplied, so the task is tracing how it is developed. The long, old-fashioned passage adds reading load, but the task itself is standard.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- A lot to read moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 66 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question is less about finding the idea than about weighing how much of the excerpt each choice accounts for. Three choices name something that really appears, so a student who checks only whether a choice is true will keep two or three of them. The one that covers the long comic narratives in paragraphs 2 and 3 wins, and the trap is a choice that sounds analytical because it repeats the claim.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The idea is handed over in the stem, so the task is naming the method: the comic accounts of the lone ant's trip and the two ants' tug-of-war fill paragraphs 2 and 3. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A lot to read moderate Understanding the question
The answer rests on the whole 1,100-word excerpt, including a 183-word sentence in paragraph 2, so students must judge what most of the text does rather than recall one line. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each wrong choice points to something real, the Swiss and African ants, the observing, the useless loot, so none can be dismissed without asking how much of the excerpt it explains. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Note in a few words what each paragraph mostly does, then test every choice against those notes, checking each of its words rather than its general idea.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
The wrong answers, classified
B Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Picks the comparison sitting in the same sentence as the quoted claim, the Swiss and African ants, a one-line aside rather than the excerpt's main method.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Gets the claim right, that the ant is “strangely overrated,” but calls Twain's slapstick “keen observations” and restates the idea instead of naming how it is conveyed.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Seizes on the ant's taste for worthless loot, a real motif from the grasshopper leg to the old nail, but only one strand of the comic accounts.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The question hands you the central idea: “the average ant is a sham.” A sham is a fake, something that is not what it seems. You don’t need to find the idea. You need to find how Twain mostly gets it across.
Note what each paragraph does
- Paragraph 1: Twain says ants are overrated.
- Paragraph 2: One ant drags his prize up weeds, over pebbles and the wrong way. After half an hour he is “within six inches of the place he started from.”
- Paragraph 3: Two ants tug one grasshopper leg in opposite directions, then fight.
- Paragraph 4: Twain sums up his charges against the ant.
See how the idea is shown
Paragraphs 2 and 3 are by far the longest. They are funny stories. In each one, ants work very hard and get nowhere. The jokes show that the ant is not smart, even though people think he is. That is how Twain proves the ant is a sham.
Check each choice
- A fits. The funny stories of ants failing at their task fill most of the excerpt.
- B The Swiss and African ants appear in just one sentence of paragraph 1.
- C only repeats the idea that ants are overrated. It does not say how the idea is shown.
- D The worthless loot is real, but it is only one detail inside the funny stories.
Choose the answer
Twain shows the ant is a sham mainly through comical, or funny, descriptions of ants failing at their job. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap, because it sounds smart and matches Twain’s opinion. But the question asks how the idea is shown, and C just says the idea again. Also, Twain’s stories are silly exaggerations, not “keen observations” (sharp, careful ones). A names the real method: the funny stories.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed (pages 62–63)
Question 83 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 29Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
Read this text from paragraph 2.
He . . . comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top—which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple;
These details convey the central idea in the excerpt by showing that the ant
- Aoften wastes his strength when working on a task.
- Bis surprised by the effort he needs in order to move the object.
- Cis oblivious to the most practical solution to his problem.
- Dfocuses more on obtaining the object than getting it back home efficiently.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks for an explanation of how the details in the sentence convey the central idea, which is that the ant makes poor choices because of his lack of intelligence and his inability to understand even the most basic problem or obstacle.
Option C is correct because the author’s description of the ant climbing up and over the weed rather than simply going around the weed supports the central idea.
Option A is incorrect because, although the ant does waste much of his strength, the idea conveyed in the sentences is more related to the ant’s inability to solve a problem in the simplest way (paragraph 2: “which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple”).
Option B is incorrect because the idea that the ant is surprised by the amount of effort needed to carry the object is not a central idea of the excerpt; nor does the excerpt suggest that the ant is surprised by this in the first place.
Option D is incorrect because the ant has already acquired the object, and the details in the sentence do not convey an idea about the ant’s unnecessary effort.
Question analysis
Students read Mark Twain's description of an ant hauling its load up and over a weed and must explain how these details support the excerpt's central idea. The comparison to carrying flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of a church steeple is unfamiliar, and one choice is true of the ant elsewhere without being the point of these lines.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a quoted detail to a central idea is routine grade 7 work, and the lines are printed in the question. The extra hurdle is decoding an old comparison about lugging flour between European cities over a steeple.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 123 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The lines are printed in the question, so the challenge is interpreting them rather than finding them. Students who know the ant wastes his strength will find that idea here too and stop, while the comparison actually mocks choosing the hardest route: going up and over instead of around. The question rewards asking what the weed and the steeple have in common before reading the choices.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The point hides in sarcasm: climbing the weed is “as bright a thing to do” as hauling flour from Heidelberg to Paris “by way of Strasburg steeple,” so “bright” means foolish. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
The joke lands faster for readers who know that a steeple is a church's tall spire and that Strasbourg lies on the road from Heidelberg to Paris. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Work out what the flour-and-steeple comparison mocks by picturing the route it describes, then match that judgment to what the ant does at the weed.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Recalls that his “frantic haste” is “wasteful of his strength,” true earlier in paragraph 2, but these lines mock his route over the weed, not his spent energy.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines the ant startled by how heavy his load is, but no line shows surprise; he climbs because going around “never occurs to him.”
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly sees the ant failing to get the load home efficiently, but he already holds the object, so nothing here is about obtaining it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how a few printed lines support the central idea. The central idea is that the ant is not as smart as people think.
Find the key words
The lines are from paragraph 2. The ant “comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it.” Instead, he climbs it. Then Twain says this is “as bright a thing to do” as carrying “a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple.”
Picture the comparison
A steeple is the tall, pointed tower on top of a church. Heidelberg, Strasburg and Paris are cities, and Strasburg is on the way. Picture carrying a heavy sack between cities. Now picture climbing up and over a church tower on the way, instead of walking around it. That is silly.
So when Twain calls the climb “bright,” he means the opposite. This is sarcasm (saying the opposite of what you mean, to poke fun).
Check each choice
- A The ant does waste strength elsewhere in paragraph 2. But these lines mock his choice of route.
- B Nothing shows the ant is surprised. Going around just never occurs to him.
- C fits. Going around the weed is the easy fix, and the ant never thinks of it. Oblivious means not noticing.
- D He already has the object, so these lines are not about getting it.
Choose the answer
The lines show an ant who misses the simple solution right in front of him. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap, since the ant really does waste his strength. But the weed and the steeple share one point: each is climbed when you could simply walk around it. That is about missing the easy solution, which is choice C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 84 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 31Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 2.
At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from, and lays his burden down.
How does the sentence contribute to the development of the central idea of the excerpt?
- AIt reveals that the ant is aware of the purposelessness of his efforts and that he does not enjoy his work.
- BIt highlights how little the ant accomplishes despite the great amount of effort he exerts.
- CIt suggests that the ant has an industrious attitude and does not easily give up.
- DIt emphasizes that the ant does not thoughtfully consider how difficult it would be to carry his capture for such a long period of time.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks how the sentence, which states that the ant ends up only six inches from his original starting point, contributes to the central idea of the excerpt.
Option B is correct because it explains how the idea in the sentence supports the central idea that “the average ant is a sham” (paragraph 1) by emphasizing his lack of progress and wasted effort.
Option A is incorrect because, while the author recognizes the pointlessness of the efforts, the ant never becomes aware that his efforts are purposeless.
Option C is incorrect because the ant ending up only six inches from his starting point suggests pointless effort, not an industrious or productive attitude.
Option D is incorrect because the emphasis of the sentence is on the ant’s wasted effort, not the difficulty and time involved, which the ant never realizes or evaluates.
Question analysis
Students read one sentence from paragraph 2 of Mark Twain's ant story, about where the ant finally sets down his burden, and explain how it develops the excerpt's central idea. The choices differ subtly on the ant's awareness, attitude and effort, so each must be checked closely against the sentence.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one sentence develops a central idea is standard grade 7 work, and this sentence is short and quoted in full. Twain's long, winding style adds some load, but the reasoning needed is brief.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Every choice must be checked minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 120 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
Once a student reads the sentence as the punch line of the half hour before it, the key is close to obvious: thirty minutes of hauling have moved the ant six inches. Errors come from importing ideas from elsewhere, such as the narrator's grudging praise of the ant's industry, or from latching onto the time words and missing that the sentence measures distance gained, not effort planned.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the sentence develops the central idea, so students must connect “within six inches of the place he started from” to the claim that the average ant is a sham. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
The wrong choices differ from the key in one claim each, the ant's awareness, his persistence, his failure to plan, so each must be tested against the sentence. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Read the sentences just before this one to see what filled the ant's half hour, then put the sentence's effect in your own words before checking the choices against the paragraph.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Hands the narrator's insight to the ant: the narrator sees the effort is pointless, but the ant never realizes it, and nothing says whether he enjoys working.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Recalls the grudging “I admit his industry” and the ant's later restarts, found elsewhere in paragraph 2, but this sentence shows half an hour gaining six inches.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly sees a thoughtless ant and is drawn by “half an hour,” but the sentence stresses how little ground he gained, not the difficulty of a long carry.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook places “the average ant is a sham” in paragraph 2. The phrase ends paragraph 1, as question 27 on the same excerpt says, so the explanation now reads “(paragraph 1)”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how one sentence helps build the central idea. The central idea is that “the average ant is a sham.” He looks busy and wise, but he is not smart.
Read the sentence and what comes before
The sentence is in paragraph 2: “At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from, and lays his burden down.”
Read the sentences before it too. The ant has climbed weeds, tumbled down and changed direction again and again.
Work out what it means
“Fetches up” means ends up. A “burden” is a heavy load. So after thirty minutes of hard work, the ant is only six inches from where he began. All that effort got him almost nowhere. This is the punch line of his trip. It shows the ant works hard but gets almost nothing done.
Check each choice
- A The narrator sees that the work is pointless. The ant never does, and we never learn if he enjoys it.
- B fits. Half an hour of effort moves him only six inches.
- C The ant does keep going, but this sentence stresses failure, not a good attitude.
- D The sentence measures how little ground he gained. It is not about planning a long carry.
Choose the answer
The sentence shows how little the ant achieves for so much effort. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is tempting because the sentence says “half an hour,” which sounds like a long carry. But the key fact is the distance: six inches from the start. That fact is about results, not about thinking ahead. B is about results, so it fits better.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 85 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 33Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it.
Which statement best describes how the sentence fits into the overall structure of the excerpt?
- AIt indicates a shift to the realization that the ants place great importance on an item that has little value.
- BIt emphasizes a shift from an analysis of the actions of the individual ant to a commentary on the actions of the ants working together.
- CIt introduces a transition to the idea that specific observations about one ant allow for generalizations about all ants.
- DIt provides a transition to the observation that the ant’s friend is just as purposeful in his efforts toward a futile ending as the first ant.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks for an explanation of how the sentence, which highlights the second ant’s interest in the grasshopper leg, fits into the structure of the excerpt.
Option B is correct because the sentence shows a shift from paragraph 2, which analyzes the actions of the first ant alone, to paragraph 3, which comments on the conversation between the two ants and the ensuing efforts of the two ants together.
Option A is incorrect because the idea that the ant seeks out worthless items, such as a grasshopper leg, is established in paragraph 2 (“it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else”).
Option C is incorrect because paragraph 3 is a continuation of the author’s tale and not an expansion of the focus of his commentary.
Option D is incorrect because the author does not compare the purposefulness of the two ants.
