Directions: Each passage has certain words and phrases that are underlined and numbered. The questions in the right column will provide alternatives for the underlined segments. Most questions require you to choose the answer that makes the sentence grammatically correct, concise, and relevant. If the word or phrase in the passage is already the correct, concise, and relevant choice, select Choice A, NO CHANGE. Some questions will ask a question about the underlined segment. When a question is presented, choose the best answer.
Some questions will ask about part or all of the passage. These questions do not refer to a specific underlined segment. Instead, these questions will accompany a number in a box.
For each question, choose your answer and fill in the corresponding bubble on your answer sheet. Read the passage once before you answer the questions. You will often need to read several sentences beyond the underlined portion to be able to choose the correct answer. Be sure to read enough to answer each question.
Until three years ago, I had never considered myself to be athletically talented. I have never been able to hit, catch, throw, or kick a ball with any degree of confidence or accuracy. For years, physical education being often the worst part of the school day for me. Units on tennis, touch football, volleyball, and basketball were torturous. I not only dreaded fumbling a pass, so I also feared being hit in the face by a ball. However, at the beginning of my freshman year of high school, my attitude toward sports changed.
Somehow, my good friend Gretchen convinced me to join our schools swim team. Knowing that I enjoyed swimming, over the course of two summers, it was with Gretchen that I practically had lived at the pool. My mother had insisted that I take swimming lessons every summer since I was seven, so I was entirely comfortable in the water. I was also eager to start my high school experience with a new challenge and a new way to think of myself.
Of course, I had no idea what I was getting into when Gretchen and I showed up for the first day of practice. The team was made up of twenty young women, most of these swimmers had been participating in the community swim team for years. I couldn’t do a flip turn at the end of the lane without getting water up my nose. In contrast, most of the other swimmers, who had been swimming competitively, since elementary school, were able to gracefully somersault and begin the next lap. By the end of the first hour of practice, I was exhausted and waterlogged.
However, I had no intention of giving up. I came back the next day and the next for practice. Things begun to get serious in the second week, when we started the regular schedule of four early-morning and five afternoon practices. Our coach, whom had led the team to several state championships, demanded dedication from everyone on the team. The hard work eventually paid off. By the end of the first month, I had discovered that I was good at the butterfly, a relatively new stroke that was first introduced in the 1930s. I rarely won individual races, but I became a solid member of our team’s medley relay.
After that intimidating first season, I continued swimming. I even will have earned a varsity letter last year. Now I’m hoping to earn a spot in the state competition my senior year.
Of the four choices, which is the only one that does NOT indicate that the narrator’s mother decided that the narrator must take swimming lessons?
Assuming each of the following creates a true statement, which provides the information most relevant to the narrator’s experience on the swim team?
If inserted here, which of the following would be the most appropriate sentence to conclude the essay?
One lazy day last summer, my parents decided that my younger sister and I needed a break from our vacation from academics. They took us to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. I was prepared to be bored by this family educational trip. However, from the moment I walked through the museum’s doors, I was captivated; by all that there was to learn about life in the Mississippi.
[1] A large tank stocked with fish and turtles was there to greet us as we walked into the main hall. [2] There were also animals I had never before glimpsed, such as a fish called the long-nosed gar. [3] I was amazed by this fish in particular. [4] Its long, tubular shape and distinctive rod-shaped nose that made it appear like something that lived in the dark depths of the ocean. [5] This first of five freshwater aquariums offered a close-up view of familiar animals that I had seen before, such as ducks.
In the next aquarium, I see a catfish bigger than I had ever imagined this species could be. According to the posted information, this specimen weighed more than 100 pounds. With its long whiskers and slow, lazy movements, this catfish looked like the grandfather of all the other fish in the tank.
I couldn’t decide which I liked better, the catfish or the long-nosed gar. The next floor-to-ceiling tank, which represented the ecosystem of the Mississippi bayou, held an animal I had never seen: an alligator. At first, I had a hard time spotting the creature—it blended in almost completely with a half-submerged log. Suddenly, though it slid into the water and aimed itself right at the glass separating me from its ferocious claws and skin-tearing teeth. I had a slightly moment of panic before I remembered that, try as it might, this alligator would never successfully hunt tourists like me. As much of the onlookers squealed in delight as the alligator moved through the tank, I noticed his companion. Far off in a corner slept an enormous snapping turtle. I could imagine no better roommate for the alligator than this hook-beaked turtle with rough ridges running along its shell.
