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Question 1 of 90

2026 Practice Test A English, question 4
Passage Snowy Mountains

Snowy Mountains

by John Gould Fletcher

Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.

But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.

Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.

“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain

Question

In which two ways does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?

Select the two correct answers.

Choose every answer that is correct, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.

  • Aby describing the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
  • Bby comparing the various methods humans use to control nature
  • Cby criticizing the careless actions of humans that harm the natural environment
  • Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
  • Eby depicting the unfortunate plight of the mountains with vivid details
Show the answer

Correct answer: C and E

The question asks for the two ways in which the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14).

A. Incorrect. The speaker’s descriptions of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength mainly occur in the first and third stanzas, while in the second stanza, the speaker focuses on humanity and its negative effect on the mountains.

B. Incorrect. The wording of the second stanza—“makes war” (line 10), “Splits down their shining sides” (line 12), and “Destroys the lonely fragments” (line 14)—communicates the speaker’s position that people’s main impact on the mountains is destructive, but the stanza does not compare the various methods people use to control nature.

C. CORRECT. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the careless and destructive actions of society or “the world” (lines 8 and 10) that harm the natural environment. Humans are described as both heedless of the mountains (“heeds them not”) and harmfully warlike (“makes war on them”). The speaker cites the harm done to the mountains when people “[tunnel] their granite cliffs” (line 11) and “[split] down their shining sides” (line 12), thus “[destroying] the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14).

D. Incorrect. In the second stanza, the speaker does not describe a mutually beneficial relationship between the mountains and the people. Although people clearly derive benefits from the mountains by plastering “their cliffs with soap-advertisements” (line 13), the stanza does not demonstrate that the mountains receive any benefit from the harmful actions of the people.

E. CORRECT. In the second stanza, the speaker depicts the unfortunate plight of the mountains with vivid details. Lines 11–14 feature expressive wording that sharply illustrates the mountains’ misfortune: “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides, / Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.”

Question analysis

This select-two question on John Gould Fletcher’s poem “Snowy Mountains” asks in which two ways the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza, lines 8–14. It reworks a one-answer handbook question, now with five choices. Each choice has to be judged on its own, and a choice that fits the poem as a whole is not enough.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Typical grade 7 point-of-view questions ask for one answer about a longer text. This stanza is only seven short lines with one steady attitude, but students must find two right choices out of five and judge each one separately.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 79 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Most students sense the anger at “the world” in lines 8–14 and find the criticism of people quickly. The point is lost on the second pick, because the other right choice names a technique, vivid details of the mountains’ suffering, and can look like plain description. The choice about comparing methods tempts students who see a list of human actions, and the awe of the first and third stanzas pulls those who drift outside the stanza, while both picks must be right to score.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how the viewpoint is built, and both right choices are methods: a judgment of “the world” that “makes war,” and the vivid verbs “Tunnels,” “Splits” and “Plasters” in lines 11–13. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    All five choices must be tested and both picks must be right, so finding the criticism of people is only half the work; the second right choice is about imagery, not message. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    One right choice turns on “plight,” a hard situation; a student who does not know the word cannot see that it names the damage done to the mountains in lines 11–14. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Restate in your own words what lines 8–14 say and how they say it, then test each of the five choices on its own and keep only the two that fit this stanza rather than the whole poem.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about point of view: how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about the subject. It also asks how the poet shows that feeling. Stay inside the second stanza, lines 8 to 14. You must pick two answers, so test all five choices one at a time.

  2. Read the second stanza closely

    Line 8 says “But the world heeds them not.” To heed something is to pay attention to it. Here “the world” means people in general. Line 10 says “The world makes war on them.” Lines 11 to 13 list what people do: “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides, / Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.” Line 14 ends with “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”

  3. Name how the speaker feels

    The speaker is on the mountains’ side. People ignore the mountains, yet they keep attacking them. The speaker blames people for this harm. Pointing out what someone does wrong is called criticizing. The speaker also makes you feel sorry for the mountains. Strong action words like “Tunnels,” “Splits” and “Plasters” paint a sharp picture of the damage. Sharp word pictures like these are called vivid details.

  4. Check each of the five choices

    • A does not fit. The mountains’ great size fills the first and third stanzas, as in “Higher and still more high.” In lines 8 to 14 they are only being hurt.
    • B does not fit. The stanza lists several things people do, but it never compares them. They are all part of one “war.”
    • C fits. The speaker criticizes people for careless acts that damage nature.
    • D does not fit. The mountains get nothing good from people. The stanza shows only harm.
    • E fits. A plight is a bad or sad situation. The vivid verbs in lines 11 to 13 show the mountains’ plight.

    Watch out: B is tempting because the stanza names several acts. But a list is not a comparison.

  5. Choose both answers

    The speaker’s view comes through two things: blame for people, and a vivid picture of the mountains’ suffering. Select both choices on the screen. You need both to get the point. So the answers are C and E.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

E is the right answer that is easiest to miss, because it can look like plain description. But those vivid details are how the speaker makes you feel for the mountains. B is the closest wrong choice. The stanza does list several human acts, yet it never weighs one against another. Each act is just one more blow.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 4 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 7 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 7, question 4.
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.

Question 2 of 90

2026 Practice Test A English, question 7

Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.

Question

Which quotations from the poem support the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid, and which quotations support the theme that human creations detract from natural wonder?

Move each answer to the correct box.

Choose one answer in each row, then check. The DOE has not published how answers with several parts are scored; this site counts one right only when every part is right.

Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is SplendidHuman Creations Detract from Natural Wonder
“Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings,” (lines 3–4)
“Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” (lines 5–7)
“Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides,” (lines 11–12)
“Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past,” (lines 17–18)
“The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice” (lines 24–25)
Show the answer

Correct answer: “Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings,” (lines 3–4): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder; “Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” (lines 5–7): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid; “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides,” (lines 11–12): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder; “Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past,” (lines 17–18): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid; “The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice” (lines 24–25): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid

The question identifies two themes and asks which quotations from the poem support each theme. Each quotation should be moved to one of the two boxes: “Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid” or “Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder.”

“Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings,” (lines 3–4)

This quotation supports the theme that human creations detract from natural wonder. The lines describe the city-roofs as “dingy,” suggesting that they mar the lovely background of the blue-white mountains, which are compared to angels, a simile that vividly conveys the wonder of nature. The description in the lines primarily serves to create a contrast between the city’s unsightly appearance and the beauty of the mountains, thereby providing support for the theme that human creations (i.e. the city) detract from natural wonder.

“Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” (lines 5–7)

This quotation supports the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid. By describing the mountains as “pillars of the sky” that “uprise” dramatically from a large plateau, the lines primarily convey a sense of the mountains’ dramatic and impressive size. The description suggests that the mountains are holding up the sky, a powerful image of an unspoiled, natural landscape.

“Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides,” (lines 11–12)

The quotation supports the theme that human creations detract from natural wonder. The words “tunnels” and “splits” emphasize that human intervention in nature is destructive, breaking apart the “shining sides” of the mountain. These lines suggest that human creations—such as building a tunnel through a mountain—detract from natural wonder, diminishing its beauty and serenity.

“Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past,” (lines 17–18)

The quotation supports the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid by indicating that the natural mountainous landscape is both splendid and unspoiled (“wilderness still untamed”). The phrase “to which the future is as was the past” suggests that nature in its unspoiled state is timeless or eternal, further supporting the theme.

“The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice” (lines 24–25)

The quotation supports the theme that nature’s unspoiled beauty is splendid. The reference to the “wide floors of blue-green ice” emphasizes that the landscape is beautiful, and the description in the lines conveys the grandiose splendor of nature, conveying an image of the “south horizon of the sky” majestically “welcoming” one’s eye, inviting appreciation of its unspoiled beauty.

Question analysis

This sorting question on the poem “Snowy Mountains” gives two themes, the splendor of unspoiled nature and the way human creations detract from natural wonder, and asks students to place five quotations under them. The quotations come from all three stanzas. Students make five separate judgments, and a line’s most vivid image is not always the best guide to where it belongs.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Matching quotations to a stated theme is routine grade 7 evidence work, and both themes are given. The added demand is volume: five separate judgments on lines from all three stanzas of old-fashioned verse, each of which must land in the right box.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 34 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Most tiles sort quickly once a student asks whether people appear in the lines. The first tile is the hard one: its angel simile is pure splendor, yet the “dingy city-roofs” beneath it set the city against the peaks, and only that contrast fits the second theme. The tunneling lines hide their human actor outside the tile. With five placements that must all be right, one hasty tile loses the question.

  1. Much to keep track of moderate Working it out

    Five tiles from all three stanzas go into two boxes and every placement must be right, so a student holds both themes in mind while judging each quotation on its own. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Two tiles name no person: in lines 3–4 the human presence is only the “dingy city-roofs,” and in lines 11–12 the subject, “The world,” sits back in line 10, outside the tile. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question

    The splendor is carried by images rather than statements, the mountains as “angels,” “Pillars of the sky” and “wide floors of blue-green ice,” which students must read as praise of untouched nature. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Read each quotation to the end and ask whether it shows something people have made or done; then sort it by what the lines as a whole are about, not by one word.

Traps

  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
  • Taking figurative language literally: A choice reads a figure of speech or image at face value.
  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a sorting question. You get two themes. A theme is a big idea a poem keeps coming back to. The first theme says nature that people have not spoiled is splendid, which means grand and beautiful. The second says things people make detract from nature, which means they take away from its wonder. For each quotation, ask: does it show something people made or did?

  2. Sort the lines about the city

    Lines 3 and 4 say “Above the dingy city-roofs / Blue-white like angels with broad wings.” The angel picture is beautiful. But right under the mountains are “dingy city-roofs.” Dingy means dirty and dull. City roofs are something people built. The lines set the dirty city against the shining mountains. So this quotation shows a human creation taking away from nature’s wonder.

  3. Sort the lines about the pillars

    Lines 5 to 7 say “Pillars of the sky at rest / The mountains from the great plateau / Uprise.” Pillars are tall posts that hold something up. A plateau is a high, flat stretch of land. The mountains rise up like giant posts holding up the sky. No people appear here. This quotation shows how splendid untouched nature is.

  4. Sort the lines about tunnels

    Lines 11 and 12 say “Tunnels their granite cliffs, / Splits down their shining sides.” These lines do not say who does this. Look back at line 10: “The world makes war on them.” So “the world,” meaning people, cuts tunnels and splits the mountains. The cliffs shine, but people are breaking them. This quotation shows human creations hurting nature.

  5. Sort the last two quotations

    Lines 17 and 18 say “Wilderness still untamed, / To which the future is as was the past.” Untamed means not controlled or changed by people. The second line means the mountains will stay as they always were. Lines 24 and 25 say “The south horizon of the sky; / Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice.” That is a picture of sky and ice, with no people in it. Both praise unspoiled nature.

  6. Place each quotation in its box

    • Lines 3–4 (the city roofs): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder
    • Lines 5–7 (the pillars): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid
    • Lines 11–12 (the tunnels): Human Creations Detract from Natural Wonder
    • Lines 17–18 (the wilderness): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid
    • Lines 24–25 (the ice): Nature’s Unspoiled Beauty is Splendid

    Drag each tile into its box. All five must be right to get the point.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

Lines 3 and 4 are the hardest tile. The angel image alone would fit the first box. But that box is about beauty that is unspoiled. These lines put the dingy city right under the shining peaks. The dirty roofs spoil the view, so the tile belongs in the second box.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 7 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 10 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 10, question 7.

Question 3 of 90

2026 Practice Test A English, question 32
Passage Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

by Dallas Lore Sharp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 13.

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!

The phrase “bore down the flank of the herd” conveys that Wade

  • Astruggled to see the front of the herd.
  • Bhad to ride quickly to keep up with the herd.
  • Cwas forced to ride between the edge of the cliff and the herd.
  • Dknew that the drop of the cliff would frighten the herd.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks what the phrase “bore down the flank of the herd” (paragraph 13) conveys about Wade.

A. Incorrect. While Wade struggled to see the front of the herd, the words “bore down the flank of the herd” (paragraph 13) are meant to convey the intensity of the situation Wade was in, not the way the herd is blocking his vision.

B. Incorrect. The sentence from paragraph 13 states that the herd was “close on their left” and includes the phrase “bore down.” Both of these phrases indicate that Wade was trapped between the stampeding herd and the steep cliff. Wade and Peroxide Jim were struggling to reach the very front of the herd to turn it away from the edge.

C. CORRECT. The phrase “bore down the flank of the herd” from paragraph 13 conveys the overwhelming strength of the herd. The herd was forcing Wade toward the cliff. The wording in the quotation emphasizes the immediate danger of the situation and conveys the idea that Wade and Peroxide Jim were almost forced over the edge of the precipice by the stampeding herd.

D. Incorrect. The phrase “bore down the flank of the herd” (paragraph 13) does not indicate anything about the fear felt by the herd. The phrase is about Wade’s position between the edge of the stampeding herd and the drop-off. Wade was aware of the danger the herd was in if he and Peroxide Jim could not turn the cattle from the edge.

Question analysis

This vocabulary-in-context question quotes a sentence from paragraph 13 of “The Spirit of the Herd,” at the height of the stampede, and asks what the phrase “bore down the flank of the herd” conveys about Wade. Students need the meaning of “bore down” and “flank” as they are used here. Some choices describe real moments of the stampede, so students must stick to what this phrase shows.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L4a context clues
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Working out a phrase’s meaning from its sentence is routine grade 7 work. The words “bore down” and “flank” are less common, but the full sentence is quoted with the question, so the task stays within one sentence.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 3, 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

Once the sentence is untangled, the herd pressing in on the left and the cliff on the right, the answer is a picture of Wade squeezed between them. The trouble is the word order and the phrase itself: students who read “bore down” as speed think about keeping pace, and those who recall the darkness of the paragraph before pick a detail this sentence never mentions.

  1. Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question

    The sentence is inverted: “the flank of the herd” is the subject of “bore down,” placed after its verb, so a quick reader may think Wade bore down along the herd instead. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  2. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    Both “flank,” the side of the herd, and “bore down,” pressed in hard, are uncommon in this sense, and the stem asks about exactly those words. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Read the whole quoted sentence rather than the phrase alone, picture the scene it describes, and pick what this sentence itself shows about Wade.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what the phrase “bore down the flank of the herd” shows about Wade. To answer, read the whole sentence, not just the phrase.

  2. Learn the hard words

    A flank is the side of an animal or of a group. To bear down, here “bore down,” means to press in hard on something. A precipice is a cliff, a very steep drop.

  3. Untangle the sentence

    The sentence puts its words in an unusual order. In everyday order it would say: The flank of the herd bore down close on their left. So the side of the herd pushed in on Wade and his horse from the left. On the right, “under their very feet, was a precipice.”

  4. Picture where Wade is

    Wade is squeezed. Thousands of running cattle press in on one side. A 300-foot drop sits on the other side. He has no room to move away from either one. He is forced to ride in the narrow space between the herd and the cliff edge.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Paragraph 12 says he could not tell how many cattle were ahead, but this sentence is about the sides.
    • B does not fit. Here the herd does the bearing down, not Wade.
    • C fits. He rides between the herd and the cliff.
    • D does not fit. The cattle were “water-mad,” ready to go over the edge. Nothing says the cliff scared them.

  6. Choose the answer

    The phrase shows the herd pushing Wade toward the edge. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because “bore down” can mean rushing forward fast. But in this sentence the herd does the bearing down, not Wade. The herd presses in from the left while the cliff waits on the right. That squeeze is what C describes.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 32 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 45 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test A English, page 45, question 32.
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed on page 41 of the DOE handbook.

Question 4 of 90

2026 Practice Test A English, question 33

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

Question

Read these sentences from the excerpt.

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

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

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

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

Correct answer: C

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

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

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

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

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

Question analysis

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

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

Why it is hard

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

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

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

  2. Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question

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

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

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

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

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

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

  2. Read the first sentence

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

  3. Read the second sentence

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

  4. Put the two together

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

  5. Check each choice

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

  6. Choose the answer

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

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

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

More questions like this

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

Question 5 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 8
Passage A Miracle Mile

A Miracle Mile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question

The words “feat,” “humanly impossible,” and “impenetrable barrier” in paragraph 1 affect the tone of the paragraph because they

  • Ahighlight the idea that only the most skilled runners would be able to run a four-minute mile.
  • Bemphasize the idea that running a mile in less than four minutes was a seemingly unattainable goal.
  • Cconvey the competitiveness among elite runners to consistently set and break speed records.
  • Dshow the intensity of the training programs athletes endure in order to achieve their goals.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the words “feat,” “humanly impossible,” and “impenetrable barrier” in paragraph 1 affect the tone of the paragraph.

A. Incorrect. Although paragraph 1 states that “several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier,” the words “feat,” “humanly impossible,” and “impenetrable barrier” suggest that the goal was unattainable even for the most skilled runners.

B. CORRECT. No one had ever been able to run a mile in less than four minutes, and the words “feat,” “humanly impossible,” and “impenetrable barrier” imply that the goal seemed unattainable. These words also reinforce the comparison of running a four-minute mile to “scaling Mount Everest” (paragraph 1).

C. Incorrect. The words “feat,” “humanly impossible,” and “impenetrable barrier” describe how challenging and almost impossible running a four-minute mile seemed, and while other elite runners “aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier” (paragraph 1), the paragraph focuses on Roger Bannister, not the competition among elite runners seeking to break the record.

D. Incorrect. Bannister’s training program is described in paragraphs 3 and 4, and the words “feat,” “humanly impossible,” and “impenetrable barrier” are used in paragraph 1 to describe the magnitude of Bannister’s goal to run a four-minute mile. Though his training program was intense, these words relate to the intensity of the goal itself, not to the intensity of his training.

Question analysis

This tone question on “A Miracle Mile,” an article about Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile, asks how three word choices in the opening paragraph, “feat,” “humanly impossible” and “impenetrable barrier,” affect its tone. Students must read the connotations of strong words in context and decide what they stress, while choices that echo other parts of the passage compete for attention.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5c connotation and denotation
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Grade 7 tone questions often ask students to find the telling words themselves. Here the three words are quoted and sit in one short opening paragraph, and their shared meaning is strong and plain, so one careful reading is enough.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 587 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

The three quoted words all make the same point, and the opening comparison with “scaling Mount Everest” makes it again, so the effect is easy to sense. Points are lost on degree: the sentence holding two of the three words also names “several elite runners,” which makes a choice about only the best runners look supported. Students who hold on to “humanly impossible” rule it out, and the choices about rivalry and training fall away once they check that the words describe the goal, not the runners or their preparation.

  1. A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer

    The choice about only the most skilled runners and the right one both stress how hard the four-minute mile was; they differ on degree, possible for the best runners or thought impossible for anyone. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    “Impenetrable” and “feat” carry the tone, and a student who does not know that impenetrable means impossible to break through may miss how absolute the barrier sounded. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Decide what feeling the three quoted words share, then reread paragraph 1 to see what they describe, and keep only a choice that fits both the feeling and the thing described.

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.
  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a tone question. Tone is the feeling or attitude that a writer’s words give a passage. The question names three word choices from paragraph 1. You need to decide what feeling they share and what they describe.

  2. Find the words in paragraph 1

    Paragraph 1 says people “compared running one mile in four minutes to scaling Mount Everest.” Scaling means climbing. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth. The paragraph calls running that fast a “feat.” The next sentence says “Although such an accomplishment was considered humanly impossible, several elite runners aimed to break that supposedly impenetrable barrier.”

  3. Work out what the words mean

    A feat is an amazing deed that is very hard to do. Humanly impossible means no person could ever do it. Impenetrable means impossible to break through, and a barrier is a wall. All three say the same thing. A mile under four minutes seemed like a goal no one could reach. A word for that is unattainable.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It says the best runners could do it. But “humanly impossible” means no one could.
    • B fits. The words make the four-minute mile sound out of reach.
    • C does not fit. The words describe the barrier, not a contest between runners.
    • D does not fit. Training comes later, in paragraphs 3 and 4. These words describe the goal itself.

    Watch out: A is tempting because the same sentence mentions “several elite runners.” Elite means the very best. But even they were not expected to succeed.

  5. Choose the answer

    The three words make the goal sound almost impossible for anyone. So the answer is B, “emphasize the idea that running a mile in less than four minutes was a seemingly unattainable goal.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice. It also says the four-minute mile was hard. But A says that only the most skilled runners could do it. The passage says it was “considered humanly impossible.” People thought no runner at all could do it. That is why B fits better.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 8 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 14 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 14, question 8.
The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed (page 13)The passage “A Miracle Mile” as printed on page 13 of the DOE handbook.

Question 6 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 9

Uses the passage above: “A Miracle Mile”.

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining what a 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 9 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 15 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 15, question 9.

Question 7 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 12

Uses the passage above: “A Miracle Mile”.

Question

Bannister’s loss in the 1952 Olympics influenced his decision to pursue breaking the four-minute-mile barrier by

  • Aallowing him to recognize his weaknesses and improve his running ability.
  • Bprompting him to take a different approach to his regular training.
  • Cmotivating him to prove to himself that he could set and achieve a goal.
  • Dgiving him the opportunity to reach a goal no runner had ever accomplished.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how Bannister’s loss in the 1952 Olympics influenced his decision to pursue breaking the four-minute-mile barrier.

A. Incorrect. While Bannister recognized the weaknesses that led to his poor performance in the Olympics and worked “to develop endurance and speed” (paragraph 3), the loss made him “determined to redeem himself” (paragraph 2). The desire for redemption influenced Bannister to focus specifically on running a mile in under four minutes, rather than on winning other races or training for other distances.

B. Incorrect. Although Bannister developed an “intensive interval training” plan to improve his “endurance and speed” (paragraph 3), he applied a different approach only after his progress toward a four-minute mile reached a “plateau” (paragraph 4) in 1954. It was his desire to “shave off at least one more second in order to reach his target” (paragraph 4) that prompted him to take a break from interval training and go mountain climbing for three days.

C. CORRECT. Bannister sought to redeem himself after “he finished in a dismal fourth place” at the Olympics (paragraph 2). He thought that his performance “was a disappointment for him and his country, Great Britain,” and he responded by setting a goal to successfully conquer the four-minute mile, which was considered the “ultimate prize” (paragraph 2).

D. Incorrect. Bannister’s loss at the 1952 Olympics motivated him to change his training focus to reaching the “ultimate prize” (paragraph 2) of breaking the four-minute-mile barrier, which no other runner had accomplished. His loss at the Olympics did not present him with a specific opportunity to reach this goal.

Question analysis

This cause-and-effect question on “A Miracle Mile” asks how Roger Bannister’s disappointing finish at the 1952 Olympics shaped his decision to chase the four-minute mile. Students trace how one event led to a choice. The passage gives the reason in a single phrase, and the choices restate it alongside effects that sound believable for any athlete after a loss.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how one event influenced a person’s decision is standard grade 7 work, and the cause is set out in one short paragraph. The choices put the passage’s ideas in new words, so students must match meaning rather than phrases.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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 answer sits in a single phrase, but the choices compete with stories that fit any athlete after a loss, such as learning from weaknesses or changing a routine. Both sound right because Bannister did train hard afterward, yet the passage ties the loss only to his wish to redeem himself, and the change of routine comes later, from the 1954 plateau. Students who keep to the question’s focus, the decision to chase the record, find a motive rather than a method.

  1. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    Paragraph 2 says the loss left Bannister “determined to redeem himself”; the right choice recasts this as proving to himself he could set and reach a goal, while a wrong one reuses the passage’s word “training.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    “Redeem himself,” to make up for a failure, is the key phrase, and a student unsure of it may not see that the loss gave him a reason rather than a lesson. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Find the sentence in paragraph 2 that tells how Bannister responded to the 1952 loss, restate it in your own words, and compare each choice with your restatement.

Traps

  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about cause and effect. The cause is Bannister’s loss at the 1952 Olympics. The effect is his decision to chase the four-minute mile. You need to find how the first led to the second.

  2. Read paragraph 2

    Paragraph 2 says he “finished in a dismal fourth place instead.” Dismal means very disappointing. Then it says “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.” The prize was breaking the four-minute mile.

  3. Understand what redeem himself means

    To redeem yourself means to make up for a failure. You show that you are better than your worst moment. Bannister had let himself down. So he set a huge new goal to prove what he could do. The loss gave him a reason to try, which is a motive.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Paragraph 2 never names any weaknesses he found.
    • B does not fit. He changed his routine in paragraph 4, in 1954. That was because of a plateau, not the Olympic loss.
    • C fits. He wanted to make up for the loss by reaching a big goal.
    • D does not fit. Losing did not give him a chance at the record. It gave him a reason.

    Watch out: A sounds like a common sports lesson: losing shows you what to fix. But the passage does not say that.

  5. Choose the answer

    The loss made Bannister “determined to redeem himself” with a new goal. So the answer is C, “motivating him to prove to himself that he could set and achieve a goal.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice. Athletes often learn from a loss, so it sounds right. But paragraph 2 never says what Bannister was bad at. It says the loss made him “determined to redeem himself.” That is about motivation, so C fits better.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 12 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 18 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 18, question 12.

Question 8 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 13

Uses the passage above: “A Miracle Mile”.

Question

How did interval training affect Bannister’s performance?

  • AIt helped him learn how to moderate his pace while running.
  • BIt helped him conserve effort when running with teammates.
  • CIt helped him improve his pace and stamina while running.
  • DIt helped him decrease his recovery time after an intense run.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how interval training affected Bannister’s performance.

A. Incorrect. The moderation of his pace was achieved through the use of “rabbits,” described in paragraph 6, more than through his method of interval training.

B. Incorrect. Bannister worked individually during the interval training period and then paced himself with a two-person team of “rabbits,” which were introduced in paragraph 5 and explained in paragraph 6. It was the use of “rabbits” during the race that helped him conserve some of his effort, not the interval training.

C. CORRECT. As paragraph 3 states, the goal of Bannister’s training program was to “develop endurance and speed,” which are synonyms of the words “stamina” and “pace.”

D. Incorrect. Although Bannister “let his body recover for two minutes” (paragraph 3) during interval training, this was not the primary effect of the training on Bannister’s performance. Instead, interval training allowed him to develop greater endurance and speed.

Question analysis

This question asks how interval training affected Roger Bannister’s performance as he prepared to run a mile in under four minutes, according to “A Miracle Mile.” It tests finding a detail the passage states and recognizing it in a choice that may use different words. The passage describes several parts of his preparation and race, so students must keep track of which one the question is about.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand: the passage states the purpose of the training in a single sentence. A grade 7 student only needs to locate it and compare the choices with it, without inferring anything.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 587 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 48 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • The DOE’s 2026 explanations appendix skips this question; the explanation and answer key here are the DOE’s own, from its 2021–2022 guide (question 40), relettered.
Students, last 30 days
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 states what the training was for, so the task is to match that sentence and ignore details from elsewhere. The rabbits of paragraph 6, who set Bannister’s tempo and save his effort, supply two tempting effects that belong to the race, not the workouts. The two-minute rests sit in the training paragraph itself, so a student skimming for “recover” can mistake part of the method for its result.

  1. A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer

    The choice about moderating his pace and the right one both concern pace; only the right one matches the training’s stated aim, to “develop endurance and speed.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice turns “endurance and speed” into stamina and pace, while two wrong ones reuse the passage’s own words, “conserves” effort from paragraph 6 and “recover” from paragraph 3. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Find the paragraph that introduces interval training, note what the training was meant to develop, and pick the choice that means the same thing.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation and answer key: The 2026 printable test includes this question (Passage Set 2, Item 6), but the explanations appendix skips it: it explains only five of the six questions on “A Miracle Mile.” The question is question 40 of the DOE’s NYC Guide to the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions (the 2021–2022 guide, page 165), with the same stem and options lettered E–H. The explanation is the guide’s (page 218) and its key is G; both are relettered E–H to A–D here, so the key is C.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what interval training did for Bannister’s running. So find the paragraph that first describes interval training. Look for what it was meant to build.

  2. Find interval training in paragraph 3

    Paragraph 3 says “The amateur athlete decided to use intensive interval training to develop endurance and speed.” In each workout he ran ten laps, aiming for sixty seconds a lap. Then he rested for two minutes and ran again. That is what an interval is here: a hard stretch of running between rests.

  3. See what the training did

    Endurance means being able to keep going for a long time. Another word for it is stamina. Speed is how fast you run, which is your pace. Paragraph 4 shows the result. By early 1954, he had lowered “his quarter-mile pace to sixty-one seconds.” He was getting faster.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. To moderate your pace means to keep it steady and not too fast. In the race, his rabbits did that for him. He even lost his feel for his pace.
    • B does not fit. Saving effort came from running behind rabbits in the race (paragraph 6).
    • C fits. Stamina and pace are other words for endurance and speed.
    • D does not fit. He rested two minutes between runs. Nothing says that rest got shorter.

    Watch out: D is tempting because paragraph 3 mentions rest: “he let his body recover for two minutes.” But the rest is part of the workout, not a result of it.

  5. Choose the answer

    Interval training built Bannister’s speed and endurance. So the answer is C, “It helped him improve his pace and stamina while running.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice, because it is also about pace. But the training aimed “to develop endurance and speed,” not to keep his pace in check. In the race, Bannister “lost his instinctive feel for his pace,” and Brasher had to keep it steady. C matches what the training was for.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 13 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 19 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 19, question 13. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 9 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 16
Passage Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown

Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown

by Robert W. Chambers

It was at that time the policy of the trustees and officers of the Zoological Gardens neither to employ collectors nor to send out expeditions in search of specimens. The society decided to depend upon voluntary contributions, and I was always busy, part of the day, in dictating answers to correspondents who wrote offering their services as hunters of big game, collectors of all sorts of fauna, trappers, snarers, and also to those who offered specimens for sale, usually at exorbitant rates.

To the proprietors of . . . mangy lynxes, moth-eaten coyotes, and dancing bears I returned courteous but uncompromising refusals—of course, first submitting all such letters, together with my replies, to Professor Farrago.

One day towards the end of May, however, just as I was leaving Bronx Park to return to town, Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, called out to me that Professor Farrago wanted to see me a moment; so I . . . retraced my steps to the temporary, wooden building occupied by Professor Farrago, general superintendent of the Zoological Gardens. The professor, who was sitting at his desk before a pile of letters and replies submitted for approval by me, pushed his glasses down and looked over them at me with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, annoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology.

“Now, here’s a letter,” he said, with a deliberate gesture towards a sheet of paper impaled on a file—“a letter that I suppose you remember.” He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me.

“Oh yes,” I replied, with a shrug; “of course the man is mistaken—or—”

“Or what?” demanded Professor Farrago, tranquilly, wiping his glasses.

“—Or a liar,” I replied.

After a silence he leaned back in his chair and bade me read the letter to him again, and I did so with a contemptuous tolerance for the writer, who must have been either a very innocent victim or a very stupid swindler. I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my surprise, he appeared to waver.

“I suppose,” he said, with his near-sighted, embarrassed smile, “that nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter aside and condemn the writer as a liar or a fool?”

“In my opinion,” said I, “he’s one or the other.”

“He isn’t—in mine,” said the professor, placidly.

“What!” I exclaimed. “Here is a man living all alone on a strip of rock and sand between the wilderness and the sea, who wants you to send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn’t exist!”

“How do you know,” asked Professor Farrago, “that the bird in question does not exist?”

“It is generally accepted,” I replied, sarcastically, “that the great auk has been extinct for years. Therefore I may be pardoned for doubting that our correspondent possesses a pair of them alive.”

“Oh, you young fellows,” said the professor, smiling wearily, “you embark on a theory for destinations that don’t exist.”

He leaned back in his chair, his amused eyes searching space for the imagery that made him smile.

“Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to—do you?”

Rather red in the face, I said: “Don’t you believe the great auk to be extinct?”

“Audubon saw the great auk.”

“Who has seen a single specimen since?”

“Nobody—except our correspondent here,” he replied, laughing.

I laughed, too, considering the interview at an end, but the professor went on, coolly:

“Whatever it is that our correspondent has—and I am daring to believe that it is the great auk itself—I want you to secure it for the society.”

When my astonishment subsided my first conscious sentiment was one of pity. Clearly, Professor Farrago was on the verge of dotage—ah, what a loss to the world!

I believe now that Professor Farrago perfectly interpreted my thoughts, but he betrayed neither resentment nor impatience. I drew a chair up beside his desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and this fool’s errand was none of my conceiving.

Together we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized the expenses I might incur, and I set a date for my return, allowing no margin for a successful termination to the expedition.

“Never mind that,” said the professor. “What I want you to do is to get those birds here safely. Now, how many men will you take?”

“None,” I replied, bluntly; “it’s a useless expense, unless there is something to bring back. If there is I’ll wire you, you may be sure.”

“Very well,” said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, “you shall have all the assistance you may require. Can you leave to-night?”

The old gentleman was certainly prompt. I nodded, half-sulkily, aware of his amusement.

“So,” I said, picking up my hat, “I am to start north to find a place called Black Harbor, where there is a man named Halyard who possesses, among other household utensils, two extinct great auks—”

We were both laughing by this time. I asked him why on earth he credited the assertion of a man he had never before heard of.

“I suppose,” he replied, with the same half-apologetic, half-humorous smile, “it is instinct. I feel, somehow, that this man Halyard has got an auk—perhaps two. I can’t get away from the idea that we are on the eve of acquiring the rarest of living creatures. It’s odd for a scientist to talk as I do; doubtless you’re shocked—admit it, now!”

But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was conscious that the same strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite of me, to stir my pulses, too.

“If he has—” I began, then stopped.

The professor and I looked hard at each other in silence.

“Go on,” he said, encouragingly.

But I had nothing more to say, for the prospect of beholding with my own eyes a living specimen of the great auk produced a series of conflicting emotions within me which rendered speech profanely superfluous.

From IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN by Robert W. Chambers—Public Domain

Audubon: John James Audubon, an ornithologist and artist who created scientific illustrations of birds
dotage: a loss of reasoning brought about by old age

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what paragraphs 8–11 show about the two characters. Look at what each man says about the letter. Then compare their views.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 16 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 24 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 24, question 16.
The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed (page 21)The passage “Excerpt from In Search of the Unknown” as printed on page 21 of the DOE handbook.

Question 10 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 18

Uses 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.

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

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 18 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 26 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 26, question 18.

Question 11 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 20

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how paragraph 34 moves the story forward. Read that paragraph closely. Then decide what has changed for the narrator.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 20 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 28 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 28, question 20.

Question 12 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 23
Passage 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.

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

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what lines 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 23 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 34 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 34, question 23.
The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed (pages 32–33)The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed on page 32 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Looking for the Smallest Spark of Everything” as printed on page 33 of the DOE handbook.

Question 13 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 27

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining why 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.
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 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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

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.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 27 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 38 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 38, question 27. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 14 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 29
Passage Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy

Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy

Inside the 40,000-acre Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northern Oklahoma, herds of bison roam on the scenic land that is home to hundreds of different species of plants and animals. While one of the greatest threats to the prairie is wildfire, the use of controlled fires is actually an effective way to protect this idyllic landscape.

Fires that are started by lightning or other natural circumstances are inevitable, and the results can be disastrous. However, hundreds of years ago the American Indian people who inhabited the Great Plains area between Minnesota and Texas realized that these fires could also be helpful. The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas. The American Indian people began to deliberately burn areas of land for bison to graze on, which enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.

Today conservationists at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and farmers in the Great Plains continue to use controlled burns for land management. Intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there. The fires burn away weedy undergrowth and help limit the overcrowding of shrubs and trees in the burn area, creating less competition for water and nutrients. Additionally, the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil.

One common target of controlled burns at the preserve and the surrounding area is the invasive red cedar tree. A single red cedar tree can consume up to 40 gallons of water per day, taking this vital resource away from other plant life. These tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them. The fast-growing red cedar trees tend to crowd out prairie grasses, the primary food source for wild and domestic animals that make the prairie their home. An imbalance in one component of the prairie’s ecosystem affects the entire web of life. Controlled burns help maintain this ecosystem’s delicate balance.

Of course, these controlled fires are intended to burn only a portion of an area. A total burn, which is a risk with an uncontrolled wildfire, would destroy all wildlife as well as the crops farmers plant for income. The key to using controlled fires is knowing which areas of land to burn and when. Conservation experts at the preserve employ the “patch-burn” approach, meaning they rotate which portion of land is burned each year. They study the land to find out which areas would most benefit from being burned, and then they arrange about a dozen burns over one-third of the land. This patch burning contains the fire within a specific area and allows animals in the burn area to safely relocate. The following year, conservationists will burn a different section of the preserve, while the land burned the previous year regrows healthier than before.

Researchers have tracked and studied the variety of plant species and animals that live on the preserve, and their studies show that the patch-burn approach has restored biodiversity to the area by promoting the growth of species that were at risk of being crowded out. The patch-burn system is so successful that the conservationists at the preserve provide training to prairie farmers about conducting controlled burns on their own land. Burning land to make it healthy may seem counterintuitive, but strategic controlled fires have helped the prairie sustain life for hundreds of years and, with careful management, will continue to do so.

Boxed diagram titled “OVERVIEW OF THE PATCH-BURN METHOD,” introduced by the text “By using a patch-burn method, conservationists and farmers can reduce the risk of unintentional fires and control where grazing animals, such as bison, roam.” Below it, a map of one stretch of land is divided by a branching stream, labeled Stream, into three shaded areas: a dark Unburned Area across the top, a medium gray Previously Burned Area on the left, and a light gray Recently Burned Area on the lower right, where eight bison stand. Three captions under the map read “The unburned area is overrun with weeds and has the greatest risk of catching fire,” “The previously burned area is cleared of weeds, and young trees and crops grow freely and thrive,” and “The recently burned area has been cleared of all plants. Bison prefer to eat the fresh grass that will begin to grow in the recently burned area, and they will generally remain in that area until newer, fresher grass is available elsewhere.”

Question

According to the passage, how did fires started by natural causes prompt American Indians to begin practicing controlled burns?

  • Aby drawing animals in to the area to feed on the new growth sprouting from the burned land
  • Bby destroying tall trees and reducing the shade that had hindered the growth of planted crops
  • Cby burning off excess vegetation and increasing the availability of nutrients for the remaining plants
  • Dby causing changes to the bison’s migration habits as bison herds fled from the wildfires on the prairie
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how observing the effects of the fires started by natural causes prompted American Indians to begin practicing controlled burns.

A. CORRECT. In paragraph 2, the author states that American Indians observed bison “grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas.” These observations prompted the practice of controlled burns as a means of enticing “the herds away from the people’s crops.”

B. Incorrect. Although the author mentions in paragraph 4 that the primary targets of a controlled burn are red cedar trees and that “these tall trees also cast shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the plants beneath them,” this detail supports why conservationists use controlled burns today, not what initially prompted the use of controlled burns.

C. Incorrect. While the author states in paragraph 3 that “the process of burning excess plant matter adds nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, to the soil” and that “intentionally burning a portion of land can dramatically improve the quality of the vegetation that regrows there,” these details do not explain the initial observations that prompted American Indians to practice controlled burning.

D. Incorrect. While paragraph 2 mentions that bison moved to a new area to graze because they preferred the “tender new grass on the recently burned land,” there is no indication in the passage that bison changed their migration habits in order to flee wildfires.

Question analysis

This key-details question about an article on controlled burns at an Oklahoma tallgrass prairie preserve asks how fires started by lightning or other natural causes led American Indians to begin burning land on purpose. Students must find the passage's account of that early practice, and since the article describes several effects of fire, each choice has to be checked against what those first observers actually saw.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Finding a stated cause in an informational text is regular grade 7 reading. The answer sits in one short paragraph, but the article describes several effects of fire, old and new, and the choices draw on them, which keeps the demand typical.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 86 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The stem points to one short paragraph, but the article goes on to list many more benefits of fire, and two wrong choices borrow them: shade cleared from under red cedars and nutrients returned to the soil. Both are true of controlled burns today, not of what the Great Plains peoples first noticed. Students who return to paragraph 2 and restate the bison’s taste for freshly burned grass find the answer quickly.

  1. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Two wrong choices name real benefits of burning from later paragraphs, cedar shade removed in paragraph 4 and nutrients freed in paragraph 3, so each must be tested against what the early peoples saw. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Paragraph 2 never says the bison’s grazing caused the practice; students connect “realized that these fires could also be helpful” to the preference for burned land and the deliberate burns that follow. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Go to the paragraph about the Great Plains peoples of hundreds of years ago, restate in your own words what they noticed after natural fires, and test each choice against that observation.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks about a cause. Long ago, fires started by lightning gave American Indians an idea. They began to burn land on purpose. You need to find what they saw that led them to do it. A controlled burn is a fire that people set and keep inside a planned area.

  2. Find the right paragraph

    Paragraph 2 tells this part of the story. It says the people “realized that these fires could also be helpful.” Then it says what they noticed: “The bison in the area seemed to prefer grazing on tender new grass on the recently burned land rather than on grass in the unburned areas.”

  3. Put it in your own words

    Grazing means eating grass. After a fire, soft new grass grew, and the bison liked it best. So the people began to burn land on purpose. The new grass pulled the herds to that land. That kept the bison away from the crops. The paragraph says the burning “enticed the herds away from the people’s crops.” Enticed means tempted or drew.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The burned land drew animals, the bison, to eat the new grass.
    • B is wrong. The shade of tall trees comes from paragraph 4. It explains why people burn red cedars today, not how burning began.
    • C is wrong. Burning off weeds and adding nutrients come from paragraph 3. Nutrients are what plants need to grow. These are reasons for burning today.
    • D is wrong. The bison moved toward the fresh grass. The passage never says herds fled from fires.