Question analysis
Students must explain how one sentence, in which a second ant praises a grasshopper leg as “a very noble acquisition,” fits into the overall structure of Mark Twain's excerpt. Every choice describes a shift or transition, so students must track what really changes between paragraphs 2 and 3 and what stays the same.
- 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 turns the excerpt, and the choices are abstract and close in meaning, which makes it harder than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 131 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Every choice is phrased as a structural move, which makes them sound equally plausible, and the sentence's own content, mock praise of junk, pulls toward a choice that describes what it says rather than what changes. The key depends on noticing that a second ant enters here and the rest of paragraph 3 is about the two working, and failing, together. Students who weigh each choice's idea against paragraph 2 find that only the shift from one ant to two is new.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks what the sentence does in the excerpt's structure, so students must compare paragraph 2's lone ant with paragraph 3's pair instead of paraphrasing the friend's remark. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
All four choices describe a shift or a transition in similar abstract terms, so each has to be checked for whether its idea is really new at this point. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Strategy: Compare the main subject of paragraph 2 with that of paragraph 3, then ask what new element this opening sentence brings in, and check whether each choice's idea is actually new here.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Describes what the sentence says, that ants prize a worthless leg, and calls it a shift, though paragraph 2 already showed the ant hauling useless loot.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads paragraph 3 as a move from one ant to rules about all ants, when it simply continues the story with a second ant.
D Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Rightly notes that the friend joins an equally futile effort, but the excerpt never weighs his purposefulness against the first ant's; the sentence's job is to add a partner.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a structure question. It asks what job one sentence does in the whole excerpt. Don’t just restate the sentence. Ask what changes when it arrives.
Find where the sentence sits
The sentence opens paragraph 3: “Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it.”
Paragraph 2 ends just before it. The ant “finally stops to rest, and a friend comes along.”
Compare the two paragraphs
Paragraph 2 is all about one ant working alone. Paragraph 3 is about two ants. They tug the leg in opposite directions, fight, make up and fail together. This sentence is where the second ant joins in. So it moves the excerpt from one ant to two ants working together.
Check each choice
- A Ants chasing worthless things is not new here. Paragraph 2 already said his prize is “of no sort of use.”
- B fits. The focus moves from a single ant to two ants together.
- C Paragraph 3 makes no rules about all ants. It just goes on with the story.
- D Twain never compares how purposeful (set on a goal) the two ants are.
Choose the answer
The sentence marks the shift from one ant to a pair of ants. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the strongest trap, because the sentence does praise a worthless leg as “a very noble acquisition.” But a shift needs something new. The worthless prize was already in paragraph 2. The only new thing here is the friend, which is choice B.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 86 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 42Passage Cross-Purposes
Cross-Purposes
What I am is built: concrete and steel.
I defy gravity. I am what every athlete
wants: to remain at the apex of the leap,
up in the air. And yet I am useful, too:
cars, trucks, people, even trains
make their way across my broad back.
Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.
What I am is motion. I am water, and I am older
than anything else you know. No human
built me. I am gravity’s best friend; I pool
and flow wherever gravity takes me.
I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest,
and I catch everything: from the hills,
the mountains. It all washes down through me.
What you are is an accident,
what happens to rain when rain gives in
to Earth’s gravitational pull.
You are some tears dribbling from a mountain’s
eye, running down the pavements
of small towns, into the cities, to the sea.
You are the path of least resistance.
What I am is power. You, of course,
have none: you are a static lump, an artifact
slowly decaying. But my regal flow
nourishes grasses, permits empires to rise.
Those who made you will break you,
in time, replacing you with yet another
clumsy structure. I have seen. I know.
“Clumsy”? Being rebuilt makes me
a friend of time, does it not? And it means
that I have siblings—those “clumsy” structures,
my sisters and brothers.
We stitch across the rip you make.
We are steel thread to the human needle.
We bind you up. We sew you.
And I sow into you; in every cranny
of your superstructure my vapors cling.
They bring out your softness, your rust.
Boast your best, and boast better yet.
I am listening to the bright hum
of the wind in your wires. Because I am,
above all else, patient. I will wait for you.
ospreys: large birds
Question
How does the similar construction of the sentence in line 1 and the sentence in line 8 contribute to the meaning of the poem?
- AIt introduces the intended permanence of the structure and the ever-changing fluidity of the water.
- BIt shows that the structure can bridge the gap caused by the water.
- CIt suggests that the structure has more limitations than the water.
- DIt contrasts the stability of the structure with the instability of the water.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contributes to the meaning of the poem. By beginning lines 1 and 8 with “What I am is,” each speaker establishes its defining feature, both of which are stated in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because the focus of the lines is defining the speakers’ individuality, not how one speaker resolves a problem created by the other.
Option C is incorrect because the structure is not stating in line 1 that it is limited because it was built to stand in place; on the contrary, the structure is stating that this sense of purpose and permanence is its strength.
Option D is incorrect because, in these lines, each speaker is trying to establish its stability, which for the structure is based on strength and for the water is based on longevity.
Question analysis
In the poem “Cross-Purposes,” a built structure and a body of water speak in turn, and both of their opening stanzas begin “What I am is.” This question asks how that matching sentence pattern adds to the poem's meaning. Students must judge precisely how each speaker describes itself, since the choices differ in small but important words.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 poetry questions often ask what a repeated phrase emphasizes. Here the repetition sets up two opposed speakers, and the choices hinge on fine distinctions of connotation, which pushes the task above typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 74 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two choices describe the same contrast, built versus moving, and differ only in the judgment their words carry. Students who see the contrast quickly can still lose the point by choosing the version that calls the water unstable, since nothing in the water's stanza treats motion as a weakness; it boasts of being older than anything. The question rewards weighing the connotation of each word in a choice, not just its overall direction.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
A and D describe the same contrast in near-synonyms, permanence and stability against fluidity and instability; they differ only in the word “instability,” a weakness the proud water never claims. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the shared opening “What I am is” does, so students must see that it sets up two self-definitions, “built” and “motion,” as rival claims. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The speakers are personified and the structure is never named, so students must infer from “concrete and steel” and the trains on its “broad back” that a bridge is speaking. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The choices turn on abstract words such as “permanence,” “fluidity” and “instability” that never appear in the poem. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Read the opening sentences of the first two stanzas side by side, name each speaker's defining quality in a word, and test every choice's wording against what the speakers actually claim.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Jumps to the fifth stanza, where the structures “stitch across the rip you make”; lines 1 and 8 only define each speaker and mention no gap.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Infers from “built” versus “motion” that the structure is the more limited, a judgment the water makes later but these parallel lines do not.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure's stability right, but “instability” casts the water's motion as a flaw, while the water presents motion as a strength.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook reads “how the similarity in the construction of lines 1 and 8 contribute”. It now reads “contributes”, to agree with “similarity”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a question about the poem’s structure. Lines 1 and 8 are built the same way. You need to see what that sameness does for the meaning.
Compare lines 1 and 8
Line 1 opens the first stanza (a group of lines in a poem): “What I am is built: concrete and steel.”
Line 8 opens the second stanza: “What I am is motion. I am water.”
Both start with the same words, “What I am is.” Each speaker is telling you the one thing that defines it.
Work out who is talking
Two things talk in this poem. The first is a structure, most likely a bridge. It is made of “concrete and steel,” and trains cross its “broad back.” The second is water. Giving human traits, like speech, to things that are not human is called personification.
The bridge is “built”: made to stay in place for a long time. The water is “motion”: always moving and changing.
Check each choice
- A fits. “Built” suggests permanence (lasting). “Motion” suggests fluidity (flowing like a liquid).
- B The bridge closing a gap comes later, in lines 33–35. Lines 1 and 8 mention no gap.
- C The bridge is proud of being built. It admits no limits here.
- D “Instability” makes moving sound like a weakness. The water is proud of its motion.
Choose the answer
The matching lines set the structure’s lasting strength against the water’s constant flow. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap, because it describes the same contrast. But instability means being shaky or weak. The water never sees itself that way. It brags that it is “older / than anything else you know.” A uses “fluidity,” which treats motion as a strength.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)
Question 87 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 43Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
Read lines 2–4 and lines 12–14 from the poem.
I am what every athlete
wants: to remain at the apex of the leap,
up in the air.
I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest,
and I catch everything: from the hills,
the mountains.
How do the lines contribute to the development of a central idea of the poem?
- AThey establish that both the structure and the water have endurance and control.
- BThey highlight that both the structure and the water are powerful and impressive.
- CThey suggest that the structure and the water are unaware of how similar they are.
- DThey reveal that the structure and the water are surprised that they are interrelated.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks how the lines contribute to the development of a central idea in the poem. The lines “I am what every athlete / wants” (lines 2–3) and “I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest” (line 12) communicate that each speaker is an object of admiration and a powerful force, so Option B is correct.
Option A is incorrect because nothing in the language of the lines communicates control.
Option C is incorrect because the lines describe opposing characteristics: the structure’s description conveys stillness—remaining “up in the air” (line 4)—while the water’s description conveys movement—“flowing in the runner’s chest” (line 12). Additionally, the idea that the speakers fail to recognize similarities is not part of a central idea.
Option D is incorrect because there is no evidence in the poem that the two speakers understand that they are interrelated.
Question analysis
Students compare two sets of lines from the poem “Cross-Purposes” in which the structure and the water each describe themselves through athletes, one leaping and one running. The question asks how these lines develop a central idea, which means comparing two images that seem opposite and deciding what the pairing adds.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 work asks what one image suggests. This question pairs images from two speakers in a two-voice poem and asks for a shared idea, with abstract choices that all sound plausible, which is above grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language major
- Combines ideas moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 113 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The athlete images point in opposite directions, one frozen in the air and one in motion, so students may look for a contrast when the question wants what the two share. Both speakers are borrowing the glamour of athletes to boast, which is what makes them powerful and impressive. The other choices either add a quality, control, that neither image carries, or credit the speakers with feelings the poem never shows.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
Both claims are metaphors: the bridge is the athlete's dream of staying “at the apex of the leap,” and the water is “the blood flowing in the runner's chest,” so each image must be translated into a quality. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Combines ideas moderate Working it out
The two sets of lines come from rival speakers in different stanzas, and the answer has to name one idea true of both, not of either alone. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
A and B share the frame “both the structure and the water” plus two qualities; A's endurance is close to B's power, and only its added “control” finds no support in the lines. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: For each set of lines, ask what the speaker claims about itself through the athlete image; then keep only a choice that fits both speakers and these exact words.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Hears stamina in the runner and in staying aloft, which is defensible, but nothing in either set of lines suggests control.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Notices that both speakers use athletes and assumes they miss the likeness, an idea the poem never develops; the images actually set stillness against motion.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads surprise into lines whose tone is boastful; neither speaker shows any sign of noticing a connection, let alone being surprised by it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how two sets of lines build a central idea. The structure speaks one set, and the water speaks the other. You need one idea that fits both.
Read both sets of lines
The structure says, in lines 2–4: “I am what every athlete / wants: to remain at the apex of the leap, / up in the air.”
The water says, in lines 12–14: “I am the blood flowing in the runner’s chest, / and I catch everything.”
Work out what each speaker claims
The apex is the very top. Every athlete wishes they could stay at the top of a jump. The structure stays up there all the time. So it brags that it does what athletes dream of.
The water says it is the blood that keeps a runner going. Both speakers compare themselves to strong athletes. Both are showing off how powerful and impressive they are.
Check each choice
- A Endurance (lasting a long time) could fit. But nothing in the lines shows control.
- B fits. Both speakers boast of being powerful and impressive.
- C The poem never says they don’t notice how alike they are.