Despite my initial expectations, I happily spent the entire day soaking up information about creatures that live in the Mississippi River. In one section of the museum, I held a crayfish. Later, I had the opportunity to touch the cool, sleek skin of a stingray, which can be found where the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
After seeing all, I could inside the museum, I wandered outside, only to find even more exhibits. Having just enough time, it was that I was able to see the otters and watch a riverboat launching, but it was closing time before I was able to see the most impressive thing the museum had to offer. A football-field-sized steamboat from the 1930s is open to tourists. And operates as a “boat-and-breakfast” that hosts overnight guests. I’m hoping that my family will plan another educational trip to Dubuque soon so I can experience life on a steamboat.
To make Paragraph 2 coherent and logical, the best placement of Sentence 5 is:
Which sentence most effectively connects this paragraph to the preceding paragraph?
At this point, the writer is considering removing the following phrase:
it blended in almost completely with a half-submerged log.
The primary effect of removing this phrase would be:
The writer would like to insert a sentence describing the appearance of the crayfish at this point. Which sentence would best accomplish the writer’s goal?
The paragraphs in this essay may or may not follow the most logical order. Each paragraph is numbered, and Question 45 will ask you to determine the best placement of Paragraph 6.
Although secret identities and elaborate disguises are typically associated with the world of spies and villains, it has other uses. For six years, Ruth Reichl the restaurant critic for the New York Times, used aliases and costumes as a regular part of her job.
Dining is big business in New York City, from the neighborhood noodle shops and diners to the upscale steak houses and four-star French restaurants. Many of the more than one million people who read the Times each day look to it for advice on where to eat. A positive review from the Times could have brought a restaurant unimagined success and monthlong waiting lists for reservations. A negative review, on the other hand, can undermine a restaurant’s popularity and seriously cut into its profits. Obviously, restaurant owners and workers have a lot at stake when the restaurant critic for the Times walks in the door. Waiters and chefs often pull out all the stops to impress the writer that the meal can make or break a restaurant.
Reichl acutely aware that she received special treatment once restaurant staff recognized her. She would be graciously greeted and led to the best table in the restaurant, offered dishes prepared specially by the head chef, and given multiple courses of amazing desserts. In other words, the dining experience of the restaurant critic was nothing like that of the commonly ordinary person walking in from the street.
To remedy this, Reichl decided a solution would be to become, for short periods of time, someone else. Transforming herself into different personas, Reichl used wigs, special makeup, and carefully selected clothing, such as an attractive blonde named Chloe, a redhead named Brenda, and an older woman named Betty.
Sometimes, Reichl developed a different view about the quality when she was not treated like a very important person of a restaurant. Indeed, the difference between the treatment she received as herself and as one of her characters was occasionally so great that Reichl would revise her initial impression of a restaurant and write a worse review.
By becoming an average customer, Reichl encouraged even the most expensive and popular restaurants to improve how they treated all of their customers. After all, waiters could never be certain when they were serving the powerful restaurant critic for the New York Times.
Should the following sentence be inserted into the passage at this point?
The legendary French restaurant Le Bernardin received a four-star rating from the Times shortly after opening in 1986, an honor it has maintained ever since.
Which of the following true statements would make the most effective and logical conclusion for Paragraph 4?
For the sake of logic and coherence, the underlined portion should be placed:
Would deleting the word occasionally from the previous sentence change the meaning of the sentence?
Question 45 asks about the preceding passage as a whole.
To make the passage flow logically and smoothly, the best place for Paragraph 6 is:
[1] I used to start every spring with great hopes for my backyard vegetable garden. [2] After the last freeze in late March or early April, I devoted an entire weekend to preparing the soil in the garden. [3] I thinned out the rows that had too many plants and spent hours tugging out each weed that threatened to rob my little plants of the nutrients they needed to thrive. [4] Once spring truly arrived, I marked out my rows and scattered the packets of seeds that I hoped, would develop into prizewinning vegetables. [5] In the first few weeks of the season, I was almost always in the garden.
Despite my best intentions, my garden never lived up to the vision I had for it. After I had devoted several weekends to watering and weeding, the garden always started to become more of a burden less of a hobby. By July, the garden was usually in disarray, and I didn’t have the energy or time to save it. July and August are always the hottest parts of the year.
This past year, however, my garden was finally the success I had imagined it could be. Instead of planning the traditional garden of closely planted rows that is modeled after large-scale farming, I tried a new technique. My new approach is called square-foot gardening.