    Watch out: C is true about controlled burns. But the question asks what first gave the people the idea. Paragraph 2 says it was the bison.

  5. Choose the answer

    The early people saw bison come to burned land to eat the new grass. So the answer is A: “by drawing animals in to the area to feed on the new growth sprouting from the burned land.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because it names real good effects of fire. But paragraph 3 gives those as reasons people burn land “today.” The question asks how burning began hundreds of years ago. Paragraph 2 says it began when people watched bison feed on burned land.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 29 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 42 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 42, question 29.
The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed (page 41)The passage “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy” as printed on page 41 of the DOE handbook.

Question 15 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 31

Uses the passage above: “Using Fire to Keep a Prairie Healthy”.

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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 31 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 44 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 44, question 31.

Question 16 of 90

2026 Practice Test B English, question 38
Passage Letter from Brooklyn

Letter from Brooklyn

by Jacob Scheier

I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.

“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.

brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past

Question

Read 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks how 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 38 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 53 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test B English, page 53, question 38.
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.

Question 17 of 90

2026 Practice Test C English, question 8
Passage 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 diaphanous1^1 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 platitudinous2^2 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

1^1diaphanous: sheer, translucent

2^2platitudinous: 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.
What makes it hard
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.”

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.”

  6. 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
Question 8 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 16 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 16, question 8.
The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed (pages 134–135)The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed on page 134 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed on page 135 of the DOE handbook.

Question 18 of 90

2026 Practice Test C English, question 20
Passage Bird Talk

Bird Talk

by Carl Sandburg

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

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

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

“Bird Talk” by Carl Sandburg—Public domain.

Question

Read lines 6–7 from the poem.

The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more
  anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.

What idea from the second stanza do the lines help develop?

  • AThe birds are eager for the return of warmer months.
  • BThe birds are most likely to thrive during the spring.
  • CThe birds naturally adjust to the seasonal changes.
  • DThe birds instinctively prepare for the future.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how lines 6–7 from the poem develop an idea from the second stanza.

A. Incorrect. In lines 2–3, the tree branches exclaim that “ ‘This is the / beginning of summer,’ ” and the birds respond by taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7); however, the birds’ eager reaction to the return of warmer weather is not referenced in the second stanza of the poem, which is more about the nature of birds generally than the changing of the seasons.

B. Incorrect. Birds are more likely to thrive in warmer weather as evidenced by some birds’ migration to a warmer climate during winter, and the creatures in the first stanza are responding to the “ ‘beginning of summer’ ” (line 3) in their own way, such as the birds who are taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7). However, the thriving of birds during a particular season is not the focus of the second stanza; rather, it is focused on the general nature of birds.

C. CORRECT. The birds are taking “their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious” (lines 6–7) in light of warmer weather, but they are not making a big to-do of the change because “a home is a home; worms are worms” (line 7) any time of the year. Such a natural adjustment to seasonal changes is reflected in the second stanza, where the birds “count up this year as against next / year” (lines 26–27) because they are well accustomed to the cyclical nature of things.

D. Incorrect. Although the birds’ actions of “hops and zigzags” (line 6) may indicate some sort of preparation, these actions are not preparation but rather the internalized cognizance of the change that has occurred with little conscious thought. As revealed in the second stanza, birds do not ponder much about past or future but rather adapt naturally as things change.

Question analysis

This question on Carl Sandburg’s poem “Bird Talk” quotes lines 6–7, where the birds hop and zigzag “a little more anxious,” and asks which idea from the second stanza they help develop. Students must link two compressed lines in the first stanza to a later stanza about birds gathered at the Grand Crossing, and every choice sounds like a fair claim about birds.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Typical grade 7 poetry questions ask what one line or stanza shows on its own. Here two compressed lines from the first stanza must be tied to an idea the second stanza never states, in Sandburg’s loose, unusual phrasing.
Estimated difficulty
Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: 296 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 70 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The stem runs in an unusual direction: two lines from the first stanza must help develop an idea that only the second stanza holds, and the poem never states it. Students who read “next year” as planning are drawn to preparation, a choice built on the key’s own frame, while others answer from the first stanza’s summer or from what they know about birds. The question rewards hearing the birds’ roll call of who is gone as the same matter-of-fact acceptance as “worms are worms.”

  1. Reading between the lines major Working it out

    Neither stanza states the shared idea: students must hear calm acceptance in “a home is a home; worms are worms” and in birds tallying “who won’t be here next year,” then call it adjusting to change. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about instinctive preparation shares the key’s shape, birds acting by nature as time passes; it differs only in what the birds do, prepare for the future rather than adjust to the seasons. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    Lines 6–7 sit in the first stanza and the idea lives in the second, lines 20–29, so students must carry two lines across the poem and match them to the gathering at the Grand Crossing. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  4. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    “A home is a home; worms are worms” says nothing on its surface; its meaning, a shrug that life goes on as it always has, has to be read from the repetition. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Paraphrase the second stanza first: what are the birds doing and saying at the Grand Crossing? Then reread lines 6–7 and ask which idea about birds both passages share.

Traps

  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question points in an unusual direction. Lines 6–7 are in the first stanza. A stanza is a group of lines set apart by a blank line. But the idea you need is in the second stanza, lines 20–29. The question asks which idea in stanza 2 these earlier lines also help build. So find the idea in stanza 2 first. Then see how lines 6–7 support it.

  2. Find the idea in stanza 2

    In stanza 2, birds sit “in circles talking bird talk.” They ask “who is here / and as to who is not here and who used to be here.” They also talk about “who is here / this year who won’t be here next year.” The birds simply count the changes. They are not upset by them. The speaker says, “We shall never blame the birds.” The idea: birds take the changes that time brings as a normal part of life.

  3. Read lines 6–7 closely

    Lines 6–7 say “The birds took their hops and zigzags a little more / anxious; a home is a home; worms are worms.” As summer comes, the birds hop about a little more nervously and busily. That is a small change. Then the speaker shrugs: “a home is a home; worms are worms.” Life goes on as it always does. The birds change a little and carry on, with no fuss.

  4. See what the two parts share

    Both parts show birds meeting change calmly. In lines 6–7, the season turns, and the birds adjust a little. To adjust is to change a little to fit something new. In stanza 2, the birds note who has come and gone, and life goes on. So lines 6–7 help build stanza 2’s idea: birds naturally adjust to the changing seasons.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Stanza 2 never mentions warm weather or being eager for it.
    • B does not fit. Nothing in the poem says birds do best in spring. The poem’s season is the start of summer.
    • C fits. Both parts show birds taking seasonal change calmly, as a matter of course.
    • D does not fit. The birds talk about next year, but they make no plans for it.

    Watch out: D is tempting because “a home is a home” can sound like nest building. But the birds only count who will be missing. They do not get ready for anything.

  6. Choose the answer

    Lines 6–7 and stanza 2 both show birds accepting change as natural. So the answer is C, “The birds naturally adjust to the seasonal changes.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. Like C, it says birds act by nature as time passes. But D says they prepare, or get ready. In stanza 2, the birds talk about next year only to count who “won’t be here next year.” In lines 6–7, they hop about and carry on. They adjust to change. They do not plan for it.

More questions like this

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

Question 19 of 90

2026 Practice Test C English, question 28
Passage Serpent Mound

Serpent Mound

The Great Serpent Mound, located in Adams County, Ohio, is a human-made mound of earth that researchers believe was created between 300 B.C. and A.D. 1100 by an indigenous culture.

Ohio, 1846

Brush Creek stood low when the museum men came
with their measuring tapes and sketchbooks.
 It was winter. Fringed with ice,
 the creek doubled back on itself
as if it had forgotten something.
 Pa was in Cincinnati, or else on his way home,
  so Ma told me to lead the men
  into the marshy low grounds. It being winter,
    there was little underbrush to speak of—
    in the summer there would have been
  briars, poison ivy, biting flies. I listened
for the swish of a beaver’s heavy tail,
 the chitter of a chickadee, or the cry of a hawk,
 but the winter silence of the creek pressed
 down on all of us like a weight.
The humps in the ground were all but
invisible until you were right up on them. The figure
was even less obvious: the sinuous body,
 the tail coiled three times around,
 and at the other end, the mouth wide open.
  In the summer the creek bottom was crowded
  with so much life that you could trip over
    the ridges of earth before you saw
    anything at all. In winter you could climb
    a tree and get some idea of the whole thing:
  the serpent’s body undulating, slithering
silently across the ancient
 earth. At the mouth end, there was an oval mound
 as if the snake were about to swallow an egg—
as snakes sometimes did in our rickety
henhouse—my Pa always said, or
as if swallowing the sun, one of the museum
 men suggested, taking notes with his quill pen,
 an old-style inkhorn slung at his side.
 I liked that: swallowing the sun,
  just the sort of thing a snake might do,
  might want to do. When, later, I told my sister Ruth,
    she disagreed. It is singing to the sun,
    she insisted. That is why its mouth
  is wide open. She said, “Sometimes I think
I hear it on summer nights. Not swallowing, singing.”

Question

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

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

Correct answer: B

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

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

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

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

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

Question analysis

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

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand: the two opening lines are short and concrete, and checking the choices takes one reading of the poem, much like grade 6 questions on how a single sentence fits into a text.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 7, 62 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The opening lines are short and concrete, and their tools, measuring tapes and sketchbooks, plainly say why the men came. The wrong choices each add something: men too busy to talk, a hidden motive, or a fascinated speaker, and the last borrows the speaker’s later delight in “swallowing the sun.” Checking each against the rest of the poem, rather than against first impressions of strangers arriving, is what the question rewards.

  1. How, not what minor Working it out

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

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

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

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

Traps

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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

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

  2. Read lines 1–2

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

  3. Check each choice

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

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

  4. Choose the answer

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

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

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

More questions like this

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

Question 20 of 90

2026 Practice Test C English, question 29

Uses the passage above: “Serpent Mound”.

Question

Read line 28 from the poem.

At the mouth end, there was an oval mound

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

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

Correct answer: C

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

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

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

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

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

Question analysis

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

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

Why it is hard

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

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

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

  2. How, not what moderate Working it out

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

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

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

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

Traps

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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

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

  2. Read what follows line 28

    The next lines give three ideas about the oval mound.

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

  3. Name the line’s job

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

  4. Check each choice

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

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

  5. Choose the answer

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

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

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

More questions like this

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

Question 21 of 90

2026 Practice Test C English, question 31

Uses the passage above: “Serpent Mound”.

Question

What impact do the words “swish,” “chitter,” and “cry” in lines 12–13 have in the poem?

  • AThey illustrate how lively the mound’s surroundings are during the summer.
  • BThey show how the mound disrupts natural life in the marsh.
  • CThey indicate the variety of wildlife found in the area around the mound.
  • DThey suggest that the speaker prefers the mound’s appearance in winter.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks what impact the words “swish,” “chitter,” and “cry” in lines 12–13 have in the poem.

A. CORRECT. The words highlight the sounds of the animals that visit the mound in the summer: the “swish of a beaver’s heavy tail” (line 12), the “chitter of a chickadee” (line 13), and the “cry of a hawk” (line 13). These words help contrast the quiet stillness of the setting around the mound in the winter.

B. Incorrect. While the words in lines 12–13 convey the sounds certain animals make in the summer, the sounds of the animals that live near the mound are a natural part of life in the area, not a disruption.

C. Incorrect. The speaker is contrasting the sounds of the animals around the mound during the rest of the year with the silence of the winter months, not merely indicating the variety of wildlife.

D. Incorrect. The speaker expresses the idea that the mound is more visible in the winter because of the lack of brush (“It being winter, / there was little underbrush to speak of” [lines 8–9]). Then lines 12–13 describe sounds, not the appearance of the mound in winter.

Question analysis

This question about word choice asks what impact the sound words “swish,” “chitter” and “cry” in lines 12–13 of “Serpent Mound” have in the poem. They belong to a beaver, a chickadee and a hawk near the creek, and more than one choice sounds like a fair account of them, so students must read the surrounding lines closely.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5 figurative language and word relationships
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students often explain what sensory words add to a description. These three words sit inside a long sentence that runs across several lines, so their effect has to be worked out from the lines around them, beyond typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 354 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 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

Three vivid animal sounds invite the easy reading that the poem is showing off the creek’s wildlife, and that choice is true as far as it goes. The words matter because they are missing: the speaker listens for them, and “the winter silence” answers. Students must also accept that the key’s “during the summer” comes from the poem’s later picture of a crowded summer creek, not from lines 12–13 themselves.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The variety choice is literally true, since a beaver, a chickadee and a hawk are three kinds of animal; it differs from the key in missing why the sounds are named, as a contrast with winter. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The speaker listens for these sounds and does not hear them, so students must infer that they stand for the creek’s life in warmer months, which lines 21–22 call “crowded / with so much life.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The three words sit in one sentence that runs from “I listened” in line 11 to “like a weight” in line 15 and turns on “but,” so their point arrives only at its end. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Read the full sentence that holds these words, from “I listened” in line 11 to the end of line 15, then decide what the three sound words add to the scene.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what three sound words do in the poem. They are “swish,” “chitter” and “cry,” in lines 12–13. Read the whole sentence they sit in. It starts at “I listened” in line 11 and ends with “like a weight” in line 15.

  2. Read the full sentence

    Lines 11–15 say “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.” A chickadee is a small bird, and a chitter is its quick, chirping sound. The speaker listens for these sounds. But the word “but” tells you they never come. Only silence answers.

  3. Work out why the sounds are named

    A beaver, a chickadee and a hawk are signs of a creek full of life. The speaker hears none of them in winter. Later lines tell you when the creek is lively. Lines 21–22 say “In the summer the creek bottom was crowded / with so much life.” So the missing sounds remind you how lively the place is in summer. They also make the winter silence feel even emptier.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. The sounds stand for the busy life around the mound in the warm months.
    • B does not fit. The quiet comes from the season: “the winter silence of the creek.” The mound does not cause it.
    • C does not fit. There are three kinds of animals, but the point is that their sounds are missing.
    • D does not fit. These lines are about sounds. The speaker says nothing about liking how the mound looks in winter.

    Watch out: C is true as far as it goes. But it misses why the speaker names the sounds at all: to set them against the silence.

  5. Choose the answer

    The sounds the speaker listens for, and doesn’t hear, show how lively the creek is in summer. So the answer is A, “They illustrate how lively the mound’s surroundings are during the summer.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice, because a beaver, a chickadee and a hawk really are three kinds of wildlife. But the speaker listens for them and hears nothing. The word “but” turns the sentence to “the winter silence.” The sounds matter because they are missing. They show the creek in its lively season, which line 21 names as summer.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 31 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 46 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 46, question 31.

Question 22 of 90

2026 Practice Test C English, question 37
Passage Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”

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

by Melanie Canales

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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

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

4mitigate: to make something less severe or harmful

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

Question

How does the author support the claim in paragraph 4 that the APH is a complex plant growth system?

  • Aby indicating how many sensors help control the variables of plant growth
  • Bby detailing how the method of growing plants has been adapted to the conditions of space
  • Cby explaining the steps required to package and return the plants to Earth
  • Dby describing how NASA has spent years experimenting with plants grown in a controlled environment
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the author supports the claim in paragraph 4 that the APH is a complex plant growth system.

A. CORRECT. The author supports the claim that the APH is a complex plant growth system by stating that it has “more than 180 sensors” that control and monitor temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide (paragraph 4). These details, along with the description of how astronauts can adjust light and moisture via these sensors, directly illustrate the system’s complexity.

B. Incorrect. Although paragraph 4 describes some of the APH’s features, such as monitoring “temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide,” it does not focus on how the key elements of plant growing are adapted to space conditions. The details instead emphasize the number of sensors and the variety of variables they control.

C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 2 mentions packaging and returning plants to Earth, the process does not directly contribute to the complexity of the APH system of growing plants in space.

D. Incorrect. While paragraph 3 references NASA’s experimentation “with growing lettuces, brassicas, and zinnias in space” since 2014 and how it relied “on highly specialized technology,” there is no indication in the paragraph that the APH system existed during the same time period or that the experiments relied on the complexity of a similar system.

Question analysis

Paragraph 4 of the excerpt quotes a NASA scientist calling the Advanced Plant Habitat “the most complex plant growth system on orbit today.” This evidence question asks how the author supports that claim. Students must trace a claim to the evidence offered for it and tell that evidence apart from other true facts the article gives about the pepper project.

NYS standards
  • 7R8 evaluating arguments and claims
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Tracing how an author supports a stated claim is standard grade 7 work, and the stem names the paragraph where the claim appears. The technical vocabulary of the article adds some load, but the task itself is routine.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 890 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 74 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

The claim and its support sit side by side in paragraph 4, so a student who rereads it finds the sensors at once. The wrong choices come from neighboring paragraphs: the habitat that does not copy Earth’s conditions, the frozen peppers and NASA’s work since 2014. Each is true of the article, so the question rewards matching the support to the claim’s own paragraph rather than to the article’s general themes.

  1. How, not what minor Working it out

    The stem asks how the claim is supported, so the answer is the evidence in the sentences right after the quotation, the “more than 180 sensors” and the controls they run. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. An unfamiliar subject minor Understanding the question

    Paragraph 4 describes a growth chamber in technical terms, sensors for temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide, and adjustable light and moisture, which students must picture without having seen anything like it. (Recht & Leslie, 1988; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Find the sentence in paragraph 4 that makes the claim, read the sentences right after it, and choose the description that matches what those sentences actually offer as support.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option D says NASA’s experimentation relied “on specialized technology.” Paragraph 3 says the endeavor “relies on highly specialized technology over 50 years in the making,” so the site now quotes “on highly specialized technology.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A claim is an idea the writer wants you to believe. Support is the proof given for it. Paragraph 4 claims the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) is complex. Complex means it has many parts that work together. You need to find how the author backs that up.

  2. Find the claim and what follows

    Paragraph 4 opens with Spencer’s words: “The Advanced Plant Habitat is the most complex plant growth system on orbit today.” On orbit means circling Earth in space. The very next sentence gives the proof: “Its more than 180 sensors control and monitor temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide.” Then the paragraph adds that the astronauts can change the light and the water.

  3. Explain what the proof means

    A sensor is a small device that measures something, like a thermometer. Humidity is how much water is in the air. To monitor means to keep checking. So the habitat has more than 180 measuring tools. They watch and control each condition the plants need. These conditions are called variables, things that can change, like heat and light. That big number of sensors shows how complex the habitat is.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The author gives a number, “more than 180 sensors,” and says what they control.
    • B is wrong. Paragraph 4 doesn’t explain how growing methods were changed for space. It counts sensors and lists what they control.
    • C is wrong. Packing the peppers to send home is in paragraph 2. It says nothing about how the habitat works.
    • D is wrong. Paragraph 3 says NASA’s work since 2014 relies “on highly specialized technology.” But that is the program’s history, not proof about this habitat.

    Watch out: B sounds like it could describe a complex machine. But the proof sits right after the claim, and it is about sensors.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author shows the habitat is complex by counting its sensors and naming what they control. So the answer is A, “by indicating how many sensors help control the variables of plant growth.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer. Paragraph 3 does say the habitat “doesn’t aim to re-create Earth’s conditions.” But the question asks how paragraph 4 supports its own claim. Paragraph 4 does it with a count of sensors and a list of what they control. That matches A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 37 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 55 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test C English, page 55, question 37. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed (pages 50–51)The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Growing Peppers on the ISS Is Just the Start of Space Farming”” as printed on page 51 of the DOE handbook.

Question 23 of 90

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

A Memory Revolution

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

A Dependable and Valuable Asset

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

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

Filing Information Away

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

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

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

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

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

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 7.

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

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

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

Correct answer: C

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

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

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

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

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

Question analysis

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

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 structure questions often ask what one sentence does in its paragraph. This one asks how a sentence turns the whole article, and every choice also characterizes paragraphs 2 and 6, closer to grade 8 work on opposing viewpoints.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 129 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

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

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

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

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

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

  3. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

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

  4. Hard words minor Understanding the question

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

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

Traps

  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

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

  2. Look at paragraphs 2 and 6

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

  3. Read the sentence and what follows

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

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The worry comes after the studies. Nothing says it caused the research.
    • B does not fit. Paragraphs 2 and 6 do not describe benefits. They only report numbers.
    • C fits. The sentence shifts from neutral reports to an argument, and Pinker’s answer follows.
    • D does not fit. Paragraphs 2 and 6 are not optimistic, or hopeful. And the end is not cautious. Pinker answers the worry with confidence.

    Watch out: D is tempting because the sentence does raise an opposing view. But D gets both tones wrong.

  5. Choose the answer

    The sentence turns the article from plain reports to a debate. So the answer is C, “It signals a shift from a neutral viewpoint in paragraphs 2 and 6 to a presentation of an argument and a counterargument.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. Both C and D see the sentence bringing in an opposing view. But D calls paragraphs 2 and 6 optimistic, when they only give percentages. D also says a cautious tone follows. Instead, Pinker rejects the worry and ends with “keep us smart.” Only C describes both sides of the turn correctly.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 3 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 7 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 7, question 3.
The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed (pages 3–4)The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed on page 3 of the DOE handbook.The passage “A Memory Revolution” as printed on page 4 of the DOE handbook.

Question 24 of 90

2026 Practice Test D English, question 5

Uses the passage above: “A Memory Revolution”.

Question

How does the diagram provide additional support for the topic presented in the passage?

  • AIt reveals why human brains must adapt to obtaining information from the Internet as opposed to other sources.
  • BIt indicates how people can use the Internet to help improve their long-term recollection of information.
  • CIt shows how study participants’ brains distinguished between important and unimportant details.
  • DIt depicts the idea that repetition and rehearsal are necessary to recall information when tools such as search engines are unavailable.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the diagram provides additional support for the topic presented in the passage.

A. Incorrect. While the diagram indicates that the human brain has the ability to maintain different types of memory, the diagram does not show the need for the brain to adapt to obtaining information from the Internet rather than from other sources.

B. Incorrect. The diagram enhances the reader’s understanding of how long-term memories are formed, but it does not provide details about how the Internet can be used to improve long-term recollection of information.

C. Incorrect. The diagram provides an understanding of how details that are important to people can become stored because of an effort made to recall them. However, the diagram does not show how people decide which information is important and which is not.

D. CORRECT. The diagram depicts the connections that the human brain maintains between the different forms of memory. It also illustrates the idea that repetition and rehearsal are important steps in creating memories, as unrehearsed information will be forgotten. This supports the passage by highlighting the idea that access to search engines and other tools leads people to skip rehearsal and repetition steps that create memories, because people know that the information is readily accessible.

Question analysis

This question pairs “A Memory Revolution” with its flow diagram, “How Memory Works,” which follows new information from sensory memory through short-term and long-term memory, and asks how the diagram supports the topic of the passage. Students must read the diagram’s boxes, arrows and notes and relate them to an article about the Internet that never refers to the diagram, so the connection has to be worked out.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly connect a diagram to a text. This flow diagram of memory never mentions the Internet, so students must build the bridge to the article’s studies themselves, and every choice claims something the diagram alone cannot show.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 81 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The diagram is a general model of memory, and every choice, even the right one, goes beyond it by bringing in the Internet, search engines or the study participants. The way through is to ask which choice rests on something the diagram really shows, and only one names its rehearsal loop and the forgetting of unrehearsed information. The strongest pull uses the diagram’s long-term memory and retrieval but claims the Internet improves recollection, the opposite of what paragraph 5’s experiment found.

  1. Combines ideas moderate Working it out

    The diagram never mentions the Internet and the article never mentions the diagram, so students must join its rehearsal loop to paragraph 5’s finding that people who expected the facts to be saved remembered fewer. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)

  2. Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question

    Students must follow the arrows from “Attention” into short-term memory and find the “Rehearsal” loop beside “Information is maintained through repetition,” with “Unrehearsed information is forgotten” on the other side. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Three choices tie the diagram to the Internet, adaptation or the study participants, and even the key mentions search engines, so each claim must be held against the boxes and arrows actually drawn. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Trace the diagram’s arrows from new information to long-term memory and say what each label shows, then ask which choice links that process to the studies without crediting the diagram with ideas it never shows.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the diagram supports the article. The diagram is the flow chart called “HOW MEMORY WORKS” at the end of the passage. It never mentions the Internet. So you must find what it shows, then link that to the article.

  2. Follow the arrows in the diagram

    Start at the top. An arrow labeled “New Information” goes into the box “Sensory Memory.” The “Attention” arrow leads to “Short-Term Memory.” From there, two things can happen. On the left, a loop labeled “Rehearsal” sits beside the note “Information is maintained through repetition.” On the right, a note says “Unrehearsed information is forgotten.” A “Storage” arrow leads down to “Long-Term Memory,” and a “Retrieval” arrow leads back up.

  3. Explain what the diagram means

    To rehearse information is to repeat it, the way you practice lines for a play. To maintain something is to keep it. So the diagram says that information you repeat stays with you. Information you don’t repeat is lost. Repeating takes effort.

  4. Link the diagram to the passage

    Paragraph 5 describes people who typed forty facts. Some thought the file would be saved. Others thought it would be erased. Those who thought it would be erased “could recall 40 percent more facts.” They knew they could not look the facts up later. So they made the effort to remember. The diagram shows that effort: rehearsal. When search engines are at hand, people may skip it.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The diagram never mentions the Internet. It does not say brains must adapt.
    • B does not fit. The diagram shows nothing about using the Internet. Paragraph 5 even found that people remembered less when they expected the facts to be saved.
    • C does not fit. The diagram shows memory in general. It shows no study participants and no sorting of important facts.
    • D fits. The “Rehearsal” loop shows that repeating information keeps it. Without a tool to look things up, that repeating is what lets you recall.

    Watch out: B is tempting because the diagram has “Long-Term Memory” and “Retrieval,” and the article calls the Internet an outside memory. But the diagram is about the brain, not the Internet.

  6. Choose the answer

    The diagram shows rehearsal keeping information and unrehearsed information being forgotten. That explains why people who can’t look facts up must work to remember them. So the answer is D, “It depicts the idea that repetition and rehearsal are necessary to recall information when tools such as search engines are unavailable.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice. It uses the diagram’s “Long-Term Memory” and “Retrieval” labels. But the diagram never shows the Internet improving recall. The passage says the opposite: expecting the facts to be saved made people remember fewer. D rests on what the diagram really shows, the “Rehearsal” loop and the note “Unrehearsed information is forgotten.”

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 5 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 9 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 9, question 5.

Question 25 of 90

2026 Practice Test D English, question 7

Uses the passage above: “A Memory Revolution”.

Question

The effect of the Internet on a person’s memory is illustrated in the passage through the presentation of studies that

  • Aexamine how the use of search engines changes the way people evaluate and store information for future access.
  • Bhighlight the difference between the capacity of the Internet and the ability of the human brain to locate information.
  • Ccompare the type of information that can be obtained from the Internet with the type of information that is stored in the human brain.
  • Demphasize the ease of obtaining information through search engines rather than remembering it without assistance.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the studies presented in the passage are used to illustrate the effect of the Internet on a person’s memory.

A. CORRECT. The study described in paragraph 5 examined the effect of computer use on the way people evaluate information, specifically “which information deserves their effort to remember,” and determined that “those who believed the information would be erased and no longer available could recall 40 percent more facts than those who thought the information would be saved.” The study described in paragraph 2 established that the use of Internet search engines increases the “inclination to rely on the Internet in order to retrieve information” (paragraph 3), and the study in paragraph 6 examined how this reliance on technology affects the way people store information: “Overall, participants recalled the information’s location more often than the content itself.”

B. Incorrect. Although a difference in the ability of the human brain and the capacity of the Internet to locate information might seem evident, the studies cited in the passage did not examine the ability or the capacity of either. The studies did not measure what the human brain is capable of but rather how memory is affected by the use of the Internet.

C. Incorrect. While the studies explored the Internet’s effect on the way information is stored in human memory, the type of information was not described or compared. Instead, the studies indicated that location is the main difference between the information stored in the Internet and the information stored in human memory, noting that the Internet has become “an external source of the recollections and associative networks that constitute memory” (paragraph 6).

D. Incorrect. Although it is increasingly common to use the Internet to obtain information (paragraph 2) rather than try to memorize information (paragraph 5), the studies did not examine the difficulty or ease of obtaining/recalling information using either method.

Question analysis

This evidence question asks how the studies described in “A Memory Revolution” illustrate the Internet’s effect on a person’s memory. Students must recall three experiments, one with trivia questions and Google, one with trivia typed into a computer file, and one with named folders, and decide what they examine together. Each choice sounds like a fair claim about the Internet and the brain.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summing up what a text’s evidence shows is everyday grade 7 work. Here the evidence is three studies spread over paragraphs 2, 5 and 6, which adds recall, but each one is described in plain terms.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 14, 763 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 96 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question asks what the article’s studies show together, so a student needs a one-line summary of three experiments before reading the choices. The key is slightly loose, since only the first study uses a search engine, which can make a careful reader hesitate. The strongest pull comes from paragraph 2, where most people turned to Google even for easy questions; it sounds like proof that searching is easier, but no study weighed the effort of looking up against remembering.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The three studies sit in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6, and the key gathers them: turning to Google even for easy questions, recalling less from a saved file, and remembering folders better than facts. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    No sentence says what the studies share; students must abstract it, that expecting later access changes what people bother to store, from experiments built on Google, a computer file and named folders. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Each wrong choice names something the studies might plausibly have measured, the Internet’s capacity, kinds of information or ease of searching, and only a check of the three experiments shows that none did. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Sum up in a phrase what the studies in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6 each tested, then pick the option that describes what they examined rather than a point made elsewhere in the article.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what the studies in the article have in common. How do they show the Internet’s effect on memory? There are three studies, in paragraphs 2, 5 and 6. Sum up each one in a few words. Then find the choice that fits all three.

  2. Sum up the three studies

    • Paragraph 2: People who had used Google kept using it, even for easy questions. In fact, “83 percent of the Internet group continued to consult Google in the second round.”
    • Paragraph 5: People who thought a file of facts would be erased remembered more. They decided which facts deserved “their effort to remember.”
    • Paragraph 6: People remembered where facts were kept better than the facts themselves.

  3. Find what the studies share

    Each study looks at how people treat information when a computer or search engine can hold it for them. People decide what is worth the effort to remember. Judging the value of something like this is called evaluating. People also change what they store in their minds, such as where a fact is instead of the fact. That is the effect on memory.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. The studies show people judging what to remember and storing where to find it.
    • B does not fit. No study measured how much the Internet can hold or what the brain can do.
    • C does not fit. No study sorted information into types.
    • D does not fit. No study compared how easy it is to search and to remember.

    Watch out: D is tempting because most people in paragraph 2 kept using Google. That might seem to show searching is easier. But the study never measured ease. It only counted who used Google.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice describes what the studies actually tested. So the answer is A, “examine how the use of search engines changes the way people evaluate and store information for future access.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice. It sounds like a fair reason people use Google. But none of the studies timed or rated the effort of searching or remembering. They tested what people chose to remember and what they stored. A describes that. Only the first study used a search engine, but the other two show the same pattern with a computer file and folders.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 7 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 11 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 11, question 7.

Question 26 of 90

2026 Practice Test D English, question 9
Passage 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what one 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 9 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 16 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 16, question 9.
The passage “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”” as printed (pages 13–14)The passage “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”” as printed on page 13 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “How We Made the First Flight”” as printed on page 14 of the DOE handbook.

Question 27 of 90

2026 Practice Test D English, question 17
Passage Wolves of the Sea

Wolves of the Sea

The cool and misty landscape of the Great Bear Rainforest can be found along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, and its nearby islands, from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. Within this protected area, wolves roam the forests, islands, and beaches. When biologist Chris Darimont began to study these wolves, he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves. He spoke with Chester Starr, an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation that has occupied the Great Bear Rainforest for thousands of years. What Starr had to say about the wolves changed Darimont’s perception of the animals.

Starr asked Darimont which wolves he and his team were going to study—the timber wolves (mainland wolves) or the coastal wolves on the islands. The question took Darimont by surprise. Biologists had always believed that the wolves that are sometimes spotted swimming between islands and eating salmon are the same wolves that live on the mainland. Darimont was intrigued by Starr’s classification of the wolves as two different groups. At first, he was hesitant to accept the idea. The distances between the mainland and the islands are small, less than a mile. Why would the wolves on the islands be any different from the wolves on the mainland? To find out, Darimont and his research team studied the wolves on the islands and in the densely forested territory of the Great Bear Rainforest for ten years.

Throughout the study, Darimont recorded several significant, observable differences between the “sea wolves,” as they are nicknamed, and the mainland wolves. Compared with the mainland wolves, the sea wolves are smaller in size and are strong swimmers. In 1996 sea wolves were spotted on an island nearly eight miles from any other land formation. While mainland wolves almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals, sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish. Sea wolves regularly swim between islands and have been known to sneak up on a seal sunning itself on a rock and make a leaping attack from the water. Some salmon-eating mainland wolves come and go from the islands with the fish-spawning season, but the sea wolves are full-time island residents. Darimont suspects that some sea wolves live their entire life on the islands.

The sea wolves displayed not only physical and behavioral differences but also genetic variations from the mainland wolves. After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves. A genetic marker is a variation in a DNA sequence that can be used to identify individuals or a species because it is passed down to offspring. Darimont hypothesizes that a change in habitat led to the eventual genetic differences between sea wolves and mainland wolves. Many years ago, loss of habitat and food sources forced some mainland wolves out to the islands. They learned to eat everything from kelp and fish eggs to the remains of sea creatures that washed up on the beach. Wolves living on the islands and mainland wolves became more isolated and rarely mated with each other. Over time the two types of wolves became more distinct.

It turned out that Chester Starr was right all along. “It sounded totally bizarre at first,” admits Darimont, “that there could be two versions of the species.” But he now realizes that this skepticism “definitely reflected my ignorance of indigenous knowledge at the time.” Learning to trust the wisdom of the Heiltsuk people opened Darimont up to knowledge accumulated over millennia and positioned him so that he could gather new scientific evidence about one of British Columbia’s most elusive species, the sea wolf.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 4.

After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves.

The phrase “hard biological evidence” conveys that the goal of the research team was to

  • Adevelop a procedure in order to ensure their study yielded plentiful data about the wolves.
  • Bseek definitive scientific proof of the number of wolf species present in the area of the study.
  • Cconduct a study to evaluate multiple theories about the diets of different wolf species.
  • Ddiscover if the new data would provide information different from that of previous studies.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the phrase “hard biological evidence” in the sentence from paragraph 4 conveys about the goal of the research team.

A. Incorrect. Although the research team followed a labor-intensive procedure, the phrase “hard biological evidence” refers to the product of their scientific research (the genetic markers revealed within the DNA samples), not the process by which they collected it. Their goal was not to develop a procedure for data collection but to determine precisely how many species of wolf were present in the area.

B. CORRECT. The research team wanted to prove or disprove the theory that two separate groups of wolves were present in the area, an idea that was already supported by the observations of scientists and local indigenous people. The phrase “hard biological evidence” conveys that the scientists wanted to bolster their observations of the wolves with concrete scientific data about the wolves’ biological makeup. The goal of the researchers was to use the data to prove how many species of wolf were present in the area of the study.

C. Incorrect. The research team gathered extensive data during their study (“After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste” [paragraph 4]), and their goal in doing so was to evaluate a single theory about the wolves: that the wolves had evolved into two separate and genetically distinct species. The research team did not conduct the study in order to evaluate multiple theories about the diets of the wolves.

D. Incorrect. The phrase “hard biological evidence” does not suggest that the research team was hoping to discover if the new data would provide information that was different from previous studies. In fact, the goal of the research team was to use the genetic data to supplement their initial sources of information about the wolves and their own observations from the field.

Question analysis

This word-in-context question quotes a sentence from paragraph 4 of “Wolves of the Sea” about DNA taken from 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, and asks what the phrase “hard biological evidence” shows about the research team’s goal. Students must work out what the phrase says about the evidence and then turn that into a statement of purpose, choosing among four plausible aims for a study.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L4a context clues
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly interpret a phrase in context. Here the phrase must be turned into a claim about the team’s purpose, which the passage never states outright, and the four choices are abstract research goals that each sound reasonable.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 114 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question asks for a purpose, but the phrase it quotes describes a result, so students have to reason from the kind of evidence produced to what the team wanted it for. Readers who take “hard” as difficult drift toward a goal about procedure, and those who remember that biologists had long thought the wolves were one group are drawn to a goal of overturning earlier studies. The key’s “number of wolf species” is looser than the passage’s “two versions of the species,” which can make careful readers hesitate.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The passage never states the team’s goal, so students must work back from “hard biological evidence” to the question paragraph 2 set up: whether island and mainland wolves are really two groups. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Hard words moderate Understanding the question

    “Hard” here means solid and conclusive, as in hard evidence, not difficult; students who know only the everyday sense connect it to the labor of analyzing 800 samples of fur and waste. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The goal the phrase points to lies two paragraphs back, in Starr’s two-group question and Darimont’s ten-year study “to find out,” not in the sentence the stem quotes. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Replace “hard” with a word that fits evidence produced by DNA analysis, then ask what the team wanted that kind of evidence for, recalling the question Darimont set out to answer.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what a phrase shows about the team’s goal. A goal is what you are trying to get. The phrase names the kind of evidence the team got. Work back from that to what they wanted it for.

  2. Read the sentence with the phrase

    In paragraph 4, the team studied “800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste.” Then they “could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves.” A genetic marker is a small difference in the DNA that parents pass to their young. Distinct means clearly different.

  3. Work out what “hard” means

    Here “hard” does not mean difficult. Hard evidence is solid proof that is tough to argue with. Biological means it comes from living things and their bodies. So the team wanted firm proof from the wolves’ own bodies.

  4. Connect the proof to the question

    What did they want to prove? Go back to paragraph 2. Starr said there were two groups of wolves. Darimont was unsure. “To find out,” his team studied the wolves. The DNA gave a firm answer: the sea wolves really are a separate group. So the goal was solid proof of how many groups of wolves live there.

  5. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It reads “hard” as hard work. The phrase is about how firm the proof is, not about a procedure.
    • B is right. Definitive means final and settled. The team wanted settled proof of how many groups of wolves live there. B says “species,” which goes further than the passage. Darimont speaks only of “two versions of the species.”
    • C is wrong. Diets come up in paragraph 3. The DNA work tested whether there were two groups.
    • D is wrong. The phrase says nothing about earlier studies.

    Watch out: D is tempting because biologists “had always believed” the wolves were one group. But “hard” evidence is about firm proof, not about beating old studies.

  6. Choose the answer

    “Hard biological evidence” shows the team wanted firm, scientific proof. So the answer is B, “seek definitive scientific proof of the number of wolf species present in the area of the study.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer. Biologists had thought the wolves were one group, so D can seem to fit. But the phrase “hard biological evidence” is about how firm the proof is. It says nothing about earlier studies. B matches that: the team wanted settled proof of how many groups there were.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 27 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 27, question 17.
The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed (pages 23–24)The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed on page 23 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed on page 24 of the DOE handbook.

Question 28 of 90

2026 Practice Test D English, question 21
Passage Ode to Fireworks

Ode to Fireworks

In autumn my mother drove us to the edge of the field
where the fair was set up year after year:
the carousel, the bumper cars, the long, low sheds
filled with prizewinning animals.
We—my sister, my cousin, and I—were ready for bed,
already in our pajamas. This was a treat we waited
all year for. We waited in the darkness
for the first low, dull thwumps, like someone
beating an old, filthy rug hung on a wash line.
Then we counted the seconds between the lightning
and thunder, as we also used to do, until the sky
lit up: red, blue, green, gold. In my mind’s eye
I can still see the straggly, ancient oak whose branches
reached up past the exhibition halls, silhouetted
against the spectrum of stars that cascaded behind it.

It was one thing to look up into the sky
and imagine yourself in it or to make out pictures
among the clouds, which my sister liked to do.
No, I would tell her, that cloud
does not look like an elephant, a hat, an umbrella.
But it was another thing to see
the sky at night written upon
with those jewels. (We lived in the country:
night was night.) All around us, crickets
stridulated in the stubble of what had been
somebody’s cornfield, their song rising and falling.
You could smell winter on the air’s edge.

Now, in the city, when the sky dips into shadow
at New Year’s or on the Fourth of July, I find myself
craning my neck upward at odd moments.
The city sky is always lit up. This is where we live now,
and it is how we live now, awash in light
of every hue. Everything is a constant celebration:
picking up washing at the cleaner’s or stopping by
the corner market for a loaf of heavy bread.
And the music around me is the music of people,
their voices rising and falling in a hundred languages.
But beneath the yellowish glow deep in the sky
of all our city lights pelting out into the universe,
I remember the feel of the pickup truck bumping
across the ridged field, as I kept waiting for those
childhood bursts, watching as they escorted us home.

Question

The comparison in lines 8–9 of the poem is used to convey

  • Athe muffled pounding of explosions in the distance.
  • Bthe way lightning streaks through the clouds.
  • Cthe echoes of thunder on an autumn night.
  • Dthe glow of sparks falling from the sky.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks what the comparison in lines 8–9 of the poem is used to convey.