- D Neither speaker shows surprise. Their tone is proud.
Choose the answer
Both sets of lines show the speakers bragging about their power. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest choice. Like B, it says something good about both speakers. But A adds “control,” and neither set of lines shows either speaker controlling anything. Every part of B fits both sets of lines, with nothing extra.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 88 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 44Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
Read line 7 from the first stanza.
Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.
How does the line contribute to the development of ideas in the stanza?
- AThe line supports the structure’s claim that it is beneficial to nature.
- BThe line reveals that the structure secretly envies the water’s importance in nature.
- CThe line emphasizes that the structure is more valuable to nature than the water is.
- DThe line reveals the kinship that nature shares with the structure.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The answer is (A)
The question asks how the line contributes to the development of ideas in the stanza. The line mentions swallows and ospreys, birds that use the structure’s trusses as their home; this reference supports the claim that the structure is beneficial to nature, so Option A is correct.
Option B is incorrect because the line doesn’t hint at jealousy in the tone or language, but rather the line is promoting the structure’s helpful characteristic.
Option C is incorrect because, in the line, the structure is not making a comparison with the water.
Option D is incorrect because, in the line, the structure is not implying that it is related to nature but rather that it is helpful to nature.
Question analysis
This question focuses on the first stanza of “Cross-Purposes,” in which a built structure describes itself, and asks what the line about swallows and ospreys nesting in its trusses adds. The line is short and plain, but students need to read it as part of the whole stanza and know that trusses are a structure's load-bearing framework.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Explaining what one line adds to its own stanza matches the grade 6 standard on how a sentence fits into a text. The line is plain and the stanza short, so this is below typical grade 7 demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- Figurative or literary language minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 77 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The line is plain and follows directly from the stanza's claim that the structure is useful, so most students who read the stanza in order find the key. The wrong choices import the poem's later rivalry with the water, or a sense of family that comes later and refers to other structures. Students who keep to the first stanza, where the water has not yet spoken, avoid them.
How, not what minor Working it out
The line follows “And yet I am useful, too,” so its job is to extend the structure's usefulness from cars and trains to birds. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The speaker is a personified bridge boasting about itself, and the birds in its “trusses” are offered as one more reason to admire it. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
A and C both say the line shows the structure's value to nature; C differs only in adding “than the water is,” a comparison the first stanza, where the water has not yet spoken, never makes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Read the stanza's sentences in order and note what each says about the speaker; then ask what the line about the birds adds to that picture.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
B Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Imagines envy of the water, but the first stanza never mentions the water and its tone is proud, not jealous.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the later contest over usefulness to nature, when the water says its flow “nourishes grasses”; the first stanza makes no comparison.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads nesting birds as a family bond, a step beyond the line, which shows the structure helping nature; the “siblings” come later and are other structures.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one line adds to the first stanza. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, a bit like a paragraph. Read the whole stanza to see where the line fits.
Read the stanza in order
Line 4 says: “And yet I am useful, too.” Lines 5–6 list who uses the structure: “cars, trucks, people, even trains.” Then line 7 says: “Swallows and ospreys nest in my trusses.”
The footnote says ospreys are large birds. Swallows are small birds. Trusses are the frame of beams that holds up a bridge.
Work out what the line adds
Lines 4–7 list ways the structure is useful. First it helps people and their cars and trains get across. Line 7 adds that it helps animals too: birds make their homes in it. So the line shows the structure is good for nature, not just for people.
Check each choice
- A fits. Birds nesting there support the claim that the structure helps nature.
- B The water isn’t even mentioned yet, and the tone is proud, not jealous.
- C This stanza makes no comparison with the water.
- D Kinship means being family. The line shows help, not family. The “siblings” come later, and they are other structures.
Choose the answer
The line backs up the structure’s claim that it is good for nature. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap. Like A, it says the structure helps nature. But C adds “than the water is.” In the first stanza the water has not spoken yet, so no comparison is made. A says only what the line shows.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 89 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 47Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
The last stanza (lines 36–42) conveys a central idea of the poem by
- Ademonstrating that both the structure and the water depend on each other to fulfill their functions.
- Bimplying that a stronger structure would be able to resist the degradation caused by the water.
- Crevealing that the passage of time will render both the structure and the water obsolete.
- Dsuggesting that the water will eventually weaken the structure and will continue to exist after the structure is gone.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks how the last stanza conveys a central idea of the poem. In lines 36–38, the speaker (the water) describes how its “vapors cling” to the structure, bringing out the structure’s “softness” and “rust,” thus destroying the structure over time. Also, in line 42, the speaker says it is “patient” and “will wait for you,” suggesting that the speaker will be around after the structure is gone. These phrases in the last stanza indicate that Option D is correct.
Option A is incorrect because the last stanza includes no indication that the structure and the water depend on each other.
Option B is incorrect because the last stanza refers to the opposing speaker (the structure) and not to any other structure.
Option C is incorrect because the last stanza addresses only the idea that the structure will grow weak and obsolete over time.
Question analysis
Students must explain how the final stanza of “Cross-Purposes,” spoken by the water, conveys a central idea of the poem. The stanza mixes a pun on sewing and sowing, images of vapor and rust, and a taunt about boasting, so students must read past the wordplay to the stanza's main claim.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking a stanza to a poem's central idea is standard grade 7 work. The stanza's wordplay takes some decoding, but each choice can be checked against the stanza itself, so the overall demand is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 78 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The stanza's meaning is a quiet threat: moisture works into the structure, rusts it, and the water simply waits. Students who decode the rust and the waiting usually reach the key, but one wrong choice gets the decay right and then sweeps the water into it too. The taunt to “boast better yet” is the other snare, since read straight it sounds like an invitation to build a stronger structure.
Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question
The stanza works through wordplay and images: “I sow into you” puns on the structure's “We sew you,” vapors cling to bring out “your rust,” and “I will wait for you” is a threat. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
C and D agree that time will wear the structure down; they differ only in the water's fate, which D says outlasts the structure and C says becomes obsolete too, against “above all else, patient.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Cranny” and “superstructure” in the stanza, and “degradation” and “obsolete” in the choices, are words a seventh grader may not know. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Paraphrase each sentence of the last stanza in plain words, then check both halves of every choice, since a choice can fit one speaker and not the other.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the sew-and-sow echo as mutual need, but the last stanza shows the water acting on the structure, with no dependence either way.
B Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the taunt “boast better yet” at face value, as if a stronger structure could resist, though the water's answer to any boast is that it will wait.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Gets the structure's decline right but makes the water obsolete as well, though it is “patient” and plans to outlast the structure.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the last stanza shows a central idea. The water is speaking. You need to work out what it is really saying to the structure.
Read the last stanza
Lines 36–38 say: “And I sow into you; in every cranny / of your superstructure my vapors cling. / They bring out your softness, your rust.”
Lines 41–42 end the poem: “Because I am, / above all else, patient. I will wait for you.”
Work out the hidden threat
A cranny is a small crack. Vapors are tiny drops of water in the air, like mist. The superstructure is the main body of the structure. So the water’s mist creeps into every crack and makes the steel rust and weaken.
“Sow” sounds like “sew,” but it means to plant seeds. The water plants rust. Then it says it will wait. It expects to still be here after the structure is gone.
Check each choice
- A The stanza shows the water harming the structure, not needing it.
- B No stronger structure is mentioned. “Boast better yet” is a dare, not advice.
- C The structure will wear down, but the water won’t. It is patient and waiting.
- D fits. The water will rust the structure and outlast it.
Choose the answer
The water will slowly weaken the structure and still be around after it is gone. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap. C and D agree that time will wear down the structure. But C says the water will become obsolete, or useless, too. The water says the opposite: “I will wait for you.” Only D gets both speakers right.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 90 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 50Uses the passage above: “Cross-Purposes”.
Question
How does the form of the poem contribute to its meaning?
- AThe use of an equal number of lines in each stanza emphasizes that both speakers are equally important.
- BThe use of italics in some of the stanzas indicates the increasing tension between the structure and the water.
- CThe alternating positions of the stanzas highlight the opposing points of view of the speakers.
- DThe lack of a regular rhyme scheme or meter reflects the way the water changes the structure and the way the water itself changes.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks how the form of the poem contributes to its meaning. The alternating positions of the stanzas create the appearance of a conversation in which the speakers share their opposing points of view, making Option C correct.
Option A is incorrect because the number of lines for each stanza does not emphasize the importance of the two speakers.
Option B is incorrect because italics are used mainly to designate the voice of the second speaker (the water).
Option D is incorrect because the lack of rhyme scheme or meter is intended to create a conversational tone, rather than reflect the changes the water causes or experiences.
Question analysis
This question about poetic form asks how the shape of “Cross-Purposes” on the page contributes to its meaning. Students must consider features such as stanza length, placement, italics and the lack of rhyme, and decide which one the poem actually uses to create meaning.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 standards ask how genre features such as stanza form shape meaning, but most classroom questions point to one feature. Here students must weigh four features of the poem and the meaning each choice assigns, which is above typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Something you must already know minor
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 316 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 87 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
All four choices point to something true about how the poem looks, so checking features against the page eliminates nothing. The real test is whether the meaning each choice assigns follows from the poem: equal stanzas do not make the rivals equal, italics mark the water's voice from its first stanza, and free verse is not a picture of erosion. Only the alternating placement maps directly onto two opposed speakers taking turns.
How, not what major Working it out
The question is about form, not content: students must ask what the page layout, indented italic stanzas against flush roman ones, does for the meaning. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Each choice names a feature that really exists, seven lines in every stanza, italics, alternating positions, no rhyme or meter, so every feature and the meaning given to it must be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Terms such as “stanza,” “rhyme scheme” and “meter” are assumed, and a student unsure what meter means cannot judge the choice about free verse. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: For each feature named in the choices, first confirm it is really in the poem, then ask whether the meaning the choice gives it fits what happens in 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.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Counts seven lines in every stanza, which is true, and reads that balance as equal importance, though the speakers spend the poem disputing which of them matters more.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices the italics but misreads their job: they mark the water's voice from its first stanza onward, not a rising level of tension.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Applies the habit of treating free verse as a mirror of the subject, reading the missing rhyme and meter as the water's changes, which nothing in the poem supports.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about form: how the poem looks on the page, not just what it says. You need the feature that adds to the meaning.
Look at the page
Notice four things about the form.
- Every stanza has seven lines.
- Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 are in italics (slanted letters).
- Those italic stanzas are pushed to the right. The others sit on the left.
- The lines don’t rhyme and have no steady beat. That beat is called meter.
Work out what the layout shows
The stanzas on the left are the structure speaking. The italic stanzas on the right are the water. The two sides take turns, like two people arguing face to face. The back-and-forth placement makes it easy to see two opposite points of view.
Check each choice
- A The stanzas all have seven lines. But the speakers argue that they are not equal.
- B The italics mark the water’s voice from its first stanza to its last. They don’t show tension growing.
- C fits. The switching positions show the two opposing views.
- D Nothing suggests the missing rhyme stands for the water’s changes.
Choose the answer
The stanzas switch sides to show the speakers’ opposite views. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap, because every stanza really does have seven lines. But the speakers spend the whole poem arguing that they are not equal. Each one says it matters more. So equal stanzas can’t mean equal importance. C links the layout to what really happens: two sides taking turns.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 91 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 54Passage 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
How does paragraph 3 contribute to the passage?
- AIt presents the most probable cause of the 1816 weather.
- BIt shows how nineteenth-century people explained the 1816 weather.
- CIt presents a theory about the 1816 weather that some skeptics doubted.