A square-foot garden is designed for efficiency. In an ancestral garden, you scatter a packet of seeds down a row. When the plants emerge, they spend hours thinning each row by pulling out at least half of what was planted. In a square-foot garden, you plant each seed individually, there is never a need for thinning. You create the garden plan 1 square foot at a time, until you have a block of 16 squares. Sturdy pieces of lumber which could make effective borders for each square. Walking paths that are at least 2 feet wide separate each 16-square-foot garden. The design is clean and simple, and it eliminates the problem of getting to the rows in the middle of a large garden. In fact, you can do all the weeding, watering, and harvesting from the walking paths.
In addition to being easier to weed and water, a square-foot garden takes up much less space than a regular garden. I was able to grow an increased number of more vegetables in two square-foot gardens, which took up a total of 32 square feet, than I ever had grown in my traditional garden, which took up 84 square feet. Preparing the soil for the smaller space only required a few hours instead of a whole weekend. There was so much less weeding to do that the task never felt overwhelming. One season of using the square-foot gardening techniques were all it took for me to convert to a completely new outlook on backyard gardening.
To make Paragraph 1 more logical and coherent, Sentence 3 should be placed:
Of the following choices, which would be the LEAST acceptable substitution for the underlined word?
Which sentence most effectively links the topic of Paragraph 3 to the topic of Paragraph 4?
Question 60 asks about the preceding passage as a whole.
If the writer had intended to write an essay detailing how to plan, prepare, and care for a square-foot garden, would this essay meet the writer’s goal?
Most new car owners glance briefly at the owner’s manual before depositing it in the glove compartment of their recently purchased automobile. Owners may dig out their manuals when something goes wrong, such as a flat tire or a flashing engine light but few take the time to learn the basics about maintaining their new purchase. This is truly unfortunate, as a few simple and routine steps improves the long-term performance of an automobile and decreases the possibility of a traffic accident.
One of the easiest and most overlooked maintenance steps is caring for a car’s wiper blades. Most people don’t notice a problem to clear the windshield until the blades fail during a rainstorm or heavy snowfall. When a driver’s vision being obscured, an accident is more likely to happen. Replacing the set blades at a time each year greatly reduces this risk. In addition, frequently refilling the windshield washer fluid reservoir guarantees that there will always be enough fluid to wash away grime that accumulates on the windshield.
Much of car maintenance focuses on preventing problems before they occur. For example, checking the levels of coolant, oil, brake fluid, and transmission fluid can avert serious malfunctions. However, these fluids should be checked monthly and refilled whenever the need is indicated.
Cars are becoming more sophisticated every year, but car owners without any expertise in mechanics can still perform much of the basic upkeep of their vehicle. You should change the oil in most cars every 3,000 to 7,000 miles. This task requires a willingness to get a bit dirty, so you don’t have to be a mechanic to change a car’s oil. Before you get started, read the oil change section, in your owner’s manual and collect all of the tools you will need. You won’t need many tools, but you will definitely need a car jack. Never get under a car that is supported only by car jacks—you do not want to risk being crushed by a car. After you’ve secured the car, changing the oil is as straightforward as sliding under the car with a drain pan to catch the oil and using a wrench to loosen the oil drain plug. Then follow the instructions for changing the oil filter and fill the oil pan to the recommended level with fresh oil.
These simple steps to maintaining the health of a car can be done by just about anyone. However, successfully changing a car’s oil does not turn a car owner into a repair expert. More complicated tasks, such as adjusting a carburetor or installing new brake pads, should be performed by a qualified auto mechanic.
The underlined word would be most logically placed:
Which sentence is the most effective beginning to Paragraph 4?
In Paragraph 4, the writer wants to provide an explanation of how to change the oil in an automobile. Which of the following would most logically fit the writer’s intention for this paragraph?
Paragraph 4 of the essay uses the second person (you, your). Revising this paragraph to remove the second-person pronouns would have the primary effect of:
Questions 74–75 ask about the preceding passage as a whole.
After rereading the essay, the writer decided that the following sentence contains important information:
The owner’s manual provides instructions on how to test the levels of these different fluids used to lubricate and cool the engine.
Logically, this sentence should be placed:
If the writer had intended to write an essay persuading readers to familiarize themselves with the basic safety features and maintenance needs of their cars, would this essay meet the writer’s goal?