A. CORRECT. In lines 8–9 the speaker compares the deep thumping noises at the start of a fireworks show to the muffled thumping sound made when beating a rug to clean it. The imagery of “low, dull thwumps” (line 8) (onomatopoeia) describes a sound that is not clear or powerful. To the speaker, these low, distant explosions are the signal that the fireworks display is starting and that the loud, cracking sound of fireworks will be heard soon (“Then we counted the seconds between the lightning / and thunder” [lines 10–11]).

B. Incorrect. The comparison in lines 8–9 deals with the low sound of the first fireworks shooting off rather than the streaks of light they emit. To the speaker, the low thwumps (onomatopoeia) are the signal that fireworks are about to explode overhead, much like the way a streak of lightning during a storm indicates that a crash of thunder will follow in a few seconds.

C. Incorrect. The thwump (onomatopoeia) sounds are the start of the fireworks show, not thunder. As a comparison, the speaker says the initial thwumps of the fireworks signal anticipation for the full explosion that will come, much like the way the speaker would watch for lightning and count the seconds before an impending thunderclap (lines 10–11).

D. Incorrect. The muffled thwump (onomatopoeia) sounds occur before the dazzling explosion of lights and before sparks start to fall from the sky. The comparison focuses on the sounds of the experience, not the sight of the experience.

Question analysis

This figurative language question asks what the comparison in lines 8–9 of “Ode to Fireworks” conveys. In the poem an adult speaker remembers waiting with family, already in pajamas, for the fireworks at a country fair. Students must interpret an old-fashioned household image and decide what part of the show it describes, since the nearby lines mention sights as well as sounds.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5a interpreting allusions
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Interpreting a simile is taught from grade 6, and this one takes up two lines of concrete words. The household chore it pictures may be unfamiliar, but the task is a single step, lighter than typical grade 7 poetry work.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 3, 42 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The comparison is about sound, and once students notice that, the sight-based choices about lightning and sparks fall away. The pull comes from the next lines, where the children count “the seconds between the lightning / and thunder,” a storm game that makes thunder seem like the thing being described. The question rewards staying inside lines 8–9, where “low, dull” and the beaten rug describe the first faint booms of the show.

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    Lines 8–9 pair the made-up sound word “thwumps” with a simile, someone beating an old rug on a wash line, so students must hear a dull, distant thud in an image about housework. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Something you must already know minor Working it out

    The simile works only for readers who can imagine the flat whack of a rug being beaten clean on a line, a chore many students have never seen or heard. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Reread lines 8–9 slowly and ask which sense the comparison appeals to, sight, sound or touch, then pick the choice that describes that same experience.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what a comparison helps you picture. Lines 8–9 compare one thing to another using “like.” That kind of comparison is called a simile. First ask which sense it describes: sight, sound or touch.

  2. Find the comparison

    The family waits in the dark. Lines 8–9 say they wait “for the first low, dull thwumps, like someone / beating an old, filthy rug hung on a wash line.” Thwumps is a made-up word that sounds like the noise it names. So the comparison is about a sound. It comes before the sky lights up.

  3. Picture the rug

    People used to hang a dusty rug on a line and hit it with a stick. Each hit makes a flat, soft thud, not a sharp bang. The words “low” and “dull” say the same thing. So the first fireworks sound like soft booms far away. Muffled means soft, as if wrapped in cloth.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. Dull thuds heard in the dark are the muffled pounding of explosions far off.
    • B is wrong. Lightning is something you see. Lines 8–9 describe a sound heard before anything lights up.
    • C is wrong. The thunder in lines 10–11 is part of a counting game. It compares the show to a storm. The rug image is about the fireworks.
    • D is wrong. Sparks are something you see. The colors don’t come until line 12.

    Watch out: Lines 10–11 mention “lightning” and “thunder.” That can make C look right. But the rug comparison comes first and is about the fireworks.

  5. Choose the answer

    The rug-beating simile makes the first fireworks sound like soft, faraway thuds. So the answer is A, “the muffled pounding of explosions in the distance.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because thunder is a low boom too. But lines 10–11 only compare the show to a storm in a counting game. The rug image in lines 8–9 describes the fireworks themselves: dull, muffled thuds from far away. That is A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 21 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 33 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 33, question 21.
The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed (page 32)The passage “Ode to Fireworks” as printed on page 32 of the DOE handbook.

Question 29 of 90

2026 Practice Test D English, question 22

Uses the passage above: “Ode to Fireworks”.

Question

Read lines 22–23 from the poem.

the sky at night written upon
with those jewels.

What does the word choice in these lines convey about the speaker?

  • AThe speaker values material possessions.
  • BThe speaker imagines that the fireworks are magical.
  • CThe speaker believes that the country setting is distinctive.
  • DThe speaker cherishes the memory of seeing fireworks as a child.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks what the word choice in lines 22–23 of the poem conveys about the speaker.

A. Incorrect. The word “jewels” is used figuratively to indicate the sentimental value that the experience of watching the fireworks holds for the speaker. There is no indication in the poem that the speaker values material possessions.

B. Incorrect. The use of the word “jewels” highlights the importance of the memory in the speaker’s mind. The imagery in the words “written upon” expresses the way the bright streaks of light curve and fly across the night sky, not that the speaker views the fireworks display as magical.

C. Incorrect. The speaker describes the elements of the fireworks display that stand out most clearly. The view of the bright, colorful fireworks streaking across the sky is distinct, but it is not unique to the country setting.

D. CORRECT. The word “jewels” creates a picture of watching shining and sparkling explosions in the night sky and suggests that this experience holds sentimental and emotional value for the speaker. The speaker cherishes the memory of the experience.

Question analysis

This question quotes lines 22–23 of “Ode to Fireworks,” in which the night sky is “written upon / with those jewels,” and asks what this word choice conveys about the speaker. Students must move from a striking metaphor for fireworks to what it reveals about the person describing them, and every choice names a different value or belief.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5c connotation and denotation
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Reading a speaker’s feelings through connotation is standard grade 7 work. The two lines are short and quoted, but the metaphor is compressed and the choices name abstract attitudes, so one careful inference is needed, as in typical grade 7 poetry.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: 379 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 6, 59 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The quoted lines are short, but the answer depends on what “jewels” suggests about the speaker, so students must move from an image to an attitude. The strongest pull comes from the words right after, where the speaker stresses that night in the country was truly dark, a real point but one about the setting, not about the jewel image. Students who take the gems literally or as magic stop at the surface of the metaphor instead of asking why someone would call a memory precious.

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    Lines 22–23 turn fireworks into “jewels” and the sky into a page “written upon,” a metaphor whose meaning lies in what jewels are worth to a person, not in what they are. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The lines name no feeling; that the speaker cherishes the memory must be inferred from calling the fireworks “jewels” and from the speaker still craning upward for them years later in the city. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Ask what “jewels” suggests beyond its literal meaning, picture the sky “written upon,” and then pick the attitude that fits both these lines and the poem as a whole.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what a word choice shows about the speaker. The speaker is the “I” who tells the poem. Look past what the words say. Ask what feeling they show.

  2. Find the lines

    In stanza 2, the speaker says “it was another thing to see / the sky at night written upon / with those jewels.” A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph. The jewels are the fireworks. The sky is like a page they write on.

  3. Think about what jewels mean

    Calling fireworks jewels is a metaphor: a comparison without “like” or “as.” Jewels are rare, bright and precious. People keep them safe and treasure them. So the word shows how much the sight meant to the speaker. Even now, in the city, the speaker says “I find myself / craning my neck upward at odd moments.” Craning means stretching your neck to look.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The jewels are fireworks, not things the speaker owns.
    • B is wrong. The speaker watched real fireworks from a field with family. Nothing calls them magic.
    • C is wrong. The next words, “We lived in the country,” do stress the setting. But the jewel image itself is about how precious the sight was.
    • D is right. To cherish is to treasure and hold dear. Jewels are treasures.

    Watch out: C is tempting because the country comes up right after the jewels. Keep your eyes on lines 22–23 themselves.

  5. Choose the answer

    Calling the fireworks jewels shows a treasured childhood memory. So the answer is D, “The speaker cherishes the memory of seeing fireworks as a child.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer. The poem does say they lived in the country, where night was truly dark. But that is the next thought, not the jewel image. Jewels are treasures. They show how much the speaker valued the sight. D says just that: the speaker treasures the memory.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 22 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 34 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D English, page 34, question 22.

Question 30 of 90

2025 Practice Test A English, question 10
Passage Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”

Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”

by Hilary Wilson

In ancient Egypt, literacy was the key to success. However, contrary to popular belief, not all Egyptian scribes understood hieroglyphs. Many relied instead on the simpler hieratic script for the multitude of everyday documents generated by the Egyptian bureaucracy.

Hieroglyphs—“the Words of God”—compose a writing system with more than 1,000 distinct characters, the meanings of which were lost for 1,500 years before they were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Including both ideograms (which convey a whole word or idea, either concrete or abstract, in a single sign) and phonograms (representing either an alphabetic sound or a group of consonants), [the writing system] was used in formal inscriptions on tomb and temple walls as well as on elaborate funerary papyri. For everyday purposes, however, scribes used a shorthand version of the hieroglyphic script known as hieratic, which was quicker to write and more economical of space. The two writings existed side by side for at least 2,500 years.

Scraps of ancient hieratic writing, mostly penned by student scribes on limestone flakes called ostraca, suggest that no matter how humble his origins, an educated Egyptian could achieve almost anything. Horemheb (d.1292 B.C.) is a good example. Born of middle-ranking parents, his scribal training led to an army career. From Scribe of Recruits, during the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 B.C.), Horemheb rose through the military ranks and, by the rule of Tutankhamun (1332–1323 B.C.), he was commander in chief of the Egyptian forces. As a close adviser of the young Pharaoh, Horemheb was appointed “Deputy of the King throughout the Two Lands,” and might have expected to succeed to the throne should the king die childless. He had to wait a few years, but eventually Horemheb achieved the pinnacle of his career by becoming the last king of the 18th Dynasty, making his mark by instituting dramatic reforms to the organisation of the army, the judiciary and administration in general. The lasting success of these changes owed much to his scribal background. . . .

But education was not available to all. Government departments and major temples supported schools, where boys commenced their training at six or seven, sometimes earlier. To these boarding establishments . . . family or household servants delivered the students’ food and drink rations daily for several years, during which time the student was not contributing to the family’s income. Boys from poorer families could only hope to be educated with support from a wealthier relative or patron, or through apprenticeship to an older scribe, perhaps the local clerk or land agent, who would teach them the basics of the scribe’s craft. This limited the scope for employment but such “on the job” training allowed apprentices to help out at home while learning. . . .

Scribal education began with the elementary principles of the hieratic script. The lowliest scribes, who trained for just five or six years, probably learned only the rudiments of the hieroglyphic script. Students were set exemplar documents and extracts from popular texts to copy, to practice their hieratic handwriting on basic-format letters, reports and contracts, while absorbing the good advice contained in the texts. Surviving examples of copy-work sometimes include tutors’ corrections added in red. Some significant Egyptian literary works survive almost exclusively from student copies.

A schoolboy “dictionary” of hieroglyphs with their hieratic equivalents shows that a knowledge of more than 450 signs was required for everyday writing purposes. Lessons in record-keeping and filing and labelling enabled any half-competent scribe to perform that most essential of all scribal functions: the making and updating of lists. For professions such as those of government official, priest or lawyer, a scribe would train for several more years, increasing his vocabulary to perhaps a thousand or more signs. Those with the best handwriting or drawing skills might follow the craft of creating beautifully illustrated copies of funerary texts, commonly called Books of the Dead. Others could become draughtsmen, artists or architects. Doctors compiled their own collections of medication recipes, treatments and associated incantations, many copied from texts found in the House of Life, the temple library. Lawyers had to be familiar with the corpus of civil and religious laws and precedents found in the official records, which were administered by archivists. Egypt’s bureaucratic society depended on the skills of an army of scribes of all ranks from filing clerk to tax assessor. For young Egyptians, “be a scribe” was the best of career advice.

From “Scribe Like an Egyptian” by Hilary Wilson from HISTORY TODAY, August 8, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by History Today Ltd. Company.

A pyramid diagram titled “ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SOCIAL CLASS STRUCTURE,” divided into five horizontal levels, each with a small drawing of figures in ancient Egyptian style and a labeled box. From top to bottom the levels are labeled: Pharaoh (a single standing figure); Nobility and priests (a kneeling figure and a standing figure); Traders, shopkeepers, scribes, and artisans (two seated figures working); Animal herders and farmers (a man standing beside a group of cattle); and Unskilled workers (three figures bending forward).

bureaucracy: an administrative staff of government officials
funerary papyri: a sheet or scroll of papyrus containing religious images and hieroglyphs meant to help the deceased be reborn in the afterlife
rudiments: basics
schoolboy: slang that refers to materials used during the course of receiving an education
draughtsmen: people who draw plans of machinery or structures
corpus: a collection of writings

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the author 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.”

  6. 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
Question 10 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 10.
The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the testThe passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 1 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 2 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 3 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 4 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 5 of 6.The passage “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian”” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 6 of 6.

Question 31 of 90

2025 Practice Test A English, question 14

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Scribe Like an Egyptian””.

Question

The diagram after paragraph 6 best provides additional support for the topic of the excerpt by

  • Ademonstrating the place of scribes in ancient Egyptian social structure.
  • Bdepicting the types of tasks performed by each social class.
  • Cindicating that scribes were able to easily improve their social ranking.
  • Dcomparing the social positions of each social class in ancient Egypt.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the diagram of ancient Egyptian class structure supports the topic of the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. The focus of the excerpt is the opportunities available to scribes in different professions and how people became scribes and therefore improved their position. By illustrating the position of the scribes in the class structure of ancient Egypt, the diagram supports the idea that scribes were valuable members of society.

B. Incorrect. The professions of the different social classes are shown in the diagram, but it does not address specific tasks. Furthermore, the main topic of the excerpt is the role of the scribes in society rather than the tasks performed by the different social classes.

C. Incorrect. While the diagram does show the position of scribes in the social hierarchy, it does not provide an illustration of movement between the different classes or rankings, so the diagram does not support the idea that scribes were able to improve their social standing.

D. Incorrect. The diagram shows the class structure as hierarchical and can support readers’ efforts to compare the different social positions. However, the role of scribes in society, rather than a general comparison of different classes, is the main focus of the excerpt.

Question analysis

This question on “Scribe Like an Egyptian” asks how the diagram after paragraph 6, a pyramid of ancient Egyptian social classes from the pharaoh at the top to unskilled workers at the base, gives additional support to the excerpt’s topic. Students must decide what the excerpt is mainly about and then judge what the graphic adds, and several choices describe something the pyramid really shows.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Linking a graphic to a text is regular grade 7 work, and this five-level pyramid is simple and clearly labeled. The demand lies in naming the excerpt’s topic first and judging how the diagram bears on it.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 12, 810 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 57 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

More than one choice is true of the pyramid, so the question is decided by the excerpt’s topic, not by the picture alone. Students who look only at the diagram see a ranking of all the classes; students who remember that the article is about scribes look for where scribes stand. The choice about rising easily borrows Horemheb’s story from the text and credits it to a drawing that shows no movement.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The choice about comparing every class’s position differs from the right one in a single detail, all classes rather than scribes, and both are true of the pyramid. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question

    Scribes are not a tier of their own: they share the third of five tiers with merchants and craftsmen, below the pharaoh, nobles and priests and above farmers, herders and laborers. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. How, not what minor Working it out

    The stem asks how the diagram supports the excerpt’s topic, so students must first decide the topic is scribes, then judge what the picture adds to it. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: State the excerpt’s topic in a few words, then test each choice twice: is it true of the diagram, and does it connect the diagram to that topic?

Traps

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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the diagram after paragraph 6 adds to the topic of the excerpt. First name the topic. Then ask two things about each choice. Is it true of the diagram? And does it connect the diagram to that topic?

  2. Name the excerpt’s topic

    The excerpt is about scribes, people trained to read and write for others. It tells how they learned, who could study, and what jobs they could get. Every paragraph comes back to scribes. So the diagram should add something about scribes.

  3. Read the diagram

    The diagram is a pyramid with five levels. From the top down, they are the Pharaoh, nobles and priests, then “Traders, shopkeepers, scribes, and artisans,” then herders and farmers, and last unskilled workers. Artisans are skilled craftspeople. Scribes sit in the third level, the middle one. They are below the ruler and the nobles, and above farmers and workers.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. The diagram shows where scribes stood in Egyptian society, which ties it to the topic.
    • B does not fit. The labels name groups of people, not the tasks each group did.
    • C does not fit. The levels are fixed, and nothing in the diagram shows anyone moving up. Horemheb’s rise comes from paragraph 3, not the diagram.
    • D does not fit. The pyramid does rank all the classes. But that alone does not connect it to an excerpt about scribes.

    Watch out: More than one choice is true of the picture. The right one must also fit the topic.

  5. Choose the answer

    The diagram supports the topic by showing where scribes fit among the classes of ancient Egypt. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice, because the pyramid really does compare every class. But the excerpt is about scribes, not about every class. A is true of the diagram too, and it also links the diagram to the topic. It points to the place of scribes in the middle level.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 14 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 14.

Question 32 of 90

2025 Practice Test A English, question 18
Passage Excerpt from Winter Wheat

Excerpt from Winter Wheat

by Mildred Walker

Ellen, the narrator, is preparing to leave her parents and the family farm for college the next day.

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 this sentence from paragraph 3.

“I’ll be taking the train tomorrow night,” I said aloud, more to hear it myself.

This remark contributes to the conflict in the excerpt by

  • Arevealing Dad’s reasons for wanting to drive to the city.
  • Bcausing tension between Mom and Dad.
  • Cleading Ellen to distance herself from both Mom and Dad.
  • Dshowing Mom’s reluctance to plan that far in advance.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the sentence from paragraph 3 contributes to the conflict in the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Although Ellen’s father does want to drive to the city, this sentence does not reveal his reasons for wanting to do so. Ellen’s father’s wish to drive to the city is important to the conflict of the excerpt not because of his underlying reasons but because his wish differs from Ellen’s mother’s wish to take Ellen to the train at Gotham—a difference of opinion that introduces tension between the parents.

B. CORRECT. The sentence causes Ellen’s parents to propose competing options for taking her to the train, and the resulting conversation recalls fraught memories of an earlier leave-taking in the family. The disagreement between Ellen’s mother and father over where to take Ellen to catch the train heightens the tension between them. Because the primary conflict of the excerpt is Ellen’s anxiety about the effect her leaving will have on the relationship between her parents, this remark contributes to the conflict by bringing her parents’ disagreement into view.

C. Incorrect. Although Ellen will put physical distance between herself and her parents on the following day, the remark she makes does not lead her to emotionally distance herself from her parents. Moreover, the emotional distance between Ellen and her parents is not the primary source of conflict in the excerpt.

D. Incorrect. While paragraph 1 states that Ellen’s mother “seems to think of nothing farther away than today or perhaps yesterday or tomorrow morning,” the sentence in paragraph 3 does not show any reluctance to plan far in advance. Moreover, planning for the future is not a source of conflict in the excerpt.

Question analysis

This plot question quotes Ellen’s remark in paragraph 3 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, said aloud mostly so she can hear it herself, and asks how it contributes to the excerpt’s conflict. Students must first work out what the conflict is, since the story has no fight or villain, and then follow what the remark leads to.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Analyzing how a line of dialogue drives a plot matches the grade 8 wording of the standard. The remark is short and plain, though, and what it sets off plays out in the next few paragraphs, which keeps the demand typical.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 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.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The excerpt never names its conflict; students must infer from paragraph 6 and the closing paragraph that Ellen worries about her very different parents getting along once she leaves. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The remark’s effect unfolds over the next three paragraphs: Dad offers to drive into town, Mom says the Gotham train will do, and Dad puts off the decision. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. How, not what minor Working it out

    The question asks what the remark does for the plot, not what it says; a plain statement of travel plans matters only for the disagreement it sets off. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: Name the excerpt’s central problem in your own words first, then reread the remark with the paragraphs right after it and pick the choice that shows how the remark feeds that problem.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how Ellen’s remark adds to the conflict, the main problem in the story. The remark itself is plain. It just says when she will leave. So look at what happens right after she says it.

  2. Name the story’s conflict

    In paragraph 6, Ellen says her going away was hard on both parents. They were very different, and she was part of them both. In paragraph 25, she says she feels a distance between them. She wonders how they will get along without her. So the conflict is Ellen’s worry about her two very different parents once she is gone.

  3. See what the remark sets off

    Right after Ellen speaks, her parents disagree. In paragraph 4, Dad offers to drive her into town. In paragraph 5, Mom says there is no need, because Ellen can catch the train at Gotham. In paragraph 6, Dad puts off the choice, though Ellen knows he wants to go to town. Neither parent shouts, but they want different things.

  4. Connect the remark to the conflict

    Ellen’s simple remark brings her parents’ differences into the open. Their quiet disagreement shows the tension between them. Tension is a tight, uneasy feeling between people. That tension is just what worries Ellen about leaving. So the remark feeds the conflict by causing tension between Mom and Dad.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Dad offers to drive, but no one explains why he wants to.
    • B fits. The remark leads straight to the parents’ disagreement.
    • C does not fit. Ellen doesn’t pull away from her parents. She worries about them.
    • D does not fit. Paragraph 1 says Mom doesn’t think far ahead. But here Mom answers at once with a plan of her own.

    Watch out: D borrows a detail from paragraph 1. The remark itself shows nothing of the kind.

  6. Choose the answer

    The remark starts a quiet disagreement about how Ellen will leave. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong choice, because the remark does lead to Dad’s offer to drive. But Dad never gives his reasons. What matters is that Mom wants something else. Their different wishes show the tension between them, and that tension is what Ellen worries about. That is B.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 18 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 18.
The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the testThe passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 1 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 2 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 3 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 4 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 5 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 6 of 7.The passage “Excerpt from Winter Wheat” as shown on the DOE’s digital test, screen 7 of 7.

Question 33 of 90

2025 Practice Test A English, question 20

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Winter Wheat”.

Question

The words “cold” and “dark” affect the tone in paragraph 10 by

  • Ahighlighting the feeling of unpredictability among the family members.
  • Bshowing the feelings of anger and resentment Ellen directs toward her parents.
  • Cexaggerating the feeling of regret Dad experiences when leaving his family.
  • Demphasizing the feelings of separation and loss that Ellen feels.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the words “cold” and “dark” affect the tone in paragraph 10.

A. Incorrect. The mood of paragraph 10 is primarily one of sadness as Ellen says goodbye to her father at the train station. The words “cold” and “dark” do not convey unpredictability but rather emphasize Ellen’s feeling of loss over the departure of her father.

B. Incorrect. Although the father’s departure causes tension with his wife (“ ‘I’ll manage,’ Mom snapped back” [paragraph 11]), Ellen does not display anger or resentment toward her parents.

C. Incorrect. Although Ellen’s father states that he wishes his family could come with him on the trip to Vermont (“ ‘I wish you could go, Anna,’ Dad said to Mom, ‘and we could take Ellen’ ” [paragraph 12]), the words “cold” and “dark” describe Ellen’s perspective on her father’s departure. They create a tone of sadness from Ellen at being left behind rather than a tone of regret from her father because he has to leave.

D. CORRECT. In paragraph 10, Ellen states, “I could feel how cold and dark it was.” The words “cold” and “dark” highlight her emotional response to the departure of her father, emphasizing the almost physical sense of grief she feels at being separated from someone so precious to her.

Question analysis

This tone question asks how the words “cold” and “dark” affect the tone of paragraph 10 of the Winter Wheat excerpt, where Ellen remembers waiting for the train one November night as her father set off for Vermont. Students must decide what the two words add beyond describing the night itself.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5c connotation and denotation
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how word choice shapes tone is regular grade 7 work. The two words are named in the question and sit in one short paragraph, so the main step is seeing that they carry feeling as well as describing a November night.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 6, 80 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 53 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The two words are named in the stem and appear together in a single sentence of paragraph 10, so the main step is seeing that they describe a feeling as well as the weather. The wrong choices shift the feeling to someone else or swap it for another, borrowing Mom’s sharp reply and Dad’s wish from the paragraphs just after. Students who keep their attention on Ellen waiting for the train in paragraph 10 have little trouble.

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    “Cold” and “dark” describe a November night, yet the grown narrator says she “could feel how cold and dark it was,” so the weather words carry her sense of loss as Dad leaves. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Paragraph 10 never names a feeling; the sadness comes from details such as Ellen holding Mom’s hand and Dad seeming strange in his good clothes. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Reread paragraph 10 and ask what Ellen is going through at that moment, then choose the option that names the feeling the two words strengthen and the person who has it.

Traps

  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how two words, “cold” and “dark,” affect the tone of paragraph 10. Tone is the feeling the writing gives off. Ask whose feeling it is and what that feeling is.

  2. Find the words in paragraph 10

    Paragraph 10 begins Ellen’s memory of the night Dad left for Vermont. It was November, and dark when the train came. Ellen says that even now, years later, “I could feel how cold and dark it was.” She held Mom’s hand. Dad looked strange in his good clothes. They stood there without talking.

  3. Work out the feeling

    Cold and dark describe a November night. But Ellen can still feel them years later, so the words carry her feelings too. Cold and dark are lonely, sad words. Her father is leaving, and she feels cut off from him. The words stress her sense of separation and loss.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Nothing is uncertain. Dad’s trip is planned, and the words make the scene sad, not unpredictable.
    • B does not fit. Ellen holds Mom’s hand. She blames no one, so there is no anger.
    • C does not fit. Dad says in paragraph 12 that he wishes they could come. But the cold and dark are what Ellen feels, not Dad.
    • D fits. The words deepen Ellen’s sadness at being separated from her father.

    Watch out: C borrows Dad’s wish from a later paragraph and gives him the feeling.

  5. Choose the answer

    “Cold” and “dark” show how lonely and sad Ellen felt as her father left. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice, because Dad does wish his family could come with him. But that wish is in paragraph 12. In paragraph 10, Ellen says “I could feel how cold and dark it was.” The feeling belongs to her. The words stress her sense of being separated from her father, which is D.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 20 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 20.

Question 34 of 90

2025 Practice Test A English, question 37
Passage Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”

by Dallas Lore Sharp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question

How does paragraph 9 fit into the overall structure of the excerpt?

  • AIt hints at the change in the setting that caused Wade to suddenly become alert.
  • BIt creates a false sense of calm that shows how unprepared the men were for what was about to happen.
  • CIt introduces the idea that Wade was a skillful leader in unpredictable circumstances.
  • DIt presents the incident that caused the main conflict Wade and Peroxide Jim addressed.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how paragraph 9 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Wade was alert long before the events of paragraph 9. In paragraph 5, he began singing to the cattle because he knew that they were on the verge of stampeding. He was even more alert when he “caught a breath of fresh, moist wind with the taste of water in it” (paragraph 6) and heard the low rumbling of the herd in paragraph 8: “The sound seemed to come out of the earth, a low, rumbling mumble.”

B. Incorrect. Wade and the other riders were not calm; rather, they were alert and attempting to keep the cattle calm by singing to them. They were as prepared as they could be for what was about to happen, as shown in paragraph 1, through the selection of fresh horses and, specifically, Wade’s choice to ride Peroxide Jim in the face of possible danger: “Wade had been saving this horse for emergency work.”

C. Incorrect. Although Wade’s leadership is implied in paragraph 9 (“He must keep them going. He touched his horse to ride on with them”), his leadership is revealed in earlier portions of the excerpt as well (“Wade had been saving this horse” [paragraph 1]; “Wade began to sing” [paragraph 5]), so this is not new information being introduced in paragraph 9 of the excerpt.

D. CORRECT. Paragraph 9 describes the lightning strike that made the cattle panic and stampede. The stampede is the main conflict Wade and Peroxide Jim addressed in the excerpt; and therefore, paragraph 9 fits into the overall structure of the excerpt by presenting the incident that caused the main conflict.

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how paragraph 9 of “The Spirit of the Herd,” Dallas Lore Sharp’s account of a cattle drive through the Oregon desert at night, fits into the overall structure of the excerpt. Students must judge what the paragraph does at that moment in the story, and several choices describe something real in the scene around it.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how a paragraph fits a story’s structure is typical grade 7 work. The 1914 prose is dense, but this paragraph is short and its role is clear once the paragraphs around it are read.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 1160 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 73 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A paragraph number and a detail that is not in the excerpt were corrected in the explanation.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Paragraph 9 is short and its turning point comes in its final words, so a student who reads it as a pause in the night’s tension, or as a portrait of Wade, can miss that it sets off everything after it. The wrong choices each describe something that happens around this point in the story, which is why checking what came earlier matters: Wade was already alert and already leading. Seeing the paragraph as the hinge between suspense and stampede settles it.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks what paragraph 9 does in the sequence of events, and its job is carried by its last clause, the lightning that the next paragraph turns into a stampede. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    Ruling out the choices about alertness and leadership means looking back: Wade starts the singing in paragraph 5, reins in his horse at the moist wind in paragraph 7, and had saved Peroxide Jim in paragraph 1. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    The paragraph’s key event arrives at the end of a long sentence in inverted order, “across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning,” after Wade’s plan to keep riding. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Sum up what happens before, during and after paragraph 9 in a few words each, then pick the choice that describes the paragraph’s role in that sequence.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation of Option A says “In paragraph 4, he began singing to the cattle.” Wade begins to sing in paragraph 5 (“And so, as he rode, Wade began to sing”), as the explanation of Option C itself says; paragraph 4 describes the tension that makes the singing necessary. The same explanation says Wade “heard thunder in paragraph 8,” but the excerpt has no thunder: the sound in paragraph 8 is the herd’s “thick, inarticulate bellow,” the rumbling that comes “from their hoarse throats” in paragraph 7. The site now says “In paragraph 5, he began singing” and “heard the low rumbling of the herd in paragraph 8.” Option A is still wrong, and the answer, D, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how paragraph 9 fits into the structure of the excerpt. Structure is the order of events and how the parts connect. Ask what happens before paragraph 9, in it, and right after it.

  2. Sum up what comes before

    Before paragraph 9, the night is tense. In paragraph 1, Wade had been saving Peroxide Jim, his best horse, for an emergency. In paragraph 5, “Wade began to sing” to keep the herd from being startled. In paragraph 6, he caught a moist wind. In paragraph 8, the herd’s low rumbling “stood every rider stiff in his stirrups.” Everyone is alert.

  3. Read paragraph 9

    Paragraph 9 says the breeze cleared the dust, and Wade saw that the animals “were still moving in a circle.” He decided “He must keep them going.” Then the paragraph ends with the key event: “across the black sky flashed a vivid streak of lightning.” Vivid means very bright.

  4. See what comes right after

    Paragraph 10 begins with a snort from the steers and a roar. Then “Wade was riding the flank of a wild stampede.” A stampede is a sudden wild run by a frightened herd. The rest of the excerpt is Wade and Peroxide Jim racing to turn the herd from the cliff. So the lightning in paragraph 9 sets off the main conflict.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Wade was alert long before. He began singing in paragraph 5, caught the moist wind in paragraph 6 and heard the herd rumbling in paragraph 8.
    • B does not fit. The riders were not calm or unprepared. They were singing to the herd, and Wade had a fresh horse ready.
    • C does not fit. Wade’s leadership shows earlier, when he saved his best horse and started the singing.
    • D fits. The lightning causes the stampede that Wade and Peroxide Jim must stop.

  6. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 9 ends with the lightning that starts the stampede, the problem the rest of the excerpt is about. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong choice, because Wade does lead in paragraph 9 when he decides “He must keep them going.” But C says the paragraph introduces his leadership. We already saw it in paragraph 1, when he saved his best horse, and in paragraph 5, when he started the singing. What is new in paragraph 9 is the lightning.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 37 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test A English, question 37. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed (page 41)The passage “Excerpt from “The Spirit of the Herd”” as printed on page 41 of the DOE handbook.

Question 35 of 90

2025 Practice Test B English, question 44
Passage Letter from Brooklyn

Letter from Brooklyn

by Jacob Scheier

I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.

“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.

brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past

Question

The details in lines 9–12 convey a central idea of the poem by

  • Ashowing that the cool weather makes the speaker reflect more deeply on life.
  • Bsuggesting that the speaker feels uncomfortable with what the coming weather signifies.
  • Cimplying that the sensations the speaker experiences during the fall season are fleeting.
  • Dsuggesting that the thought of fall approaching increases the loneliness the speaker feels.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how lines 9–12 convey a central idea of the poem.

A. Incorrect. Although the speaker discusses the very beginning of cool weather in these lines, the speaker does not reflect on life in these lines.

B. Incorrect. Although the description in these lines likens the movement of crisp air to “a passing stranger,” that comparison does not have a negative connotation in this context; it does not suggest that the speaker is uncomfortable. Rather, it is used to describe the subtle physical sensation of cool air on the speaker’s arm.

C. CORRECT. By using a description of the crisp air as “a passing stranger” and the daylight as being brief, these lines express the poem’s central idea that the joy of early fall is temporary or fleeting.

D. Incorrect. Although the speaker acknowledges the coming fall in these lines, there is no mention of loneliness. The speaker reveals a loneliness in lines 23–26 but gives no hint of that feeling in lines 9–12. Further, this loneliness is not a central idea of the poem.

Question analysis

This central-idea question on Jacob Scheier’s poem “Letter from Brooklyn” asks how lines 9–12, where the crisp early-fall air grazes the speaker’s arm, convey a central idea of the poem. Students must interpret a simile and a personification packed into four short lines and connect what they suggest to the poem as a whole, while each choice names a different feeling or idea.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students explain how particular lines develop a central idea. These four lines make their point only through a simile and a personification about air and daylight, and linking them to the whole poem takes more interpretation than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 63 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The four lines describe a sensation, cool air almost grazing an arm, and the central idea sits in two small words, “passing” and “brevity.” The strongest pull hears the stranger and the air “forced into intimacy” as unwelcome, borrowing the unease the poem saves for the darkening of lines 13–16. Other choices bring in moods from elsewhere, the meditative walk and the loneliness of the last lines, so students must judge only what lines 9–12 themselves suggest.

  1. Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question

    The lines never say the moment is short: the air almost grazes the speaker’s arm “like a passing stranger” and is “forced into intimacy / by the brevity of daylight,” so “passing” and “brevity” carry the idea. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Students must tie the brief touch and the short days to a central idea the poem never states, that early fall is slipping away, framed by “For now” in line 7 and “But when it starts darkening” in line 13. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice says “fleeting” where the lines say “passing” and “brevity,” while a wrong choice borrows the poem’s own word “loneliness” from line 24, which makes it look supported. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Paraphrase lines 9–12 in plain words, checking the glossary for unfamiliar words, then decide what the comparison suggests about the speaker’s experience and test each choice against these four lines.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how lines 9–12 help build a central idea. A central idea is a main point the poem keeps coming back to. First work out what the four lines say. Then see how they connect to the rest of the poem. Test each choice against these four lines.

  2. Read lines 9–12

    The sentence is about the air, named in line 8. Lines 9–12 say it “is slightly crisp, almost grazing / the hair of my arm like a passing stranger, / as though the air has been forced into intimacy / by the brevity of daylight.” Crisp means cool and fresh. Grazing here means lightly touching. Intimacy means closeness. The glossary says brevity means “briefness.”

  3. Work out the comparisons

    “Like a passing stranger” is a simile, a comparison that uses like or as. A stranger who passes you on the street is there for a moment, then gone. So the cool air touches the speaker lightly and briefly. The next lines treat the air like a person pushed into closeness by the short daylight. Giving human feelings to something that isn’t human is called personification. Both “passing” and “brevity” point to the same thing: this feeling won’t last.

  4. Connect the lines to the poem

    The rest of the poem agrees. Line 7 begins “For now it is the early edge of fall.” Lines 13–14 look ahead: “But when it starts darkening at 4,” this closeness “will be a felt distance.” Lines 21–22 say Brooklyn makes the speaker “nostalgic / for the moment I am walking inside of.” So a central idea is that this early-fall moment is precious and passes quickly. Fleeting means lasting only a short time.

  5. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. These lines describe a touch on the skin, not thoughts about life.
    • B does not fit. The touch is light, and the speaker enjoys the closeness now. The worry comes later, in lines 13–16.
    • C fits. “Passing” and “brevity” show that the feelings of early fall won’t last.
    • D does not fit. Lines 9–12 never mention loneliness, which comes in line 24. And line 7 says fall has already begun.

    Watch out: B is tempting because “stranger” and “forced into intimacy” can sound unpleasant. But the stranger only passes by, and the touch is light.

  6. Choose the answer

    The brief touch and the short daylight show that this early-fall moment slips away fast. Sensations are feelings you get through your senses, like touch. So the answer is C, “implying that the sensations the speaker experiences during the fall season are fleeting.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because “forced” and “stranger” can sound unpleasant. But line 14 calls this feeling “this closeness,” and losing it is what will feel bad. So the closeness is welcome now. What lines 9–12 stress is how brief it is, which is C.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 44 as shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test.
As shown on the screen of the DOE’s digital test: 2025 Practice Test B English, question 44.
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.

Question 36 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 10
Passage Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”

Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”

by Zitkala-Sa

Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) was a Native American writer, musician, teacher, and political activist who was raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. In 1900 she published “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” (the term Indian was commonly used at the time to refer to Native American people) to expose readers to what life is like on a reservation.

Soon after breakfast Mother sometimes began her beadwork. On a bright, clear day, she pulled out the wooden pegs that pinned the skirt of our wigwam1 to the ground, and rolled the canvas part way up on its frame of slender poles. Then the cool morning breezes swept freely through our dwelling, now and then wafting the perfume of sweet grasses from newly burnt prairie.

Untying the long tasseled strings that bound a small brown buckskin2 bag, my mother spread upon a mat beside her bunches of colored beads, just as an artist arranges the paints upon his palette. On a lapboard she smoothed out a double sheet of soft white buckskin; and drawing from a beaded case that hung on the left of her wide belt a long, narrow blade, she trimmed the buckskin into shape. Often she worked upon small moccasins for her small daughter. Then I became intensely interested in her designing. With a proud, beaming face, I watched her work. In [my] imagination, I saw myself walking in a new pair of snugly fitting moccasins. I felt the envious eyes of my playmates upon the pretty red beads decorating my feet.

Close beside my mother I sat on a rug, with a scrap of buckskin in one hand and an awl in the other. This was the beginning of my practical observation lessons in the art of beadwork. From a skein3 of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews my mother pulled out a single one. With an awl she pierced the buckskin, and skillfully threaded it with the white sinew. Picking up the tiny beads one by one, she strung them with the point of her thread, always twisting it carefully after every stitch.

It took many trials before I learned how to knot my sinew thread on the point of my finger, as I saw her do. Then the next difficulty was in keeping my thread stiffly twisted, so that I could easily string my beads upon it. My mother required of me original designs for my lessons in beading. At first I frequently ensnared many a sunny hour into working a long design. Soon I learned from self-inflicted punishment to refrain from drawing complex patterns, for I had to finish whatever I began.

After some experience I usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares. These were some of the set forms. My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience. The quietness of her oversight made me feel strongly responsible and dependent upon my own judgment. She treated me as a dignified little individual as long as I was on my good behavior; and how humiliated I was when some boldness of mine drew forth a rebuke from her!

In the choice of colors she left me to my own taste. I was pleased with an outline of yellow upon a background of dark blue, or a combination of red and myrtle-green. There was another of red with a bluish-gray that was more conventionally used. When I became a little familiar with designing and the various pleasing combinations of color, a harder lesson was given me. It was the sewing on, instead of beads, some tinted porcupine quills, moistened and flattened between the nails of the thumb and forefinger. My mother cut off the prickly ends and burned them at once in the centre fire. These sharp points were poisonous, and worked into the flesh wherever they lodged. For this reason, my mother said, I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.

Always after these confining lessons I was wild with surplus spirits, and found joyous relief in running loose in the open again. Many a summer afternoon a party of four or five of my playmates roamed over the hills with me. We each carried a light sharpened rod about four feet long, with which we pried up certain sweet roots. When we had eaten all the choice roots we chanced upon, we shouldered our rods and strayed off into patches of a stalky plant under whose yellow blossoms we found little crystal drops of gum. Drop by drop we gathered this nature’s rock-candy, until each of us could boast of a lump the size of a small bird’s egg. Soon satiated with its woody flavor, we tossed away our gum, to return again to the sweet roots.

From “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” by Zitkala-Sa—Public Domain

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BEADWORK IN SOUTH DAKOTA

DateEvent
1500sThe Dakota use beads made from bones, shells, stones, and animal teeth. European traders bring glass beads to North America.
Late 1600sThe Dakota begin trading with the French in Minnesota.
1830sThe Dakota begin using glass beads in clothing, artwork, and decorations in place of Native-made beads.
1862–1865The Dakota are expelled from their homelands in Minnesota as a result of the U.S.-Dakota War.
1900s–1920sThe Dakota create items to sell outside their community.

Source: MNopedia

1wigwam: hut with an arched framework of poles covered with bark, mats, or animal hides

2buckskin: leather made from the skin of a male deer

3skein: coiled length of yarn or other thread loosely wound on a reel

Question

In paragraph 1, the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” affect the tone of the excerpt by suggesting

  • Athe sadness that the author feels reflecting upon her former way of life.
  • Bthe enthusiasm with which the author approached her work indoors.
  • Cthe fond feelings that the author has toward her childhood experiences.
  • Dthe mix of emotions that the author feels toward her work and her mother.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” affect the tone of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Although the author describes in paragraph 1 the setting of her childhood experiences, the positive wording of the phrases the author uses in the paragraph (“swept freely” and “perfume of sweet grasses”) does not suggest a tone of sadness the author feels when she reflects on her former way of life.