- DIt includes eyewitness reports to describe the source of the 1816 weather.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks for the purpose and importance of paragraph 3 to the passage. Paragraph 3 describes how nineteenth-century religious and other leaders tried to account for the cooler weather in 1816. Some leaders thought it was “the end of the world,” “sunspot activity,” or the proliferation of a new invention. How this information contributed to the passage is stated in Option B.
Option A is incorrect because the causes described in paragraph 3 were not the most probable cause, as “the first plausible explanation”—Bessel’s—is described later in the passage.
Option C is incorrect because more than one theory is presented in paragraph 3.
Option D is incorrect because the ideas described are not included in paragraph 3.
Question analysis
This text structure question asks what paragraph 3 of “The Year without a Summer” contributes to the passage. Students must place the paragraph within the passage's account of the cold summer, which means knowing what the paragraphs before and after it do.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining a paragraph's role is standard grade 7 structure work. The paragraph is short, but nearby paragraphs also discuss causes of the cold, so students must keep them apart; overall the demand is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Much to keep track of moderate
- How, not what minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 469 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 46 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Paragraph 3 is short and clear on its own, but the paragraphs around it also deal with causes, and the wrong choices are built from those neighbors: the plausible explanation and eyewitnesses from paragraph 4, the skeptics from paragraph 5. A student who summarizes paragraph 3 before reading the choices, as three guesses made at the time, has little trouble; one who checks choices against a general memory of the passage can be caught.
Much to keep track of moderate Working it out
Paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 all deal with explanations, the guesses of 1816, Bessel's dust theory, the skeptics, and each wrong choice borrows from one of them. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks what paragraph 3 contributes, so students must name its role, a record of how people at the time accounted for the cold, not just list its theories. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
A and B both say paragraph 3 explains the 1816 weather; they differ in one phrase, since A calls it “the most probable cause,” a label the passage gives only to Bessel's dust theory in paragraph 4. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Summarize paragraph 3 in a few words, do the same for the paragraphs around it, and pick the choice that matches paragraph 3's own job.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Credits paragraph 3 with Bessel's dust theory from paragraph 4, which the passage calls “the first plausible explanation.”
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Borrows the skeptics from paragraph 5, who doubted the volcano theory, and overlooks that paragraph 3 offers several guesses, not one doubted theory.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the witnesses to the Tambora eruption from paragraph 4; paragraph 3 contains no eyewitness reports.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This is a structure question. It asks what job paragraph 3 does in the passage. Sum it up first, then compare it with the paragraphs around it.
Read paragraph 3
Paragraph 3 lists three guesses from 1816. Some religious leaders said “the end of the world was drawing near.” Others blamed “unusual sunspot activity.” Some people blamed the new lightning rod.
Work out its job
All three ideas come from people living at the time, in the nineteenth century (the 1800s). None of them turned out to be right. So the paragraph shows how people back then tried to explain the cold.
The real cause comes next. Paragraph 4 calls Bessel’s idea “the first plausible explanation.” Plausible means believable.
Check each choice
- A The most probable cause, Bessel’s dust, is in paragraph 4, not 3.
- B fits. It shows how people of the 1800s explained the weather.
- C Paragraph 3 gives several guesses, not one theory. The skeptics (doubters) come in paragraph 5.
- D The eyewitness reports, about Mount Tambora, are in paragraph 4.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 3 shows how people at the time explained the strange weather. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap. A and B both say paragraph 3 explains the weather. But A calls it “the most probable cause.” The passage saves that label for Bessel’s idea in paragraph 4, “the first plausible explanation.” Paragraph 3’s guesses were wrong, so B fits.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Year without a Summer” as printed (page 76)
Question 92 of 106
2018 Test A English, question 55Uses the passage above: “The Year without a Summer”.
Question
The author includes the details in paragraph 4 about the eruption of Mount Tambora in order to
- Asuggest that the aftermath of the eruption still affects the environment today.
- Bhighlight the severe impact that the eruption had on the atmosphere.
- Cprovide a description of what happens during a volcanic eruption.
- Demphasize how differently people perceive natural events in various parts of the world.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The answer is (B)
The question asks why the details about the eruption of Mount Tambora are included in the passage. The details in paragraph 4 about the eruption highlight the severity of the eruption and how it clouded the atmosphere and eventually encircled the world, making Option B the correct answer.
Option A is incorrect because the passage does not support the idea that the effects are still present today.
Option C is incorrect because the details may include information about what happens during an eruption, but the author is specifically describing the event at Mount Tambora as the inception of weather issues all over the world.
Option D is incorrect because, while it is possible that people perceive natural events in various parts of the world differently, the specific details about the force and magnitude of the eruption do not emphasize this idea.
Question analysis
This author's purpose question asks why “The Year without a Summer” includes details about the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. Students must work out the job those details do in the passage's larger explanation, which takes more than noticing what they describe.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining why an author includes certain details is core grade 7 work. The paragraph is short and factual, and its purpose follows from its place in the passage, so the demand is typical for grade 7.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 469 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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 details are vivid, a blast, 100 cubic miles of dust, two days of darkness, and a student can easily answer what they show rather than why they are there. Their job is to make Bessel's dust theory believable by showing how much material reached the atmosphere and how far it spread. The passage's own ending, with the dust settling and spring of 1817 back to normal, rules out any lasting effect.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks why the author includes the eruption details, so students must tie the force, the 100 cubic miles of dust and the darkened sky to the cold summer they explain. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Reread paragraph 4 and ask how the eruption details connect to the cold summer the passage is explaining; the purpose must serve that connection.
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 part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Stretches dust that “encircled the world for several years” into effects still felt today, though the passage says the dust settled and spring of 1817 was normal.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notes what the details are, a description of an eruption, rather than why they are there, to show how the dust could chill summers worldwide.
D Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Draws on the skeptics in paragraph 5, but the eruption details stress the event's force and reach, not how people in different places perceived it.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the author’s purpose: why the author put certain details in. Don’t just say what the details are. Ask what job they do.
Find the details in paragraph 4
Mount Tambora “had erupted with such force that it had sent an estimated 100 cubic miles of fine dust into the atmosphere.” Witnesses said “the sky remained dark for two days.” The dust “encircled the world for several years to come.”
Work out their job
The atmosphere is the layer of air around Earth. These details show how huge the eruption was. A hundred cubic miles of dust is enough to block sunlight around the whole world.
That makes Bessel’s idea easy to believe. Dust from far away really could steal a summer in New England.
Check each choice
- A The dust settled, and “the spring of 1817 was back to normal.” So the effects did not last until today.
- B fits. The details show how hard the eruption hit the atmosphere.
- C They describe one eruption to explain the cold. They don’t teach how all eruptions work.
- D The details are about the eruption’s force, not how people see events.
Choose the answer
The details show the eruption’s severe impact on the atmosphere. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest trap. The details do describe an eruption. But C tells what the details are, not why they are there. The author is not teaching how volcanoes work. The details show how much dust reached the sky, which explains the cold summer. That is B.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 93 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 14Passage 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
What is the primary role of paragraph 1 in the structure of the passage?
- AIt explains the scientific importance of the explosion.
- BIt indicates the magnitude of the explosion.
- CIt provides possible causes of the explosion.
- DIt describes the human suffering caused by the explosion.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks for an explanation of how paragraph 1 supports the passage. Paragraph 1 provides several examples of the severe damage caused by the explosion, as stated in Option B.
Option A is incorrect because the scientific aspects of the explosion are not discussed until later in the passage.
Option C is incorrect because paragraph 1 discusses some of the effects of the blast rather than the potential cause. Although human suffering is one detail described in paragraph 1, this is not the primary evidence of the explosion’s destruction, making Option D incorrect.
Question analysis
This text-structure question asks what job the first paragraph does in the article about the 1908 Tunguska explosion. Students decide how the opening details set up the rest of the passage. The paragraph is vivid, so it is easy to fix on one striking image instead of its overall purpose.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how one section fits the structure of an informational text is a grade 7 skill, and an opening paragraph is the most familiar case. Students check its details and compare them with what later paragraphs take up.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 531 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 44 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A typo 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
Paragraph 1 is short and vivid, and the main risk is naming one of its images instead of what they add up to. Students who keep the whole passage in view can also rule out the two choices that describe later paragraphs, the causes and the science. The question rewards stepping back from the details to ask why the article opens with them before raising its question about the cause.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what paragraph 1 does, and the answer lies in its pattern of distances, flattened huts at 20 miles, heat at 40 miles, tremors at 3,000 miles, each farther away yet still felt. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Reread paragraph 1 and ask what all of its details have in common, then make sure the choice describes the whole paragraph rather than one detail or a later section.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Takes the seismic-station detail as science and calls the paragraph an explanation of the blast’s scientific importance, though it reports effects and explains nothing.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Confuses effects with causes: possible causes, from meteorite to black hole, are debated from paragraph 2 on, while paragraph 1 only shows what the blast did.
D Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Fixes on huts flattened and people flung into the air, the most human detail, and makes it the purpose of a paragraph mostly about how far the blast reached.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook’s explanation begins “The questions asks”; the site now reads “The question asks.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the role of paragraph 1: what job it does in the whole passage. To find a paragraph’s role, look at what all its details have in common.
List the details in paragraph 1
- A fireball “exploded high above the remote Tunguska River Valley.”
- “Twenty miles away, huts were flattened and people were flung into the air.”
- “Villagers 40 miles away felt the heat and heard explosions.”
- Tremors were recorded at a station “more than 3,000 miles away.”
Find what the details share
Each detail is farther away than the one before: 20 miles, then 40 miles, then 3,000 miles. Yet the blast was still felt each time. Together, the details show how huge and powerful the explosion was. “Magnitude” means size or strength. So the paragraph shows the magnitude of the blast.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The paragraph reports what happened. It never explains why scientists care.
- B is right. The details show how big and strong the blast was.
- C is wrong. Possible causes, like a meteorite or a comet, come later, starting in paragraph 2.
- D is wrong. People being flung is only one detail. Most details are about distance and power.
Watch out: D grabs the most dramatic detail. But a paragraph’s role must fit the whole paragraph, not one line.
Choose the answer
Every detail in paragraph 1 shows how big and far-reaching the explosion was. So the answer is B.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer, because paragraph 1 does mention people being hurt. But that is one detail. The heat felt 40 miles away and the tremors 3,000 miles away are not about suffering. They are about size and power. B fits every detail in the paragraph.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Tunguska Fireball” as printed (page 124)
Question 94 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 15Uses 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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears the open questions as a call for more research, a reasonable guess about why writers ask questions, but the article never urges anyone to study the event.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads the questions’ list of possibilities, a crater lake, dust, a comet, as causes acting together, though they are competing explanations for one blast.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes the questions as the writer’s own wondering aloud, but the article reports others’ theories in a neutral voice and never uses “I” or a personal reaction.
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.
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 95 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 23Passage Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness
by Grace Livingston Hill
With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.
It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.
The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her. Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.
There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her wrist.
In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get out like this.
She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train, as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and rolled down the short bank, while the train . . . ran giddily off into the night.
The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they hurried by her—one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.
Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that there was none!
The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the lonely night.
No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was heavy.
A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine’s drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.
cinders: track bed made from the residue of burnt coal
From A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS by Grace Livingston Hill—Public Domain
Question
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence in several places moderate
- Hard words minor
- 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.
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)
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)
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
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Twists “so real to her mind” into a claim that her imagination is the problem, when the station she pictured is simply not there and the danger is real.
C Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Rightly hears surprise in her gasp and “lo!” but reads it as excitement about an adventure ahead, when it is shock at finding no station at all.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Offers a general claim about how she handles stress, which could fit almost any paragraph, though this one reports a single discovery that moves the plot.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how paragraph 11 moves the plot forward. What new thing does Margaret learn there?