B. Incorrect. Although the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” used in paragraph 1 create a positive tone, the phrases do not suggest an enthusiasm for the author’s work but rather suggest an appreciation of the peaceful beauty of her childhood.

C. CORRECT. In paragraph 1, the phrases “cool morning breezes swept freely” and “wafting the perfume of sweet grasses” are used to describe where the author’s childhood experiences took place. The phrases create a tone of fondness and evoke a feeling of happiness through their lyrical sensory detail: “swept freely” suggests a sense of joyful possibility, while “perfume,” “sweet,” and “cool” convey delight.

D. Incorrect. Although the author describes her mother’s beadwork lessons as “confining” in paragraph 7, the phrases in paragraph 1 do not suggest that the author feels conflicting or mixed emotions toward her work and her mother. Instead, the phrases convey a positive tone by affectionately describing the author’s childhood home.

Question analysis

This reading question asks how two sensory phrases about cool morning breezes and the scent of sweet grasses shape the tone of Zitkala-Sa's 1900 memoir of life on a Sioux reservation. Students must read the feeling behind descriptive language and decide what that feeling is directed at, since the choices pair different emotions with different subjects.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5c connotation and denotation
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Judging how sensory words shape tone is grade 7 reading work. Both phrases are quoted in the question, so little searching is needed, but the 1900 prose keeps the demand at a typical grade 7 level.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 72 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A misstatement of the question in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The phrases are so clearly pleasant that the real decision is what the pleasant feeling is about. They describe the wigwam on a clear morning, so the warmth belongs to the author's memory of her childhood, not to the beadwork the rest of the excerpt follows. Students who know the excerpt is about lessons tend to attach the mood to the work, and a few read sadness into any memoir.

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    The tone comes from sensory images, breezes that “swept freely” and “the perfume of sweet grasses,” which describe air and scent and leave the author's feeling to be read from them. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The phrases describe the dwelling, not the author, so her fondness for her childhood has to be inferred from how lovingly she remembers the setting. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    “Wafting” and “perfume,” used for the smell of grasses from newly burnt prairie, are unusual words that must be understood before the tone they create can be judged. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Decide what feeling the quoted words create on their own, then check what they describe: the right choice must match both the feeling and what it is about.

Traps

  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation begins by saying the question asks how the two phrases “affect the tone of paragraph 1 in the excerpt.” The phrases are in paragraph 1, but the question asks how they affect the tone of the excerpt, and the answer is about the author’s feelings toward her childhood as a whole. The explanation now reads “affect the tone of the excerpt.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about tone. Tone is the feeling or attitude that a writer’s words show. You need the feeling that two phrases from paragraph 1 give the whole excerpt. An excerpt is a part taken from a longer piece.

  2. Find the phrases in paragraph 1

    Paragraph 1 describes a clear morning at home. The mother rolls up the side of the wigwam (a hut made of poles and covers). “Then the cool morning breezes swept freely through our dwelling.” A dwelling is a home. The breezes were “now and then wafting the perfume of sweet grasses.”

  3. Work out the feeling

    “Wafting” means gently carrying through the air. “Perfume” is a sweet smell. Cool air, sweet smells and breezes moving freely are all pleasant. The author is remembering her childhood home with love. That feeling is fondness, a warm liking for something.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Nothing in these words is sad. They are bright and pleasant.
    • B is wrong. The phrases describe air and smells, not her work.
    • C is right. The loving details show warm feelings about her childhood.
    • D is wrong. Mixed feelings, like the “confining” lessons, come later, in paragraph 7. These phrases have nothing negative in them.

    Watch out: B is tempting, since the excerpt is mostly about beadwork lessons. But these two phrases describe the morning, not the work.

  5. Choose the answer

    The phrases make her childhood home feel cool, sweet and free. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer, because the phrases do sound happy. But a choice must match both the feeling and what the feeling is about. These phrases describe breezes and the smell of grass at her home. That shows fond memories of her childhood, not eagerness to work.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 10 as printed on page 44 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 44, question 10. Open page 44 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed (pages 42–43)The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed on page 42 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”” as printed on page 43 of the DOE handbook.

Question 37 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 13

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.

Question

The details in paragraph 3 convey a central idea of the excerpt by suggesting that

  • Athe author was interested in the work because she knew her mother was making something for her.
  • Bthe author had difficulty learning through observation but wanted to help her mother.
  • Cthe author was determined to behave according to her mother’s standards and sought her approval.
  • Dthe author had great admiration for her mother’s precision and mastery of her craft.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the details in paragraph 3 convey a central idea of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. In paragraph 2, the author mentions how her mother “worked upon small moccasins for her small daughter” and when she did, the author “became intensely interested in her [mother’s] designing.” However, in paragraph 3, the author is interested in her mother’s work mainly as part of her “lessons in the art of beadwork,” not because she knew her mother was making something for her.

B. Incorrect. In paragraph 3, the author receives “practical observation lessons in the art of beadwork” and describes how “from a skein of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews my mother pulled out a single one” and “pierced the buckskin, and skillfully threaded it with the white sinew.” The author describes the process in such detail that she provides no indication that she had difficulty learning through observation. The author also does not give any indication in the paragraph that she wanted to help her mother; she was there merely to observe and learn.

C. Incorrect. Although the author refers to her beading lessons with her mother as “practical observation lessons in the art of beadwork” and indicates that she sat “close beside” her mother while observing her beadwork, the author provides no indication in the paragraph that she was determined to behave according to her mother’s standards or that she sought her mother’s approval.

D. CORRECT. In paragraph 3, the author describes her mother’s artistry and craftsmanship by using language such as “skillfully threaded,” “picking up the tiny beads one by one,” and “twisting it carefully after every stitch.” These close observations indicate that the author greatly admired her mother’s mastery of her craft and the precision that went into every detail of her work.

Question analysis

This reading question asks how the details in the paragraph where young Zitkala-Sa sits beside her mother, watching her pierce buckskin and string tiny beads, point to a central idea of the excerpt. Several choices name feelings found elsewhere in the memoir, so students must stay with what this one paragraph shows.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Linking a paragraph's details to a central idea is grade 7 reading. The answer rests on one short paragraph, but the student must turn its concrete details about thread and beads into an idea, a typical grade 7 demand.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 73 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Paragraph 3 is short and concrete, but the feelings named in the choices come from all over the excerpt, so the danger is answering about the excerpt rather than this paragraph. The girl's interest in moccasins made for her belongs to paragraph 2, her struggles to paragraph 4, and good behavior to paragraph 5. Rereading paragraph 3 alone, and noticing how it describes the mother's hands at work, points to the right idea.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Admiration is never named; it has to be inferred from the words chosen for the mother's work: “skillfully threaded,” beads picked up “one by one,” thread twisted “carefully after every stitch.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice says “precision and mastery,” words absent from paragraph 3, while wrong choices echo the excerpt's own “observation” lessons, its “difficulty” with thread, and the moccasins made for the daughter. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Reread paragraph 3 by itself and note what its verbs and describing words emphasize, then match that emphasis to a choice and reject ideas drawn from other paragraphs.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    Look only at paragraph 3. A central idea is an important message of the whole excerpt. You need the idea that the details in paragraph 3 show.

  2. Find the details in paragraph 3

    The girl sits “close beside” her mother and watches. The mother “skillfully threaded it with the white sinew.” Sinew is a strong cord made from an animal’s body. She picks up “the tiny beads one by one.” She keeps “twisting it carefully after every stitch.”

  3. Work out what the details show

    Words like “skillfully” and “carefully” show the mother is an expert. She works with precision, which means being exact. Her mastery, or great skill, shows in every small move. The girl notices each one. You watch someone this closely when you admire them, or think highly of them.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The moccasins made for her come from paragraph 2. Paragraph 3 is about her lessons.
    • B is wrong. Her trouble with thread comes in paragraph 4. Nothing says she wants to help.
    • C is wrong. Good behavior comes up in paragraph 5, not paragraph 3.
    • D is right. The careful details show admiration for her mother’s skill.

    Watch out: A, B and C all use ideas from other paragraphs. Stay inside paragraph 3.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 3 shows a girl who watches her mother’s expert hands with wonder. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because the girl really was “intensely interested” when her mother made moccasins for her. But that is in paragraph 2. Paragraph 3 calls the watching “the beginning of my practical observation lessons.” Its details praise how skillfully and carefully the mother works. That fits D.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 13 as printed on page 44 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 44, question 13. Open page 44 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 38 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 14

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.

Question

How does the author distinguish her point of view from that of her mother?

  • Aby describing their techniques for knotting sinew thread (paragraph 4)
  • Bby describing their approaches to beadwork design (paragraph 5)
  • Cby stating her mother’s instructions on working with quills (paragraph 6)
  • Dby stating her mother’s ideas about activities after lessons (paragraph 7)
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the author distinguishes her point of view from that of her mother.

A. Incorrect. In paragraph 4, the author explains that “it took many trials before I learned how to knot my sinew thread on the point of my finger, as I saw her do” and that the “difficulty was in keeping my thread stiffly twisted, so that I could easily string my beads upon it.” Although this explanation describes the author’s difficulty in performing the same task as her mother, it does not distinguish her point of view from that of her mother. In fact, they seem to share the same point of view regarding the importance of the technique the author is attempting to learn.

B. CORRECT. In paragraph 5, the author distinguishes her point of view from that of her mother by describing their approaches to beadwork design. In the paragraph, the author states, “I usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares” and “My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience.” The author also distinguishes her point of view from that of her mother by stating that “the quietness of [my mother’s] oversight made me feel strongly responsible and dependent upon my own judgment.”

C. Incorrect. In paragraph 6, the author states, “My mother cut off the prickly ends and burned them at once in the centre fire. These sharp points were poisonous, and worked into the flesh wherever they lodged. For this reason, my mother said, I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.” Although these instructions explain the importance of having experience and skill when working with quills, they do not distinguish the author’s point of view from that of her mother.

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author describes her beadwork lessons as “confining” and states that she liked to roam “over the hills” with her playmates after the lessons. However, she makes no mention of her mother in paragraph 7; the activities and ideas stated there belong to the author, not the mother.

Question analysis

This reading question asks how Zitkala-Sa separates her own point of view from her mother's in an excerpt about learning beadwork as a girl. Each choice points to a different paragraph, so students must revisit all four and find where the two perspectives actually differ, not just where one person speaks or acts.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Analyzing how an author sets her view apart from another person's is a grade 7 standard. The memoir's sentences are long and old-fashioned, but its paragraphs are short and concrete, so the demand is typical of grade 7 reading.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 51 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A word-order slip in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every paragraph named shows mother and daughter together, or the daughter alone, so each looks like a candidate until it is tested for an actual difference in outlook. The struggle to knot sinew is a difference in skill, not in view, and the warning about quills gives only the mother's side. Paragraph 5 is the one place where the girl's own designs and her mother's impatience with their faults are set side by side.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    Each choice points to a different paragraph, 4 through 7, so all four have to be reread and tested for two outlooks that actually differ, not just one person's action or advice. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks how the author sets her view apart, so students must find where two outlooks meet and clash: her simple, imperfect designs against the faults her mother “had little patience” with. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The key sentence turns on “not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic,” formal words that must be understood to see the mother's standards behind them. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: For each paragraph named, ask whether it shows both the mother's view and the narrator's and sets them against each other; a paragraph with one perspective cannot be the answer.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook reads “The author also distinguishes her point of view from that her of mother.” It now reads “from that of her mother,” as earlier in the same explanation.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A point of view is how a person sees or judges something. You need a place where the author shows that she and her mother see things differently. Each choice names a different paragraph. Check each one for two views that don’t match.

  2. Find two views in paragraph 5

    The girl “usually drew easy and simple crosses and squares.” Then she says: “My original designs were not always symmetrical nor sufficiently characteristic, two faults with which my mother had little patience.”

  3. Work out what it means

    Symmetrical means the same on both sides. “Sufficiently characteristic” means typical enough of the usual style. The girl kept her designs easy and simple. Her mother cared about something else. She saw “faults,” or mistakes, in them. Having “little patience” means being quickly annoyed. So the two judge the designs differently.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. In paragraph 4 the girl learns to knot thread “as I saw her do.” She learns her mother’s way, so their views match.
    • B is right. Paragraph 5 sets the girl’s designs against her mother’s standards.
    • C is wrong. Paragraph 6 gives only the mother’s warning about quills. The girl does not disagree.
    • D is wrong. The mother doesn’t appear in paragraph 7 at all.

    Watch out: A is tempting because the girl struggles with something her mother can do. But that is a difference in skill, not in point of view.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 5 is the one place where the two views are set side by side. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer. The girl does struggle to knot thread the way her mother does. But they agree on how it should be done. In paragraph 5, the girl’s simple designs meet her mother’s impatience with their “faults.” That is a real difference in how they see the work.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 14 as printed on page 45 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 45, question 14. Open page 45 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 39 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 17

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood””.

Question

The idea that mastering moccasin design and creation requires experience is best illustrated in the excerpt through

  • Athe information about the advanced technique of incorporating porcupine quills into a design.
  • Bthe descriptions of the special materials that must be used to make decorated moccasins.
  • Cthe descriptions of the various color combinations that make an attractive moccasin design.
  • Dthe example of the author successfully and independently using a sharpened rod.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the idea that mastering moccasin design and creation requires experience is best illustrated in the excerpt.

A. CORRECT. In paragraph 6, the author states that when she became more familiar with elements of design, “a harder lesson was given me.” According to the author, sewing on porcupine quills is a much more difficult task to master because it requires experience in handling the poisonous porcupine quills, which is why her mother told her not to “do much alone in quills” until she was older (paragraph 6). This information best illustrates the idea that mastering moccasin design and creation requires experience.

B. Incorrect. Although the author provides detailed descriptions of the materials used to make decorated moccasins (“colored beads” [paragraph 2]; “a skein of finely twisted threads of silvery sinews” [paragraph 3]; “tinted porcupine quills, moistened and flattened between the nails of the thumb and forefinger” [paragraph 6]), these descriptions do not illustrate the experience that is needed to gain mastery of moccasin design and creation.

C. Incorrect. Although the author describes the color combinations she used in making moccasins (“I was pleased with an outline of yellow upon a background of dark blue, or a combination of red and myrtle-green. There was another of red with a bluish-gray that was more conventionally used” [paragraph 6]), this information mainly illustrates the author’s satisfaction with her moccasin design, not the importance of experience in mastering the creation and design of moccasins.

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author tells of using a sharpened rod to dig for roots. She explains that she and her playmates used the rods to “[pry] up certain sweet roots,” which they ate before going off to gather gum from a stalky plant. The detail of the sharpened rod is from a recollection about the playtime that followed the “confining lessons” of moccasin making. However, the sharpened rod was not used to create moccasins.

Question analysis

This reading question asks which part of Zitkala-Sa's account of learning to bead moccasins best illustrates the idea that mastering the craft takes experience. The choices point to materials, color combinations, a technique and outdoor play, so students must find the detail that ties skill to practice rather than one that simply describes the craft.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing the detail that best illustrates an idea is grade 7 evidence work. The idea is stated plainly in the question and each paragraph of the excerpt keeps to one topic, so the demand matches typical grade 7 tasks.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 946 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 69 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • An inaccurate account of the excerpt in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The idea of experience is spelled out in paragraph 6, where quillwork is a harder lesson given only after some practice and kept from the girl until she is older. The wrong choices describe things the excerpt really contains, materials, colors and a tool, so they look supported until each is asked whether it shows a learner needing practice. Students who put that one question to every choice find this a quick item.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The stem names no paragraph, so students must find where each choice's detail sits, from the beads and sinew of paragraphs 2 and 3 to the rods of paragraph 7. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The link to experience is implied in paragraph 6: quills come as “a harder lesson” once she is “a little familiar with designing,” and she must wait until she is “as tall as my cousin.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: For each choice, find the part of the excerpt it refers to and ask whether it shows a learner needing practice before doing something, not just what the craft involves.

Traps

  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: In rejecting choice D, the handbook says the author used a sharpened rod “to spear gum from trees” and that the children pried up sweet roots “to find the gum.” In paragraph 7 the rods are used to pry up sweet roots, which the children eat; afterwards they stray off to a stalky plant and find drops of gum under its yellow blossoms. Nothing is speared and no trees are mentioned. The explanation now says the rods were used to dig for roots, sweet roots the children ate before going off to gather gum from a stalky plant. The reason for rejecting D, that the rod was not used to make moccasins, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need the part of the excerpt that best shows one idea. The idea is that you need experience to master making moccasins. Experience means practice over time. Look for a learner who must practice before doing something harder.

  2. Find the evidence in paragraph 6

    Paragraph 6 says: “When I became a little familiar with designing and the various pleasing combinations of color, a harder lesson was given me.” The harder lesson was sewing on porcupine quills. Then her mother said “I should not do much alone in quills until I was as tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin.”

  3. Work out what it means

    Quills are the sharp spines of a porcupine. Their points were “poisonous,” so they were dangerous. The girl got this lesson only after she knew the basics. Even then, she could not do much alone with quills until she was as tall as her cousin. That shows skill grows with experience.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. Quillwork is a harder skill she must earn through practice.
    • B is wrong. The materials show what moccasins are made of, not how skill is gained.
    • C is wrong. The colors show her own taste. Her mother “left me to my own taste.”
    • D is wrong. The rods were for digging up sweet roots during play. They had nothing to do with moccasins.

    Watch out: C comes right before the quills in paragraph 6, so it is easy to pick. But the colors show what she liked, not a skill she had to build up.

  5. Choose the answer

    The quill lesson comes only after practice, and working alone comes only once she has grown. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, since the colors come just before the quill lesson. But the girl was free to pick the colors she liked. That shows her taste, not a need for experience. The quills are called “a harder lesson,” given only once she knew the basics. That fits A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as printed on page 46 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 46, question 17. Open page 46 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 40 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 25
Passage At Dusk

At Dusk

by Natasha Trethewey

At first I think she is calling a child,
my neighbor, leaning through her doorway
at dusk, street lamps just starting to hum
the backdrop of evening. Then I hear
the high-pitched wheedling1 we send out
to animals who know only sound, not
the meanings of our words—here here—
nor how they sometimes fall short.
In another yard, beyond my neighbor’s
sight, the cat lifts her ears, turns first
toward the voice, then back
to the constellation of fireflies flickering
near her head. It’s as if she can’t decide
whether to leap over the low hedge,
the neat row of flowers, and bound
onto the porch, into the steady circle
of light, or stay where she is: luminous
possibility—all that would keep her
away from home—flitting before her.
I listen as my neighbor’s voice trails off.
She’s given up calling for now, left me
to imagine her inside the house waiting,
perhaps in a chair in front of the TV,
or walking around, doing small tasks;
left me to wonder that I too might lift
my voice, sure of someone out there,
send it over the lines stitching here
to there, certain the sounds I make
are enough to call someone home.

“At Dusk” from NATIVE GUARD by Natasha Trethewey, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. All rights reserved.

1wheedling: speaking in a flattering manner

Question

The poet develops a theme about making connections with others mainly through the

  • Aexploration of the desires of the speaker and the neighbor.
  • Bspeaker’s observations of the sights and sounds in the neighborhood.
  • Cspeculations the speaker makes about what the neighbor does inside her house.
  • Dspeaker’s explanation of the cat’s thoughts and actions.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for an explanation of how the poet develops a theme about making connections with others.

A. CORRECT. The speaker first describes the neighbor calling the cat in a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5) voice before giving up and returning indoors. The neighbor’s desire to have the cat return home prompts the speaker to wonder whether the speaker could call out and be “certain the sounds . . . / are enough to call someone home” (lines 28–29). These final lines most develop the theme of connection by conveying a desire to be able to prompt someone’s return.

B. Incorrect. Line 1, in which the speaker at first thinks the sound in the neighborhood is the neighbor “calling a child,” might be assumed to introduce a theme of making connections with others. However, other descriptions of the sights and sounds of the neighborhood, including the time of day—“at dusk, street lamps just starting to hum / the backdrop of evening” (lines 3–4) and “constellation of fireflies flickering” (line 12) near the cat—have no relationship to a theme of connection.

C. Incorrect. In lines 22–24, the speaker imagines the neighbor’s activities inside her house: “perhaps in a chair in front of the TV, / or walking around, doing small tasks.” Although the speaker does imagine the neighbor is doing these things to pass time while “waiting” (line 22) for the cat, the neighbor’s actions—and even the speaker’s imagining—are carried out alone, so they do not develop a theme of connection.

D. Incorrect. Lines 10–19 present the speaker’s observations of the cat, which “turns first / toward the voice, then back” when the neighbor calls, then appears “as if she can’t decide” whether to return to the neighbor or stay outside. Although the cat’s indecision about whether to heed the neighbor’s call might seem to develop a theme about making connections, lines 10–19 focus more on the relative appeal of the cat’s two options—returning to “the steady circle / of light” at home or pursuing the “luminous / possibility . . . flitting before her”—than on any connection between the cat and its owner or between the speaker and the neighbor.

Question analysis

This reading question asks which element of Natasha Trethewey's poem At Dusk mainly develops its theme about making connections with others. All four choices describe something that really happens in the poem, from neighborhood sights to a cat's hesitation, so students must weigh how much each part contributes to that theme.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Analyzing how a theme develops is grade 7 work, but here the student must rank four genuine features of the poem by how much each builds the theme, a comparison that asks more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 8, 53 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The question asks what mainly carries the theme, and every choice is a real part of the poem, so ruling choices out means ranking them, not spotting errors. The cat takes up the most lines and is the one being called home, which makes it the strongest lure, though its lines are about her choice between two places. What builds the theme is the neighbor's wish to bring the cat home, echoed by the speaker's wish to call someone home.

  1. Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer

    All four choices name something that really fills the poem, so each must be weighed by how much it builds the theme of connection, not by whether it is there. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The theme is built from the two ends of the poem: the neighbor calling and then waiting in lines 1–8 and 20–22, and the speaker's wish in lines 25–29 to send a voice out. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The right choice speaks of “desires,” a word the poem never uses, while the wrong ones echo its sounds, the neighbor's house and the cat. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: For each choice, find the lines it refers to and ask how directly they bear on making connections with others; keep the choice whose lines do so most fully.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A theme is a big message about life. This poem has a theme about making connections, or reaching out to others. You need the part of the poem that mainly builds that theme.

  2. Look at what the neighbor wants

    The neighbor wants her cat to come home. She calls out at dusk with a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5). Wheedling means sweet-talking. When she stops, the speaker pictures her “inside the house waiting” (line 22). Her wish is to reach the cat and bring her back.

  3. Look at what the speaker wants

    Her calling “left me to wonder that I too might lift / my voice” (lines 25–26). The speaker hopes the sounds “are enough to call someone home” (line 29). So the speaker wants to reach someone too. Both people wish to call someone back to them. That shared wish builds the theme of connection.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The desires, or wishes, of the neighbor and the speaker carry the theme.
    • B is wrong. The humming street lamps and the fireflies set the scene. They don’t show anyone reaching out.
    • C is wrong. The guesses about the neighbor inside fill only three lines, and they show her alone.
    • D is wrong. The cat lines weigh home against the night. They don’t show one person reaching another.

    Watch out: D is tempting because the cat fills many lines. But they are about her choice, not about a connection.

  5. Choose the answer

    The poem builds its theme through what the neighbor and the speaker both want. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, since the cat takes up lines 10–19. But those lines weigh the porch light against the glowing night. The theme of connection comes from two wishes. The neighbor wants to call the cat home. The speaker wants to “call someone home” too. A names those desires.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 25 as printed on page 50 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 50, question 25. Open page 50 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “At Dusk” as printed (page 48)The passage “At Dusk” as printed on page 48 of the DOE handbook.

Question 41 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 28
Passage Champion of the Channel

Champion of the Channel

In 1926 an editor at the London Daily News predicted that Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals, would fail in her attempt to swim across the English Channel. He claimed that “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance they must remain forever the weaker sex.” Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours. Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.

Crossing the English Channel is a daunting task for any swimmer. At its narrowest point, the channel measures twenty-one miles across. Its icy waters hover around sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and its unruly tides and currents toss swimmers about like bobbing corks. Stinging jellyfish, seaweed, and floating debris from shipwrecks and lost cargoes present added hazards.

For decades the channel’s perils have defeated countless swimmers. Ederle, too, failed in her first attempt to cross the channel in 1925. Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water. Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again. Ederle knew that if she did not complete the challenge this time, she might never get the opportunity to set this record, because a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well.

To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment. She and her sister Meg discovered that melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges, effectively waterproofing Ederle’s goggles against hammering waves. The sisters also designed a two-piece silk swimsuit for Ederle. During her first channel-crossing attempt she had worn a standard one-piece swimsuit that, after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel, had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable. Unlike the cumbersome typical bathing suit, this silk invention weighed little and allowed for easy movement.

On August 6, 1926, Ederle waded into the channel near Cape Gris-Nez, France. At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation. Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular. Driving forward, she fought to clear her mind and find what she called her “sphere,” a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away. Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.

Throughout Ederle’s swim, two tugboats accompanied her. One carried newspaper reporters who wired dispatches of her progress to shore. The other, displaying a sign that read “This way, ole kid!” with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends. Her coach played songs, such as “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” on a phonograph so that Ederle could time her strokes to the rhythm. Using a net, her coach also passed her baby bottles of broth for nourishment.

For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile. However, as she neared the English shore, a sudden fierce storm erupted. The tides and waves forced Ederle backward, and she fought the stubborn swells for several hours. The salty water caused her tongue to swell and inflamed her ears. Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea. Finally, as she neared the English shore, the storm abated, and the tide turned. No longer fighting against her, the sea pushed her toward the shore and victory.

After fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes, Ederle, on wobbly legs, stepped onto the English shore. The waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky. Ederle had swum into history.

When Ederle returned to New York, she received a parade, where thousands of people shouted “Trudy!” Not only were everyday American citizens proud of Ederle, but she also inspired them to be more active. Over the next few years, more than 60,000 people credited her with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates. Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.

SOLO SWIMS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

Earliest Speed Records
Year Swimmer Time
1875 Matthew Webb (M) 21 hours, 45 minutes
1923 Enrico Tiraboschi (M) 16 hours, 33 minutes
1926 Gertrude Ederle (F) 14 hours, 31 minutes
1926 Arnst Vierkotter (M) 12 hours, 38 minutes
Current Speed Records
Year Swimmer Time
2012 Trent Grimsey (M) 6 hours, 55 minutes
2006 Yvetta Hlavacova (F) 7 hours, 25 minutes

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.”

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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
Question 28 as printed on page 54 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 54, question 28. Open page 54 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 56 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 57 of the DOE handbook.

Question 42 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 32

Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of the steps that Ederle took to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel?

  • AWorking with her sister, Ederle waterproofed her goggles using melted candle wax to seal the edges and designed a two-piece silk swimsuit that was lightweight and would not stretch out during the long swim.
  • BEderle covered her body in numerous layers of grease for insulation and focused on finding her “sphere” during her swim.
  • CEderle began training with her coach, who played music while she swam to help her time her strokes to the music.
  • DEderle focused on developing better equipment than the standard bathing suit that proved cumbersome during her first attempt to cross the channel.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for the best summary of Ederle’s steps to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel.

A. CORRECT. Ederle’s preparation is outlined in paragraph 4. This option is correct because it acknowledges the idea that Ederle involved her sister in this process, and it details the efforts the two took to improve Ederle’s equipment, including sealing her goggles with wax and designing a better swimsuit.

B. Incorrect. The option focuses on Ederle’s actions in the moments before her swim (covering her body with grease for insulation) and during her swim (finding her “sphere”), not her overall preparation methods.

C. Incorrect. The option refers to a way that Ederle’s coach helped Ederle keep her strokes in rhythm during her swim. While this option suggests that Ederle and her coach had made thoughtful preparations, it does not address the many other steps that Ederle took to prepare for the swim.

D. Incorrect. The option does not refer to the series of steps that Ederle took to prepare for her swim, but rather to just one of the efforts made (improving equipment), without acknowledging her sister’s contributions.

Question analysis

This summary question asks which sentence best sums up how Gertrude Ederle got ready for her second try at swimming the English Channel. Because the passage also describes what she and her team did during the crossing, students must separate preparation from the swim itself and judge which summary is complete.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 This is a one-paragraph summary, the kind of task grade 6 standards describe; grade 7 central-idea work usually follows an idea through a whole text. The real demand is telling preparation apart from the swim.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 121 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Paragraph 4 holds all of the preparation, but the passage keeps describing things Ederle and her team did, so getting ready must be told apart from the swim. The grease is the hardest to place, because she put it on before wading in, on the day of the crossing itself. Between the two equipment choices, the one that lists the goggles, the silk suit and her sister's help is the fuller summary of several steps.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right summary and the one about better equipment than the standard bathing suit describe the same work; only the waxed goggles and Meg's part, missing from the shorter one, separate them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Two choices borrow real details from the crossing, the grease she wore and the songs played from the tugboat, so each has to be placed before or during the swim. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Locate the paragraph about getting ready, list each preparation step and who took part, and choose the sentence that covers that list most fully without adding events from another part of the passage.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what a summary needs

    A summary retells the main points in a few words. Here you need the steps Ederle took to get ready before her second try. A good summary includes all of those steps. It leaves out things that happened during the swim itself.

  2. Find the getting-ready paragraph

    Paragraph 4 opens with “To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment.” The word “prepare” signals that this paragraph holds the steps. Equipment means the gear she used.

  3. List each step

    • With her sister Meg, she found that “melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges,” so water stayed out of her goggles.
    • Together the sisters “designed a two-piece silk swimsuit” to replace her old one.
    • The new suit “weighed little and allowed for easy movement,” unlike her old suit, which had stretched and filled with water.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits: it names her sister, the waxed goggles and the light silk suit.
    • B is wrong because the grease and her “sphere” belong to paragraph 5, the day of the swim.
    • C is wrong because her coach played music from a tugboat during the swim (paragraph 6), not in training.
    • D is wrong because it leaves out the goggles and Meg.

    Watch out: D is true as far as it goes. But it covers only one step, so it is too narrow to be the best summary.

  5. Choose the answer

    Choice A lists all the preparation in paragraph 4, and nothing from the swim itself. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D comes closest, since improving her equipment is what paragraph 4 is about. But D mentions only the swimsuit. It skips the wax-sealed goggles and her sister’s help. A summary of the steps should include every step, and only A does.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 32 as printed on page 56 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 56, question 32. Open page 56 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 43 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 38
Passage 5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books

5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books

by Shaunacy Ferro

Though e-book1 readers have become a more common sight around town, traditional books still have their evangelists.2 According to The New York Times, e-book sales have been falling in 2015. Print definitely isn’t dead. In fact, according to some research, it may actually be a better choice for some readers. While scientists are still trying to tease out exactly how digital reading affects us differently, here are five ways e-books might be inferior to their dead-tree cousins.

E-books can reduce reading comprehension.

In a study of middle schoolers, West Chester University researchers found that students who read on iPads3 had lower reading comprehension than when they read traditional printed books. They discovered that the kids sometimes skipped text in favor of interactive features in the e-books, suggesting that certain multimedia in children’s e-books can be detrimental to the practice of reading itself. However, the researchers noted that some interactive features in e-books are designed to enhance comprehension, and that those might be more helpful than game-type interactive graphics.

Young kids can get distracted by e-books.

Similar results were found by a small study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center that consisted of 32 kids reading e-books and print books with their parents. It found that “enhanced” e-books might be distracting. Kids who read enhanced e-books—ones with interactive, multimedia experiences—were more engaged with them physically, but in the end they remembered fewer narrative details than those who read print books or basic e-books.

You remember less about a book’s timeline.

Another study of adults also found that e-books can be hard to absorb. The researchers asked 25 people to read a 28-page story on a Kindle4 and 25 to read the story in paperback, then asked the readers to put 14 events from the story in chronological order. Those who read the story on a Kindle performed worse on the chronology test than the book readers, though they performed about the same as print readers in other tests. Earlier research by the same scholars, from Stavanger University in Norway, found that Norwegian 10th graders also remembered more about texts if they read them in print rather than on a computer screen.

They’re not great as textbooks.

While e-book textbooks are often cheaper (and easier to carry) than traditional door-stop5 textbooks, college students often don’t prefer them. In some surveys of college kids, the majority of students have reported preferring print books. However, a 2012 study from the UK’s National Literacy Trust of kids ages 8 to 16 found that more than 50 percent of children reported preferring screen reading.

They’re tiring.

Staring at a lit screen can be tiring for the eyes and the brain. A 2005 study from Sweden found that reading digitally required a higher cognitive workload than reading on paper. Furthermore, staring at LED6 screens at night can disrupt sleep patterns. A 2014 Harvard study found that people who used e-readers with LED screens at night slept worse and were more tired the next day. So, if you’re going to go for an e-book, go for one without the backlight.

The take-away message? If you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book. And if you’re going to be up all night studying, turn off the backlight.

However, all this may not mean that reading on a Kindle is really going to melt your brain. For instance, reading an e-book on a computer is a much different experience than reading on a Kindle, which is specifically designed for consuming books. So, too, is playing with an interactive e-book on an iPad, compared to using a simpler e-book device that only presents the text, with no opportunities to click away into digital distractions.

And some studies have found that part of the difference between the way people absorb information from e-books versus paper might be due to approaching e-books differently—in one test, participants didn’t regulate their study time with digital books like they did with paper texts, leading to worse performances. It’s possible that our expectations of e-book reading—as well as the different designs of the digital reading experience on a computer or iPad or Kindle—might affect how we approach the text and how much effort we put into studying them. As generations of e-book readers evolve, and people become more accustomed to the idea of sitting down with a digital textbook, these factors could change—for better or for worse.

“5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” by Shaunacy Ferro from MENTAL FLOSS, October 2, 2015. Copyright © 2015 Mental Floss, Inc.

1e-book: an electronic book, a publication made available digitally for reading on a computer or other device

2evangelists: advocates or supporters

3iPads: tablet computers

4Kindle: device for reading e-books

5door-stop: a reference to the idea that some textbooks are large and heavy enough to hold a door open

6LED: Light-emitting diode; LEDs are often used as a backlight for electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Question

How does paragraph 7 fit into the overall structure of the passage?

  • AIt indicates where the author changes the purpose of the writing.
  • BIt introduces the author’s opinion on the issue.
  • CIt signals a shift in the position of the author.
  • DIt begins the author’s commentary on the preceding information.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for an explanation of the role of paragraph 7 in the overall structure of the passage.

A. Incorrect. The purpose of paragraphs 2–6 is to present reasons physical books might be better than e-books, and paragraph 7 offers summarizing “take-away” advice based on those reasons. As a result, it may seem as though the author’s purpose for writing the entire passage has shifted. However, the author’s advice in paragraph 7, that readers who want to learn from reading “might want to go for a physical book,” makes it clear that paragraph 7, like paragraphs 2–6, continues to serve the same purpose for the passage that the writer expresses in paragraph 1: to inform readers that printed books “may actually be a better choice for some readers” than e-books.

B. Incorrect. In paragraph 7, the author does offer the advice that readers who want to absorb material “might want to go for a physical book” rather than an e-book. Even though the author makes the statement favoring physical books for those who want to learn from their reading, the author is not sharing a personal opinion. Instead, the author offers the advice as a summary of the information presented in paragraphs 2–6, which explore various studies about the advantages of physical books over e-books. Furthermore, the idea that physical books are sometimes a better option is not introduced for the first time in paragraph 7. Instead, it is introduced early in the passage, when the author states in paragraph 1 that physical books “may actually be a better choice for some readers.”

C. Incorrect. Paragraph 7 presents a clear shift in style and content from paragraphs 2–6. Paragraphs 2–6 are each preceded by a heading stating a reason physical books might be a better choice than e-books, and each paragraph provides research evidence. Paragraph 7 shifts to stating a “take-away message”—the author’s advice—which is based on the reasons in paragraphs 2–6. Paragraph 7’s different style and content do not, however, signal a change in the author’s position. Instead, the author’s advice in paragraph 7 (“if you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book”) actually reinforces the position first introduced in paragraph 1 that physical books “may actually be a better choice for some readers.”

D. CORRECT. The author uses paragraphs 2–6 to present “five ways e-books might be inferior” (paragraph 1) to physical books. Each of paragraphs 2–6 presents one reason for the inferiority of e-books, based on a scientific study. Paragraph 7 indicates a shift because it describes neither a reason e-books might be inferior nor a scientific study. Instead, it presents personal commentary: the “take-away,” or conclusion, the author draws from the studies and evidence presented in paragraphs 2–6. That commentary consists of the author’s own practical advice to readers who want to retain information that they read (“you might want to go for a physical book”) and to those who are “going to be up all night studying” (“turn off the backlight”).

Question analysis

This text-structure question asks how paragraph 7, a two-sentence paragraph that follows the five research sections, fits into the overall structure of an article arguing that printed books might be better than e-books. Students must compare it with the opening claim and the paragraphs around it, and the four choices use similar abstract wording about the author's purpose, opinion and position.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students analyze how sections contribute to a text, but here all four choices are abstract statements about the author's purpose and position, and telling them apart means tracking the argument from the first paragraph to the last.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 829 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 49 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

All four choices are abstract claims about the author's purpose and position, so none can be checked against a single sentence. Paragraph 7 does feel like a turn, from studies to advice, which makes the choices about a changed purpose or position tempting, but the advice repeats the view the first paragraph set out. The real hedge comes one paragraph later, and the closest call is whether paragraph 7 introduces a view or comments on evidence already given.

  1. A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer

    The right choice and the one saying paragraph 7 introduces the author's opinion both find the author's own voice there; they part on whether that view is new, and paragraph 1 already said print “may actually be a better choice”. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks what paragraph 7 does in the article, a short take-away after five research sections, so its advice about physical books and backlights matters only for its role. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  3. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    Judging the claims of a shift or a change needs both ends of the article, the stance of paragraph 1 and the “However” that opens paragraph 8. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Compare what paragraph 7 does with what paragraphs 1–6 do: where was the author's view first stated, and what is new in paragraph 7? Then match that role to a choice.

Traps

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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    This asks about the structure of the passage, which means how its parts fit together. You need to name the job paragraph 7 does compared with the paragraphs around it.

  2. Map the passage first

    Paragraph 1 states the author’s view: print “may actually be a better choice for some readers.” Paragraphs 2 through 6 each sit under a bold heading. Each one reports research on one way e-books might be worse than print.

  3. Read paragraph 7

    It begins, “The take-away message?” A take-away is the lesson you carry away. Then the author advises, “If you’re really trying to absorb material, you might want to go for a physical book.” The author also says to “turn off the backlight” when studying late. Both tips come from the studies just before. So paragraph 7 is the author commenting on that evidence.

  4. Check each choice

    • D fits: it “begins the author’s commentary on the preceding information,” and preceding means coming before.
    • A is wrong because the purpose doesn’t change, since the advice still shows print may be better.
    • B is wrong because the author’s opinion first appears in paragraph 1, not paragraph 7.
    • C is wrong because the author softens the view only later, in paragraph 8, with “all this may not mean.”

    Watch out: B is tempting because paragraph 7 really is the author’s own voice. But it is not the first time you hear it.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 7 turns the research in the five sections into advice, which is commentary on what came before. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B comes closest, since paragraph 7 really is the author speaking. But the author’s view already appeared in paragraph 1. Paragraph 7 doesn’t introduce it. It sums up the research before it and turns that research into advice. That is commentary on the preceding information, as D says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 38 as printed on page 61 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 61, question 38. Open page 61 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed (pages 58–59)The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed on page 58 of the DOE handbook.The passage “5 Reasons Physical Books Might Be Better Than E-Books” as printed on page 59 of the DOE handbook.

Question 44 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 44
Passage Excerpt from The Highest Tide

Excerpt from The Highest Tide

by Jim Lynch

The narrator’s summer job is collecting marine specimens in Puget Sound, Washington. In this excerpt, he is looking for specimens in the mudflats before daybreak. Mudflats, or flats, are coastal landforms created when sediment and silt from tides are deposited as the tides recede.

I rounded the oyster beds, to the far side. . . . It was low tide by then, and I saw the water hesitating at its apex, neither leaving nor returning, patiently waiting for the gravitational gears to shift. Dozens of anxious clams started squirting in unison like they did whenever vibrating grains of sand warned them predators were approaching. I stopped and waited with them, to actually see the moment when the tide started returning with its invisible buffet of plankton for the clams, oysters, mussels and other filter feeders. It was right then, ankle deep in the Sound, feet numbing, eyes relaxed, that I saw the nudibranch.1

In all my time on the flats I’d never seen one before. I’d read about them, sure. I’d handled them at aquariums but never in the wild, and I’d never even seen a photo of one this stunning. It was just three inches long but with dozens of fluorescent, orange-tipped hornlike plumes jutting from the back of its see-through body that appeared to be lit from within.

Nudibranchs are often called the butterflies of the sea, but even that understates their dazzle. Almost everything else in the northern Pacific is dressed to blend with pale surroundings. Nudibranchs don’t bother, in part because they taste so lousy they don’t need camouflage to survive. But also, I decided right then, because their beauty is so startling it earns them a free pass, the same way everyday life brakes for peacocks, parade floats. . . .

The dark mudflats loomed like wet, flattened dunes stretching deep into Skookumchuck Bay in front of our house. From a distance, they looked too barren to support sea life. Up close, they still did, unless you knew where to find the hearty clams, worms and tiny creatures that flourish in mud. . . . I’m not sure why I decided to take a look. It was still an hour before sunrise, and I knew exactly what the bars2 looked like in the moonlight, but for some reason, I couldn’t resist.

I heard it long before I saw it. It was an exhale, a release of sorts, and I instantly wondered if a whale was stranded again. We had a young minke3 stuck out there two summers prior, and it made similar noises until the tide rose high enough for rescuers to help free it. . . . I looked for a hulking silhouette but couldn’t find one. I waited, but there were no more sounds. Still, I went toward what I thought I’d heard, avoiding stepping into the mud until I had to. I knew the flats well enough to know I could get stuck just about anywhere. The general rule was you didn’t venture out past the shells and gravel with an incoming tide. I sank up to my knees twice, and numbing water filled my boots.

. . . I kept stepping toward the one sound I’d heard, a growing part of me hoping I’d find nothing at all. When I stopped to rest and yank up my socks, my headlamp crossed it. My first thought? A giant octopus.

Puget Sound has some of the biggest octopi in the world. They often balloon to a hundred pounds. Even the great Jacques Cousteau4 himself came to study them. But when I saw the long tubular shape of its upper body and the tangle of tentacles below it, I knew it was more than an octopus. I came closer, within fifty feet, close enough to see its large cylindrical siphon5 quiver. I couldn’t tell if it was making any sounds at that point, because it was impossible to hear anything over the blood in my ears. . . .

The creature’s body came to a triangular point above narrow fins that lay flat on the mud like wings, but it was hard to be sure exactly where it all began or ended, or how long its tentacles truly were, because I was afraid to pry my eyes off its jumble of arms for more than half a second. I didn’t know whether I was within reach, and its arms were as big around as my ankle and lined with suckers the size of half-dollars. If they even twitched I would have run. So, I was looking at it and not looking at it while my heart spangled my vision. I saw fragments, pieces, and tried to fuse them in my mind but couldn’t be certain of the whole. I knew what it had to be, but I wouldn’t allow myself to even think the two words. Then I gradually realized the dark shiny disc in the middle of the rubbery mass was too perfectly round to be mud or a reflection.

It was too late to smother my scream. Its eye was the size of a hubcap.6

From THE HIGHEST TIDE by Jim Lynch. Copyright © 2005 by Jim Lynch. Used by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved.

1nudibranch: type of sea slug

2bars: sandbars

3minke: species of small whale

4Jacques Cousteau: renowned French oceanographer

5siphon: tube-like organ that is used for drawing in or removing fluids

6hubcap: removable cap over the end of a wheel axle

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    This asks about 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 44 as printed on page 66 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 66, question 44. Open page 66 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed (pages 64–65)The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed on page 64 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from The Highest Tide” as printed on page 65 of the DOE handbook.

Question 45 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 50

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from The Highest Tide”.

Question

The author develops the narrator’s point of view when the narrator sees the creature by

  • Adescribing the narrator’s movements as he approaches the creature.
  • Bemphasizing the odds of finding the creature in an area inhabited by a rival species.
  • Cshowing the narrator’s growing realization of the creature’s identity.
  • Dcomparing the size of the creature to the size of a vehicle.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the author develops the narrator’s point of view when the narrator sees the creature.

A. Incorrect. The author’s description of how the narrator moves toward the creature has to do with the terrain and the narrator’s sense of awe. The narrator’s perspective is not represented through how he approaches the creature; it is presented later in the excerpt when the narrator is studying the creature.

B. Incorrect. In this excerpt, while the narrator does discuss other large animals (minke whale, paragraph 5; octopi, paragraph 7) that have appeared on the mudflats, these are examples to show the variety of animal life that can be discovered on the mudflats, not rivals of the creature discovered at the end of the excerpt.

C. CORRECT. In paragraph 7, the narrator describes the largest octopi in the world and then states that this creature is “more than an octopus.” The narrator then states that it is “impossible to hear anything over the blood in my ears,” and in paragraph 8, he describes the creature’s body in detail, as well as his growing fear and amazement as he begins to realize what the creature really is.

D. Incorrect. While the narrator observes that the creature’s eye is as large as a hubcap in paragraph 9, a comparison to an entire car is never made. This detail is for description but does not give the narrator’s point of view.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question asks how the author develops the narrator's perspective at the moment he comes upon a huge, unknown sea creature at the end of the excerpt from The Highest Tide. Students must track the narration over the last paragraphs and decide which technique shapes what readers see through his eyes.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Analyzing how an author develops a narrator's point of view is a grade 7 standard. The key paragraphs are dense with description and suspense, but the choices are fairly distinct, so the overall demand is typical of grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 6, 902 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 60 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The narrator's guesses change from paragraph to paragraph, octopus, then something more, then a name he refuses to say, and the answer is that progression rather than any single detail. The wrong choices fasten on details, his approach across the mud, the octopi of Puget Sound, the hubcap, and each misdescribes or misplaces it. Readers who track what he believes at each step see the growing realization.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The question asks how the author builds the narrator's point of view, so the student must name a technique, a step-by-step realization, rather than any single thing he sees or does. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    The realization unfolds across paragraphs 6 to 9: “A giant octopus” becomes “more than an octopus”, then “I knew what it had to be”, and finally an eye the size of a hubcap. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The creature is never named; “the two words” the narrator will not let himself think have to be understood as a name he already suspects. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Reread paragraphs 6 through 9 and track what the narrator notices, thinks and feels at each step, then pick the choice that describes the technique the author uses across those steps.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    Point of view here means how the narrator sees and understands what is happening. The question asks how the author shows his view once the creature appears. Look for a method the author uses across several paragraphs.

  2. Track his guesses

    Follow what the narrator thinks the creature is:

    • Paragraph 6: “My first thought? A giant octopus.”
    • Paragraph 7: “I knew it was more than an octopus.”
    • Paragraph 8: “I knew what it had to be, but I wouldn’t allow myself to even think the two words.”
    • Paragraph 9: “Its eye was the size of a hubcap.”

  3. See the pattern

    Each step brings him closer to knowing what the creature is. First comes a guess, then a doubt, then a name he won’t let himself think. Finally a huge eye makes him scream. The author shows his growing realization, his slow understanding, one step at a time.

  4. Check each choice

    • C fits: “growing realization of the creature’s identity” matches his changing guesses, and identity means what something is.
    • A is wrong because his steps closer reveal little, while his thoughts change from paragraph to paragraph.
    • B is wrong because the octopus is only his first guess, not a rival, and he never talks about odds.
    • D is wrong because only the eye is compared to a hubcap, a cover on a car wheel.

    Watch out: D uses a real detail but gets it wrong. A hubcap is part of a wheel, not a whole vehicle.

  5. Choose the answer

    The author builds the narrator’s view by showing him slowly work out what he is looking at. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A comes closest, because the narrator does move closer after he sees the creature, to “within fifty feet.” But his steps tell little about how he sees it. What changes from paragraph to paragraph is his thinking: his guesses grow until he understands. That is C.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 50 as printed on page 67 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 67, question 50. Open page 67 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 46 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 56
Passage Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”

Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”

by Emma Marris

The author of this opinion article attended a symposium, or conference, in Missoula, Montana, at which biologists and other scientists discussed species of plants and animals that are not native to the areas in which they live.

Invasive species are scary. It was ecologist Charles Elton, back in the 1950s, who introduced the militaristic “invasion” metaphor to describe exotic plants and animals—but there’s no question some can be extremely destructive.

The brown tree snake has eaten a dozen kinds of forest birds in Guam to extinction; zebra mussels clog pipes around the Great Lakes; the common house cat turns out to be, in Australia, a mercilessly effective killer of cute, fluffy marsupials like the bilby and the numbat.

As scientists have sounded the alarm about these pests, the public has gotten the message. Citizen groups rip out non-native plants. Native gardens have become increasingly popular, both as ways to celebrate the unique flora of each region and as tiny hot spots of diversity. Native trees provide food for native bugs, which feed native birds. Food chains developed over thousands of years of co-evolution unfold in our backyards. . . .

So we’ve learned, scientists and laypeople alike, that native species are good and non-natives are bad.

Julian Olden, a biologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who co-organized the symposium, recently polled nearly 2,000 ecologists. Among his findings: a substantial number of them said they would immediately eradicate a hypothetical non-native forest plant, even if it were shown to have no effect on the forest. Olden calls this the “guilty even when proven innocent” approach.

That kind of approach is not very useful on a rapidly changing planet.

Exotics Are Everywhere

Climate change is making it harder even to decide who the invaders are.

How, scientists at the symposium wondered, do you define “native” on a warming planet, when plants and animals are already moving toward the poles or up mountainsides in search of climate conditions they can tolerate? Should we consider them “invasive” in their new homes? Regardless of what we label them, conservationists will be reluctant to remove them from their new environs—to do so would stymie1 their chances of adapting to the warmer future we’re creating.

And then there are the non-natives that we actually like. Most domestic crops are exotic in most of the places they’re grown, but there are even wild exotics that “do good,” forming useful relationships with native species.

Edwin Grosholz of the University of California, Davis, told the recent symposium about one such relationship. On beaches in his state, non-native spartina grass has become important habitat for the endangered California clapper rail, a plump shorebird with a downward curving bill more at home on land than in the air. A project to rip out and poison the spartina—which grows in dense swaths that exclude many other shorebirds—saw clapper rail numbers go tumbling downward.

There are other examples like that. The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher nests in “invasive” tamarisk shrubs. Many native (and beautiful) Hawaiian flowers are now pollinated by the Japanese white-eye bird—because the native pollinators have been driven extinct by other non-native species.

Should we impose further risk on already endangered natives by severing these relationships? Or should we admire the resilience of nature and let such “well-behaved” exotics stay? . . .

Leave them alone, more and more conservationists are arguing, and stop focusing obsessively on categorizing species as native or non-native. Mark Davis, an ecologist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, once considered himself an “invasion biologist”—but not anymore. “I am actively trying to get the field to retire the invader narrative,” he said in Missoula.

A Good Thing, Not the Only Thing

After all, nativeness is just one environmental value, and arguably not as important as preventing extinctions and preserving biodiversity. In some cases we can best serve biodiversity by leaving the non-natives alone or even—brace yourself, now—introducing them on purpose.

This is the thinking behind, for example, installing the Aldabra tortoise on the islands of Mauritius. The islands lost their own large tortoises, and the fruiting plants that formerly had their seeds moved around by these fruit-loving reptiles have been on the decline. A tortoise that’s related to the island’s large tortoises—a non-native from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean that was intentionally introduced in 2004—is now handling some of that work.

Most of the time, for the time being, conserving species still means focusing on supporting them in their historical habitats, planting natives and removing non-natives. We can and should do that in places where it is feasible and important to us.

From “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil” by Emma Marris from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, July 24, 2014. Copyright © 2014 by National Geographic Society.

Chart titled “Possible Management of Non-Native Species, Based on Extent of Invasion,” plotting Area Affected by Non-Native Species (vertical axis) against Time (horizontal axis) as an S-shaped curve that stays low, then rises steeply and levels off high, where it is labeled “Widespread and abundant throughout range.” The time line is divided into four shaded stages, left to right: Prevention, “Species absent”; Eradication, “Few, localized populations”; Containment, “Rapid increase in populations”; and Local Control and Management Only, “Eradication no longer feasible; can only protect small areas based on economic and ecological need.” Markers on the curve show “Species introduced” at the end of Prevention, “Detection” within Eradication and “Public awareness begins” near the end of Containment, and two large arrows read “Management = simple; eradication likely” across Prevention and Eradication and “Management = difficult and costly; eradication unlikely or impossible” across Containment and Local Control and Management Only.

1stymie: hinder or interfere with

Question

Climate change has affected efforts to manage invasive species mainly by causing ecologists to

  • Acall upon the public to be more tolerant of the presence of non-native species.
  • Badmit that past attempts to eliminate non-native species have damaged the environment.
  • Cfind ways of ensuring that native species are not harmed by the arrival of new species.
  • Dacknowledge that it is not realistic for some species to remain in their native habitats.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

This question asks how climate change has mainly affected efforts to manage invasive species.

A. Incorrect. While ecologists are now arguing for some non-native species to be left alone (paragraph 13), they are arguing specifically on behalf of “well-behaved” non-native species (paragraph 12), not non-native species in general.

B. Incorrect. While paragraph 10 describes how removing a non-native species negatively affected a native species, the excerpt never discusses the idea that attempts to eliminate non-native species might have damaged the environment.

C. Incorrect. While the excerpt refers to climate change causing plants and animals to move to more tolerable environments (paragraph 8), it does not specifically discuss ways to ensure that the arrival of these non-native species does not harm native species.

D. CORRECT. As paragraph 8 says, “plants and animals are already moving toward the poles” because of climate change, and ecologists recognize that those species need to do so to adapt “to the warmer future we’re creating.”

Question analysis

This question asks how climate change has mainly affected efforts to manage invasive species, according to an article arguing that not all non-native species are harmful. Students must locate the article's brief discussion of a warming planet and recognize its point when it is restated in different words.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Tracing how one factor shapes an idea is grade 7 work. The relevant discussion is a single paragraph, but it is built from long questions rather than statements, and the choices restate it abstractly, so the item sits at a typical grade 7 level.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 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

Climate change is discussed in only one paragraph, and that paragraph mostly asks questions, so the student has to work out what the scientists concluded from what they wondered. The wrong choices borrow ideas from later in the article, leaving well-behaved exotics alone and the spartina project, or bring in a common conservation goal, and none of them is tied to a warming planet. Finding paragraph 8 first makes the rest straightforward.

  1. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice's “not realistic for some species to remain in their native habitats” shares no words with paragraph 8, which speaks of plants and animals “moving toward the poles or up mountainsides”. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    Paragraph 8 makes its point through questions, the first broken by “scientists at the symposium wondered”, so what ecologists accept has to be pulled out of what they ask. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

  3. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The acknowledgment is implied: reluctance to remove species that would otherwise lose their chance of “adapting to the warmer future” shows that staying put is no longer an option. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Find where the article actually discusses a warming planet and what the scientists there are wondering about, then match a choice to that discussion.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    This asks how climate change has changed the way scientists handle non-native species. First find the part of the article that talks about climate. Then see what the scientists there accept.

  2. Find the climate paragraph

    Paragraphs 7 and 8 are about climate change. Paragraph 8 says that on “a warming planet,” plants and animals “are already moving toward the poles or up mountainsides.” They are looking for “climate conditions they can tolerate,” which means weather they can survive.

  3. See what the scientists accept

    Paragraph 8 says conservationists “will be reluctant to remove them.” Reluctant means unwilling. Removing them “would stymie” their “chances of adapting to the warmer future.” The footnote says stymie means to hinder, or hold back. In other words, scientists accept that these species can’t stay where they were. To survive, they have to move.

  4. Check each choice

    • D fits: ecologists admit that some species can’t realistically stay in their native homes.
    • A is wrong because the call to leave non-natives alone in paragraphs 12 and 13 is about “well-behaved” ones, not climate.
    • B is wrong because the one failed removal in paragraph 10 has nothing to do with climate.
    • C is wrong because paragraph 8 talks about letting moving species adapt, not shielding natives from newcomers.

    Watch out: A sounds close because it is also about putting up with non-natives. But it comes from a part of the article that never mentions climate.

  5. Choose the answer

    Climate change has made ecologists accept that some species must leave their old homes. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A comes closest, because the article does argue for leaving some non-natives alone. But that argument is about helpful newcomers, and it never mentions climate. Paragraphs 7 and 8 are where climate change comes up. There, scientists accept that many species must leave their old homes to survive, which is D.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 56 as printed on page 72 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 72, question 56. Open page 72 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed (pages 68–70)The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed on page 68 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed on page 69 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil”” as printed on page 70 of the DOE handbook.

Question 47 of 90

2024 Test A English, question 57

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “It’s Time to Stop Thinking That All Non-Native Species Are Evil””.

Question

How does the chart provide additional support for a central idea of the excerpt?

  • Aby implying that the public becomes aware of non-native species only after removal is impossible
  • Bby showing that the complete removal of non-native species is usually not achievable after a certain period of time
  • Cby demonstrating why non-native species can be destructive if they are not removed from an area immediately
  • Dby explaining how some conservation groups have approached the removal of non-native species
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the chart provides additional support for a central idea of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. The chart indicates that the public tends to become aware of non-native species once eradication is “unlikely or impossible,” not strictly impossible. Furthermore, this idea is not a central idea of the excerpt.

B. CORRECT. The chart strongly suggests that once “rapid increase in populations” of non-native species has occurred, eradication will be “unlikely or impossible.”

C. Incorrect. While the chart does show that non-native species can eventually be impossible to eradicate, it never addresses the issue of how the non-native species might be destructive to their new environments.

D. Incorrect. The chart shows how non-native species become harder and harder to remove as their population grows but does not explain how any conservation groups have approached their removal.

Question analysis

This question asks how a chart titled “Possible Management of Non-Native Species, Based on Extent of Invasion” supports a central idea of an article arguing that not all non-native species are harmful. Students must read the chart's stages, labels and curve, then decide which statement the chart actually shows and which also fits the article's argument.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 students connect graphics to a text, but this chart packs four stages, two arrows, a curve and several labels into one figure, and its pattern must be linked to an argument made in words, demanding but within upper grade 7.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 815 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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 chart is easy to read in outline, simple management on the left and costly, likely failed eradication on the right, and the right choice restates that contrast. The pull comes from the “Public awareness begins” marker, placed at the border of the stage where eradication is no longer feasible, which makes a statement about public awareness look like a faithful reading. It is nearly faithful, but it describes one marker, not a central idea the article develops.

  1. Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question

    The chart packs four shaded stages, two arrows, an S-shaped curve and three markers into one figure, and its message lies in the arrows: eradication “likely” early, “unlikely or impossible” later. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice and the public-awareness choice both read the late stages where removal fails; the awareness marker even sits on the border of “Eradication no longer feasible”, so only centrality separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  3. Combines ideas minor Working it out

    The chart's pattern has to be matched to the article's argument that nativeness is one value among several and that removal makes sense only where “feasible and important to us”. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)

Strategy: Read the chart's title, axes and stage labels, say in one sentence what it shows happening over time, then ask which part of the article's argument that pattern supports.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Know what the question asks

    This asks how the chart supports a central idea, a main point of the article. First read the chart and say in your own words what it shows. Then link that to the article’s argument.

  2. Read the chart from left to right

    Time moves from left to right. The curve shows how much area a non-native species covers. Eradication means wiping a species out completely. Early on, the arrow says management is “simple” and eradication is “likely.” Then the species spreads fast. From there on, management is “difficult and costly,” and eradication is “unlikely or impossible.” In the last stage it is “no longer feasible,” or no longer possible.

  3. Link the chart to the article

    The article argues that we shouldn’t treat every non-native species the same way. Paragraph 16 says we should remove non-natives “in places where it is feasible and important to us.” The chart shows when removal is possible: mostly early, before the species spreads. After that, wiping it out usually can’t be done.

  4. Check each choice

    • B fits: complete removal is usually not possible after a certain time, which is the chart’s main message.
    • A is wrong because the “Public awareness begins” marker is one small label, and the article never discusses when the public notices.
    • C is wrong because the chart shows how far a species spreads, not how much damage it does.
    • D is wrong because the chart shows general stages, not what any real group has done.

    Watch out: A reads the marker correctly, since it does sit late, where removal is already hard. But it picks a detail, not the chart’s main point.

  5. Choose the answer

    The chart shows that removal works only early, which backs up the article’s argument. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A comes closest, since the chart does place “Public awareness begins” late, when removal is already hard. But that is one small marker, and the article never says when the public first notices a species. B states the chart’s main message, that removal works only early. That backs up the article’s point that removing non-natives isn’t always possible.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 57 as printed on page 72 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 72, question 57. Open page 72 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 48 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 16
Passage Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”

Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”

by Gretchen Reynolds

Many scientists suspect that exercise alters the biology of the brain in ways that make it more malleable and receptive to new information, a process that scientists refer to as plasticity.

But many questions have remained unanswered about movement and learning, including whether exercise is most beneficial before, during or after instruction and how much and what types of exercise might be best.

So for a new study, which was published recently in PLOS One, researchers in China and Italy decided to home in on language learning and the adult brain.

Language learning is interesting. As young children, almost all of us picked up our first language easily. We didn’t have to be formally taught; we simply absorbed words and concepts.

But by early adulthood, the brain generally begins to lose some of its innate language capability. It displays less plasticity in areas of the brain related to language. As a result, for most of us, it becomes harder to learn a second language after childhood.

To see what effects exercise might have on this process, the researchers first recruited 40 college-age Chinese men and women who were trying to learn English. The students had some facility with this second language but were far from proficient.

The researchers then divided the students into two groups. Those in one group would continue to learn English as they had before, primarily while seated in rote vocabulary-memorization sessions.

The others would supplement these sessions with exercise.

Specifically, the students would ride exercise bikes at a gentle pace (about 60 percent of their maximum aerobic capacity) beginning 20 minutes before the start of the lessons and continuing throughout the 15 minutes or so of instruction.

Both groups learned their new vocabulary by watching words projected onto large screens, together with comparable pictures, such as “apple” and a Red Delicious. They were shown 40 words per session, with the sequence repeated several times.

Afterward, the students all rested briefly and then completed a vocabulary quiz, using computer keys to note as quickly as possible whether a word was with its correct picture. They also responded to sentences using the new words, marking whether the sentences were accurate or, in the case of “The apple is a dentist,” nonsensical. Most linguists1 feel that understanding sentences shows greater mastery of a new language than does simple vocabulary improvement.

The students completed eight vocabulary sessions over the course of two months.

And at the end of each lesson, the students who had ridden bikes performed better on the subsequent vocabulary tests than did the students who sat still.

They also became more proficient at recognizing proper sentences than the sedentary students, although that difference did not emerge until after several weeks of instruction.

Perhaps most interesting, the gains in vocabulary and comprehension lingered longest for the cyclists. When the researchers asked the students to return to the lab for a final round of testing a month after the lessons—without practicing in the meantime—the cyclists remembered words and understood them in sentences more accurately than did the students who had not moved.

“The results suggest that physical activity during learning improves that learning,” says Simone Sulpizio, a professor of psychology and linguistics at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, Italy, and a study co-author.

These improvements extend beyond simply aiding in memorization, she added. The exercise also deepened language learners’ grasp of how to use their newly acquired words.

This study involved college students performing relatively light exercise, though, and cannot tell us whether other people completing other types of exercise would achieve the same results.

It also offers no clues about what is occurring inside the brain that might be contributing to the benefits of the exercise. But many past studies have shown that exercise prompts the release of multiple neurochemicals in the brain that increase the number of new brain cells and the connections between neurons, Dr. Sulpizio says. These effects improve the brain’s plasticity and augment the ability to learn.

From a real-world standpoint, the study’s implications might seem at first to be impractical. Few classrooms are equipped with stationary bicycles. But specialized equipment is probably unnecessary, Dr. Sulpizio says.

“We are not suggesting that schools or teachers buy lots of bicycles,” she says. “A simpler take-home message may be that instruction should be flanked by physical activity.”

From “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language” by Gretchen Reynolds from THE NEW YORK TIMES, August 16, 2017. Copyright © 2017 The New York Times Company.

1linguists: scientists who study language

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 16 as printed on page 173 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 173, question 16. Open page 173 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed (pages 171–172)The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed on page 171 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “How Exercise Could Help You Learn a New Language”” as printed on page 172 of the DOE handbook.

Question 49 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 17

Uses 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 17 as printed on page 173 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 173, question 17. Open page 173 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 50 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 25
Passage Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!

Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!

by Zoa L. Swayne

This narrative is about the Nez Perce, an American Indian tribe, in what is now northern Idaho. The tribe is preparing for a gathering before the coming winter.

In the moon of Ta-Yum, the hottest days of summer, when salmon spawn in the little streams and huckleberries ripen in the high mountains, people from many villages of the Chopunnish Nation gathered in the Oyaip Prairie for the work and festivities of their annual camas1 harvest.

From far and near The People came. . . .

Should a stranger enter their homeland and ask, “Where are you from?” the reply was always, “We are Nee-mee-poo, The People who live here in this place.”

It was a time of Lawtiwa-mah-ton—a time of being friends together—when The People came for this last chance to enjoy being together before the Cold Moons kept them close to their fires. The visiting and trading, the foot racing and horse racing, and the gambling and stick games would be remembered and talked about long after they had forgotten the drudgery of digging and roasting camas, picking berries, or drying meat and fish. Lawtiwa-mah-ton! It was good to be friends together.

As was their custom since wahk-kee-ma, a time far back beyond the memory of man, they set up their camps in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them. Red Bear’s people, from Kamiah, made their camp near the trail that came out of the mountains. Their neighbors in Kamiah Valley, The People from Tee-e-lap-a-lo, had their camp close by. Across the wide meadow, by the great roasting pits, the camps of the Te-wap-poo and Ask-kah-poo were located. The tepees and ish-nash, brush shelters, of other groups nestled in their accustomed areas in and among the pines in such numbers that they encircled the entire meadow land.

Red Bear’s people had traveled all summer with neighboring bands, gathering and preparing roots, picking and drying berries, drying and smoking meat and fish for their winter food supply. Now they were at the Oyaip camp. The women worked hard to dig and cure as many bags of roots as they could during the warm, sunny days, for the sharp night air brought warnings that WARM was going and COLD was coming.

Everyone helped in some way. Most of the men fished or hunted for meat. While many of the women dug and roasted camas, other women and older children picked and dried berries.

And the younger children played. They played at hunting. They played with the babies. They played with their horses and puppies. They learned how to live through their play.

This sun, happiness, peace, and quiet blessed the Red Bear camp. All were busy with their daily tasks, until sudden cries came from the children playing by the trail.

“People coming! People coming! People coming on the trail from the high mountains!” they called as they ran to their elders, who looked sharply at the figures of approaching horsemen.

Were they friends or enemies? Did they bring good news or bad?

“Who can it be? What brings them here?” were the questions in every mind.

“Could they be the four hunters who had gone to Buffalo Country two summers past? Would they have news of the families who had gone long ago to Buffalo Country and never returned?”

It was customary for a hunting party to be gone for more than one season.

“Looks like hunters,” the older men agreed. “Looks like they had good hunting. Maybe our four hunters. [They have] been gone many moons.”

“Looks like five people—not four,” others observed.

Excitement grew as the riders came close enough to be recognized.

“A-a-a-a-a, they are our four hunters! But who is the fifth person?” they asked.

“Looks like a woman. Who is she?”

The hunters rode up to the welcoming crowd, proud to show off the loads of meat, hides, and other trophies of their hunt. They paraded around the encampment for all to see how strong their Hunting Power had been—what great hunters they, themselves, were.

Red Bear’s people rejoiced at their hunters’ success. Good hunters brought good to everybody. The meat meant plenty of food and the hides meant soft-tanned robes to give comfort through the Cold Moons. But it was the sight of the frail figure of the woman that aroused their curiosity. Who was she? Where had she come from? . . .

“Belongs to Red Bear people. Gone then come back,” the hunters said, as they dismounted and unloaded their packs. . . .

Now they could see! She was the daughter of the family gone so long ago! The girl-child who had left came back now—a grown woman.

“Wat-ku-ese!” the women cried. “Gone-from-Home-then-Come-Back. Wat-ku-ese!” And Wat-ku-ese was her name from that time on.

Gentle arms lifted Wat-ku-ese from her horse. The women brought her food and made a place for her to rest. For many suns they cared for her until she became stronger.

One evening Wat-ku-ese told her story for all to hear.

From DO THEM NO HARM!: Lewis and Clark Among the Nez Perce by Zoa L. Swayne. Published by Caxton Press. Copyright © 1990 by Zoa L. Swayne. Orofino, Idaho and Legacy House, Inc. Orofino, Idaho. All rights reserved.

1camas: a wild, edible plant

Question

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.

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

  1. 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)

  2. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A central idea is a 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 25 as printed on page 179 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 179, question 25. Open page 179 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed (pages 177–178)The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed on page 177 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!” as printed on page 178 of the DOE handbook.

Question 51 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 27

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 27 as printed on page 180 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 180, question 27. Open page 180 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 52 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 31

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from Do Them No Harm!”.

Question

The details in paragraph 5 about the locations of the camps and the details in paragraphs 23–24 about the reaction to the woman convey a theme of the excerpt by

  • Arevealing the difficulties posed by moving often each year.
  • Bshowing the connectedness among The People through the years.
  • Cindicating the value to The People of retelling stories about the past.
  • Ddemonstrating the importance of choosing appropriate names.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the details in paragraph 5 about the locations of the camps and the details in paragraphs 23–24 about the reaction to the woman convey a theme of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. Paragraph 5 does not reveal that The People move often, only that they come together near each other at this particular time of year. Paragraphs 23–24 reveal a resolution to the difficulty of people who are absent for some time, but they do not relate to the difficulty of moving often each year.

B. CORRECT. The details in paragraph 5 show that each year The People set up their camps beside the same neighbors, in the places their parents and grandparents used before them, demonstrating their connectedness. Similarly, the details in paragraphs 23–24 reveal that The People quickly embrace a member of their group who had gone away but has since returned. Taken together, these sections reveal just how much The People rely on their connectedness, a theme of the excerpt.

C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 5 suggests that The People keep the customs of their ancestors alive, it does not reference storytelling. Further, though paragraphs 23–24 suggest that The People had knowledge of this woman’s absence, they do not indicate that this knowledge came from stories in particular.

D. Incorrect. In paragraph 24, an appropriate new name, meaning “Gone-from-Home-then-Come-Back,” is bestowed on the returned woman. However, the importance of appropriate names is not a theme of the excerpt. Rather, the theme that is emphasized is the importance of the connection among The People, exemplified by the annual gathering and the warm welcome extended to the woman who has returned after a long absence.

Question analysis

This theme question asks how two sets of details in the Nez Perce narrative, where each group pitches its camp and how the camp reacts to a woman who has come back after many years, together convey a theme. Students must connect two parts of the excerpt that are far apart and find the one idea that both of them express.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Tracing a theme across a text is the grade 7 central idea standard. Students must join two passages far apart in the excerpt, but each is concrete, and the theme they share is the kind grade 7 readers routinely name.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 5, 885 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 65 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • The explanation described the wrong paragraph's details; that sentence was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Each set of details on its own suggests several ideas, tradition, travel, naming, but the theme has to explain both at once. Students who focus on paragraph 24’s new name or on storytelling elsewhere in the excerpt choose an idea that fits only one passage. Naming what the old campsites and the warm welcome have in common, ties that last across years and distance, leads straight to the key.

  1. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The two sets of details sit eighteen paragraphs apart, the camps in the places “their parents and grandparents had occupied” and the welcome given Wat-ku-ese, and the theme must fit both. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    Neither passage names the theme; students must see that returning to ancestral campsites and embracing a lost daughter both show bonds that last across years. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Sum up each set of details in a phrase, the camp locations and the reaction to the woman, then name the one idea both sets share before reading the choices.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook's explanation of B says paragraph 5 shows The People coming together “to share in recreational activities.” The races and games are in paragraph 4; paragraph 5, the one the question names, is about camping each year in the same places as their parents and grandparents, beside the same neighbors. The sentence now describes paragraph 5. The answer, B, is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A theme is a big idea a story shows about life. This asks for the theme shared by two parts of the story. One is paragraph 5, about where the camps go. The other is paragraphs 23–24, about the woman who comes back. The theme has to fit both.

  2. Sum up paragraph 5

    Paragraph 5 says they set up camp “in the same locations their parents and grandparents had occupied before them.” The same neighbors camp side by side each year. Red Bear’s neighbors “had their camp close by.” So the families stay tied to each other and to the past, year after year.

  3. Sum up paragraphs 23 and 24

    In paragraph 23 the camp learns “She was the daughter of the family gone so long ago!” She left as a little girl and came back grown. Yet they know her as one of their own. In paragraph 24 the women joyfully give her a new name. She is welcomed home after many years.

  4. Find the shared idea

    Both parts show bonds that last a long time. The People keep the same camps and neighbors through the years. They also welcome back a member who was gone for years. So the theme is how connected The People stay over time.

  5. Check each choice

    • B fits both parts: connectedness through the years.
    • A: paragraph 5 is about going back to the same places, not moving often. Paragraphs 23–24 don’t mention moving at all.
    • C: neither part is about retelling old stories.
    • D: the new name is only in paragraph 24. It says nothing about the camps in paragraph 5.

    Watch out: The naming of Wat-ku-ese is easy to remember, so D is tempting. But a theme must fit both parts.

  6. Pick the answer

    The camp locations and the warm welcome both show bonds that last through the years. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because the naming in paragraph 24 stands out. But a name says nothing about where the camps go in paragraph 5. B explains both parts: The People camp beside the same neighbors year after year, and they welcome back a daughter gone for years.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 31 as printed on page 181 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 181, question 31. Open page 181 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 53 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 35
Passage Invention of the Telegraph

Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is credited with creating the electronic telegraph, a communication device that allows users to send messages using a system of short and long pulses that represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. In 1843 the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill, which provided Morse with the funds to build an electric telegraph system.

Invention of the Telegraph

Earlier Signal Systems

Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were visual or “semaphore” systems using flags or lights. In the eighteenth century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station. The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 for a workable proposal. The framers of this legislation1^1 had no way of knowing that when they used the word “telegraph” to refer to this visual semaphore system, they would be offered an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.

The Growth of an Idea

The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Morse during a conversation aboard ship when he was returning from Europe in 1832. Michael Faraday’s recently invented electromagnet was much discussed by the ship’s passengers, and when Morse came to understand how it worked, he speculated that it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire. While a student at Yale College years before, he had written his parents a letter about how interesting he found the lectures on electricity. Despite what he had learned at Yale, Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity, and after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague at the University of the City of New York, Leonard D. Gale.

Gale was a professor of chemistry and familiar with the electrical work of Princeton’s Joseph Henry, a true pioneer in the new field. Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit. In 1831, he had published an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. Gale’s help and his knowledge of this article proved crucial to Morse’s telegraph system because Gale not only pointed out flaws in the system but showed Morse how he could regularly boost the strength of a signal and overcome the distance problems he had encountered by using a relay system Henry had invented. Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.

Obstacles and Opportunities

By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.

However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. It was during this period that Morse visited Europe again and tried not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England. . . .

By 1843, the country was beginning to recover economically, and Morse again asked Congress for the $30,000 that would allow him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, forty miles away. The House of Representatives eventually passed the bill containing the Morse appropriation, and the Senate approved it in the final hours of that Congress’s last session. With President Tyler’s signature, Morse received the cash he needed and began to carry out plans for an underground telegraph line.

Realizing a Great Invention

Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire, and although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse’s partners, Congressman F. O. J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.

Soon, as overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast, the dots-and-dashes method2^2 that recorded messages on a long moving strip of paper was replaced by the operator’s ability to interpret the code in real time. . . . Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.

“Invention of the Telegraph”—Public Domain/Library of Congress

1^1legislation: Telegraph Bill

2^2dots-and-dashes method: the short and long pulses of Morse code that are sent and received by telegraph operators

World map titled “British All-Red Telegraph Line, 1902,” with a compass rose (N, S, E, W) and a key showing a thick black line as an electric telegraph line. The line runs from London across the Atlantic Ocean and Canada to Vancouver, then west into the Pacific Ocean off the map’s left edge; from London and from Canada’s east coast to Bermuda, then to Barbados, across the Atlantic to Cape Town, and across the Indian Ocean to Perth, which a second line links to India; and from Perth across Australia to Brisbane and Norfolk, with branches to New Zealand and east into the Pacific off the map’s right edge. Washington, D.C., in the United States, is marked with a dot but no line reaches it.

The first transatlantic electric telegraph message was sent in 1858, and by 1902 the British All-Red Line connected most of the world.

Bar graph titled “Telegraph Messages Transmitted, 1870–1920,” with the number of messages transmitted, in millions, on the vertical axis (0 to 180 in steps of 20) and the years 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 and 1920 on the horizontal axis. The bars show about 10 million messages in 1870, 30 million in 1880, 55 million in 1890, 65 million in 1900, 75 million in 1910 and 155 million in 1920.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2. Washington, D.C., 1975.

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system?

  • AMorse’s application for a federal grant was delayed until 1843, so he spent time traveling in Europe, where he concentrated on obtaining a patent for his system.
  • BMorse applied for a government grant that required both houses of Congress and the president to pass a bill awarding him $30,000 for his telegraph project.
  • CMorse applied for a government appropriation and conducted telegraph demonstrations to show that his system could work, and after a delay caused by a financial depression, Congress approved the $30,000 appropriation in 1843.
  • DWorking with Gale and Vail allowed Morse to find flaws in Henry’s work and to develop his own ideas before applying for the federal government appropriation.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system.

A. Incorrect. This summary focuses mostly on what Morse did while his application for funding was delayed in the United States rather than on how Morse acquired the funding, because during this period, Morse tried “not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England” (paragraph 5). Therefore, it is not the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system.

B. Incorrect. Although this summary mentions how Morse applied for the “federal government’s appropriation” (paragraph 4), it primarily focuses on the actions of the House of Representatives and the Senate, not on Morse’s efforts to obtain funding. Therefore, it is not the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system.

C. CORRECT. This summary best describes how Morse obtained the funding that he needed for his telegraph system, because it explains that Morse applied “for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph” (paragraph 4). In paragraph 5, the author explains the impact that the Panic of 1837 had on Morse’s request. In paragraph 6, the author describes how by 1843, economic times had improved, so Morse again “asked Congress for the $30,000” and was awarded the funds after “the Senate approved it.”

D. Incorrect. This summary is not the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system, because it relates how Morse worked with others to develop his ideas about the telegraph and how Gale and Vail were the “keys to Morse’s success” (paragraph 3) before he applied for funding.

Question analysis

Students read “Invention of the Telegraph” and pick the best one-sentence summary of how Samuel Morse secured federal funding for his telegraph line. The money story is spread over several paragraphs alongside other events in Morse’s life, and the four long choices each blend true details, so students must decide what a good summary of this one process includes.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summarizing a short chain of events is everyday grade 7 work, and every fact needed is stated plainly. The main demand is patience with long choices rather than any hard inference.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 126 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A date in the passage introduction was corrected.
  • A wrong word in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every choice is built from real events, so the question is less about spotting a false statement than about judging what a summary of the funding must contain. Students who accept the first accurate sentence they meet stop at the account of Congress and the president, which skips the years between application and approval. Listing the stages first, application, demonstrations, delay and vote, turns the long choices into a quick checklist.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The summary about both houses and the president is accurate and ends where the key does, with the $30,000 approved; what separates them is the middle stretch, the demonstrations and the depression’s delay, which only the key covers. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The funding story is split over paragraphs 4 to 6: the December 1837 application, demonstrations in New York and Washington, the Panic of 1837 with a trip to Europe, and the 1843 request and vote. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    Each choice is a single sentence of 26 to 33 words carrying dates, a dollar amount, Congress and several people, and every piece has to be checked against the passage. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Find the part of the passage about paying for the telegraph and jot down each step in order; then pick the summary that matches your list from start to finish without wandering off it.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Passage: The 2024–2025 handbook’s introduction says “In 1844, the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill.” Congress passed the $30,000 appropriation in March 1843; 1844 is the year of Morse’s first message. Paragraph 6 describes the 1843 approval, and Option C, the correct answer, says 1843, so the introduction reads “In 1843.” The site shares this passage with 2018 Test B English, where the same correction is recorded.
  • Explanation: The handbook says Option A focuses on what Morse did while his application was delayed “rather than on how Morse acquired the patent.” The question asks how Morse obtained his funding, and the patent is what Option A does focus on, so the site now says “rather than on how Morse acquired the funding.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question wants a summary. A summary is a short retelling that keeps only the main points, in the order they happen. The topic is narrow: how Morse got the money for his telegraph. So the best choice must be true, stay on the money, and tell that story from beginning to end.

  2. Find where the money story is told

    The funding story runs through paragraphs 4, 5 and 6. By December 1837, Morse felt ready “to apply for the federal government’s appropriation” (paragraph 4). The next year, “he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington” (paragraph 4). Then a money crisis “caused a long depression,” and Morse “was forced to wait for better times” (paragraph 5). In 1843 he “again asked Congress for the $30,000,” and this time he got it (paragraph 6).

  3. Explain the words and list the steps

    Some words may be new. An appropriation is money that lawmakers agree to pay out for a planned project. Demonstrations are public shows that prove a machine works. A depression is a long period when businesses struggle and cash is scarce. Now put the story in order:

    1. Morse asked for the money.
    2. He showed people his telegraph working.
    3. Hard times made him wait.
    4. In 1843 Congress said yes to the $30,000.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. It is mostly about a trip to Europe for a patent (a legal right that stops others from copying an invention). Morse made that trip while he waited. A leaves out the demonstrations and the vote.
    • B does not fit. It is true, but it gives only the final step, when the House, the Senate and the president approved the bill. It skips the demonstrations and the years of waiting.
    • C fits. It covers the request, the demonstrations, the delay from the depression and the 1843 approval, in that order.
    • D does not fit. Gale and Vail helped Morse build the telegraph, not pay for it. And the flaws Gale pointed out were in Morse’s system, while D puts them in Henry’s work.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice tells the whole funding story, from the first request to the final yes, without drifting to other topics. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the hardest choice to rule out, because nothing in it is false. But it starts at the very end of the story. It drops the demonstrations Morse gave and the long wait during the depression. A summary must hold all the main steps, and C is the only choice that does.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 35 as printed on page 187 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 187, question 35. Open page 187 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 146 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 147 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 148 of the DOE handbook.