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!”
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.
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.
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
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)
Question 96 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 27Passage Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”
Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”
by Rupert Brooke
The real secret of the beauty and terror of the Falls is not their height or width, but the feeling of colossal power and of unintelligible disaster caused by the plunge of that vast body of water. If that were taken away, there would be little visible change, but the heart would be gone.
The American Falls do not inspire this feeling in the same way as the Canadian. It is because they are less in volume, and because the water does not fall so much into one place. By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile. They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam. Seen from opposite, when the sun is on them, they are blindingly white, and the clouds of spray show dark against them. With both Falls the colour of the water is the ever-altering wonder. Greens and blues, purples and whites, melt into one another, fade, and come again, and change with the changing sun. Sometimes they are as richly diaphanous as a precious stone, and glow from within with a deep, inexplicable light. Sometimes the white intricacies of dropping foam become opaque and creamy. And always there are the rainbows. If you come suddenly upon the Falls from above, a great double rainbow, very vivid, spanning the extent of spray from top to bottom, is the first thing you see. If you wander along the cliff opposite, a bow springs into being in the American Falls, accompanies you courteously on your walk, dwindles and dies as the mist ends, and awakens again as you reach the Canadian tumult. And the bold traveller who attempts the trip under the American Falls sees, when he dare open his eyes to anything, tiny baby rainbows, some four or five yards in span, leaping from rock to rock among the foam, and gambolling beside him, barely out of hand’s reach, as he goes. One I saw in that place was a complete circle, such as I have never seen before, and so near that I could put my foot on it. It is a terrifying journey, beneath and behind the Falls. The senses are battered and bewildered by the thunder of the water and the assault of wind and spray; or rather, the sound is not of falling water, but merely of falling; a noise of unspecified ruin. So, if you are close behind the endless clamour, the sight cannot recognise liquid in the masses that hurl past. You are dimly and pitifully aware that sheets of light and darkness are falling in great curves in front of you. Dull omnipresent foam washes the face. Farther away, in the roar and hissing, clouds of spray seem literally to slide down some invisible plane of air.
Beyond the foot of the Falls the river is like a slipping floor of marble, green with veins of dirty white, made by the scum that was foam. It slides very quietly and slowly down for a mile or two, sullenly exhausted. Then it turns to a dull sage green, and hurries more swiftly, smooth and ominous. As the walls of the ravine close in, trouble stirs, and the waters boil and eddy. These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible. Close in its bands of rock the river surges tumultuously forward, writhing and leaping as if inspired by a demon. It is pressed by the straits into a visibly convex form. Great planes of water slide past. Sometimes it is thrown up into a pinnacle of foam higher than a house, or leaps with incredible speed from the crest of one vast wave to another, along the shining curve between, like the spring of a wild beast. Its motion continually suggests muscular action. The power manifest in these rapids moves one with a different sense of awe and terror from that of the Falls. Here the inhuman life and strength are spontaneous, active, almost resolute. . . . A place of fear.
One is drawn back, strangely, to a contemplation of the Falls, at every hour, and especially by night, when the cloud of spray becomes an immense visible ghost, straining and wavering high above the river, white and pathetic and translucent. The Victorian lies very close below the surface in every man. There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara. I could not get out of my mind the thought of a friend, who said that the rainbows over the Falls were like the arts and beauty and goodness, with regard to the stream of life—caused by it, thrown upon its spray, but unable to stay or direct or affect it, and ceasing when it ceased. In all comparisons that rise in the heart, the river, with its multitudinous waves and its single current, likens itself to a life, whether of an individual or of a community. A man’s life is of many flashing moments, and yet one stream; a nation’s flows through all its citizens, and yet is more than they. In such places, one is aware, with an almost insupportable and yet comforting certitude, that both men and nations are hurried onwards to their ruin or ending as inevitably as this dark flood. Some go down to it unreluctant, and meet it, like the river, not without nobility. And as incessant, as inevitable, and as unavailing as the spray that hangs over the Falls, is the white cloud of human crying. . . . With some such thoughts does the platitudinous heart win from the confusion and thunder of a Niagara peace that the quietest plains or most stable hills can never give.
From LETTERS FROM AMERICA by Rupert Brooke—Public Domain
diaphanous: sheer, translucent
platitudinous: clichéd, common
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 3.
These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying than the Falls, because less intelligible.
Which statement best describes how the sentence fits into the overall structure of the excerpt?
- AIt signals a change from the positive aspects of the Falls to the negative aspects.
- BIt indicates a progression from the literal description of the water to a discussion of timeless truths.
- CIt highlights a shift from the qualities of the Falls to the qualities of the river.
- DIt introduces a contrast between the obvious and the hidden features of the rapids.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the statement that best describes how the sentence from paragraph 3 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt. The first sentence of paragraph 3 moves the description “beyond the foot of the Falls” to “the river” and then begins to describe this location before confirming it again with the words “these are the lower rapids.” This emphasis on the shift in location is best stated in Option C, making it the correct response.
Option A is incorrect because, as the first sentence in paragraph 3 states, the paragraph describes the river and not aspects of the Falls.
Option B is incorrect because the entire paragraph describes only the literal movements of the river.
Option D is incorrect because the features of the rapids, as described in paragraph 3, are all obvious and not hidden.
Question analysis
This text structure question asks how a sentence about the lower rapids fits into the overall organization of Rupert Brooke’s excerpt about Niagara Falls. Students need a mental map of all four paragraphs, because every choice describes a believable shift in the essay and only a clear sense of what each paragraph covers separates them.
- 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 usually ask what one paragraph does; this one asks how a mid-paragraph sentence fits the whole essay, which requires summarizing four dense paragraphs of century-old prose.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Much to keep track of moderate
- Hard words moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 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
Structure questions about a single sentence are hard when the sentence itself compares two things, here the rapids and the Falls. Students lose the point by choosing a shift that does occur somewhere in the excerpt, or by reading “more terrifying” as the first negative note in an essay that has been about terror from its first line. Placing the sentence means seeing that paragraph 3 leaves the Falls for the river.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks where the sentence sits in the excerpt’s plan, and its own words mislead: it names “the Falls” and “terrifying,” though its role is to name the new subject, the river’s lower rapids. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Much to keep track of moderate Working it out
Students need a map of four long paragraphs at once, the Falls’ power, the two Falls’ beauty, the river below, and night reflections, to see what changes at this sentence. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
“Less intelligible” means harder to understand, and students who take it to mean less visible are led toward a contrast between obvious and hidden features. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Before reading the choices, jot a few words on what each paragraph is about, then see what changes just before and after this sentence.
Traps
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Hears “more terrifying” as a turn from the Falls’ beauty to their dangers, but the rapids are not the Falls, and paragraphs 1 and 2 already describe the Falls’ terror.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Names a real progression in the excerpt, from description to reflections on destiny and empires, but that turn comes with paragraph 4, not with the rapids.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads “less intelligible” as less visible and sees a contrast between obvious and hidden features, though the surging, leaping rapids are described in full view.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about structure: how the essay is put together. What change in the essay does this sentence mark?
Map the four paragraphs
- Paragraph 1: the power of the Falls.
- Paragraph 2: the beauty of the two Falls, and the trip behind them.
- Paragraph 3: the river below the Falls and its rapids.
- Paragraph 4: thoughts about life and history while watching the Falls.
See what changes in paragraph 3
Paragraph 3 begins “Beyond the foot of the Falls the river is like a slipping floor of marble.” “Beyond the foot” means past the bottom. The author has moved down the river. Then this sentence names the new place: “These are the lower rapids.” Rapids are parts of a river where water rushes fast over rocks. So the sentence marks a shift from the Falls to the river.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The terror of the Falls was already in paragraph 1. And the rapids are not the Falls.
- B is wrong. The essay does move to deep thoughts, but that happens in paragraph 4.
- C is right. The focus moves from the Falls to the river.
- D is wrong. “Less intelligible” means harder to understand, not hidden. The rapids are in plain view.
Watch out: B names a real shift in the essay, but in the wrong place.
Choose the answer
The sentence names a new part of the river to describe. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because the essay really does move from describing water to thinking about life. But that turn comes in paragraph 4, with “thoughts of destiny.” This sentence still describes water, just a different part of it. That is the shift in C.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed (pages 134–135)
Question 97 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 29Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls””.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara.
The sentence most contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt by
- Asuggesting that viewing the Falls can be a life-changing experience.
- Bshowing that the cliffs of the Falls are a good place for self-examination.
- Cemphasizing that the grandeur of the Falls seems impossible to grasp.
- Dhighlighting the type of reflection that is inspired by a visit to the Falls.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 4 contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt.
The description of “cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires” in the sentence refers to the types of thoughts a person might have while observing the Falls, as stated in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because the sentence focuses on the idea that the Falls are a place of great contemplation but does not clarify that these thoughts are life-changing.
Option B is incorrect because the sentence does not describe focused thoughts of a personal nature; the grand, sweeping nature of the Falls inspires thoughts of the same caliber as “the passage of empires.”
Option C is incorrect because the sentence is about how the Falls inspire great thoughts but is not about how difficult it is to grasp the grandeur of the Falls.
Question analysis
This question asks how a sentence near the end of Rupert Brooke’s “Niagara Falls” contributes to the development of ideas in the excerpt. Students must make sense of abstract phrases such as “cloudy thoughts of destiny” and “the passage of empires” and then decide exactly what the sentence adds, since several choices sound close.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how a sentence develops ideas is a grade 7 skill, and this sentence is quoted in full. The challenge is its abstract, old-fashioned wording, which a grade 7 reader must translate before comparing the choices.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 94 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The sentence is about thinking, and most of the choices describe thinking too, so the difference lies in what kind of thought and how much the sentence claims. Students lose the point by inflating daydreams into a life-changing experience or by turning thoughts about empires into self-examination. Paraphrasing the sentence before reading the choices, people sit by the Falls and think about destiny and history, keeps the right one in view.
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The self-examination choice and the right one both say the Falls prompt reflection; they differ in one detail, what the thoughts are about, and the sentence’s “destiny and the passage of empires” is not the self. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
“Great cloudy thoughts” drifting through the mind borrow the image of the Falls’ spray, and “such dreams are at home by Niagara” treats the Falls as the natural home of this kind of daydream. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“The passage of empires” and “destiny” are abstract, and students who cannot pin them down may not see that the thoughts concern history, not the thinker. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Paraphrase the sentence in plain words first, then test each choice against your paraphrase, rejecting any that adds a claim the sentence does not make.
Traps
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Inflates the sentence’s daydreaming into a life-changing experience, though the author says only that great thoughts drift through the mind, not that they change anyone.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Turns the reflection inward, but the thoughts named are of “destiny and the passage of empires,” history on a grand scale, and the sentence says nothing about cliffs.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Borrows the earlier idea that the Falls and rapids are hard to understand, from paragraphs 1 and 3, but this sentence is about the thoughts they inspire.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook writes “the grand, sweeping nature of the falls inspire thoughts.” The subject “nature” takes “inspires,” and the passage always capitalizes “the Falls,” so the site now reads “the grand, sweeping nature of the Falls inspires thoughts.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what one sentence adds to the essay’s ideas. Put the sentence in plain words first, then test each choice against it.
Read the sentence closely
The sentence says: “There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at home by Niagara.”
Put it in plain words
“Destiny” means what is meant to happen in the future. “The passage of empires” means great nations rising and falling over time. “At home by Niagara” means these dreams fit naturally at the Falls. So sitting by the Falls makes you think big thoughts about fate and history. The sentence names the kind of reflection, or deep thinking, the Falls bring on.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Thoughts drift by, but nothing says they change a person’s life.