Question 54 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 36

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 7.

The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.

The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” in the sentence convey a

  • Asense of relief and fulfillment that the line was finished.
  • Bsense of wonder and celebration that the telegraph line was accomplished.
  • Cfeeling of excitement about the future possibilities of the telegraph.
  • Dfeeling of confidence about being able to continue the work.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” convey in the sentence from paragraph 7.

A. Incorrect. While there may have been some feelings of relief and fulfillment when the lines were finished, the passage instead focuses on the wonder and joy that Morse and Cornell felt after overcoming setbacks and completing the construction of the telegraph system.

B. CORRECT. Morse and Cornell rushed to post the wires overhead, and the “rigid deadline” (paragraph 7) was successfully met. The words have a positive and victorious tone that is consistent with the feeling of wonder that it worked and of celebration that the construction was completed.

C. Incorrect. The passage does not share whether Morse or Cornell considered the future possibilities of the telegraph; it shares only that the finished product was “dramatic,” implying it was amazing to see.

D. Incorrect. While the passage later discusses the expansion of overhead wires “up and down the Atlantic coast” and how they “connected the continents of Europe and America” (paragraph 8), there is no evidence shared in the passage that Morse planned to continue his work with electricity.

Question analysis

Students judge the connotation of two words, “dramatic” and “spectacularly,” in the sentence from “Invention of the Telegraph” that describes the completion of Samuel Morse’s first telegraph link from Washington to Baltimore. Because the same sentence calls Morse “desperate” and says the line was finished just in time, several feelings seem to fit the moment, and the choices name four of them.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5c connotation and denotation
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Judging what two adjectives convey is standard grade 7 word-choice work, and the sentence is printed with the question. The challenge is that all four choices name believable feelings, so students must separate the words’ own connotations from the situation around them.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 91 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The quoted sentence offers two tempting sources for the answer besides the two words the stem names: Morse is “desperate,” and the line is finished “in time.” Students who read the situation rather than the words choose relief, and those who think ahead to paragraph 8’s spreading wires choose excitement about the future. The question rewards asking what “dramatic” and “spectacularly” say about the link itself, an event that impressed and was celebrated.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The relief choice is built like the key, a pair of feelings about the finished line; only the feelings differ, and “dramatic” and “spectacularly” point to wonder at a public success, not release from worry. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    Neither word names an emotion: “dramatic” and “spectacularly” describe the link itself, so the feeling they carry has to be inferred from their sense of an impressive public show. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    All four choices name a positive feeling that suits a race against a “rigid deadline,” so tone alone rules none of them out. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, picture something you would call dramatic and spectacularly successful, and name the feeling those words give it; then find the choice closest to that feeling.

Traps

  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question is about connotation, the feeling a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning. It names two words, “dramatic” and “spectacularly.” Your job is to name the feeling those two words give the sentence. Other words in the sentence should not decide your answer.

  2. See what is happening in paragraph 7

    Just before this sentence, Morse’s team lost time laying wire that turned out to be faulty. The job was also “on a rigid deadline” with no time to spare. Cornell had a quick fix: to “string wires overhead on trees and poles” instead. Morse agreed, and the line was done in time. The sentence describes the moment the first link worked, from the Capitol in Washington to the train station in Baltimore.

  3. Work out what the two words suggest

    A dramatic event grabs your attention, the way the high point of a movie does. Spectacularly comes from spectacle, a grand sight that makes people stop and stare. So the author is saying the link was more than finished. It was a thrilling public success. Words like these make a reader marvel at what was done and want to cheer.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Morse was “desperate,” so he may have felt relief. But that feeling comes from the word “desperate,” not from the two words the question asks about.
    • B fits. Wonder matches an amazing sight, and celebration matches a great success.
    • C does not fit. This sentence is only about the finished link. Wires spreading to other places come later, in paragraph 8.
    • D does not fit. The two words describe the event itself. They tell nothing about Morse’s plans for more work.

  5. Choose the answer

    The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” make the first telegraph link sound like a thrilling show. So the answer is B, a “sense of wonder and celebration that the telegraph line was accomplished.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest trap, since it also names two good feelings about the finished line. But relief is the quiet feeling you get when worry ends. The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” are loud and showy. They make the link sound like something to gasp at and cheer for, and that is wonder and celebration.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 36 as printed on page 187 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 187, question 36. Open page 187 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 55 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 45
Passage Snowy Mountains

Snowy Mountains

by John Gould Fletcher

Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.

But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.

Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.

“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain

Question

How does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?

  • Aby describing images of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
  • Bby illustrating the differences among the various ways humans can affect the natural environment
  • Cby criticizing society for taking careless, harmful courses of action against nature
  • Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza.

A. Incorrect. The speaker’s descriptions of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength mainly occur in the first and third stanzas, while in the second stanza, the speaker focuses on humanity and its negative effect on the mountains.

B. Incorrect. The wording of the second stanza—“makes war” (line 10), “Splits down their shining sides” (line 12), and “Destroys the lonely fragments” (line 14)—communicates the speaker’s position that people’s main impact on the mountains is destructive; the wording does not illustrate different ways people impact the natural environment.

C. CORRECT. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the destructive actions of “the world” (lines 8 and 10) against the mountains—actions such as tunneling “their granite cliffs” (line 11) and destroying “the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14).

D. Incorrect. In the second stanza, the speaker does not describe a positive relationship between the mountains and the people.

Question analysis

This point-of-view question on the poem “Snowy Mountains” asks how the poet develops the speaker’s outlook in the second stanza, lines 8–14. Students must read the stanza on its own, decide what attitude its images and verbs express, and then find the choice that names both that attitude and the way it comes across.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Below typical grade 7 demand. Grade 7 point-of-view questions often require weighing subtle or shifting attitudes; this stanza is seven short lines with one consistent stance, carried by strong action words, so it suits grade 6.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 66 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The speaker’s anger in lines 8–14 is plain, and most students sense that the stanza blames people. Points are lost to choices that describe the poem’s admiration of the peaks, which belongs to the stanzas around this one, or that list the stanza’s actions without their hostility. Staying inside the seven lines and reading the attitude in verbs such as “makes war” and “Destroys” settles it quickly.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how the viewpoint is built, and the answer lies in what the world does in lines 10–14: it “makes war,” “Tunnels,” “Splits,” “Plasters” and “Destroys.” (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question

    The stanza personifies the mountains as victims, ignored and robbed of “the lonely fragments of their peace,” so the criticism of people comes through sympathy for the peaks. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Read lines 8–14 by themselves and put the speaker’s attitude into a few words of your own before looking at the choices.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about point of view. That is how the speaker, the voice talking in the poem, feels about the subject. It also asks how the poet shows that feeling. Look only at the second stanza, lines 8 to 14.

  2. Read the second stanza closely

    The stanza opens with “But the world heeds them not” (line 8). To heed something is to pay attention to it. Then “the world” starts to act. It “makes war on them,” “Tunnels their granite cliffs,” and “Splits down their shining sides.” It covers them with ads. Finally, in line 14, it “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”

  3. Decide what the speaker thinks

    Here “the world” means people in general. People ignore the mountains, yet keep hurting them. Each action is an attack: making war, tunneling, splitting, plastering, destroying. The speaker is clearly on the mountains’ side. By listing these acts, the speaker blames people for being careless and harmful. Blaming someone for what they do wrong is called criticism.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. Size and strength fill the first and third stanzas, as in “Higher and still more high” and “Vaster and still more vast.” In lines 8 to 14, the mountains are only victims.
    • B does not fit. The stanza lists several acts, but it does not compare them. They are all part of one “war.”
    • C fits. The stanza blames society for ignoring and harming the mountains.
    • D does not fit. The stanza shows no give-and-take. People only harm the mountains, and the mountains get nothing back.

  5. Choose the answer

    The speaker’s view comes through a list of careless, harmful acts that the poem plainly condemns. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong choice, because the stanza really does name several ways people affect the mountains. But the speaker is not studying how they differ. Each one is another blow in the same attack, and the speaker is upset by all of them. C names that anger as criticism, which is what the stanza does.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 45 as printed on page 191 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 191, question 45. Open page 191 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.

Question 56 of 90

2024 Test B English, question 50
Passage Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”

Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”

by Alex Ross

About forty-five hundred years ago, not long after the completion of the Great Pyramid at Giza, a seed of Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin bristlecone pine, landed on a steep slope in what are now known as the White Mountains, in eastern California. The seed may have travelled there on a gust of wind, its flight aided by a winglike attachment to the nut. Or it could have been planted by a bird known as the Clark’s nutcracker, which likes to hide pine seeds in caches; nutcrackers have phenomenal spatial1 memory and can recall thousands of such caches. This seed, however, lay undisturbed. On a moist day in fall, or in the wake of melting snows in spring, a seedling appeared above ground—a stubby one-inch stem with a tuft of bright-green shoots.

Most seedlings die within a year; the mortality rate is more than ninety-nine percent. The survivors are sometimes seen growing in the shadow of a fallen tree. The landscape of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, as this area of the White Mountains is called, is littered with fragments of dead trees—trunks, limbs, roots, and smaller chunks. Pinus longaeva grows exclusively in subalpine regions of the Great Basin, which stretches from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Range, in Utah. Conditions are generally too arid for the dead wood to rot; instead, it erodes, sanded down like rock. The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow. Bristlecones rise from the bones of their ancestors—a city within a cemetery.

Coast redwoods and giant sequoias, California’s gargantuan world-record-holding trees, can grow fifty feet or more in their first twenty years. Bristlecones rise agonizingly slowly. After four or five years, the seedling on the steep slope would have been just a few inches higher, sprouting needles in place of the embryonic shoots. The needles are a deep green, tough, resinous, and closely bunched in groups of five. On a mature tree, they live for fifty years or more. Decades may have passed before the tree was human height, and decades more before it resembled a conventional pine. Bristlecone saplings grow straight up, with relatively sparse foliage, looking like undernourished Christmas trees. After a few hundred years—by which time the Old Kingdom of Egypt had fallen—it was probably forty or fifty feet in height.

Many tree species live for hundreds of years. A smaller but not inconsiderable number, including the sequoias and certain yews, oaks, cypresses, and junipers, survive for thousands. Once a bristlecone has established itself in the unforgiving conditions of the White Mountains, it can last almost indefinitely. The trees tend to grow some distance from one another, so fires almost never destroy an entire stand. Because only a few other plant species can handle the dry, cold climate, the bristlecones face little competition. Unlike most plants, they tolerate dolomite soil, which is composed of a chalky type of limestone that is heavily alkaline and low in nutrients. As for insect threats, bristlecone wood is so dense that mountain-pine beetles and other pests can rarely burrow their way into it.

Empires rose and fell; wars raged; . . . and the tree from 2500 B.C. continued its implacable slow-motion existence, adding about two-hundredths of an inch to the diameter of its trunk each year. Minute changes in the tree-ring record make bristlecones an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on Earth. When rains are heavier than normal, the rings widen. When volcanic eruptions cause global cooling, frost rings make the anomaly2 visible. . . .

As the millennia go by, bristlecones become contorted and wraithlike.3 The main stem, or leader, dies back. Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils. At first glance, the tree may look dead. Such is the case of the forty-five-hundred-year-old tree that clings to life near the tourist path that now runs through the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Spears of dead wood jut into the air. The trunk is a marbled hulk stripped of bark, like driftwood thrown from a vanished ocean. A ribbon of live bark runs up one side, funneling water and nutrients to clumps of green needles high above. All told, the tree is an unprepossessing specimen; most people march past it without giving it a second glance. . . .

. . . No two super-elderly trees look alike, to the point where they have acquired the characteristics of individuals. Trees are prone to anthropomorphism; we project our dreams and our anxieties onto them. Bristlecones have been called elders, sentinels, sages. The possibility that climate change will cause their extinction has inspired a spate4 of alarmed news stories, although tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger. They have survived any number of catastrophes in the past; they may survive humanity.

From “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees” by Alex Ross from THE NEW YORKER, January 20, 2020. Copyright © 2020 by Condé Nast. All rights reserved.

1spatial: relating to physical space

2anomaly: oddity

3wraithlike: ghostly

4spate: sudden abundance

Question

What is the effect of comparing groups of bristlecone pines to “a city within a cemetery” (paragraph 2)?

  • AIt illustrates that the new tree’s appearance is markedly different from that of mature bristlecone pines.
  • BIt emphasizes the new tree’s ability to use resources left by prior generations of bristlecone pines.
  • CIt highlights the tree’s capacity for a long life if it is able to survive to maturity.
  • DIt reveals that the tree’s dense growth patterns are unusual in arid conditions.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the effect is of comparing groups of bristlecone pines to “a city within a cemetery” (paragraph 2).

A. Incorrect. The reference to “a city within a cemetery” describes how new trees use the remnants of their “ancestors” (paragraph 2) and makes no comment on the appearance of young versus mature trees.

B. CORRECT. The “cemetery” contains “the bones of their ancestors” (paragraph 2)—“ancestors” being earlier generations of bristlecone pines—which provide some of the nutrients that the new trees need.

C. Incorrect. The reference to “a cemetery” is not a comment on how long bristlecone pines can live; rather, it illustrates that the new pines are using remnants of their “ancestors” (paragraph 2) to grow.

D. Incorrect. Although the climate is mentioned in paragraph 2, it is not the reason for the comparison to “a city within a cemetery.” The comment is intended to illustrate how the new trees use nutrients left behind by the old ones.

Question analysis

This figurative language question on Alex Ross’s article about the bristlecone pine, one of the Earth’s oldest trees, asks what effect the author creates by comparing groups of these trees to “a city within a cemetery.” Students must interpret a metaphor in context, and the choices raise ideas the excerpt discusses elsewhere, so they must stay with what this comparison itself conveys.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5 figurative language and word relationships
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Interpreting a metaphor from nearby context is standard grade 7 work. The phrase closes a paragraph whose earlier sentences give the needed context, so the demand is typical, though the excerpt’s rich vocabulary adds some reading load.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 851 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 79 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The comparison closes paragraph 2, and the sentence just before it explains it: the dead wood may hold nutrients and fungi that help seedlings grow. Students who read the image on its own reach for ideas from elsewhere in the excerpt, such as the trees’ great age, the look of young and old trees, or the dry climate. The question rewards reading the metaphor against its neighbors, which makes it fairly quick.

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    Both halves of the metaphor need decoding: the “city” is the living bristlecones, and the “cemetery” is the dead trunks, limbs and roots littering the slope, “the bones of their ancestors.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The sentence that explains the image, “The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow,” depends on “remnants” and on “harbor” in its less familiar sense of hold. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Work out what the “city” and the “cemetery” each stand for by rereading the sentences just before the phrase, then choose the effect that both halves of the comparison support.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about a comparison. In paragraph 2, the author calls groups of bristlecones “a city within a cemetery.” You need to figure out what this picture helps the reader understand about the trees.

  2. Read the sentences around it

    Paragraph 2 says the forest floor is “littered with fragments of dead trees—trunks, limbs, roots, and smaller chunks.” Next it says, “The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow.” Then comes the comparison: “Bristlecones rise from the bones of their ancestors—a city within a cemetery.”

  3. Decode the two halves of the picture

    Remnants are leftover pieces. To harbor something here means to hold it. Fungi are living things such as mushrooms and molds. A cemetery is a place for the dead, so it stands for the dead wood. A city is full of life, so it stands for the living trees. Their ancestors are the trees that lived and died before them. So new trees grow out of the old ones’ remains and use what those remains hold.

  4. Check each choice

    • A does not fit. The image is about living trees and dead wood. It says nothing about how young and old trees look.
    • B fits. New trees use the nutrients and fungi left behind by earlier generations.
    • C does not fit. The excerpt does show that bristlecones live long, but this image is about growing from dead wood.
    • D does not fit. A city may sound crowded, but paragraph 4 says the trees “grow some distance from one another.”

  5. Choose the answer

    The comparison shows living trees rising from, and feeding on, the remains of their ancestors. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is tempting, because long life is what the whole excerpt is about. But the sentence just before the comparison explains it: the dead wood may hold nutrients that help new trees grow. The picture is about the living drawing on the dead, which is what B says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 50 as printed on page 194 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2025 Admissions, page 194, question 50. Open page 194 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed (pages 193–194)The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed on page 193 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees”” as printed on page 194 of the DOE handbook.

Question 57 of 90

2023 Test B English, question 12
Passage Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”

Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”

by Mandalit Del Barco

“La Cocina” means “the kitchen” in Spanish. It’s also the name of a business incubator1 based in San Francisco’s Mission District. Since it began in 2005, it’s been helping local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are low-income immigrant women, develop their small businesses.

Over the years, many of its alumni have found success: more than 50 chefs in its program have become self-sufficient business owners, and many of them have opened their own brick-and-mortar restaurants. Two alumnae of its culinary program . . . were even recognized as semi-finalists for prestigious James Beard awards.2

A new cookbook, We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream, tells some of their stories.

Executive director Caleb Zigas says the nonprofit La Cocina grew out of two grassroots economic development organizations3 who found many people cooking at their homes and selling food on the streets. The vendors needed an affordable commercial kitchen space and technical assistance in order for their businesses to be legally viable. La Cocina provided just such a space, in addition to helping them develop business plans, pull city permits and more.

Zigas says as many as eight businesses can work in the kitchen space at La Cocina at any one time. Some can prep for a farmers’ market sale, corporate catering gigs or weddings, while others might be making and packaging their food products.

“It’s just an incredible and exciting range of techniques, flavors, perspectives, age, language. And that’s a really beautiful thing,” he says. . . .

Twice a year, La Cocina hosts “F&B: Voices from the Kitchen,” a storytelling project where their chefs can tell their own stories, as they do in the new cookbook. Some of the chefs will be on tour to promote the book, whose proceeds will go to support La Cocina entrepreneurs.

NPR4 caught up with . . . La Cocina chefs, who shared their stories:

Mariko Grady, Aedan Fermented Foods

At La Cocina, you can often hear Mariko Grady singing or humming as she prepares miso, koji, and amasake. Her fermented products come in four different flavors, including mushroom and chicken, to be used in soups and sauces. She originally brought the fermenting rice and barley koji seeds from Japan, where she had a 30-year career as a singer and dancer with the prestigious modern theatrical dance group she founded, Pappa Tarahumara. They performed around the world, and 16 years ago, had a one-night show in San Francisco. The man who would become her husband was in the audience. She soon joined him in San Francisco, often returning to Tokyo to rehearse. But after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, her company disbanded. . . . Grady focused on nourishing her family and creating a line of fermented products that she sells online, at local Bay Area stores and at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. She began at La Cocina in 2012 and named her business after her son, Aedan. (Written in Kanji characters, the name means “wisdom” and “handed down from generation to generation.”) . . . Her fermented products are “also full of wisdom about how to relate to nature and how to create a healthy life,” she says. . . .

Shani Jones, Peaches Patties

Shani Jones is a native San Franciscan. Her father was born in New Orleans, her mother, in Jamaica. She says their home was always filled with a variety of spices and dishes like jerk chicken and Jamaican patties—savory pastries filled with beef or chicken. Jones says she learned to cook from her mother, whose nickname was Peaches. After returning from college in Atlanta, Jones worked on her doctorate in organizational leadership and management while driving a Lyft5 car. She often told passengers about her idea of opening a catering company with her mom’s recipes. They steered her to La Cocina, where she developed her own business, named after her mother. Five years later, she caters and runs a kiosk6 at a small food cooperative in Bernal Heights, where some of her handmade patties have an Ethiopian twist, “because my husband is Ethiopian.” Jones has big aspirations for Peaches Patties: “The ultimate goal,” she says, “is to be the patty kingpin7 of the West Coast.”

From “The Food Business Incubator That Helps Immigrant Women Pursue The American Dream” by Mandalit Del Barco from WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY, June 19, 2019. Copyright © 2019 NPR.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR LA COCINA APPLICANTS

Level of IncomeLa Cocina considers assets and access to opportunity when screening applicants. La Cocina’s mission is to support entrepreneurs who face barriers to becoming successful in the food industry. Applicants must be classified as low- or very-low-income earners according to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Guidelines for San Francisco.
Business PlanApplicants must have a business plan that is ready to be put into action. La Cocina will help applicants refine an existing business plan. Applicants without a business plan should contact one of La Cocina’s partner organizations for guidance in developing one.
Viable ProductThe applicant’s food must not only be delicious but also stand out. For a business to make a profit, there also has to be a market for the food.
Entrepreneurial Work EthicLa Cocina is excited to work with entrepreneurs who are motivated and passionate about growing their business. Succeeding in the food industry requires a lot of heart and hard work.
Community SpiritThe 30+ entrepreneurs who share La Cocina’s kitchen are from many different backgrounds. La Cocina values the community it has created and expects each entrepreneur to be active in bringing the spirit of La Cocina to the wider world.
In order to succeed in the La Cocina kitchen, accepted applicants must be flexible and willing to work closely with others.

Source: La Cocina

1business incubator: company that helps new and startup companies develop by providing services such as management training and office space

2James Beard awards: an award named after American cook and author James Beard, considered one of the highest honors in the culinary industry

3economic development organizations: organizations whose mission is to promote economic improvement within a specific geographical area

4NPR: National Public Radio, a nonprofit media organization that produces and distributes news and cultural programming

5Lyft: ride-sharing company where people use their own cars to provide rides to customers

6kiosk: cart or small structure with one or more open sides that is used to vend merchandise or services

7kingpin: the leader in a group or undertaking

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 12 as printed on page 161 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 161, question 12. Open page 161 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed (pages 158–160)The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed on page 158 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed on page 159 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator”” as printed on page 160 of the DOE handbook.

Question 58 of 90

2023 Test B English, question 17

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “The Food Business Incubator””.

Question

The table provides additional support for a central idea of the excerpt by

  • Ashowing how La Cocina works with partner organizations to further educate and advance successful applicants within the food industry.
  • Bexplaining how applicants are prepared to develop their own businesses once they leave La Cocina.
  • Cestablishing that La Cocina is dedicated to its mission to provide delicious food to different communities.
  • Demphasizing that applicants must be willing to dedicate time to promoting and developing their business with La Cocina.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks how the table provides additional support for a central idea of the excerpt.

A. Incorrect. The table describes the requirements that allow food entrepreneurs to qualify to participate in La Cocina. While the table does mention that applicants without a business plan should contact one of La Cocina’s partner organizations, it does not specifically explain how La Cocina works with these partner organizations to help educate successful applicants.

B. Incorrect. The table describes the ways entrepreneur chefs must qualify in order to be accepted into La Cocina, not how their businesses can be successful after they leave.

C. Incorrect. While the table mentions community spirit, this is in reference to the type of energy La Cocina wishes to establish within its group kitchen space. The excerpt and table do not discuss providing food to different communities within or outside San Francisco as specific goals of La Cocina.

D. CORRECT. A central idea of the excerpt is that La Cocina helps local food entrepreneurs develop their businesses. The table lists requirements for people who want to participate in La Cocina. They must be willing to work hard to promote their own businesses as they use the resources that La Cocina provides.

Question analysis

This question asks how the table “Qualifications for La Cocina Applicants,” printed after the NPR article, provides additional support for a central idea of the excerpt. The table’s five rows, from level of income to community spirit, are written in full sentences, so students must read it as closely as the article and decide how the two connect.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 readers often connect a table to a text. This one holds five rows of requirements written as sentences, not numbers, and students must tie it to a central idea through long choices, more than typical grade 7 work.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from the whole text
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 1057 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 81 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A detail of the table was restated accurately 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

The table is easy to read row by row but hard to connect, because it lists entry requirements while the article describes help and success. Each wrong choice grabs a real phrase from the table or an idea from the article, partner organizations, delicious food, alumni starting their own businesses, and attaches it to a claim the table does not make. The right choice is the only one that sums up several rows at once, the work ethic and community spirit expected of applicants.

  1. Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question

    The table holds five rows of full sentences, and the telling details sit in single phrases: “should contact one of La Cocina’s partner organizations,” “a lot of heart and hard work,” “active in bringing the spirit of La Cocina to the wider world.” (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The right choice speaks of dedicating time to “promoting and developing” a business, words the table never uses, while wrong choices lift its own “partner organizations,” “mission,” “delicious” and “community.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Combines ideas minor Working it out

    Students must join two sources, a central idea of the article, that La Cocina helps cooks develop businesses, and a table about who may apply, then say what the second adds to the first. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)

Strategy: Sum up each row of the table in a few words, state a central idea of the article in a sentence, and keep only a choice that the rows actually show and that fits that idea.

Traps

  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.
  • Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s explanation of Option A says the table states that applicants without a business plan “must contact” one of La Cocina’s partner organizations. The table’s Business Plan row says they “should contact” one: it is advice, while the row’s requirement is that applicants “must have a business plan that is ready to be put into action.” The site now says “should contact.” The answer is unchanged.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. See how the table connects

    This question links the table to the article. The table, “Qualifications for La Cocina Applicants,” lists what people need to join. Qualifications are the skills or traits you must have. You must decide how the table supports a central idea of the article.

  2. Sum up each row

    RowWhat it asks of applicants
    Level of Incomeearn little money
    Business Planhave a plan ready to use
    Viable Productmake food that tastes great, stands out and can sell
    Entrepreneurial Work Ethicbe eager and work hard
    Community Spiritwork well with others and spread La Cocina’s spirit

    Most rows describe people ready to put in real effort.

  3. Connect the table to the article

    A central idea of the article is that La Cocina helps cooks develop their businesses. The table shows what La Cocina expects in return. It wants people “motivated and passionate about growing their business.” It says success “requires a lot of heart and hard work.” It expects each cook to be “active in bringing the spirit of La Cocina to the wider world.” So the help goes to people who will give time to their business.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The table says applicants without a plan “should contact” a partner group for advice. That happens before applying. It doesn’t show La Cocina working with partners to train accepted cooks.
    • B is wrong. The table is about getting in, not about leaving La Cocina later.
    • C is wrong. The table uses the words “delicious” and “community.” But its community is the cooks who share the kitchen, not neighborhoods La Cocina feeds.
    • D is right. The work-ethic row calls for hard work at growing a business. The community row asks cooks to spread La Cocina’s spirit. Both take time and effort.

  5. Choose the answer

    The table shows that La Cocina wants cooks ready to work hard at building their businesses. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest wrong answer, because “partner organizations” really is in the table. But the table only suggests that people without a business plan get advice from one. It never shows La Cocina teaming up with partners to train its members. D sums up several rows at once.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as printed on page 162 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 162, question 17. Open page 162 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 59 of 90

2023 Test B English, question 36
Passage 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 ospreys1^1 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.

1^1ospreys: 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.”

  5. 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
Question 36 as printed on page 177 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s NYC Guide to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for 2024 Admissions, page 177, question 36. Open page 177 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed on page 72 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed on page 73 of the DOE handbook.

Question 60 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 17
Passage Champion of the Channel

Champion of the Channel

In 1926 an editor at the London Daily News predicted that Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals, would fail in her attempt to swim across the English Channel. He claimed that “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance they must remain forever the weaker sex.” Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours. Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.

Crossing the English Channel is a daunting task for any swimmer. At its narrowest point, the channel measures twenty-one miles across. Its icy waters hover around sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and its unruly tides and currents toss swimmers about like bobbing corks. Stinging jellyfish, seaweed, and floating debris from shipwrecks and lost cargoes present added hazards.

For decades the channel’s perils have defeated countless swimmers. Ederle, too, failed in her first attempt to cross the channel in 1925. Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water. Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again. Ederle knew that if she did not complete the challenge this time, she might never get the opportunity to set this record, because a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well.

To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment. She and her sister Meg discovered that melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges, effectively waterproofing Ederle’s goggles against hammering waves. The sisters also designed a two-piece silk swimsuit for Ederle. During her first channel-crossing attempt she had worn a standard one-piece swimsuit that, after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel, had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable. Unlike the cumbersome typical bathing suit, this silk invention weighed little and allowed for easy movement.

On August 6, 1926, Ederle waded into the channel near Cape Gris-Nez, France. At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation. Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular. Driving forward, she fought to clear her mind and find what she called her “sphere,” a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away. Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.

Throughout Ederle’s swim, two tugboats accompanied her. One carried newspaper reporters who wired dispatches of her progress to shore. The other, displaying a sign that read “This way, ole kid!” with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends. Her coach played songs, such as “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” on a phonograph so that Ederle could time her strokes to the rhythm. Using a net, her coach also passed her baby bottles of broth for nourishment.

For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile. However, as she neared the English shore, a sudden fierce storm erupted. The tides and waves forced Ederle backward, and she fought the stubborn swells for several hours. The salty water caused her tongue to swell and inflamed her ears. Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea. Finally, as she neared the English shore, the storm abated, and the tide turned. No longer fighting against her, the sea pushed her toward the shore and victory.

After fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes, Ederle, on wobbly legs, stepped onto the English shore. The waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky. Ederle had swum into history.

When Ederle returned to New York, she received a parade, where thousands of people shouted “Trudy!” Not only were everyday American citizens proud of Ederle, but she also inspired them to be more active. Over the next few years, more than 60,000 people credited her with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates. Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.

SOLO SWIMS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

Earliest Speed Records
Year Swimmer Time
1875 Matthew Webb (M) 21 hours, 45 minutes
1923 Enrico Tiraboschi (M) 16 hours, 33 minutes
1926 Gertrude Ederle (F) 14 hours, 31 minutes
1926 Arnst Vierkotter (M) 12 hours, 38 minutes
Current Speed Records
Year Swimmer Time
2012 Trent Grimsey (M) 6 hours, 55 minutes
2006 Yvetta Hlavacova (F) 7 hours, 25 minutes

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of the steps that Ederle took to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel?

  • AWorking with her sister, Ederle waterproofed her goggles using melted candle wax to seal the edges and designed a two-piece silk bathing suit that was lightweight and would not stretch out during the long swim.
  • BEderle covered her body in numerous layers of grease for insulation and focused on finding her “sphere” during her swim.
  • CEderle began training with her coach, who played music while she swam to help her time her strokes to the music.
  • DEderle focused on developing better equipment than the standard swimsuit that proved cumbersome during her first attempt to cross the channel.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The answer is (A)

The question asks for the best summary of Ederle’s steps to prepare for her second attempt to swim across the English Channel. Ederle’s preparation is outlined in paragraph 4.

Option A is correct because it acknowledges the idea that Ederle involved her sister in this process, and it details the efforts the two took to improve Ederle’s equipment, including waxing her goggles and designing a better swimsuit.

Option B is incorrect because it focuses on Ederle’s actions in the moments before (covering her body with grease for insulation) and during her swim (finding her “sphere”), not her overall preparation methods.

Option C is incorrect because it refers to a practice that was employed to help Ederle keep her strokes in rhythm during her swim.

Option D is incorrect because it does not refer to the series of steps that Ederle took to prepare for her swim but rather to just one of the efforts made (improving equipment) without acknowledging her sister’s contributions.

Question analysis

This reading question asks for the best summary of the steps swimmer Gertrude Ederle took to prepare for her second attempt to cross the English Channel. The passage describes many things Ederle and her helpers did, so students must sort out which ones were preparation and which summary covers them most completely.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Summarizing the steps described in one paragraph is a grade 6 skill; grade 7 summaries usually cover a whole text and how it develops. The demand here is a careful match between details and choices.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 121 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The preparation is confined to paragraph 4, but the passage keeps describing things Ederle and her team did, so students must separate getting ready from the swim itself. The grease is the trickiest, since she put it on before entering the water. Between the two equipment summaries, the one that lists the goggles, the suit and her sister's help is the fuller account.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The right summary and the one about better equipment than the standard swimsuit describe the same work, and only the waxed goggles and Meg's help, missing from the shorter one, tell them apart. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    Two choices take real details from the swim itself, the grease and the phonograph, so each must be placed in time, before the swim or during it. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Find the paragraph that describes how Ederle got ready, list its steps in order, and choose the summary that matches that list most completely.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    A summary tells the main points in a short way. This asks for the steps Ederle took to get ready for her second try. So focus on what she did before the swim, not during it.

  2. Find the paragraph about getting ready

    Paragraph 4 begins: “To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment.” That word “prepare” tells you this is the paragraph you need.

  3. List the steps in paragraph 4

    • She and her sister Meg found that “melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges.” That kept water out of her goggles.
    • The sisters “designed a two-piece silk swimsuit” for her.
    • Her old suit had “stretched out, filling with water and creating drag.” Drag is a pull that slows you down.
    • The new suit “weighed little and allowed for easy movement.”

  4. Check each choice

    • A names her sister, the waxed goggles, and the light silk suit. It covers every step.
    • B: the grease and her “sphere” come from paragraph 5, the day of the swim itself.
    • C: her coach played music on a phonograph, an old record player, during the swim (paragraph 6). The passage never describes training sessions.
    • D is about better gear, but it mentions only the swimsuit.

    Watch out: D is true, but it leaves out the goggles and Meg’s help. A summary of the steps should name the steps.

  5. Pick the answer

    Choice A matches the full list of steps from paragraph 4, with nothing missing. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because better equipment is the main idea of paragraph 4. But D tells only about the swimsuit. It leaves out the waxed goggles and her sister Meg. A includes every step, so it is the best summary.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 17 as printed on page 58 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 58, question 17. Open page 58 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 56 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed on page 57 of the DOE handbook.

Question 61 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 18

Uses the passage above: “Champion of the Channel”.

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

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.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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
Question 18 as printed on page 58 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 58, question 18. Open page 58 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 62 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 21

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

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”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.”

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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 21 as printed on page 59 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 59, question 21. Open page 59 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 63 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 31
Passage Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad

Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad

by Mark Twain

Now and then, while we1^1 rested, we watched the laborious ant at his work. I found nothing new in him—certainly nothing to change my opinion of him. It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be a strangely overrated bird. During many summers now I have watched him, when I ought to have been in better business, and I have not yet come across a living ant that seemed to have any more sense than a dead one. I refer to the ordinary ant, of course; I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, . . . and dispute about religion. Those particular ants may be all that the naturalist paints them, but I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham.

I admit his industry, of course; he is the hardest working creature in the world—when anybody is looking—but his leather-headedness is the point I make against him. He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do? Go home? No; he goes anywhere but home. He doesn’t know where home is. His home may be only three feet away; no matter, he can’t find it. He makes his capture, as I have said; it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else; it is usually seven times bigger than it ought to be; he hunts out the awkwardest place to take hold of it; he lifts it bodily up in the air by main force, and starts—not toward home, but in the opposite direction; not calmly and wisely, but with a frantic haste which is wasteful of his strength; he fetches up against a pebble, and, instead of going around it, he climbs over it backwards, dragging his booty after him, tumbles down on the other side, jumps up in a passion, kicks the dust off his clothes, moistens his hands, grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then that, shoves it ahead of him a moment, turns tail and lugs it after him another moment, gets madder and madder, then presently hoists it into the air and goes tearing away in an entirely new direction; comes to a weed; it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top—which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple; when he gets up there he finds that that is not the place; takes a cursory glance at the scenery, and either climbs down again or tumbles down, and starts off once more—as usual, in a new direction. At the end of half an hour he fetches up within six inches of the place he started from, and lays his burden down. Meantime, he has been over all the ground for two yards around, and climbed all the weeds and pebbles he came across. Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever. He traverses a good deal of zig-zag country, and by and by stumbles on his same booty again. He does not remember to have ever seen it before; he looks around to see which is not the way home, grabs his bundle, and starts. He goes through the same adventures he had before; finally stops to rest, and a friend comes along.

Evidently the friend remarks that a last year’s grasshopper leg is a very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it. Evidently the proprietor does not remember exactly where he did get it, but thinks he got it “around here somewhere.” Evidently the friend contracts to help him freight it home. Then, with a judgment peculiarly antic (pun not intentional), they take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions. Presently they take a rest, and confer together. They decide that something is wrong, they can’t make out what. Then they go at it again, just as before. Same result. Mutual recriminations follow. Evidently each accuses the other of being an obstructionist. They warm up, and the dispute ends in a fight. They lock themselves together and chew each other’s jaws for a while; then they roll and tumble on the ground till one loses a horn or a leg and has to haul off for repairs. They make up and go to work again in the same old insane way, but the crippled ant is at a disadvantage; tug as he may, the other one drags off the booty and him at the end of it. Instead of giving up, he hangs on, and gets his shins bruised against every obstruction that comes in the way. By and by, when that grasshopper leg has been dragged all over the same old ground once more, it is finally dumped at about the spot where it originally lay. The two perspiring ants inspect it thoughtfully and decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all, and then each starts off in a different direction to see if he can’t find an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it. . . .

Science has recently discovered that the ant does not lay up anything for winter use. . . . He does not work, except when people are looking, and only then when the observer has a green, naturalistic look, and seems to be taking notes. This amounts to deception, and will injure him for the Sunday schools. He has not judgment enough to know what is good to eat from what isn’t. This amounts to ignorance, and will impair the world’s respect for him. . . . He cannot stroll around a stump and find his way home again. This amounts to idiocy, and once the damaging fact is established, thoughtful people will cease to look up to him. It is strange beyond comprehension that so manifest a humbug as the ant has been able to fool so many nations and keep it up so many ages without being found out.

we1^1: the author and his fictional travel companion

From A TRAMP ABROAD by Mark Twain—Public Domain

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

The wrong answers, classified

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)”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks how 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 31 as printed on page 65 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 65, question 31. Open page 65 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed (pages 62–63)The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed on page 62 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad” as printed on page 63 of the DOE handbook.

Question 64 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 32

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.

Question

Which sentence from paragraph 2 best supports the idea that sheer “leather-headedness” (paragraph 2) amounts to “ignorance” and “idiocy” (paragraph 4)?

  • A“He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do?”
  • B“He lifts it bodily up in the air by main force,”
  • C“When he gets up there he finds that that is not the place;”
  • D“Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a hurry as ever.”
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The answer is (C)

The question asks for a sentence in the excerpt that supports the idea that the ant’s “leather-headedness” (paragraph 2), or the ant’s stubborn determination to engage in foolish and worthless actions, amounts to ignorance and idiocy.

Option C is correct because, in the sentence in Option C, the ant realizes he is in the wrong place only after wasting effort and strength, which reveals his stupidity and lack of awareness.

Option A is incorrect because the sentence in Option A poses the question that the ant should ask himself and does not demonstrate the ant’s ignorance and idiocy.

Option B is incorrect because the sentence in Option B simply describes the ant’s action of lifting the grasshopper leg into a position to carry it.

Option D is incorrect because, while the sentence in Option D describes the ant’s exhaustion, which is caused by his stubborn determination, the sentence does not provide a connection to the ant’s leather-headedness.

Question analysis

This textual evidence question asks which sentence from paragraph 2 best shows that the ant's “leather-headedness” amounts to the “ignorance” and “idiocy” named later in Mark Twain's excerpt. Students must work out an old-fashioned insult and then choose among quotations that all describe the ant behaving oddly.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7L4a context clues
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 On a typical grade 7 test, an evidence question pairs a clear claim with one obviously fitting quotation. Here students must first decode an old-fashioned insult and connect it to judgments made two paragraphs later, which demands more interpretation.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 79 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A wrong paragraph number in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

Every quotation comes from the ant's absurd trip, so the question is which one shows a failure of sense on its own. Two are fragments cut just before the foolish part, and students who remember the full sentence credit them with more than they show. The marching-aimlessly line is the strongest rival; the key wins because it records a mistake the ant discovers only after great effort, matching paragraph 4's ant that cannot find his way.

  1. Hard words moderate Understanding the question

    “Leather-headedness” is an old insult meaning thick-headed stupidity; a student who reads it as toughness or stubbornness will look for force or persistence instead of foolishness. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The claim joins a word in paragraph 2 to “ignorance” and “idiocy” in paragraph 4, where idiocy is an ant that cannot “find his way home again.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

Strategy: Work out from context what “leather-headedness” means, then ask of each quotation whether it clearly shows that quality, and how it connects to the judgments in paragraph 4.

Traps

  • Supports only part of the claim: In a question about evidence: a line that backs one half of the claim but not the other, or a related point rather than the claim itself.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook places the ant’s “leather-headedness” in paragraph 4. The word is in paragraph 2, as the question itself says, so the explanation now reads “(paragraph 2)”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is an evidence question. You need the sentence from paragraph 2 that best proves the ant is foolish. First you must know what the three insults mean.

  2. Learn what the insults mean

    In paragraph 2 Twain says, “his leather-headedness is the point I make against him.” Leather-headed is an old insult. It means thick-headed or dim. Watch out: it does not mean tough or strong.

    In paragraph 4 he calls the ant’s acts “ignorance” (not knowing things) and “idiocy” (being very foolish). His example of idiocy is this: “He cannot stroll around a stump and find his way home again.”

  3. Look for a foolish mistake

    So look for a quote that, by itself, shows the ant making a foolish mistake. Choice C does. The ant drags his load to the top of a weed. Then “he finds that that is not the place.” He learns he is wrong only after all that work. That is a lot like an ant who can’t find his way home.

  4. Check each choice

    • A only asks a question. The foolish answer comes in later words.
    • B shows the ant is strong, lifting his load “by main force.” Strength is not foolishness.
    • C fits. It shows a mistake he finds only after wasting effort.
    • D shows him sweaty and in a hurry. “Aimlessly” hints that he has no plan, but the quote shows no clear mistake.

  5. Choose the answer

    Choice C gives the clearest proof of a thick-headed ant. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong choice, because “aimlessly” means without a goal. But D mostly shows the ant wiping sweat and rushing off. C shows a real error: he works hard to reach a spot, and it is the wrong spot. That matches “ignorance” and “idiocy” best.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 32 as printed on page 65 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 65, question 32. Open page 65 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 65 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 34

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from A Tramp Abroad”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 3.

The two perspiring ants inspect it thoughtfully and decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all, and then each starts off in a different direction to see if he can’t find an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it.

How does the word choice in the sentence contribute to the overall meaning of the excerpt?

  • AIt creates a humorous critique of the ants’ intense attitude toward their pointless work.
  • BIt illustrates the ants’ confusion over their lack of positive results compared with their level of effort.
  • CIt highlights the ants’ frustration as they repeatedly chose a difficult task over one that could be accomplished more easily.
  • DIt illustrates the ants’ stubborn determination to hold on to the worthless object.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The answer is (A)

The question asks for an explanation of how the word choice in the sentence adds to the meaning of the excerpt. The image the author creates of two sweating ants abandoning the grasshopper leg to look for “an old nail,” which an ant would want because it is “valueless,” is comical, as suggested in Option A.

Option B is incorrect because it is a misinterpretation of the excerpt, as the ants are not confused but are acting decisively (paragraph 3: “Then they go at it again, just as before”).

Option C is incorrect because the ants find moving heavy objects to be an amusing way to spend their time and are not aware enough to feel frustrated (paragraph 3: “something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it”).

Option D is incorrect because the ants are willingly giving up on their object (paragraph 3: “decide that dried grasshopper legs are a poor sort of property after all”).

Question analysis

This question asks how Mark Twain's word choice in one long sentence, where two sweating ants give up on a grasshopper leg and go looking for something else to carry, shapes the excerpt's meaning. Students must judge the tone of words such as “thoughtfully,” “entertainment” and “valueless” and relate it to the excerpt as a whole.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5 figurative language and word relationships
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly judge how word choice shapes tone, so the skill is familiar. What adds demand is one very long sentence whose effect depends on reading its adjectives against the situation they describe.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 1099 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 149 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The sentence comes after a brawl, so readers expect frustration or confusion, and two wrong choices supply exactly those moods from earlier in paragraph 3. Here, though, the ants are calm and deliberate, and the joke is that their calm reasoning picks the heaviest, most worthless thing to haul. Students who judge the words of this sentence, not the paragraph's general mood, see that it mocks the ants' earnest attitude toward pointless work.

  1. Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question

    The humor is ironic logic: the ants inspect “thoughtfully,” then seek something “heavy enough to afford entertainment” and “valueless enough” to own, praising the very qualities that make their work pointless. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question

    The effect builds across one 67-word sentence whose key phrases come at the very end, after a chain of clauses about inspecting, deciding and setting off. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Underline the words that describe the ants' thinking and goals, decide what effect they have in this sentence, and then compare that effect with each choice.

Traps

  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a word-choice question. It asks how the words in one sentence add to the meaning of the excerpt. Pay attention to the tone, which is the feeling the words give.

  2. Find the key words

    The sentence ends paragraph 3. First the ants “inspect it thoughtfully.” Then each one looks for “an old nail or something else that is heavy enough to afford entertainment and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it.”

  3. Work out the joke

    “Afford entertainment” means give them fun. “Valueless” means worth nothing. Twain makes the ants sound careful and wise. Then they decide to look for something heavy and worthless.

    That is the joke. The very things that make their work pointless are what they want most. Twain is making fun of how seriously the ants take their silly work.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. The words make a funny critique (a judgment) of the ants’ serious attitude toward pointless work.
    • B In this sentence the ants are not confused. They think it over and decide calmly.
    • C They do pick heavy things, but for fun, not out of frustration.
    • D They give the leg up. They decide it is “a poor sort of property after all.”

  5. Choose the answer

    The sentence pokes fun at how hard the ants work at nothing. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest trap, since the ants really do choose heavy loads. But the anger came earlier in the paragraph, during the fight. In this sentence the ants are calm. They want something heavy to have fun with. Fun, not frustration, is the point, and Twain makes it funny. That matches A.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 34 as printed on page 66 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 66, question 34. Open page 66 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 66 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 40
Passage Ruins of a Fabled City

Ruins of a Fabled City

The African country of Zimbabwe took its name from the Shona word meaning “stone enclosures” or “venerated houses.” In fact, today dozens of stone ruins are scattered throughout Zimbabwe and other areas in southeastern Africa. One of these ruins, known as Great Zimbabwe, was once a fabled city that inspired tales that circulated throughout Europe. Where was this remarkable city, and who had built it? For centuries the mystery occupied the minds of explorers and treasure seekers.

The first reports to Europeans of Great Zimbabwe were spread a thousand years ago by Arab traders sailing between the Middle East and the east coast of Africa. The traders told of the fabulous wealth of a mysterious stone city in the African interior. In the trader’s tales, that city became associated with the Europeans’ understanding of Middle Eastern history—the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and his legendary gold mines, long since lost to the world. By the sixteenth century, Portuguese explorers regularly visited East Africa, searching for King Solomon’s gold, but they never found Great Zimbabwe. In 1552, a Portuguese historian, João de Barros, recorded a story told by Arabs about a city with a “square fortress of masonry within and without, built of stones of marvelous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them.”

In fact, Great Zimbabwe was a marvel. In one area a massive wall more than thirty feet high and twenty feet thick created a great enclosure. Another area contained a fortress-like series of walls, corridors, and steps built into the bluff that overlooks the ruins. Throughout the city, each stone was precisely fitted to the others without the use of mortar.

In the 1870s Karl Mauch, a German geologist, was the first European to see Great Zimbabwe, by then in ruins. Mauch realized that he had “rediscovered” the fabled city from de Barros’s story. He jumped to the conclusion that Great Zimbabwe had been built by the Queen of Sheba. British authorities sent a British journalist, Richard Hall, to Great Zimbabwe to investigate Mauch’s report. Archaeology was still in its infancy, and Hall, convinced that the structures had been built by ancient people from the Middle East, dug up and discarded archaeological deposits that would have revealed much about the true history of Great Zimbabwe. Later European excavations destroyed even more valuable evidence.

In the twentieth century, after excavating areas that had not been disturbed, David Randall-MacIver, a Scottish Egyptologist, and Gertrude Caton-Thompson, an English archaeologist, concluded that the ruins were unmistakably African in origin. Great Zimbabwe was most likely built during the fourteenth or fifteenth century by the ancestors of the present-day Shona people. Recent carbon-14 dating supports their conclusion. Great Zimbabwe was once home to an estimated 20,000 people, the center of a great Shona kingdom. Wealthy Shona kings traded their ivory and gold in coastal towns for other goods, thus accounting for the discovery of beads and other foreign wares in the ruins.

One mystery of Great Zimbabwe had been solved. Another mystery remains: why was the settlement at Great Zimbabwe abandoned, leaving the magnificent stone architecture to fall into ruins?

Question

Which statement about the Shona people is best supported by the passage?

  • AThey live along the east coast of Africa.
  • BThey are descendants of the people who built Great Zimbabwe.
  • CThey lived in the Middle East before settling in Africa.
  • DThey were once ruled by King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The answer is (B)

The question asks for the best supported evidence the passage provides about the Shona people. The Shona people are discussed in paragraph 5, where it is explained that Great Zimbabwe was discovered to have been built by the ancient ancestors of the Shona people, making Option B correct.

Option A is incorrect because the ancient Shona people lived in the African interior, not on the coast, and the passage does not give specific details about where the Shona people live presently.

Option C is incorrect because the passage does not give a detailed history about the origins and locations of the Shona people in Africa.

Option D is incorrect because, while early explorers were looking for King Solomon’s gold and evidence of the Queen of Sheba in Africa, the Shona people were not found to be linked to these people.

Question analysis

Students must decide which statement about the Shona people is best supported by the passage on Great Zimbabwe. The Shona appear in only a few sentences of a text crowded with explorers, legends and rival theories, so each choice must be checked against exactly what those sentences say.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Locating what a passage says about one group and restating it is a grade 6 skill. The supporting sentence is short and clear, so this falls below typical grade 7 demand despite the passage's crowded content.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 524 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 52 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The Shona are named only in paragraph 5, and the sentence that matters says the city was built by their ancestors. The one real hurdle is the reversal of that relation in the key, which a student who mixes up ancestors and descendants may reject. Every wrong choice borrows a place or name tied to someone else in the passage: the traders' coast, Hall's Middle East, the European legends.

  1. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    The key flips the passage's “ancestors of the present-day Shona people” into “descendants of the people who built,” while wrong choices reuse “east coast,” “Middle East” and “King Solomon.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Search the passage for every mention of the Shona and read those sentences closely; choose the statement they directly support, not one that merely sounds historical.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Word match: Repeats striking words or phrases from the text, so it looks supported, but its meaning does not fit the question.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks which statement about the Shona people the passage supports. Trust only what the passage says, not what sounds right.

  2. Find every mention of the Shona

    The Shona appear only in paragraph 5. Great Zimbabwe “was most likely built during the fourteenth or fifteenth century by the ancestors of the present-day Shona people.” Later: “Wealthy Shona kings traded their ivory and gold in coastal towns.”

  3. Turn the sentence around

    Your ancestors are family members who lived long before you, like your great-great-grandparents. Your descendants are the people who come after you, like your grandchildren.

    So if the builders were the ancestors of the Shona, then the Shona today are the descendants of the builders. Choice B flips the words, but it says the same thing.

  4. Check each choice

    • A The kings traded in coastal towns. But the city was in the African interior, away from the coast.
    • B fits. It restates paragraph 5.
    • C Builders from the Middle East was Hall’s wrong idea. It is not Shona history.
    • D King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba come from European legends, not Shona history.

  5. Choose the answer

    The passage supports the idea that the Shona today are descendants of the city’s builders. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is tempting because Shona kings traded “in coastal towns.” But trading in a place is not living there. The passage never says where the Shona live now. B is the only choice the passage states, just turned around from “ancestors” to “descendants.”

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as printed on page 70 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 70, question 40. Open page 70 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Ruins of a Fabled City” as printed (page 68)The passage “Ruins of a Fabled City” as printed on page 68 of the DOE handbook.

Question 67 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 41

Uses the passage above: “Ruins of a Fabled City”.

Question

The conclusions of David Randall-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson were significant because they

  • Aproved that Great Zimbabwe was much older than previously thought.
  • Bquestioned why the Shona people left Great Zimbabwe.
  • Csupported the idea that the ancient Shona had a robust society at Great Zimbabwe.
  • Drevealed that Great Zimbabwe was African in origin.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The answer is (D)

The question asks for the impact of Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson’s discovery. David Randall-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson’s conclusions were significant because their excavation of the ruins revealed that Great Zimbabwe was most certainly built by the ancestors of modern-day Africans (paragraph 5), discrediting the long-standing idea that the structure was Middle Eastern in origin. This conclusion is stated in Option D.

Option A is incorrect because paragraph 5 states that Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson determined that the city was likely built in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, which was later than earlier explorers had assumed.

Option B is incorrect because the question of why the great city was abandoned was not part of Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson’s discovery.

Option C is incorrect because, while paragraph 5 also indicates that the Shona society was strong and healthy, this idea was not the main focus of Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson’s discovery.

Question analysis

This question asks why the conclusions of David Randall-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson about Great Zimbabwe mattered. Students must judge significance, not just recall facts, by weighing several details from paragraph 5 and deciding which one the passage treats as most important.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Weighing why a finding matters is typical grade 7 informational reading. The researchers' conclusion is easy to find, but students must use the earlier theories to see why it mattered, which keeps the task at grade 7.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 524 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 52 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The finding itself is stated almost word for word, so the work is judging significance. Paragraph 5 piles several facts after the conclusion, a date, a population and trading kings, and one of them invites the reading that the researchers' point was a thriving society. Students who remember what Mauch and Hall believed see that overturning the Middle Eastern theory is what the passage treats as the turning point.

  1. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    “Significant” is never explained; students must set “unmistakably African in origin” against the Queen of Sheba and Middle Eastern theories of paragraph 4 to see why it mattered. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Read paragraph 5 alongside paragraph 4, note what earlier investigators believed, and judge each choice by how much it changes or confirms that earlier picture.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the two scientists’ conclusion was significant, or important. To see why it mattered, compare it with what people believed before.

  2. Recall the earlier beliefs

    Paragraph 4 tells what people believed. Mauch thought the city “had been built by the Queen of Sheba.” Hall was sure it was built “by ancient people from the Middle East.” For centuries, who built the city was a mystery.

  3. Find what they concluded

    Paragraph 5 says Randall-MacIver and Caton-Thompson dug in places no one had disturbed. They “concluded that the ruins were unmistakably African in origin.”

    Unmistakably means with no doubt. Origin means where something comes from. Their finding proved the old Middle East ideas wrong. That is why it was so important.

  4. Check each choice

    • A The passage dates the city to the 1300s or 1400s. That makes it much younger than the King Solomon legends, not older.
    • B Why the Shona left is the open question in paragraph 6. These two did not study it.
    • C Paragraph 5 does describe a rich kingdom. But that detail is not what made their finding important.
    • D fits. They showed the city was African in origin.

  5. Choose the answer

    Their work was significant because it revealed that Great Zimbabwe was African in origin. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest trap, because paragraph 5 does show a strong Shona kingdom of “an estimated 20,000 people.” But that detail comes after their conclusion. What mattered most was proving the city African, which overturned the Middle East theories. That is D.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 41 as printed on page 70 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 70, question 41. Open page 70 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 68 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 42
Passage 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 ospreys1^1 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.

1^1ospreys: 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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

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”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 42 as printed on page 73 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 73, question 42. Open page 73 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed (pages 72–73)The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed on page 72 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Cross-Purposes” as printed on page 73 of the DOE handbook.

Question 69 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 44

Uses 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what one 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 44 as printed on page 73 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 73, question 44. Open page 73 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 70 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 53
Passage The Year without a Summer

The Year without a Summer

The eruption of the Philippine volcano Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 sent a huge cloud of gas and dust encircling the globe. The dust and ash from Mount Pinatubo was blamed for a two-year decrease in global temperature, changes in weather patterns, and damage to the ozone layer. The situation brings to mind a time now remembered as “The Year without a Summer,” a meteorological event that occurred 175 years earlier. At that time, harsh weather conditions plagued much of eastern North America and, to a lesser extent, northern Europe.

April 1816 brought typical spring weather to upstate New York and New England; trees budded, and farmers prepared to plow and plant. In May, however, the expected warm temperatures failed to arrive. Most people remained optimistic, waiting for the summer that was “just around the corner.” They waited in vain. During the first week of June, ten inches of snow fell on New England. Throughout the month, temperatures rarely rose above the 30s. Many farmers replanted crops several times, only to see them stunted or destroyed by sleet, hail, and icy winds. July and August brought little improvement. During most days the temperature stayed in the 40s. Farmers’ diaries document the farmers’ daily struggles with near-freezing temperatures, failing crops, and dying farm animals. The few crops that managed to survive were killed by frost in mid-September. Winter came early in New England and was unusually severe. Even the South was affected; on July 4, the high temperature for Savannah, Georgia, was only 46 degrees Fahrenheit!

Some religious leaders warned their congregations that the unusual weather meant that the end of the world was drawing near. Other leaders attributed the cool weather to unusual sunspot activity. The proliferation of the newly invented lightning rod was also blamed as some people believed that lightning rods had interrupted the natural temperature balance of Earth, causing the cooler temperatures.

It was not until October that the first plausible explanation for “The Year without a Summer” was suggested. Friedrich Bessel, a German astronomer, reported seeing thick clouds of dust in the upper atmosphere. He theorized that these dust particles screened portions of Earth from the warming rays of the sun. It was discovered that in April 1815, Mount Tambora, an Indonesian volcano, had erupted with such force that it had sent an estimated 100 cubic miles of fine dust into the atmosphere. Witnesses to the eruption reported that the sky remained dark for two days. The dust then rose high into the stratosphere, where it encircled the world for several years to come.

Skeptics in 1816 doubted that a faraway volcano could steal their summer. However, most present-day researchers believe Bessel’s explanation to be generally correct, demonstrating the global nature of weather. The dust in the atmosphere eventually settled, and the spring of 1817 was back to normal.

Question

In the winter that followed the summer of 1816, New Englanders most likely experienced

  • Anew weather events that they had not encountered before.
  • Btemperatures that were warmer than usual for that time of year.
  • Cshortages of fruits, vegetables, and other essential crops.
  • Ddifficulty adjusting to a different timeline for planting crops.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The answer is (C)

The question asks for the outcome that is best implied by the situation the New Englanders faced in 1816.

Option C is the correct answer because, with many crops “stunted or destroyed” (paragraph 2) in the summer of 1816, one would expect food shortages the following winter.

Option A is incorrect because cold weather was familiar to the population in New England, just not for such an extended period of time.

Option B is incorrect because there is no evidence in the passage that people experienced warmer temperatures.

Option D is incorrect because, although some farmers did replant their crops, there is no evidence in the passage that they struggled to adjust to a different timeline for farming.

Question analysis

Students must predict what New Englanders most likely faced in the winter after the cold summer of 1816, an inference question on an informational passage about a historic cold spell. The passage says little about daily life that winter, so students must reason one step beyond the text from what it reports about the summer.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Drawing a likely consequence from stated facts is typical grade 7 inference work. The needed step goes just beyond what the passage reports, and the text is short and clear, so the demand matches grade 7.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 469 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 50 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A spelling error in the explanation was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This inference goes one step past the text, from destroyed crops to a hungry winter, and the passage never makes that step for the reader. Meanwhile the one sentence about the winter, early and unusually severe, tempts students toward an answer about unheard-of weather. Students who ask what the summer's losses would mean for daily life months later find the key; those who look only for the word “winter” do not.

  1. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    The passage says nothing about food that winter; students must reason from “The few crops that managed to survive were killed by frost in mid-September” to empty stores months later. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Something you must already know minor Working it out

    The inference needs the everyday fact that a farm family's winter food comes from the autumn harvest, which the passage leaves unsaid. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Strategy: List the consequences of the cold summer that paragraph 2 reports, then ask which would still affect people months later, in winter.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook’s “some famers did replant their crops” now reads “some farmers”.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is an inference question. The passage never says what life was like that winter. You must reason from what it does say.

  2. Find what happened to the crops

    Paragraph 2 tells the story. Crops were “stunted or destroyed by sleet, hail, and icy winds.” Then: “The few crops that managed to survive were killed by frost in mid-September.” Finally, “Winter came early in New England and was unusually severe.”

  3. Work out the result

    Stunted means stopped from growing to full size. In 1816, families ate food they grew in summer and saved for winter. But almost all the crops died. So there was very little food to save. That means the winter would bring shortages: not enough food to go around.

  4. Check each choice

    • A New Englanders knew cold winters well. This one was harsher, not a new kind of weather.
    • B The passage says the winter was severe, so it was not warmer.
    • C fits. With the crops gone, food would run short.
    • D Nobody plants crops in winter. The passage says nothing about a new planting schedule.

  5. Choose the answer

    With the crops destroyed, people likely ran short of food that winter. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest trap, because the winter was “unusually severe.” But severe means harsh, not new. Cold winters were normal in New England. C follows from the clearest facts in paragraph 2: the crops died, so there would be little food.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 53 as printed on page 77 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 77, question 53. Open page 77 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.
The passage “The Year without a Summer” as printed (page 76)The passage “The Year without a Summer” as printed on page 76 of the DOE handbook.

Question 71 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 54

Uses the passage above: “The Year without a Summer”.

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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a structure question. It asks what job paragraph 3 does in the passage. Sum it up first, then compare it with the paragraphs around it.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 54 as printed on page 77 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 77, question 54. Open page 77 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 72 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 55

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about the author’s purpose: why the author put certain details in. Don’t just say what the details are. Ask what job they do.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 55 as printed on page 77 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 77, question 55. Open page 77 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 73 of 90

2018 Test A English, question 57

Uses the passage above: “The Year without a Summer”.

Question

The cold summer of 1816 was most likely caused by

  • Aunusual sunspot activity.
  • Bthe excessive use of lightning rods.
  • Cdamage to the ozone layer.
  • Dan increase of dust in the atmosphere.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The answer is (D)

The question asks for the likely cause of the cold summer of 1816, based on the reason given in the passage. Researchers today believe that Bessel’s theory that “dust particles screened portions of Earth from the warming rays of the sun” is the most logical and probable (paragraph 5). His ideas are summarized in paragraph 4, and Option D restates his theory, making Option D the correct answer.

Option A is incorrect because this was a possibility considered by some leaders, but there is no evidence in the passage that this theory was supported by thorough scientific research.

Option B is incorrect because this theory was thought to be a possible cause by some people, but Bessel’s theory is the most probable.

Option C explains damage that was caused by the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991 (paragraph 1), but that damage is not the cause of the cold summer of 1816.

Question analysis

Students must identify the most likely cause of the cold summer of 1816 according to “The Year without a Summer.” The passage reports several explanations from different people and times, so students must notice which one the author and today's researchers treat as correct.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 This asks for a cause the passage names and endorses, a quick locate task below typical grade 7 demand. The only care needed is to separate the accepted explanation from theories the passage sets aside.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 469 words; question and choices: about grade 5, 30 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The passage settles this question in plain terms, calling Bessel's idea the first plausible explanation and saying present-day researchers accept it. The wrong choices are causes the passage mentions without endorsing, two of them in its exact words, so a student matching phrases rather than following the argument can be misled. The 1991 ozone damage is the trap for anyone who blends the two eruptions.

  1. Much to keep track of minor Working it out

    The passage mentions four proposed causes, the end of the world, sunspots, lightning rods and Bessel's dust, plus the ozone damage of 1991, and only the dust is endorsed by today's researchers. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)

  2. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    Two wrong choices copy the passage exactly, “unusual sunspot activity” and “damage to the ozone layer,” while the key recasts Bessel's “thick clouds of dust” as “an increase of dust.” (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Find where the passage calls an explanation “plausible” and where present-day researchers weigh in, then match the explanation they accept to a choice.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a key-detail question. It asks what most likely caused the cold summer. Careful: the passage mentions several causes, but it backs only one.

  2. Find the cause the passage backs

    Paragraph 4 gives “the first plausible explanation.” Bessel saw “thick clouds of dust in the upper atmosphere.” He thought “these dust particles screened portions of Earth from the warming rays of the sun.”

    Paragraph 5 adds that “most present-day researchers believe Bessel’s explanation to be generally correct.”

  3. Put it in your own words

    Plausible means believable. Screened means blocked, like a window shade. Portions means parts. So the dust blocked some sunlight, and parts of Earth got colder. The dust came from the Mount Tambora eruption. Scientists today agree with this idea.

  4. Check each choice

    • A Sunspots were a guess from 1816. The passage never calls it likely.
    • B Lightning rods were another 1816 guess. The passage doesn’t back it either.
    • C Ozone damage was blamed on Mount Pinatubo in 1991. It had nothing to do with 1816.
    • D fits. More dust in the atmosphere blocked the sun.

  5. Choose the answer

    Dust from the volcano is the cause today’s scientists accept. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is a trap because its words, “unusual sunspot activity,” come straight from paragraph 3. But the passage only reports that guess. It never says the guess was right. C mixes up the two volcanoes. D is the one cause the passage calls “plausible” and says scientists accept.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 57 as printed on page 78 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 78, question 57. Open page 78 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 74 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 6
Passage The Local Library

The Local Library

(1) According to a 2015 survey, more than two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, which means that obtaining information or communicating with people is easier than ever before. (2) With the swipe of a finger, the tap of an icon, or a verbal command, people have instant access to articles, blogs, news, and social networking websites. (3) Even with all these immediately available sources of information, one of the best resources for many members of the community also happens to be one of the oldest. (4) The public library is a great place for people to get information.

(5) The public library serves a truly critical role in promoting community. (6) With the explosion of digital media in recent years, people in different locations can now communicate almost instantaneously. (7) And yet many people complain of feeling more isolated and alone than ever before. (8) The library stands in a rare position to help community members meet this universal need for human connection and companionship.

(9) Furthermore, libraries provide certain amenities, such as access to the Internet, for free to all people. (10) A student who does not have a computer at home can research and type a paper for school. (11) Similarly, an unemployed adult without access to the Internet can make use of library resources to find job opportunities. (12) The free items that are found at the library can help people get a lot done.

(13) Public libraries also offer a variety of resources to community members. (14) One important resource is the local librarian, who does far more than check out books and collect fines. (15) Other library resources include free or low-cost tutoring and training programs. (16) Additionally, lectures, book groups, and town meetings promote critical thinking and community engagement. (17) A typical librarian holds a master’s degree and can help library patrons navigate through the flood of information available in print and on the Internet.

(18) The hallmark of a public library is that its materials and services are accessible to all. (19) The library connects people to a network of information and resources and is an important part of a community.

Question

Which sentence would best follow and support sentence 8?

  • ALibraries, which have been around for centuries and are found throughout the world today, help preserve the history of a community.
  • BThe public library is often used as a place for community leaders and organizers to host community events, such as hearings or town halls.
  • CLibraries rely on a combination of local, state, and federal dollars to provide the kinds of services and programs that community members have come to expect.
  • DAt a public library, people can interact with others through a variety of programs, including teen book clubs, toddler story times, and senior-citizen exercise classes.
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks which option would provide the best support for sentence 8. Sentence 8 expresses the idea that the library helps community members meet their need for human connection and companionship.

Option D is correct because it provides support for sentence 8 and strengthens the connection between the information in sentence 8 and the main claim of the passage by listing examples of how people can connect at the library.

Option A is incorrect because it references the history of the library, which does not support the idea in sentence 8 or the main claim of the passage.

Option B is incorrect because, although it introduces the idea of community meetings, it does not support the idea in sentence 8.

Option C is incorrect because it mentions expectations by the community members and brings up a new idea that is unrelated to the main claim of the passage and that does not provide support for sentence 8.

Question analysis

This supporting-details question returns to the library essay and its point that people feel isolated in a digital world. Students pick the sentence that would best follow sentence 8 and back it up. Each option sounds like a fair statement about libraries, which is what makes the choice harder than it first looks.

NYS standards
  • 7W1b supporting claims with evidence
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Choosing evidence that fits a claim is standard grade 7 argument work. This item sharpens it: all four sentences are believable facts about libraries, so students must match the specific idea in sentence 8 rather than the general topic.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 341 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 104 words.
Students, last 30 days
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 favorable about libraries, so a student who asks only whether a sentence fits the essay will find all four acceptable. The question rewards narrowing the test to sentence 8’s own idea, the loneliness of a digital age and the need for company. The teen book clubs, toddler story times and exercise classes for seniors are what make the right sentence a support rather than a new topic.

  1. How sentences fit together moderate Working it out

    Sentence 8 ends on “human connection and companionship,” so the sentence after it must give an example of people meeting each other, not just another good thing about libraries. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

Strategy: Restate sentence 8 in a few words, then ask of each choice whether it gives a concrete example of that exact idea or just says something good about libraries.

Traps

  • Off the point: Adds or keeps something that does not support the paragraph's or the passage's focus, or an introduction or conclusion that misses the main point.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    You need the sentence that would come right after sentence 8 and back it up. To support a sentence means to give an example or a reason that proves it.

  2. Read sentence 8 closely

    Sentence 8 says: “The library stands in a rare position to help community members meet this universal need for human connection and companionship.” Just before it, sentence 7 says people feel “more isolated and alone than ever before.”

  3. Put sentence 8 in plain words

    “Isolated” means cut off from other people. “Companionship” means having friends and people around you. So sentence 8 says: people feel lonely, and the library can help them spend time with others. The next sentence should show how people meet each other at the library.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It is about saving a community’s history, not about people meeting.
    • B is wrong. Hearings and town halls are about leaders running community business. They are not about lonely people finding company.
    • C is wrong. Money for libraries is a new topic. It says nothing about human connection.
    • D is right. Book clubs, story times and exercise classes are real ways people “can interact with others.”

    Watch out: B mentions community events, so it seems to fit. But its point is public meetings, not friendship. It fits better with the “town meetings” in sentence 16.

  5. Choose the answer

    D gives clear examples of people meeting and spending time together. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest wrong answer, because it also shows people gathering at the library. But hearings and town halls are public business, run by leaders. Sentence 8 is about loneliness and companionship. D shows people of every age, from toddlers to seniors, meeting and doing things together.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 6 as printed on page 121 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 121, question 6. Open page 121 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “The Local Library” as printed (page 120)The passage “The Local Library” as printed on page 120 of the DOE handbook.

Question 75 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 11
Passage The Tunguska Fireball

The Tunguska Fireball

On June 30, 1908, an enormous fireball shot across the sky and exploded high above the remote Tunguska River Valley in the Siberian region of Russia. Twenty miles away, huts were flattened and people were flung into the air. Villagers 40 miles away felt the heat and heard explosions, and tremors were recorded at a German seismic station more than 3,000 miles away.

What caused the intense light and the horrendous destruction of the Tunguska Fireball, as it came to be called? Scientists and laypeople have debated the question for over 100 years. Not until 1927 did a scientific expedition, led by Russian scientist Leonid Kulik, reach the remote site. Kulik discovered a vast region of scorched and downed trees, their trunks pointing away from the center of the blast. Convinced that a meteorite was responsible, Kulik searched for evidence—a crater, a buried meteorite, even fragments of the exploded mass. He never found it.

Other scientists, amateur astronomers, and the public suggested alternative theories of what had happened. Some thought it was an earthquake. Perhaps, others said, a black hole—a theoretical object in space where gravity is so strong that even light cannot get out—had collided with Earth or an alien spaceship carrying nuclear material had crashed.

For many years Russian scientists believed that the Tunguska Fireball was a comet—a cluster of dust and frozen gases—that had exploded a few hundred feet above the ground. They pointed to the lack of meteoric evidence and the June 30 date, a time of year when Earth was passing through cometary debris. Other scientists disagreed, arguing that a comet would have burned quickly in Earth’s atmosphere and could not have created such a blast.

Many Western scientists believed that a meteorite was responsible, despite the lack of evidence. The pattern of fallen trees suggested that they were knocked down by a blast about 4 miles above the ground with an energy of 15 megatons of TNT, consistent with a meteoric blast. Yet repeated searches of the surrounding forest and wetlands revealed no evidence of a meteorite.

During the 1990s an Italian physicist named Menotti Galli became interested. Galli had previously investigated whether particles from outer space can add carbon atoms to the cellulose in trees. Perhaps the trees at the Tunguska site hid evidence of such extraterrestrial material. Galli and his colleagues traveled to the site by helicopter to gather core samples from spruce trees that had lived through the blast. They analyzed the particles trapped in the trees’ resin, and the results were remarkable. Based on studying the trees’ rings during the time period when the Tunguska Fireball occurred, the researchers found that the resin contained high levels of high-proton elements, such as copper, gold, and nickel. In fact, it contained ten times more such particles than resin dating from either before or after that time period. Some previously discovered meteorites had also contained elevated levels of these elements, suggesting that the particles had an extra-earthly origin. But then where is the crater? Is it nearby Lake Cheko, as some claim? Or was the meteorite reduced to dust in the atmosphere? Can scientists rule out a comet carrying those elements? The mystery remains unsolved.

Question

The June 30 date of the Tunguska event was significant to some scientists because it

  • Asuggested that the explosion may have been caused by a comet.
  • Bhighlighted why tree resin from the time of the blast contained high-proton elements.
  • Cindicated that the blast may have resulted from Earth’s impact with a black hole.
  • Dexplained why debris from outer space would have burned up in the atmosphere.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks why the June 30 date bears significance to some scientists. Scientists noted that Earth was passing through cometary debris on June 30, 1908 (paragraph 4), which supports the idea stated in Option A, making it the correct response.

Option B is incorrect because, while it states a detail from the passage, the detail is not connected to the June 30 date.

Option C is incorrect because it states a theory regarding the cause of the impact that is not tied to the date of June 30.

Option D is incorrect because this detail is used in the passage to suggest that such a blast could not have been caused by a comet.

Question analysis

This key-details question from the Tunguska Fireball article asks why the date of the 1908 explosion mattered to some scientists. Students must find where the passage connects the date to a theory about the blast. Several choices borrow real details from elsewhere in the article, which makes careless matching easy.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Locating a stated reason in one paragraph is lighter than most grade 7 reading tasks, which ask students to analyze or infer. Here the date is linked to its explanation in a single sentence, and the main work is finding it.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 10, 531 words; question and choices: about grade 7, 65 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This is a locate-and-read question: once the second mention of June 30 is found in paragraph 4, the link to cometary debris is stated plainly. The only real trap sits in the same paragraph, where the next sentence brings in a comet burning up in the atmosphere. Students who read one sentence too far can attach the date to the objection instead of the theory.

  1. Evidence in several places minor Working it out

    June 30 first appears in paragraph 1 only as the date of the blast; its significance comes three paragraphs later, inside the Russian scientists’ case for a comet. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The sentence says only that the scientists “pointed to” the date, and students must connect that back to the comet theory stated one sentence earlier. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Skip past the opening, scan for the next mention of June 30, and read that whole sentence to see what the scientists used the date to support.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks why the date June 30 mattered to some scientists. Find where the passage uses the date as a clue, and see what it was a clue for.

  2. Find the date in paragraph 4

    Paragraph 4 begins: “For many years Russian scientists believed that the Tunguska Fireball was a comet.” The next sentence says they “pointed to the lack of meteoric evidence and the June 30 date, a time of year when Earth was passing through cometary debris.”

  3. Put the clue in plain words

    A comet is “a cluster of dust and frozen gases” that moves through space. “Cometary debris” means bits left behind by comets. Around June 30, Earth passes through those bits. So the scientists said the date fits a comet. The date was a clue for the comet idea.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is right. The date suggested that the blast came from a comet.
    • B is wrong. The tree resin comes from Galli’s work in paragraph 6. It has nothing to do with the date.
    • C is wrong. The black hole idea in paragraph 3 is never linked to the date.
    • D is wrong. Other scientists said a comet “would have burned quickly.” That argues against the comet. It does not explain the date.

    Watch out: D comes from the very next sentence, so it is easy to mix up. But that sentence argues against the comet, and it is not about the date.

  5. Choose the answer

    The Russian scientists used the date to support the comet idea. So the answer is A.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, since it comes from the same paragraph. But the burning-up point is what other scientists used against the comet idea. The date was used for it. A matches what the Russian scientists “pointed to”: Earth was passing through comet bits on June 30.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 11 as printed on page 125 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 125, question 11. Open page 125 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “The Tunguska Fireball” as printed (page 124)The passage “The Tunguska Fireball” as printed on page 124 of the DOE handbook.

Question 76 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 14

Uses the passage above: “The Tunguska Fireball”.

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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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

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.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about the 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.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 14 as printed on page 126 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 126, question 14. Open page 126 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 77 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 19
Passage Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness

Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness

by Grace Livingston Hill

With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.

It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.

The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?

She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her. Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her. Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the conductor she might be carried on somewhere and he justly blame her for a fool.

There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she slipped and fell in the cinders1^1, bruising her knee and cutting her wrist.

In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get out like this.

She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train, as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and rolled down the short bank, while the train . . . ran giddily off into the night.

The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they hurried by her—one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.

A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one’s attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her discomfort.

Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.

She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that there was none!

The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the lonely night.

No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.

As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was heavy.

A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine’s drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the engine for a regular stop at a station.

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

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

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 4.

She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance.

The simile used in the sentence affects the tone of the paragraph by emphasizing a

  • Afeeling of comfort as Margaret connects her unfamiliar surroundings with familiar images.
  • Bsense of lonesomeness as Margaret realizes that she is on her own in the wilderness.
  • Csense of tranquility as Margaret is distracted from the urgency of her situation by the beauty of the night.
  • Dfeeling of dread as Margaret regards the desolation of the land that surrounds her.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks how the simile in the sentence from paragraph 4 reflects the tone of the paragraph. The image of two or three fireflies creating small specks of light in the darkness creates a sense of isolation or loneliness in Margaret, as shown in the sentence, “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her” (paragraph 4). Therefore, Option B is correct.

Option A is incorrect because Margaret is confused and indecisive, showing her discomfort with her situation.

Option C is incorrect because Margaret expresses distress in her situation, questions her decision, and worries about being labeled a “fool” (paragraph 4).

Option D is incorrect because the simile is meant to show how far away things are from Margaret, not create a feeling of dread, which develops later in paragraph 9.

Question analysis

This figurative-language question asks how a simile comparing distant lights to fireflies affects the tone of paragraph 4 in A Voice in the Wilderness. Students connect the image to Margaret’s state of mind as she stands beside the stopped train in the dark. The choices range from calm to fear, so the answer must rest on what Margaret is thinking.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5 figurative language and word relationships
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how a simile shapes tone is regular grade 7 work with figurative language, and this one is typical. Students must read the comparison in the light of the paragraph around it, since the image alone could suggest several moods.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 109 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The simile itself is gentle, which is why the comforting reading tempts some students, but the paragraph around it is not: two sentences later, “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.” That sentence decides the question. The harder choice is between loneliness now and the dread and desolation that come after the train has gone, so the question rewards keeping to paragraph 4.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The dread choice is built like the lonesomeness choice, a feeling plus Margaret alone in empty country, “the desolation of the land” beside “on her own in the wilderness”; only the feeling named, dread rather than loneliness, separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    Fireflies are usually a cheerful, homey image, so students must read the simile through its setting, “two or three specks of light” far off in the dark, to see that it stresses distance. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The choices hinge on near-synonyms for feelings, “lonesomeness,” “tranquility,” “dread” and “desolation,” whose shades of meaning have to be weighed against one paragraph. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Picture the scene the comparison creates, then reread paragraph 4 around it and choose the feeling that the paragraph itself supports.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about a simile: a comparison that uses “like” or “as.” How does this simile shape the tone, or feeling, of paragraph 4?

  2. Find the simile

    Margaret looks into the dark and sees “two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies in the distance.” The far-off lights are compared to fireflies.

  3. Picture what it shows

    Fireflies are tiny lights. Here there are only two or three, and they are far away. Everything else is dark. The picture makes Margaret seem small and far from other people. A few lines later, the paragraph says it: “A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.” Isolation means being alone and cut off.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Fireflies can seem cozy, but Margaret is straining to see. She feels alone, not comforted.
    • B is right. The tiny, faraway lights stress that she is on her own.
    • C is wrong. The beauty of the night comes later, in paragraph 12. Here she is worried.
    • D is wrong. Dread and the empty land come later, after the train leaves.

    Watch out: D jumps ahead. Her terror starts in paragraph 9, and the empty land appears in paragraphs 12 and 13. Both come after the train is gone.

  5. Choose the answer

    The few faraway specks of light in the dark make Margaret feel small and alone. So the answer is B.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because Margaret does feel dread later in the story. But in paragraph 4 the train is still there, and the land has not been described yet. The paragraph names the feeling itself: “a sudden feeling of isolation.” Lonesomeness matches that.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 19 as printed on page 130 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 130, question 19. Open page 130 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed (pages 128–129)The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed on page 128 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness” as printed on page 129 of the DOE handbook.

Question 78 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 22

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

Question

Read paragraph 10 from the excerpt.

Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.

What does the figurative language in this sentence emphasize?

  • Athe sense of doubt that Margaret experiences when she is deciding what to do next
  • Bthe anger that Margaret feels toward the people on the train who she expected to help her
  • Cthe embarrassment that Margaret feels when she imagines what others will think of her
  • Dthe hopelessness that Margaret feels when she accepts that the train is continuing on
Show the answer

Correct answer: D

The question asks for what the figurative language illustrates in the sentence. As Margaret stands and reaches out “helpless hands,” the language used to describe the train as “swinging tauntingly” and having “a leer in its eye” confirms Margaret’s fears of being left alone and feeling foolish; there is nothing she can do to change the situation, as expressed in Option D.

Option A is incorrect because, while the image of Margaret’s helpless hands dropping at her sides could suggest a sense of doubt, the figurative language in the sentence emphasizes a different feeling about her situation and does not indicate her intentions.

Option B is incorrect because, while the figurative language seems to give a malevolent quality to the train, it is not referring to the people onboard, who are described in paragraph 8 as “comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.”

Option C is incorrect because, while Margaret is worried in paragraph 4 about embarrassing herself, she now feels “dazed” because she is overwhelmed with the seriousness of what has just happened.

Question analysis

This figurative-language question quotes paragraph 10 of A Voice in the Wilderness, where Margaret watches the train disappear and its light seems to taunt her. Students decide what the personification of the train emphasizes about her situation. The image is vivid but brief, so students need to link it to the feeling the whole paragraph builds.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5 figurative language and word relationships
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Interpreting personification is part of grade 7 work on figurative language. This sentence gives the train a leer and a taunting light, so students must decide whose feeling the image reflects, a step beyond naming the figure of speech.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 8, 981 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 122 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The figurative language belongs to the train, so students have to translate a taunting, leering light into a statement about Margaret’s state. Some read the taunt as the cause of an emotion, embarrassment or anger, instead of as a picture of how powerless she is. Her “helpless hands,” dropped to her sides as the light vanishes, confirm that she has accepted the train is gone.

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    The train’s light is personified, “swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye,” and students must decide what a mocking machine says about Margaret rather than about the train. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Complex sentences minor Understanding the question

    Paragraph 10 is a single 48-word sentence that strings together participle phrases, “reaching out,” “swinging tauntingly,” “rapidly vanishing,” so the figurative part arrives only after her gestures. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)

Strategy: Find the phrases that give the train human traits, then ask what they add to the picture of Margaret standing by the track, using only this sentence.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about figurative language: words that mean more than their plain meaning. What feeling does it stress in paragraph 10?