- B is wrong. The thoughts are about history and fate, not about yourself. The sentence doesn’t mention cliffs.
- C is wrong. This sentence is about the thoughts the Falls inspire, not about how hard they are to grasp.
- D is right. It names the type of thinking a visit to the Falls brings on.
Watch out: B is close, since both B and D are about reflection. Check what the thoughts are about: empires, not yourself.
Choose the answer
The sentence shows what kind of thoughts the Falls inspire. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong answer, because both B and D say the Falls make people reflect. The difference is the topic. Self-examination means thinking about yourself. The sentence names “thoughts of destiny and the passage of empires.” Those are big ideas about history, not about the self.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 98 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 34Passage 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
What role does paragraph 2 play in the structure of the passage?
- AIt provides a contrast to the topic discussed in the first paragraph.
- BIt details examples that support the central idea of the first paragraph.
- CIt states a theory that will be explained further in the third paragraph.
- DIt summarizes the information found in the rest of the passage.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how paragraph 2 supports the structure of the passage. The first paragraph provides history on the field of archaeology, specifically what has come to be known as traditional archaeology. Paragraph 2 describes how modern archaeology differs from traditional archaeology, which is detailed in Option A.
Option B is incorrect because paragraph 2 provides no support for paragraph 1.
Option C is incorrect because paragraph 2 provides facts about modern archaeology and does not introduce a theory.
The remainder of the passage describes how modern archaeology was used at one specific dig, which is not mentioned in paragraph 2, making Option D incorrect.
Question analysis
Students explain the role paragraph 2 plays in the structure of “Uncovering the Past,” a short informational passage about how archaeology has changed over two centuries. The key is to see how the second paragraph relates to the first, and choices that describe common paragraph jobs can sound right if students skim.
- NYS standards
- 7R5 structure and genre features
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 This matches a routine grade 7 structure task: identify one paragraph’s job using the paragraph before it. The passage is short and clearly organized, so the demand lies mostly in reading the choices carefully.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 13, 514 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 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 2 announces its own role with “however” and “different approach,” so students who read its first sentence closely find the answer quickly. Points are lost by students who judge the paragraph by its bulk, which is mostly a list of technologies, and so take it for support or a summary. The question rewards reading a paragraph’s opening for its relation to what came before.
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks for paragraph 2’s job, and the signal is its opening, “Today, however, there is a different approach,” which turns from paragraph 1’s traditional archaeologists to a contrasting method. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Summarize paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 in a phrase each, then describe in your own words how the second relates to the first before reading the choices.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
B Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees that paragraph 2 details examples, laptops, 3-D modeling and lidar, but those examples illustrate the new approach rather than supporting paragraph 1’s account of traditional archaeology.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Notices that paragraph 3 presents Kourion as “an example of the modern approach,” so paragraph 2 seems to set it up, but paragraph 2 describes methods and tools, not a theory.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Assigns paragraph 2 a stock role, summary, without checking it: the paragraph never mentions Kourion, Camelia or the specialists who fill the rest of the passage.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question is about structure, which means how the parts of a passage fit together. It asks what job paragraph 2 does. To answer, you need to know what paragraph 1 says. Then you need to see how paragraph 2 relates to it.
Sum up paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 starts, “Archaeology as a distinct branch of science is only about two centuries old.” It describes the early archaeologists. They dug up “priceless artwork and other valuable artifacts for museum display.” The paragraph ends by calling them “traditional archaeologists.”
Look at how paragraph 2 begins
Paragraph 2 opens with “Today, however, there is a different approach to archaeology.” The word “however” signals a contrast, a turn to something different. The words “different approach” say the same thing. The rest of the paragraph lists modern tools, like laptops, 3-D computer models, radar and lidar. So paragraph 2 sets modern archaeology against the traditional kind.
Check each choice
- A fits. Paragraph 2 contrasts the new approach with the old one in paragraph 1.
- B is wrong. Paragraph 2 does give examples, but they show the new approach. They do not support paragraph 1’s picture of traditional archaeology.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 2 describes methods and tools. It does not state a theory, an idea that still needs proof.
- D is wrong. A summary would mention Kourion, Camelia or the experts. Paragraph 2 names none of them.
Choose the answer
Paragraph 2 turns away from paragraph 1 and describes a different way of doing archaeology. So the answer is A, “It provides a contrast to the topic discussed in the first paragraph.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest wrong choice, because paragraph 2 really is full of examples. But ask what the examples are examples of. They show modern tools, the opposite of the old approach. Examples of a different side create a contrast, not support.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Uncovering the Past” as printed (page 138)
Question 99 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 37Uses 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- 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.
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)
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
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
The zooarchaeologist did identify a mule “found near Camelia,” but the passage never goes on to a topic of nearby artifacts; the next sentence turns to another specialist.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees the zooarchaeologist and the paleobotanist named side by side and assumes a contrast, but the passage compares nothing about them; each is simply another specialist.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Treats the specialists of paragraphs 4 and 5 as a roster the author is finishing, but the zooarchaeologist is not the last one named, and the passage offers examples rather than a complete list.
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.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 100 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 38Passage Snowy Mountains
Snowy Mountains
by John Gould Fletcher
Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.
But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.
Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.
“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain
Question
The description in the first stanza (lines 1–7) helps establish a central idea of the poem by
- Acomparing the length of time the mountains have existed with the length of time the city has existed.
- Bcontrasting the grandeur of the mountains with the structures in the city below them.
- Cimplying that the mountains are a source of inspiration to the people in the city below.
- Dsuggesting that the mountains are larger than the people in the city realize.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the description in the first stanza helps establish a central idea of the poem. The poem is mostly about the grandeur of the mountains in spite of the spread of civilization. The first stanza contrasts these two elements, which is stated in Option B.
Option A is incorrect because it is a detail that is referenced later in the poem.
Option C is incorrect because the poem actually communicates the message that people do not recognize the greatness of the mountains.
Option D is incorrect because, although the first stanza mentions the size of the mountains, it does not imply that people cannot see how large the mountains are.
Question analysis
This question about John Gould Fletcher’s poem “Snowy Mountains” asks how the first stanza’s description helps establish a central idea of the poem. Students must interpret images such as palaces, pillars and angels, decide what the opening lines do with them, and judge which choice states that role without adding ideas.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Linking one stanza to a poem’s central idea is a common grade 7 task, and these images are vivid and concrete. The inverted, century-old syntax adds a little challenge but no unusual demand.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Figurative or literary language moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 77 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The first stanza sets its majestic images directly against “the dingy city-roofs,” so students who read it as a picture find the contrast without much trouble. The losses come from importing ideas from later in the poem, people’s neglect in stanza 2 or the passing of time, into seven lines that contain neither. The inverted word order slows a first reading but does not hide the meaning.
Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question
The contrast is carried by images, not statements: “Palaces made for cloud” and “angels with broad wings” rise “Above the dingy city-roofs,” and students must read grandeur and drabness from those pictures. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The stanza is one inverted sentence: five lines of images come before its subject, “The mountains,” in line 6 and its verb, “Uprise,” in line 7. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Reread lines 1–7 and sum up in a phrase what the stanza does, then check each choice against those seven lines.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in time, which the poem raises only in line 9 and line 18; the first stanza sets mountains against city by height and splendor, not by age.
C Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that majestic mountains inspire the people below them, a common idea about nature, but the stanza shows no reaction from the city, and the next stanza says the world “heeds them not.”
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Combines line 1’s “Higher and still more high” with the poem’s later charge that people ignore the mountains, but nothing in lines 1–7 says the city misjudges how large they are.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how the first stanza helps build a central idea of the poem. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph. A central idea is a main message. Only lines 1 to 7 matter here, from “Higher and still more high” to “Uprise.”
Read the pictures in lines 1–7
The mountains are called “Palaces made for cloud” in line 2. In line 4 they are “Blue-white like angels with broad wings.” In line 5 they are “Pillars of the sky at rest.” Palaces, angels and pillars are all grand, high and beautiful. But line 3 places them “Above the dingy city-roofs.”
Explain what the pictures show
“Dingy” means dull and dirty. So the stanza sets two things side by side. Up high are the shining, noble mountains. Down below are the drab roofs of the city. This is a contrast: two things put together to show how different they are. Grandeur means greatness and splendor. The stanza shows the mountains’ grandeur next to the plain city.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Time is not in lines 1–7. It first comes up in line 9, “They have been here now for too long a time.”
- B fits. Grand mountains rise over dingy city roofs.
- C is wrong. The stanza never shows people being inspired. In fact, line 8 says “the world heeds them not,” or pays them no attention.
- D is wrong. Line 1 says the mountains are high. But nothing says the city misjudges their size.
Choose the answer
The first stanza puts splendid mountains above a dull city. So the answer is B, “contrasting the grandeur of the mountains with the structures in the city below them.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap. It mixes line 1 with an idea from later in the poem, that people ignore the mountains. But the question is about lines 1–7 only. Those lines show a contrast in looks: high and splendid against low and dingy. They say nothing about what people think.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 101 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 39Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
Read line 1 and line 15 from the poem.
Higher and still more high,
Vaster and still more vast,
The parallel structure of the two lines
- Aemphasizes how the sense of wonder the speaker has at the beginning of the poem changes to a fear of the mountains.
- Breinforces the sense of awe the speaker experiences when considering the magnificence of the expansive mountains.
- Creveals that the mountains are continually expanding both in height and land mass.
- Dstresses a contrast between the height of the mountains and the area of land the mountains cover.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the parallel structure of lines 1 and 15 affects the poem. Lines 1 and 15 communicate the feeling that the mountains are even higher and vaster than can be comprehended upon first view. This observation reflects the awe that the speaker feels, which is reinforced by the parallel structure of the lines, as stated in Option B.
Option A is incorrect because the speaker never hints at fear when describing the mountains.
Option C is incorrect because it reflects a literal interpretation of the figurative language in the two parallel lines: the mountains do not actually grow larger but are simply larger than can be understood at first.
Option D is incorrect because the parallel structure of lines 1 and 15 is not meant to stress any sort of contrast between height and area but to reinforce the speaker’s feeling by complementing each other.
Question analysis
Students analyze the effect of parallel structure in the poem “Snowy Mountains,” where line 1, “Higher and still more high,” and line 15, “Vaster and still more vast,” echo each other. The question asks what that repeated pattern adds to the poem, so noticing the echo is only the first step.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Analyzing how a poetic device such as parallelism shapes meaning is solid grade 7 work. The lines are short and quoted, but students must move from a structural pattern to what it contributes to the poem.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 92 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Seeing the parallel lines is easy because the stem quotes them; deciding what the echo achieves is the real task. The strongest wrong answer rests on a true difference between height and breadth, and another takes the comparative phrases literally. Students who ask how the speaker feels in both stanzas, rather than what each line measures, arrive at awe.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the shared pattern of lines 1 and 15 does, so students must move from noticing “still more” twice to naming the feeling the echo strengthens. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
“Still more high” and “still more vast” express how the mountains seem to an awed viewer, not a measurement, and a literal reading makes them sound like mountains that keep growing. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Say what each line describes and what it suggests, then ask what using the same pattern twice adds, and check every part of each choice against the poem.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Senses that the mood shifts after the first stanza, but the shift is to criticism of people in stanza 2, and the echo in line 15 returns to admiration, not fear.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads “still more high” and “still more vast” as physical growth, when the comparatives express how the mountains’ size keeps impressing the speaker.
D Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Correctly notes that line 1 is about height and line 15 about breadth, but the parallel wording joins the two dimensions in one feeling rather than setting them against each other.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook writes “how the parallel structure of lines 1 and 15 affect the poem.” The subject “structure” takes “affects,” as the site now reads.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about parallel structure. That means using the same pattern of words twice. Here, line 1 says “Higher and still more high,” and line 15 says “Vaster and still more vast.” You need to say what repeating this pattern does.
Look at where the lines sit
Line 1 opens the first stanza. Line 15 opens the third stanza. In between, stanza 2 shows people harming the mountains. Line 1 is about height. Line 15 is about vastness, which means huge size that spreads far. “Still more” means even more. Each line seems to say the mountains are bigger than you can take in.
Name the feeling the pattern shows
Both lines sound like a person staring up in amazement. That feeling is awe: wonder mixed with deep respect. Repeating the pattern brings the feeling back after the angry second stanza. So the echo reinforces, or makes stronger, the speaker’s awe. It is not a measurement. The mountains are not really growing.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The speaker never shows fear. Line 15 brings back the same wonder as line 1.
- B fits. The repeated pattern stresses the speaker’s awe at the huge mountains.
- C is wrong. It reads the lines literally, as if the mountains keep growing. The words express a feeling, not a fact.
- D is wrong. Height and spread are different. But the matching pattern joins them in one feeling. It does not set them against each other.
Choose the answer
The same pattern, used twice, repeats the speaker’s sense of wonder. So the answer is B, “reinforces the sense of awe the speaker experiences when considering the magnificence of the expansive mountains.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is tempting because it is half true: one line is about height and one is about spread. But parallel structure makes two things sound alike, not opposite. Matching words link ideas. That is why B, which names one shared feeling, fits better than a contrast.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 102 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 41Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.
Question
How does isolating the word “Uprise” in line 7 affect the meaning of the poem?
- AIt creates a contrast between the great plateau and the city buildings.
- BIt reveals the similarity between the tall buildings in the city and the tall mountains on the horizon.
- CIt creates a vision of the region before people developed the land.
- DIt emphasizes that the mountains dominate the landscape.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the isolation of the word affects the meaning of the poem. The isolation of the word “Uprise” powerfully emphasizes the first stanza’s description of the magnificent mountains standing tall above the land below, as expressed in Option D.
Option A is incorrect because the word describes the mountains and, therefore, does not create a contrast between the plateau and the city buildings, but rather between the mountains and the plateau.
Option B is incorrect because the word contrasts the mountains with the plateau; it does not compare the mountains to the buildings in the city.
Option C is incorrect because the first stanza describes the already developed land over which the mountains rise.
Question analysis
In “Snowy Mountains,” the opening stanza builds a long sentence about the mountains and saves its verb, “Uprise,” for a line of its own. This poetry structure question asks how isolating that single word affects the poem’s meaning, so students need to think about how a line break shapes what the reader notices, as well as about what the stanza describes.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Grade 7 poetry questions often ask about word choice; this one asks about a structural choice, a one-word line, which is less familiar, though the stanza’s images make the intended effect fairly easy to sense.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 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
Students who see that “Uprise” is the verb the whole stanza has been building toward recognize the effect quickly: the mountains rise over everything else in the picture. Those who treat the word as one more image look for a comparison instead and find several, because the stanza is full of buildings, roofs and a plateau. The real test is sorting which contrast belongs to the mountains.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The stanza is one long sentence that withholds its subject until line 6 and its verb until line 7, so “Uprise” lands as the payoff of five lines of images. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks about a line break, a structural choice, rather than a word’s meaning, and students must judge what setting one verb on its own line makes the reader notice. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Read the stanza aloud and notice where the long sentence finally reaches its verb, then ask what ending on that single word makes the reader see.
Traps
- Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly senses a contrast in the stanza but pairs the wrong things: “Uprise” sets the mountains against the land below them, not the plateau against the city’s buildings.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Notices that the mountains are compared to “Palaces” and “Pillars,” but those grand buildings are set against the “dingy city-roofs,” so the stanza contrasts mountains and city rather than likening them.
C Taking figurative language literally (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes “Uprise” at face value, as mountains pushing up out of the plateau long ago, but line 3’s “dingy city-roofs” place the scene in a land already built on.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about a choice the poet made in how the poem looks. Line 7 is only one word: “Uprise.” You need to say what setting that word alone on its line does to the meaning.
Find the sentence the word ends
The whole first stanza is one long sentence. Lines 1 to 5 are a string of pictures: palaces, angels, pillars. The subject, “The mountains from the great plateau,” does not come until line 6. Line 7 then gives the verb, or action word, which is “Uprise.” A plateau is a wide area of high, flat land.
Think about the effect
“Uprise” means rise up. The reader waits six lines for this action. Then it stands by itself, like the mountains standing alone over the land. The short line makes you stop and picture them rising above everything, even “the dingy city-roofs.” So the mountains dominate the scene. To dominate is to tower over and be the main thing you notice.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. “Uprise” is about the mountains rising. It does not set the plateau against the city buildings.
- B is wrong. The stanza does not show the city and the mountains as alike. The city roofs are “dingy,” while the mountains are like palaces.
- C is wrong. Line 3 already shows a city, so this is not the land before people.
- D fits. The lone word makes the mountains tower over the whole picture.
Choose the answer
Ending the long sentence on one lone word makes the mountains stand out over everything. So the answer is D, “It emphasizes that the mountains dominate the landscape.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap, because the stanza does contain a contrast. But it is between the mountains and everything below them. “Uprise” is the mountains’ own action, so its effect must be about the mountains. Only D keeps the focus there.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 103 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 48Passage Invention of the Telegraph
Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is credited with creating the electronic telegraph, a communication device that allows users to send messages using a system of short and long pulses that represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. In 1843 the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill, which provided Morse with the funds to build an electric telegraph system.
Invention of the Telegraph
Earlier Signal Systems
Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were visual or “semaphore” systems using flags or lights. In the eighteenth century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station. The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 for a workable proposal. The framers of this legislation had no way of knowing that when they used the word “telegraph” to refer to this visual semaphore system, they would be offered an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.
The Growth of an Idea
The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Morse during a conversation aboard ship when he was returning from Europe in 1832. Michael Faraday’s recently invented electromagnet was much discussed by the ship’s passengers, and when Morse came to understand how it worked, he speculated that it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire. While a student at Yale College years before, he had written his parents a letter about how interesting he found the lectures on electricity. Despite what he had learned at Yale, Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity, and after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague at the University of the City of New York, Leonard D. Gale.
Gale was a professor of chemistry and familiar with the electrical work of Princeton’s Joseph Henry, a true pioneer in the new field. Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit. In 1831, he had published an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. Gale’s help and his knowledge of this article proved crucial to Morse’s telegraph system because Gale not only pointed out flaws in the system but showed Morse how he could regularly boost the strength of a signal and overcome the distance problems he had encountered by using a relay system Henry had invented. Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.
Obstacles and Opportunities
By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.
However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. It was during this period that Morse visited Europe again and tried not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England. . . .
By 1843, the country was beginning to recover economically, and Morse again asked Congress for the $30,000 that would allow him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, forty miles away. The House of Representatives eventually passed the bill containing the Morse appropriation, and the Senate approved it in the final hours of that Congress’s last session. With President Tyler’s signature, Morse received the cash he needed and began to carry out plans for an underground telegraph line.
Realizing a Great Invention
Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire, and although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse’s partners, Congressman F. O. J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.
Soon, as overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast, the dots-and-dashes method that recorded messages on a long moving strip of paper was replaced by the operator’s ability to interpret the code in real time. . . . Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.
“Invention of the Telegraph”—Public Domain/Library of Congress
legislation: Telegraph Bill
dots-and-dashes method: the short and long pulses of Morse code that are sent and received by telegraph operators
The first transatlantic electric telegraph message was sent in 1858, and by 1902 the British All-Red Line connected most of the world.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2. Washington, D.C., 1975.
Question
Which statement describes how the author’s use of problem-solution in paragraph 2 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?
- AMorse’s discussion on a ship about Faraday’s electromagnet reminded him of the Yale College lectures on electricity, which he had enjoyed but had not fully understood, inspiring him to learn more about electricity from his colleague Gale.
- BMorse’s discouragement over his lack of knowledge of electricity prompted him to experiment with batteries, magnets, and wires, which led to the development of a new long-distance communication system.
- CMorse’s difficulty in understanding how Faraday’s electromagnet worked was frustrating, and it pushed him to create a system for sending signals over wires.
- DMorse’s longtime fascination was not enough to make up for his lack of knowledge about electricity, so he eventually sought help from Gale.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks for the best explanation of how the use of problem-solution in paragraph 2 helps develop the ideas in the passage. Option D is correct because it explains that Morse realized his problem was that he was not knowledgeable enough to continue his experimentation without help, so the solution was to seek help from a colleague.
Option A is incorrect because, while the discussion on the ship fascinated Morse and reminded him of the lectures he had attended at Yale College, it was his failed attempts with electricity that caused him to reach out to Gale for help.
Option B is incorrect because, while “Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity” (paragraph 2), the paragraph does not state that he was discouraged; it was his failed experimentation that resulted in him first realizing that he needed help.
Option C is incorrect because the paragraph states that “Morse came to understand how [Faraday’s electromagnet] worked,” and that understanding is what caused him to think about sending messages over a wire. Also, Morse’s difficulty was in understanding the properties of electricity in general once he began his experimentation.
Question analysis
In this text structure question about “Invention of the Telegraph,” students explain how the problem-and-solution pattern in paragraph 2 develops ideas about Samuel Morse. All four choices are long sentences built from real details about the ship, Yale and Gale, so students must check each one’s account of what led to what.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Identifying problem and solution is familiar from earlier grades, but these choices are long, detail-packed chains in which a single misplaced cause makes an option wrong, which demands closer checking than typical grade 7 items.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked major
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- A lot to read moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 16, 132 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A wrong paragraph number in the explanation was corrected.
- A misspelled name in the explanation was corrected.
- A punctuation slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Every choice is assembled from things the paragraph really mentions, so recognition is useless and only the order of causes decides. The most tempting wrong choice ends with Gale, the right solution, but invents a reminder of the Yale lectures to get there; others turn the failed experiments into the solution or reverse what Morse understood. The question rewards reading each long choice clause by clause, which costs time.
Every choice must be checked major Choosing the answer
Each choice is a chain of two or three causes built from real details, the ship, Faraday, Yale, the batteries and wires, Gale, so every link has to be checked against paragraph 2’s order of events. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The Yale-reminder choice and the key both join Morse’s enjoyment of electricity, his weak grasp of it and his turn to Gale; they part on one detail, the claim that the shipboard talk “reminded him” of Yale, which the paragraph never makes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer
The key turns the Yale letter and the shipboard speculation into “longtime fascination,” a phrase the passage never uses, while the wrong choices repeat its names and phrases and so look better supported. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
A lot to read moderate Understanding the question
The four choices run to about 110 words, the longest 37, and paragraph 2 itself packs a voyage, a college letter, failed experiments and a colleague into four sentences. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
How, not what minor Working it out
Students must name the paragraph’s problem, too little understanding of electricity, and its solution, Gale, before judging which account of the pattern is accurate. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Name the problem and the solution in paragraph 2 in a few words each, then choose the option whose sequence of events matches the paragraph exactly.
Traps
- Reversed relationship: Cause and effect, or the order of events, turned around.
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
The wrong answers, classified
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Ends correctly with Morse learning from Gale, but invents its cause: the paragraph never says the shipboard talk reminded Morse of Yale, and it skips the failed experiments that sent him to Gale.