  2. Find the figurative language

    Paragraph 10 describes the train’s last light “swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its eye.” Margaret stands “reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at her sides.”

  3. Work out what it means

    “Tauntingly” means in a teasing, mean way. A leer is a nasty, sly look. A light can’t really tease anyone. The author gives the train human traits to show it is leaving her, and she can do nothing. When she drops her hands, she stops trying. She accepts that the train is gone. That feeling is hopelessness.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. She is not deciding what to do next. She is just watching the train go.
    • B is wrong. The mean look belongs to the train, not the people. The passengers did not even know she needed help.
    • C is wrong. She worried about looking foolish back in paragraph 4. Now she is “dazed.”
    • D is right. Her dropped hands and the mocking light show she has lost hope.

    Watch out: The teasing light may remind you of her fear of being called a fool. But that was earlier. Here she has lost all hope of stopping the train.

  5. Choose the answer

    The figurative language shows Margaret giving up as the train disappears. So the answer is D.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest wrong answer, because a teasing train seems to fit embarrassment. But Margaret is not thinking about what others will say. She stands “dazed” and drops her “helpless hands.” The mocking light shows the train is gone for good. That is hopelessness, so D fits better.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 22 as printed on page 131 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 131, question 22. Open page 131 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 79 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 26
Passage 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 diaphanous1^1 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 platitudinous2^2 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

1^1diaphanous: sheer, translucent

2^2platitudinous: clichéd, common

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 2.

They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.

What is the effect of comparing the American Falls to a “long curtain of lacework and woven foam”?

  • AIt demonstrates the timelessness of the American Falls.
  • BIt conveys the secretive nature of the American Falls.
  • CIt illustrates the elegant uniformity of the American Falls.
  • DIt communicates the intense strength of the American Falls.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the effect of the comparison being made in the sentence in paragraph 2. The word “lacework” in the sentence suggests an elegant piece of craftsmanship, and the “one long curtain” and “extraordinarily level” aspects of the Falls mean that the Falls are uniform or consistent; therefore, Option C is correct.

Option A is incorrect because neither “lacework and woven foam,” nor the quality of being extremely level, are related to timelessness.

Option B is incorrect because, while a curtain may suggest the idea of something being hidden or secret, the description of a delicate “lacework” curtain does not suggest this purpose.

Option D is incorrect because “lacework” is generally fragile and does not suggest great strength.

Question analysis

In this figurative language question, students explain the effect of a comparison in Rupert Brooke’s “Niagara Falls”: the American Falls as “one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.” They need to picture the image and read the sentences around it, since a curtain, lace and foam can each call up quite different qualities.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5 figurative language and word relationships
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining the effect of a metaphor in a quoted sentence is routine grade 7 work. The older prose is harder than most grade 7 texts, but the sentences around this one give direct context clues.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 9, 987 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 70 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The image is clear once pictured, and the sentences around it, about the American Falls being “delicate and fragile” and “extraordinarily level,” confirm what it means. Students go wrong by bringing in what they associate with curtains or with Niagara in general, hiding or power, instead of what this curtain is made of. The right choice also uses an abstract word that has to be connected back to “level.”

  1. Figurative or literary language moderate Understanding the question

    Students must translate “one long curtain of lacework and woven foam” into qualities: lace is delicate and finely made, and one long level curtain is even from end to end. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. Hard words minor Understanding the question

    The right choice uses “uniformity,” which students must link to “extraordinarily level” and “one long curtain,” just as “elegant” must be linked to the lacework. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Picture the image first, then reread the few sentences around it about the American Falls and keep only the choice that both the image and those sentences support.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about the effect of a comparison. The author compares the American Falls to “one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.” What quality does that picture give them?

  2. Read the sentence and its neighbor

    The full sentence is “They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam.” The sentence just before it says, “By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile.”

  3. Picture the comparison

    Lacework is fancy cloth with fine, delicate patterns. It looks elegant, which means graceful and beautiful. “Extraordinarily level” and “one long curtain” mean the Falls are even all the way across, with no breaks. That evenness is uniformity: being the same all the way through. So the picture shows elegant uniformity.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Nothing about lace or foam suggests lasting forever.
    • B is wrong. A curtain can hide things, but lace is open and see-through. Nothing is hidden.
    • C is right. Lace is elegant, and a level curtain is uniform.
    • D is wrong. Lace is fragile, not strong.

    Watch out: Paragraph 1 talks about “colossal power,” so D can seem right. But paragraph 2 says the American Falls “do not inspire this feeling” the way the Canadian Falls do.

  5. Choose the answer

    The lace curtain makes the American Falls look graceful and even. So the answer is C.

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

D is the closest wrong answer, because the Falls seem powerful in other parts of the essay. But this sentence is about the American Falls, whose beauty is “delicate and fragile.” Lace is delicate, not strong. A smooth, level curtain of lace shows grace and evenness, as C says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 26 as printed on page 135 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 135, question 26. Open page 135 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed (pages 134–135)The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed on page 134 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls”” as printed on page 135 of the DOE handbook.

Question 80 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 27

Uses the passage above: “Excerpt from “Niagara Falls””.

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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about structure: how the essay is put together. What change in the essay does this sentence mark?

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 27 as printed on page 136 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 136, question 27. Open page 136 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 81 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 29

Uses 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Explaining how a 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.
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

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.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what one sentence adds to the essay’s ideas. Put the sentence in plain words first, then test each choice against it.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 29 as printed on page 136 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 136, question 29. Open page 136 of the handbook (PDF) This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 82 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 32
Passage Uncovering the Past

Uncovering the Past

Archaeology as a distinct branch of science is only about two centuries old. The first archaeological activities focused largely on the search for clues about earlier human societies. In the nineteenth century, most archaeologists were amateurs trained in ancient languages and history. Many were art historians whose interest lay in the artwork and monuments of ancient civilizations. For the most part, their excavations were aimed at uncovering and removing priceless artwork and other valuable artifacts for museum display. Collectively, these early archaeologists are now considered traditional archaeologists.

Today, however, there is a different approach to archaeology, one that tries to reconstruct the everyday life of people in ancient times by applying the scientific methods of a range of specialized fields. Modern archaeologists take full advantage of available technology. Laptop computers enable digging teams to record their finds at each level of an excavation. With sketchpad computer software, archaeologists can draw their finds in the field. Three-dimensional computer modeling enables researchers to create floor plans and elevations for the structures they uncover. Archaeologists can also use remote sensing technologies such as radar and lidar, which is similar to radar but it uses laser light instead of radio waves. These technologies enable scientists to detect traces of early settlements that are not visible to the human eye.

The excavations at Kourion, a Roman port city on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, serve as an example of the modern approach. Portions of Kourion had been unexpectedly buried by a massive earthquake in the fourth century A.D. Traditional archaeologists were interested primarily in the remains of Kourion’s theater, temple, and classical monuments. They also collected precious objects, such as jewelry, found in nearby tombs. Modern archaeologists, however, have focused their studies and excavations on the settlement itself. This preserved seaport has proved to be a gold mine of important information about everyday life sixteen centuries ago.

During one excavation of a house at Kourion, for example, forensic anthropologists were able to reconstruct the skeleton of a young girl, whom they called Camelia. On the basis of her teeth, they determined her age to be about thirteen, although measurement of her skeleton showed that she was only the size of a modern eleven-year-old. The study of the teeth also confirmed her sex and pointed to her excellent health; Camelia had no cavities. Even after centuries, the forensic scientists could study the physical evidence in ways similar to those used in criminal investigations to determine the circumstances of Camelia’s death.

Other specialists on this excavation included a zooarchaeologist, who identified animal remains, including the skeleton of a mule found near Camelia. Another specialist, a paleobotanist, studied the contents of a bake oven at the site and identified four domesticated grains among the charred crumbs—evidence of a kind of ancient multigrain bread.

Although the archaeologists at this site unearthed a few beautiful items, the excavation did not uncover any priceless artwork for museums. Nonetheless, the archaeological processes used in Kourion have given us a valuable insight into everyday life in a Roman city.

Question

Which of the following best describes the goal of modern archaeology?

  • Ato use science to learn how people lived in the past
  • Bto find artwork from ancient civilizations
  • Cto search for evidence of ancient settlements
  • Dto uncover precious objects for display in museums
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks for a summary of what the goal of modern archaeology is in general. The passage is mostly about how archaeology has evolved from efforts to discover ancient artwork and museum pieces to using technology to piece together a sense of life in early civilizations, which is best described in Option A.

Option B is incorrect because it states the goal of archaeology in the past, not in modern times.

Option C is incorrect because finding settlements is not the goal but just the first step in the modern archaeological process.

Option D is incorrect because it states the goal of traditional, rather than modern, archaeology.

Question analysis

Based on the informational passage “Uncovering the Past,” students identify the goal of modern archaeology. The passage describes two approaches to digging up the past, an older one and today’s, so the question checks whether students can keep the two approaches straight and state the newer one’s purpose.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Easier than most grade 7 central-idea questions: the goal is stated almost directly in the passage, so the task is careful locating and paraphrase rather than interpretation or synthesis.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 13, 514 words; question and choices: about grade 6, 43 words.
Students, last 30 days
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 goal is stated in the first sentence of paragraph 2, so the question mostly rewards keeping the passage’s two approaches apart. Students who skim pick up paragraph 1’s vivid aims, artwork and museum display, and attach them to the wrong group. The subtler loss comes from confusing a modern technique with the purpose it serves.

  1. The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer

    Paragraph 2 says archaeologists apply “the scientific methods of a range of specialized fields” to “reconstruct the everyday life of people”; the key restates this plainly, while the artwork and museum choices reuse paragraph 1’s exact words. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

Strategy: Find where the passage first describes today’s approach, put its aim into a few words of your own, and match that to a choice.

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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks for the main goal of modern archaeology. Archaeology is the study of how people lived long ago, using the things they left behind. The passage describes two groups. First come the early, traditional archaeologists. Then come today’s modern ones. You need the goal of the modern group only.

  2. Find where modern archaeology begins

    Paragraph 1 is about the traditional group. Paragraph 2 turns to today. Its first sentence says there is now “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.” The last paragraph agrees. It says the work at Kourion gave “a valuable insight into everyday life in a Roman city.”

  3. Put the goal in your own words

    To reconstruct something is to build it again. Here it means building a picture of daily life from clues. The “scientific methods” are the tools of science, like computers, radar and lab tests. So the goal is this: use science to learn how ordinary people lived long ago. Finding treasure is not the point.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. It says the same thing in plain words: science, plus how people lived.
    • B is wrong. Finding artwork was the goal of the traditional group in paragraph 1.
    • C is close but wrong. Radar and lidar help find “traces of early settlements.” But that is a tool and a first step, not the goal.
    • D is wrong. Paragraph 1 says digs for “priceless artwork and other valuable artifacts for museum display” were the old goal.

  5. Choose the answer

    Modern archaeology uses science to rebuild everyday life in the past. So the answer is A, “to use science to learn how people lived in the past.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

Choice C is the trap. Ask why modern archaeologists look for old settlements. They look so they can learn about daily life there. Finding the place is only a step along the way. Learning how people lived is the goal, and only A says that.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 32 as printed on page 139 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 139, question 32. Open page 139 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Uncovering the Past” as printed (page 138)The passage “Uncovering the Past” as printed on page 138 of the DOE handbook.

Question 83 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 33

Uses the passage above: “Uncovering the Past”.

Question

What would a traditional archaeologist be most interested in finding at a site like Kourion?

  • Aa human skeleton
  • Bbeautiful jewelry or ceramics
  • Cevidence of foods eaten
  • Dthe remains of animals
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what artifacts a traditional archaeologist would be interested in finding based on the material in the passage. The passage explains that, unlike modern archaeologists, traditional archaeologists are interested in valuable items from the past rather than learning about the people from the past and their lifestyles. Jewelry and ceramics are examples of valuable items, which makes Option B correct.

Option A is incorrect because human skeletons would be valuable to modern archaeologists, not traditional archaeologists.

Option C is incorrect because it is a detail that relates to modern archaeologists’ efforts to study people, not just valuable items.

Option D is incorrect because the remains of animals would also advance the goals of modern, rather than traditional, archaeologists.

Question analysis

This inference question asks what a traditional archaeologist would most want to find at Kourion, the Roman port city described in “Uncovering the Past.” Students apply the passage’s account of how older and newer archaeologists differ to a new case, and every choice is something an archaeologist might plausibly dig up.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Easier than typical grade 7 inference work: the passage names what traditional archaeologists collected at this very site, so the task is mostly recall and matching, with little real inference.
Estimated difficulty
Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 13, 514 words; question and choices: about grade 8, 30 words.
Students, last 30 days
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 easier questions in the set because paragraph 3 names jewelry among the precious objects traditional archaeologists took from tombs near Kourion. The only real risk is recalling the striking finds of paragraphs 4 and 5, Camelia’s skeleton, the mule and the bake oven, without noticing that modern specialists made them. Ceramics are never mentioned, but they fit the passage’s picture of valuable objects.

  1. Much to keep track of minor Working it out

    Every choice is something an archaeologist could find at Kourion, and three of them come from the modern team in paragraphs 4 and 5, so each find must be sorted by which group wanted it. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    The stem asks what a traditional archaeologist “would” want, a hypothetical, though paragraph 3 nearly answers it: traditional archaeologists “collected precious objects, such as jewelry, found in nearby tombs.” (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Reread what the passage says traditional archaeologists looked for, at Kourion and in general, then choose the item that fits that description.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is an inference question. An inference is a smart guess based on clues in the text. The question asks what a traditional archaeologist would want to find at Kourion. Traditional archaeologists are the early ones from paragraph 1, not today’s scientists.

  2. Find what traditional archaeologists wanted

    Paragraph 1 says their digs “were aimed at uncovering and removing priceless artwork and other valuable artifacts for museum display.” Paragraph 3 talks about Kourion itself. It says traditional archaeologists cared about the theater and the temple. “They also collected precious objects, such as jewelry, found in nearby tombs.”

  3. Put the clue in plain words

    An artifact is an object that people made long ago. “Precious” and “priceless” both mean worth a lot. So the traditional group hunted for beautiful, valuable things to show in museums. Jewelry is named. Ceramics (pots and dishes made of baked clay) are not named. But fine ones are the same kind of prize.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Camelia’s skeleton was studied by forensic anthropologists, scientists who study human bones. They were part of the modern team in paragraph 4.
    • B fits. Jewelry is exactly what paragraph 3 says they collected.
    • C is wrong. The grains in the bake oven were found by a paleobotanist, an expert in old plants. This expert was on the modern team in paragraph 5.
    • D is wrong. The mule skeleton was found by a zooarchaeologist, an expert in old animal remains. This expert was also on the modern team.

  5. Choose the answer

    Traditional archaeologists wanted valuable objects for museums. Every other choice is something the modern team studied. So the answer is B, “beautiful jewelry or ceramics.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

Every choice is something found at Kourion, so ask who wanted it. The skeleton, the grains and the animal bones all teach about daily life. That was the modern goal. Only jewelry is a treasure for a museum case.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 33 as printed on page 139 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 139, question 33. Open page 139 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 84 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 35

Uses the passage above: “Uncovering the Past”.

Question

Which conclusion is best supported by the information in paragraph 4?

  • AForensic anthropologists specialize in the excavation of ancient theaters and temples.
  • BForensic anthropologists can obtain a variety of information by examining teeth.
  • CForensic anthropologists believe that people in the past were smaller than people are today.
  • DForensic anthropologists primarily investigate ancient crimes.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks for the concluding sentence that best summarizes the information from paragraph 4. Paragraph 4 explains that Camelia’s age was determined through an examination of her teeth, which makes the conclusion in Option B the correct answer.

Option A is incorrect because the excavation discussed in the paragraph is at a house, not a theater or temple.

Option C is incorrect because, although Camelia’s body was smaller than a thirteen-year-old’s would be expected to be, the passage does not go into enough detail to suggest that all people from the past were smaller than people are today.

Option D is also incorrect because there is no evidence in the passage of Camelia’s death being the result of a crime.

Question analysis

This question asks which conclusion is best supported by paragraph 4 of “Uncovering the Past,” where forensic anthropologists study the skeleton of a girl they named Camelia. Students must draw a reasonable conclusion from several specific details and avoid reading more into the paragraph than it says.

NYS standards
  • 7R1 textual evidence and inferences
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 A standard grade 7 inference task: draw a conclusion from one short, concrete paragraph. The scientific terms are explained by context, and the main demand is checking each conclusion against what the paragraph actually says.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 13, 514 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 52 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The right conclusion is a generalization the paragraph never states, while two wrong ones grow out of its most striking phrases. Camelia’s small size and the comparison with criminal investigations each invite a conclusion that sounds scientific but rests on one detail or misreads a comparison. Students who list what the scientists learned from the teeth before reading the choices avoid both.

  1. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The key folds three findings from the teeth, Camelia’s age, her sex and her health, into “a variety of information,” while the wrong choices reuse “modern eleven-year-old,” “criminal investigations” and paragraph 3’s theater and temple. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  2. Reading between the lines minor Working it out

    No sentence states the conclusion; it has to be built by noticing that the teeth gave the age, the sex and “excellent health,” and then generalizing about what teeth can reveal. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: List what the scientists learned in paragraph 4, then test each choice by asking whether the paragraph gives direct evidence for it.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for a conclusion, an idea you can figure out from facts. The facts must come from paragraph 4, the paragraph about the girl called Camelia. The right choice needs direct support there. A choice that sounds smart but goes past the facts is wrong.

  2. List what the scientists learned

    Paragraph 4 says, “On the basis of her teeth, they determined her age to be about thirteen.” Then it says, “The study of the teeth also confirmed her sex and pointed to her excellent health; Camelia had no cavities.” Her skeleton also showed she was “only the size of a modern eleven-year-old.”

  3. Find the pattern in those facts

    Forensic anthropologists are scientists who study human bones, a bit like crime-lab experts. Look at how much came from the teeth alone. The teeth told them her age. They told them she was a girl. They showed she was healthy. That is three kinds of facts from one source. So you can conclude that teeth give many kinds of information.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The theater and temple are in paragraph 3. Camelia was found in a house.
    • B fits. Age, sex and health add up to “a variety of information” from teeth.
    • C is wrong. One small girl does not prove that all people long ago were smaller. The paragraph never says the scientists believe that.
    • D is wrong. The scientists worked “in ways similar to those used in criminal investigations.” That means their methods were like crime-lab methods. It does not mean they study crimes.

  5. Choose the answer

    Paragraph 4 shows teeth revealing age, sex and health. So the answer is B, “Forensic anthropologists can obtain a variety of information by examining teeth.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the closest trap, because Camelia really was small for her age. But a conclusion about all ancient people needs facts about many people. Paragraph 4 gives facts about one girl. B needs only what the paragraph shows: many facts from one set of teeth.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 35 as printed on page 139 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 139, question 35. Open page 139 of the handbook (PDF)

Question 85 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 38
Passage Snowy Mountains

Snowy Mountains

by John Gould Fletcher

Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.

But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.

Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.

“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain

Question

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.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Linking 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.
What makes it hard
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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This question asks how 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.”

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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
Question 38 as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 142, question 38. Open page 142 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed on page 142 of the DOE handbook.

Question 86 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 40

Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.

Question

Read line 5 from the poem.

Pillars of the sky at rest

The line helps develop the theme of the poem by suggesting that the mountains

  • Aserve a noble and supportive purpose in the world.
  • Battract the clouds with their strength and permanence.
  • Cremain untamed through the ages.
  • Dprovide protection for the people.
Show the answer

Correct answer: A

The question asks how the line from the poem helps develop the theme of the poem. Line 5 helps develop the theme that the mountains are more important than people realize by suggesting that the mountains serve a noble, foundational purpose in the world, as explained in Option A.

Option B is incorrect because, while the poem does describe the strength and permanence of the mountains, the line does not suggest that these traits attract the clouds.

Option C is incorrect because, while the line states that the highest peaks are “at rest,” that phrase describes stillness, not wildness; the poem calls the mountains “still untamed” only later (line 17), and line 5 does not suggest it.

Option D is incorrect because, while pillars are strong and may indicate shelter, there is no suggestion in the line that the mountains are protecting the people. Additionally, this concept is not a theme of the poem.

Question analysis

This figurative language question asks how the metaphor “Pillars of the sky at rest” in “Snowy Mountains” helps develop the poem’s theme. Students must work out what calling mountains pillars of the sky suggests about them, and it is tricky because every choice sounds like something this poem could say.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Above grade 7 Grade 7 students interpret metaphors, but here they must also connect a short image to the poem’s theme and choose among abstract options, a step closer to grade 8 work on figurative meaning and theme.
Estimated difficulty
Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 3, 52 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A claim in the explanation that the poem contradicts was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

This is hard because every choice says something the poem could plausibly mean, and two of them borrow real phrases from other lines. Students who test choices against the poem as a whole find support for the wrong ones; the question rewards testing them against the single image of pillars holding up the sky. Seeing that pillars both support and ennoble a structure leads directly to the key.

  1. Figurative or literary language major Understanding the question

    The answer depends on unpacking one metaphor: pillars hold up a roof, so “Pillars of the sky” casts the mountains as supports of the heavens, and “at rest” adds a calm, dignified strength. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  2. The right answer is reworded moderate Choosing the answer

    The key uses words the poem never does, “noble” and “supportive,” while wrong choices echo “cloud” from line 2 and “untamed” from line 17 and so look anchored in the text. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)

  3. Combines ideas minor Working it out

    Students must interpret the image and then link it to the poem’s theme, that the mountains matter more than the world below recognizes. (Embretson, 1998; Daniel & Embretson, 2010)

Strategy: Ask what a pillar is and why a poet might call mountains “pillars of the sky,” then test each choice against line 5 alone before thinking about the rest of the poem.

Traps

  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
  • Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
  • Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The handbook rejects Option C by saying the mountains “do not remain untamed or untouched,” but line 17 calls them “Wilderness still untamed,” and the handbook’s own explanation of the third-stanza question relies on that line. The site now says that “at rest” describes stillness, not wildness, and that the poem calls the mountains “still untamed” only later, in line 17, so line 5 does not suggest it.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks what one image, line 5, adds to the poem’s theme. A theme is the big message of a poem. Here the theme is that the mountains are great and important, even though people ignore them. You need to decide what “Pillars of the sky” says about the mountains.

  2. Look closely at line 5

    Line 5 reads “Pillars of the sky at rest.” It is part of the first stanza’s list of grand pictures. The list also has “Palaces made for cloud” in line 2. Line 5 is a metaphor. A metaphor calls one thing by the name of another to compare them, without using “like” or “as.”

  3. Explain what pillars do

    A pillar is a tall, strong column that holds up a roof. Big, important buildings, like temples and courthouses, have pillars. So calling the mountains “Pillars of the sky” makes them seem to hold up the sky. That is a supporting job. It is also a grand, noble one. “At rest” adds calm. The pillars stand still and steady.

  4. Check each choice

    • A fits. Holding up the sky is a noble, supportive job.
    • B is wrong. Clouds come from line 2. Line 5 says nothing about pulling clouds in.
    • C is wrong. “Wilderness still untamed” is line 17, not line 5. Pillars “at rest” suggest calm, not wildness.
    • D is wrong. Pillars hold up roofs, and roofs can shelter people. But the line never shows the mountains protecting anyone.

  5. Choose the answer

    Pillars hold things up and make a building grand. So the answer is A, “serve a noble and supportive purpose in the world.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

C is the strongest trap, because the poem really does call the mountains untamed. But that is line 17. Test each choice against line 5 alone. A pillar is a support, and a pillar of the sky is a grand one. Only A comes straight from that picture.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 40 as printed on page 143 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 143, question 40. Open page 143 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.

Question 87 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 42

Uses the passage above: “Snowy Mountains”.

Question

How does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?

  • Aby describing images of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
  • Bby illustrating the differences among the various ways humans can impact the natural environment
  • Cby criticizing society for taking careless, destructive courses of action against nature
  • Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the destructive actions of “the world” (lines 8 and 10) against the mountains—actions such as tunneling “their granite cliffs” (line 11) and destroying “the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14)—as described in Option C.

Option A is incorrect because the speaker’s descriptions of the mountains’ grandeur mainly occur in the first and third stanzas, while in the second stanza, the speaker focuses on humanity and its negative effect on the mountains.

Option B is incorrect because the wording of the second stanza—“makes war” (line 10), “Splits down their shining sides” (line 12), and “Destroys the lonely fragments” (line 14)—communicates the speaker’s position that people’s main impact on the mountains is destructive; the wording does not illustrate different ways people impact the natural environment.

Option D is incorrect because no benefit to the mountains is described by the speaker in the second stanza.

Question analysis

Students explain how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza of the poem “Snowy Mountains,” the seven lines about what “the world” does to the mountains. The main challenge is staying focused on these lines and their word choice while the four choices range across the poem’s ideas.

NYS standards
  • 7R6 point of view and author position
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
Grade level
Grade 6 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Easier than typical grade 7 work: the stanza is short and its attitude comes through plainly in its verbs, so the task resembles grade 6 questions that ask how a point of view is developed.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 66 words.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

The speaker’s disapproval is loud in lines 8–14, so most students identify the criticism quickly. The wrong choices work by describing the poem rather than this stanza, or by describing the stanza’s list neutrally and missing its anger. The question rewards staying inside the seven lines and reading the attitude in their verbs.

  1. How, not what moderate Working it out

    The stem asks how the point of view is built, and the answer is in the verbs: the world “makes war,” “Tunnels,” “Splits,” “Plasters” and “Destroys,” each casting people as attackers. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

  2. Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question

    The stanza personifies the mountains as victims, with “the lonely fragments of their peace,” so the speaker’s criticism of people comes through sympathy for the mountains. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

Strategy: Underline the verbs in lines 8–14 and ask what attitude toward people they show, then match both that attitude and the way it is expressed to a choice.

Traps

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks how the poet shows the speaker’s point of view in lines 8 to 14, the second stanza. Point of view here means the speaker’s attitude, or feelings and opinion. Stay inside these seven lines.

  2. Find the action words

    Line 8 says, “But the world heeds them not.” “Heeds” means pays attention to. Then come the verbs, the action words. The world “makes war on them,” “Tunnels their granite cliffs,” “Splits down their shining sides,” and “Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.” Line 14 ends, “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”

  3. Name the speaker’s attitude

    Every verb shows people attacking the mountains. “War” is a strong, angry word. The mountains even seem to have feelings. They are lonely, and their peace is broken. So the speaker is criticizing people, or pointing out what they do wrong. People hurt the mountains without caring. That is careless and destructive.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. Awe at the mountains’ size is in stanzas 1 and 3, not stanza 2.
    • B is wrong. The stanza lists several harms, but they are all part of one “war.” It does not compare different kinds of impact.
    • C fits. The speaker blames people for destroying the mountains.
    • D is wrong. No one benefits here. People attack, and the mountains lose their peace.

  5. Choose the answer

    The second stanza blames people for attacking the mountains. So the answer is C, “by criticizing society for taking careless, destructive courses of action against nature.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest trap, because the stanza does list several actions. But a list of differences would treat them calmly, side by side. These lines are angry. Words like “war” and “Destroys” show blame, which is exactly what C says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 42 as printed on page 144 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 144, question 42. Open page 144 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 88 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 49
Passage Invention of the Telegraph

Samuel Morse, an American inventor, is credited with creating the electronic telegraph, a communication device that allows users to send messages using a system of short and long pulses that represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. In 1843 the United States Congress passed the Telegraph Bill, which provided Morse with the funds to build an electric telegraph system.

Invention of the Telegraph

Earlier Signal Systems

Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were visual or “semaphore” systems using flags or lights. In the eighteenth century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station. The young American republic wanted just such a system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 for a workable proposal. The framers of this legislation1^1 had no way of knowing that when they used the word “telegraph” to refer to this visual semaphore system, they would be offered an entirely new and revolutionary means of communication—electricity.

The Growth of an Idea

The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Morse during a conversation aboard ship when he was returning from Europe in 1832. Michael Faraday’s recently invented electromagnet was much discussed by the ship’s passengers, and when Morse came to understand how it worked, he speculated that it might be possible to send a coded message over a wire. While a student at Yale College years before, he had written his parents a letter about how interesting he found the lectures on electricity. Despite what he had learned at Yale, Morse found when he began to develop his idea that he had little real understanding of the nature of electricity, and after sporadic attempts to work with batteries, magnets, and wires, he finally turned for help to a colleague at the University of the City of New York, Leonard D. Gale.

Gale was a professor of chemistry and familiar with the electrical work of Princeton’s Joseph Henry, a true pioneer in the new field. Well before Morse had his shipboard idea about a telegraph, Henry rang a bell at a distance by opening and closing an electric circuit. In 1831, he had published an article, of which Morse was unaware, that contained details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. Gale’s help and his knowledge of this article proved crucial to Morse’s telegraph system because Gale not only pointed out flaws in the system but showed Morse how he could regularly boost the strength of a signal and overcome the distance problems he had encountered by using a relay system Henry had invented. Henry’s experiments, Gale’s assistance, and, soon after, hiring the young technician Alfred Vail were keys to Morse’s success.

Obstacles and Opportunities

By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government’s appropriation, and during the next year he conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.

However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. It was during this period that Morse visited Europe again and tried not only to secure patent protection overseas but to examine competing telegraph systems in England. . . .

By 1843, the country was beginning to recover economically, and Morse again asked Congress for the $30,000 that would allow him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, forty miles away. The House of Representatives eventually passed the bill containing the Morse appropriation, and the Senate approved it in the final hours of that Congress’s last session. With President Tyler’s signature, Morse received the cash he needed and began to carry out plans for an underground telegraph line.

Realizing a Great Invention

Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire, and although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse’s partners, Congressman F. O. J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.

Soon, as overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast, the dots-and-dashes method2^2 that recorded messages on a long moving strip of paper was replaced by the operator’s ability to interpret the code in real time. . . . Telegraph lines soon extended westward, and within Morse’s own lifetime they connected the continents of Europe and America.

“Invention of the Telegraph”—Public Domain/Library of Congress

1^1legislation: Telegraph Bill

2^2dots-and-dashes method: the short and long pulses of Morse code that are sent and received by telegraph operators

World map titled “British All-Red Telegraph Line, 1902,” with a compass rose (N, S, E, W) and a key showing a thick black line as an electric telegraph line. The line runs from London across the Atlantic Ocean and Canada to Vancouver, then west into the Pacific Ocean off the map’s left edge; from London and from Canada’s east coast to Bermuda, then to Barbados, across the Atlantic to Cape Town, and across the Indian Ocean to Perth, which a second line links to India; and from Perth across Australia to Brisbane and Norfolk, with branches to New Zealand and east into the Pacific off the map’s right edge. Washington, D.C., in the United States, is marked with a dot but no line reaches it.

The first transatlantic electric telegraph message was sent in 1858, and by 1902 the British All-Red Line connected most of the world.

Bar graph titled “Telegraph Messages Transmitted, 1870–1920,” with the number of messages transmitted, in millions, on the vertical axis (0 to 180 in steps of 20) and the years 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 and 1920 on the horizontal axis. The bars show about 10 million messages in 1870, 30 million in 1880, 55 million in 1890, 65 million in 1900, 75 million in 1910 and 155 million in 1920.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2. Washington, D.C., 1975.

Question

Which 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.

NYS standards
  • 7R5 structure and genre features
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 8 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 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.
What makes it hard
Evidence
Answered from one paragraph or stanza
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 12, 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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. 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

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks about sequencing in paragraph 3. Sequencing means putting events in time order. You need to say what that order shows about Morse’s invention.

  2. 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.”

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 49 as printed on page 149 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 149, question 49. Open page 149 of the handbook (PDF)
The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed (pages 146–148)The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 146 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 147 of the DOE handbook.The passage “Invention of the Telegraph” as printed on page 148 of the DOE handbook.

Question 89 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 50

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 7.

The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.

The words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” in the sentence convey a

  • Asense of relief and fulfillment that the line was finished.
  • Bsense of wonder and of celebration that the telegraph line was completed on time.
  • Cfeeling of excitement about the future possibilities of the telegraph.
  • Dfeeling of confidence about being able to continue the work.
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

The question asks what the words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” convey in the sentence. Morse and Cornell rushed to post the wires overhead, and the “rigid deadline” (paragraph 7) was successfully met. The words have a positive and victorious tone that is consistent with the feeling of wonder that it worked and of celebration that the construction was completed, making Option B correct.

Option A is incorrect because, while there may have been some feelings of relief and fulfilment that the lines were in place, the passage does not say so, and instead it focuses on the wonder and joy Morse and Cornell felt overcoming setbacks and completing the construction of Morse’s telegraph system.

Option C is incorrect because the passage does not share whether Morse or Cornell considered the future possibilities of the telegraph, only that the finished product was “dramatic,” implying it was amazing to see.

Option D is incorrect because, while the passage later discusses the expansion of overhead wires “up and down the Atlantic coast” and how they “connected the continents of Europe and America” (paragraph 8), there is no evidence shared in the passage that Morse planned to continue his work with electricity.

Question analysis

This word choice question asks what the words “dramatic” and “spectacularly” convey in a sentence from “Invention of the Telegraph” about the first Washington-to-Baltimore line. Students must read the connotations of two words in context, and the choices name feelings that are all believable for a project rushed to meet a deadline.

NYS standards
  • 7R4 word meaning and choice
  • 7L5c connotation and denotation
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Reading the connotation of words in context is typical grade 7 work. The sentence is quoted, but the choices are close in meaning, which demands careful attention to what the two words themselves suggest.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from one sentence or line
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 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

Every choice names a reasonable emotion for the end of a race against a deadline, which makes this a question about two words rather than about the situation. Students who read the whole sentence are pulled toward relief by “desperate,” and those who read ahead are pulled toward the future by paragraph 8. The words point to an audience impressed by a public success, not to Morse’s private feelings or plans.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The relief-and-fulfillment choice has the same shape as the key, a pair of feelings about finishing the line; only the feelings differ, and “desperate” nearby favors relief while “dramatic” and “spectacularly” point to wonder. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Reading between the lines moderate Working it out

    “Dramatic” and “spectacularly” describe the event, not anyone’s emotions, so the feeling they convey, wonder at the result and celebration of its success, has to be inferred from their connotations. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)

  3. Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer

    All four choices name positive feelings that suit a project rushed to completion, so none can be dismissed by tone alone. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)

Strategy: Ask what kind of event people call dramatic or spectacular, then pick the feeling those two words express, not a feeling the surrounding story might suggest.

Traps

  • Wrong tone or attitude: Misjudges the tone, attitude or point of view, such as reading admiration as criticism, or taking a character's or subject's feelings for the author's.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This is a word-meaning question. It asks what feeling two words give the sentence: “dramatic” and “spectacularly.” Focus on those two words, not on how Morse might have felt.

  2. Read the sentence in its setting

    Paragraph 7 tells of a race against time. Bad wire had wasted time, and the project had “a rigid deadline.” Cornell’s idea of wires on poles saved the day. Then “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.”

  3. Explain the two words

    Something dramatic is exciting and striking, like the big moment in a play. Something done spectacularly is done in an amazing way that is wonderful to see. Both words describe the event as a grand public success. They make you feel wonder and want to celebrate. The sentence also says the line was done “in time,” or on time.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. The “desperate” Morse may have felt relief. But the two words describe an amazing event, not a quiet sigh of relief.
    • B fits. The words show wonder and celebration, and the line was finished on time.
    • C is wrong. The sentence is about this first link. The future comes later, in paragraph 8.
    • D is wrong. The sentence says nothing about going on with more work.

  5. Choose the answer

    “Dramatic” and “spectacularly” cheer a thrilling success that came right on time. So the answer is B, “sense of wonder and of celebration that the telegraph line was completed on time.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

A is the closest trap because “desperate” is in the same sentence. Relief is a quiet, private feeling that a worry is over. But “dramatic” and “spectacularly” are loud, showy words. People use them for something amazing to watch. That points to wonder and celebration, as B says.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 50 as printed on page 149 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 149, question 50. Open page 149 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D).

Question 90 of 90

2018 Test B English, question 54

Uses the passage above: “Invention of the Telegraph”.

Question

Which sentence is the best summary of how Morse obtained the funding necessary to build his telegraph system?

  • AMorse applied for a federal grant that was delayed until 1843, so he spent time traveling in Europe, where he concentrated on obtaining a patent for his system.
  • BMorse applied for a government grant that required both houses of Congress and the president to pass a bill awarding him $30,000 for his telegraph project.
  • CMorse applied for a government appropriation and conducted telegraph demonstrations to show that his system could work, and after a delay caused by a financial depression, Congress approved the $30,000 appropriation in 1843.
  • DWorking with Gale and Vail allowed Morse to find flaws in Henry’s work and to develop his own ideas before applying for the federal government appropriation.
Show the answer

Correct answer: C

The question asks for the best summary of Morse’s efforts to fund the construction of his telegraph system. Option C is correct because it details all the steps that resulted in Morse obtaining the appropriation, or $30,000 needed.

Option A is incorrect because it focuses on what Morse did while his application for the funding was delayed.

Option B is incorrect because, while it begins with Morse applying for the grant, it focuses on the process required for the government to approve the appropriation.

Option D is incorrect because it relates how Morse worked with others to develop his ideas about the telegraph before applying for funding for its construction.

Question analysis

Students choose the best summary of how Samuel Morse obtained the money to build his telegraph, an account spread across three paragraphs of “Invention of the Telegraph.” Each choice is a long sentence with accurate-sounding facts, so the task is to find the one that covers the main steps in order without drifting to side events.

NYS standards
  • 7R2 theme or central idea
  • 7R3 plot elements and ideas
Grade level
Grade 7 reading and task
Compared with grade 7
At grade 7 Summarizing a sequence is core grade 7 work. The facts are clearly stated, but the four long choices each mix accurate details with gaps or shifts in focus, so careful checking, not inference, is the main demand.
Estimated difficulty
Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
Evidence
Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
Reading level
Passage: about grade 11, 910 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 127 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A date in the passage introduction was corrected.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

A good summary has to be complete as well as accurate, and two wrong choices are accurate but incomplete. Students who check only whether each statement is true find little to reject in the choice about Congress and the president, so they need to test coverage: application, demonstrations, delay, approval. The right choice is the longest and the only one that covers every stage.

  1. A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer

    The Congress-and-president choice and the key both start with Morse applying and end with the $30,000 approved; they part on one stretch of the story, the demonstrations and the depression’s delay, which only the key includes. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)

  2. Evidence in several places moderate Working it out

    The funding story runs across paragraphs 4 to 6: the application in December 1837, demonstrations in New York and Washington, the Panic of 1837, the trip to Europe, and the 1843 request and vote. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)

  3. A lot to read minor Understanding the question

    The four choices are each a long sentence of 26 to 33 words, packed with dates, institutions and places that must all be checked. (Kintsch, 1998; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)

Strategy: Before reading the choices, list the funding steps in paragraphs 4 to 6 in order, then pick the summary that includes the key steps and leaves out side details.

Traps

  • Too narrow: A single detail offered as the central idea or a summary, or a summary that keeps minor details and leaves out an essential part.
  • Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Passage: The handbook’s introduction says Congress passed the Telegraph Bill “In 1844.” Congress passed the $30,000 appropriation in March 1843; 1844 is the year of Morse’s first message. Paragraph 6 describes the 1843 approval, and Option C, the correct answer, says 1843, so the introduction now reads “In 1843.”

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Working it out, step by step

  1. Figure out what the question asks

    This asks for the best summary of how Morse got the money to build his telegraph. A summary is a short retelling of the main steps. A good summary must be true and also complete. It should cover all the main steps, in order.

  2. Find the funding steps

    The story runs through paragraphs 4 to 6. In paragraph 4, Morse applied “for the federal government’s appropriation” in 1837. The next year he “conducted demonstrations of his telegraph both in New York and Washington.” In paragraph 5, the Panic of 1837 “caused a long depression,” so he had to wait. In paragraph 6, Congress passed the bill in 1843, and President Tyler signed it.

  3. Explain the hard words

    An appropriation is money the government sets aside for a certain use. A demonstration is a show of how something works. A depression is a long time when business is bad and money is short. So the steps are: apply, show that the system works, wait out the hard times, then win approval of the $30,000.

  4. Check each choice

    • A is wrong. It focuses on the trip to Europe, a side event. It leaves out the demonstrations and the final approval.
    • B is wrong. It is true but tells only the last step, the vote and the signature. It skips the demonstrations and the delay.
    • C fits. It covers the application, the demonstrations, the delay and the 1843 approval.
    • D is wrong. It is about building the system, not paying for it. Also, Gale found flaws in Morse’s system, not in Henry’s work.

  5. Choose the answer

    Only one choice covers every main step, from the first application to the final approval. So the answer is C, the summary that ends with Congress approving “the $30,000 appropriation in 1843.”

Why this answer and not the closest wrong one

B is the closest trap, because everything in it is true. But a summary has to be complete, not just true. B leaves out the demonstrations and the long wait during the depression. C covers the whole story from start to finish, so it is the better summary.

More questions like this

The original DOE question
Question 54 as printed on page 151 of the DOE handbook.
As printed in the DOE’s Specialized High Schools Student Handbook 2018–2019, page 151, question 54. Open page 151 of the handbook (PDF) The handbook letters this question’s choices E–H; here they are A–D (E = A, F = B, G = C, H = D). This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.