B Reversed relationship (King et al., 2004)
Reverses cause and effect: the “sporadic attempts” with batteries, magnets and wires exposed Morse’s weak grasp of electricity and sent him to Gale, rather than flowing from discouragement and producing the system.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Says Morse struggled to understand Faraday’s electromagnet, but the paragraph states that he “came to understand how it worked,” and that understanding is what gave him the idea.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook places the sentence “Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity” in paragraph 3. It is in paragraph 2, the paragraph the question is about, so the site now says “(paragraph 2).”
- Explanation: The handbook spells Leonard Gale’s name “Gail.” The passage spells it “Gale,” and so does the site now.
- Explanation: The handbook capitalizes “Also” after a semicolon (“over a wire; Also, Morse’s difficulty…”). The site starts a new sentence instead: “over a wire. Also, Morse’s difficulty…”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about problem-solution in paragraph 2. Problem-solution is a way to organize writing. First you learn about a problem, then how someone solved it. Find the problem and the solution. Then pick the choice that tells them in the right order.
Find the problem in paragraph 2
Paragraph 2 starts with “The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance.” It says Morse had enjoyed the electricity lectures at Yale. But then comes the problem: “Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity.”
Find the solution
The same sentence goes on: “after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague.” “Sporadic” means now and then, not steady. A colleague is a coworker. So Morse was interested in the subject, tried on his own, and did not succeed. His interest was not enough. His solution was to ask Gale for help.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It ends with Gale, but the paragraph never says the ship talk “reminded him” of Yale. It also skips the failed tries.
- B is wrong. It has the order backward. The experiments showed the problem. They did not build the system.
- C is wrong. The paragraph says Morse “came to understand how it worked,” meaning the electromagnet.
- D fits. Long interest was not enough, so he got help from Gale.
Choose the answer
The problem was Morse’s weak grasp of electricity, and the solution was Gale. So the answer is D, “Morse’s longtime fascination was not enough to make up for his lack of knowledge about electricity, so he eventually sought help from Gale.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest trap. Like D, it mentions Yale, Morse’s weak grasp of electricity and Gale. But it adds a link the paragraph never makes, that the ship talk reminded him of Yale. With long choices, check every part. One made-up link makes the whole choice wrong.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)
Question 104 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 49Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.
Question
Which statement describes how the author’s use of sequencing in paragraph 3 contributes to the overall structure of the passage?
- AIt shows that several people were simultaneously attempting to create an electric telegraph.
- BIt shows how the invention of the electric telegraph depended on information and techniques discovered by others.
- CIt shows that multiple means of long-distance communication were being used at the same time.
- DIt shows how quickly long-distance communication changed from visual signals to electrical signals.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the use of sequencing, or arranging in chronological order, in paragraph 3 contributes to the overall structure of the passage. Paragraph 3 outlines the information that Gale knew who Henry was (“Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit”) and that Gale told Morse. Gale’s input was “crucial to Morse’s telegraph system,” and hiring Vail was an additional and necessary help.
Therefore, Option B is correct because the creation of Morse’s telegraph involved a series of steps that each built upon earlier ideas and inventions from others, such as Henry, Gale, and Vail.
Option A is incorrect because, although the inventions and advancements of others assisted in the development of the telegraph, the passage does not suggest that the other men were attempting to create their own telegraph systems.
Option C is incorrect because the only other long-distance communication system mentioned in the passage is the outdated semaphore system discussed in paragraph 1.
Option D is incorrect because the telegraph system was in development for more than ten years because of the lack of funding and the need for further experimentation.
Question analysis
Students explain how the sequence of events in paragraph 3 of “Invention of the Telegraph” contributes to the passage’s overall structure. The paragraph names several people and their roles in a few long sentences, and the choices make claims about the invention’s history that must each be checked against it.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Sequencing is familiar grade 7 structure work. This paragraph packs several people and dates into long sentences, but once the order is clear the role of the sequence is fairly direct, so the demand is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Much to keep track of minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- 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
Paragraph 3 is dense, but its last sentence nearly states the answer: Henry’s experiments, Gale’s help and Vail were “keys to Morse’s success.” Students lose the point when Henry’s telegraph-like article makes them imagine a race, or when the stem’s “overall structure” sends them back to the semaphore towers of paragraph 1. The question rewards reading the time markers as a chain of borrowed knowledge.
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The key facts sit in embedded sentences, such as “an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea,” and a 53-word sentence on what Gale showed Morse. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks what the order of events contributes to the passage’s structure, so students must see the time words, “Well before,” “In 1831,” “soon after,” as showing Morse building on others’ work. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Much to keep track of minor Working it out
Four people, Henry, Gale, Vail and Morse, and two of Henry’s inventions have to be kept straight to see who supplied what to whom. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Strategy: Put the events of paragraph 3 in order, noting who did what and when, then ask what that order shows about Morse’s invention.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Reads Henry’s article “suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph” as a rival effort, but the paragraph places Henry’s work “well before” Morse’s and shows it helping him.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings back the flag and light systems of paragraph 1, which came before the telegraph; paragraph 3 describes no other means of communication in use alongside it.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Follows the passage’s overall move from semaphore to electricity but adds “how quickly,” though Morse’s idea of 1832 did not become a working line until 1844.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about sequencing in paragraph 3. Sequencing means putting events in time order. You need to say what that order shows about Morse’s invention.
Put paragraph 3’s events in order
Paragraph 3 uses time words. “Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance.” It adds that “In 1831, he had published an article” that hinted at an electric telegraph. Then Gale showed Morse “a relay system Henry had invented.” Last, Morse hired Alfred Vail “soon after.”
See what the order shows
A relay is a device that boosts a signal so it can travel farther. Each event in the order is someone else’s work that helped Morse. Henry’s work came first. Gale passed it on. Vail added his skill. The last sentence sums it up: these were all “keys to Morse’s success.” So Morse built his telegraph on what others had found.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Henry’s work came “well before” Morse’s and helped him. Nobody was racing at the same time.
- B fits. The order shows Morse depending on earlier work by Henry, Gale and Vail.
- C is wrong. Paragraph 3 talks only about electric work. Flags and lights are in paragraph 1.
- D is wrong. Nothing here shows speed. Morse’s idea came in 1832, and his line opened in 1844.
Choose the answer
The time order shows one person’s work feeding the next, all leading to Morse. So the answer is B, “It shows how the invention of the electric telegraph depended on information and techniques discovered by others.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the strongest trap, because Henry’s article had details “suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph.” That can sound like a rival. But the time words show Henry came first, and Gale used his work to help Morse. Earlier work that helps is what B describes.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 105 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 52Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.
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.
- 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.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- The right answer is reworded moderate
- 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.
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)
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)
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
A Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly sees teamwork in the section’s close, but successful communication over Morse’s wire comes later, under “Realizing a Great Invention,” and the passage never shows Henry working with Morse.
C Too narrow (King et al., 2004)
Treats the spark as the whole story: Faraday’s electromagnet gave Morse the idea, but the section goes on to years of failed attempts and help from others.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Inflates a passing mention: Morse’s Yale lectures appear once, and the section notes that despite them he had “little real understanding of the nature of electricity.”
Working it out, step by step
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 106 of 106
2018 Test B English, question 53Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.
Question
How does the graph support the ideas in paragraph 8?
- AIt indicates how welcome the improvement of long-distance communication was in the United States.
- BIt provides evidence of the dramatic increase in the number of telegraph messages as Morse’s system expanded across the United States.
- CIt reveals that by the twentieth century millions of people had used the telegraph despite earlier hesitations about the system.
- DIt shows how improvements that allowed Morse code to be read in real time made relaying telegraph messages faster and increased the system’s usage.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks how the graph supports the ideas in paragraph 8. The graph shows the number of messages transmitted from 1870 to 1920. In 1920 almost 160 million messages were transmitted, showing a “dramatic”—more than double—increase from 1910, which makes Option B the correct answer.
Option A is incorrect because, while it can be implied from the expansion shown on the graph that people possibly welcomed the improvement in long-distance communication, the graph does not state this explicitly.
Option C is incorrect because the graph does not show how many people used the telegraph, but rather it shows the number of messages sent. Additionally, paragraph 8 provides no details about hesitation on the part of individuals.
Option D is incorrect because, while improvements in recording and interpreting code were made, the graph does not show the effect of this advancement on the speed or number of messages being transmitted.
Question analysis
This question asks how a graph that accompanies “Invention of the Telegraph” supports the ideas in paragraph 8, the passage’s closing account of what followed the first telegraph line. Students must connect a data display to a paragraph of text, and the choices differ in how much they claim a graph of this kind could prove.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Connecting a graph to a paragraph is standard grade 7 work with mixed formats. The demand is typical: read the paragraph, read the data, and check that a claim about the graph does not go beyond it.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Combines ideas minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 88 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A misreading of the graph 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 graph is simple to read; the challenge is deciding how much a count of messages can prove. Wrong choices claim the graph shows public feeling, numbers of people, or the effect of one improvement, and the last of these is tempting because paragraph 8 mentions that improvement. Students who ask what the vertical axis measures can reject all three quickly.
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The bar graph counts messages in millions, rising from about 10 in 1870 to about 155 in 1920; it measures neither people, nor speed, nor causes, which is what rules out three choices. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The key and the real-time-reading choice both tie the rise in messages to a change described in paragraph 8; they part on one detail, the claim that relaying became “faster,” which a count of messages cannot show. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Combines ideas minor Working it out
Students must join the graph’s fifty years of growth to paragraph 8’s spread of overhead wires along the coast, westward and across the ocean. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)
Strategy: Reread paragraph 8 and look at what the graph measures, then for each choice ask whether both the paragraph and the graph back it up.
Traps
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
A Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Infers from the growth that people welcomed the telegraph, which may be true, but a count of messages cannot show how anyone felt about the change.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Treats messages as people, reading “in millions” as millions of users, and adds “earlier hesitations” that neither the graph nor paragraph 8 mentions.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Takes real-time reading of code from paragraph 8 and credits it with the rise in messages, but the graph shows only totals, not what caused them or how fast messages moved.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook says 1920 showed an “almost double” increase from 1910. The graph shows about 75 million messages in 1910 and about 155 million in 1920, so the number more than doubled. The site now says “more than double.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the bar graph supports paragraph 8. To answer, you need to know two things. What does paragraph 8 say? And what does the graph actually measure?
Read paragraph 8
Paragraph 8 says that “overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast.” Then “Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.” So the main idea is growth. The telegraph spread farther and farther.
Read the bar graph
The graph’s title is Telegraph Messages Transmitted, 1870–1920. Its side axis counts messages, in millions. The bars rise every ten years. There were about 10 million messages in 1870 and about 75 million in 1910. In 1920 there were about 155 million. That last jump is more than double. The graph counts messages. It does not count people, speed or feelings.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. A count of messages can’t show how welcome something was. That is a feeling.
- B fits. The bars show a huge rise in messages as the lines spread.
- C is wrong. The graph counts messages, not people. Nothing mentions “earlier hesitations” either.
- D is wrong. Paragraph 8 does mention reading code “in real time,” or right away. But the graph shows totals only. It can’t show what caused the rise or how fast messages moved.
Choose the answer
The graph shows messages rising from about 10 million to about 155 million as the wires spread. So the answer is B, “It provides evidence of the dramatic increase in the number of telegraph messages as Morse’s system expanded across the United States.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest trap, since paragraph 8 really does mention reading code in real time. But ask what the side of the graph measures. It counts messages, nothing else. A count can show that use grew, as B says. It can’t show that messages got faster, or why.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
