Extra Practice

The following questions provide an opportunity to practice the concepts and strategic thinking covered in this chapter. While many of the questions pertain to Organization, some touch on other concepts tested on the Writing & Language Test to ensure that your practice is test-like, with a variety of question types per passage.

    1. Questions 1-11 are based on the following passage.

    2. Inside Looking Out: Post-Impressionism

      Post-Impressionism was an artistic movement that took place between 1886 and 1892 and produces some of the world’s foremost artists. Post-Impressionism emerged as one of the many different artistic styles created in response to the Impressionist movement, which focused on creating realistic representations of human perceptions. Next, Impressionists sought to restate nature in their work. They used small, controlled brush strokes in an effort to capture how the human eye sees light. Post-Impressionism was radically different. Artists of this time focused more on self-discovery than anything else. Instead of looking out on a landscape and attempt to paint exactly what they saw, they turned their eyes inward. They interpreted subjects through their own unique vision, which included their personal experiences and emotions. This change influenced the course of all art created since.

      Among the Impressionist artists were Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. Paul Cezanne and Georges Seurat used shape and color to describe their worlds rather than mimic them. Their work acted as a bridge between Impressionist art and the more abstract subcategories of Post-Impressionism. Two such subcategories were Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Cubism was created by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and French painter Georges Braque. It featured geometric shapes used to construct conceptual portraits. Both of these artists rejected traditional views on modeling nature and people, as well as classical techniques. Abstract Expressionism used color instead of geometric figures, and artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning covered their canvases with color and indistinct forms. Abstract Expressionists aimed to express deep emotional themes. Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh are also considered Abstract Expressionists, as they both prioritized the depiction of their memories and emotions over observations that could be made with the eye.  Never before had such an emphasis on individualism taken precedence over classical technique, a change that laid the foundation for art in the 20th century and beyond.

      [1] These artists worked and created during the same time period and movement. [2] However, they had varying world views and techniques. [3] Today, we can get to know the souls of some of the world’s greatest artists by visiting they’re Post-Impressionist work in museums around the world. [4] These differences cumulatively succeeded in breaking from the natural guidelines of Impressionism to create something entirely new that dramatically influenced all artists who came after them. [5] In the words of Edvard Munch, another Post-Impressionist painter, “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye . . . it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. produced
      3. was producing
      4. will produce
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. For example
      3. Consequently
      4. However
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. obscure
      3. photocopy
      4. replicate
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. attempting
      3. was attempted
      4. is attempting
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. single
      3. cautious
      4. acceptable

    8. Which choice most effectively establishes the central idea of the paragraph?

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. Modern artists are well versed in many different kinds of styles thanks to the many artists of the past.
      3. Artists in the Post-Impressionist era employed a wide range of methods when creating their art.
      4. Prior to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist eras, artists painted in a much more realistic style.

    9. Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion?

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. Created by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and French painter Georges Braque, Cubism featured geometric shapes used to construct conceptual portraits.
      3. Cubism was created by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and French painter Georges Braque so it featured geometric shapes.
      4. Cubism was created by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and French painter Georges Braque, but it featured geometric shapes.
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. it
      3. you
      4. we

    11. Which choice, if added here, most effectively supports the central idea of the paragraph?

      1. Some Impressionist artists, such as Renoir, painted images of children, flowers, and social gatherings.
      2. Degas often painted ballet dancers at the barre as well as molding sculptures of them.
      3. Art is often viewed as a window into the minds and experiences of artists as they lived their lives.
      4. To transfer their emotions to their canvases, Post-
        Impressionist artists sometimes used violent gestures to apply paint.
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. their
      3. they are
      4. there

    13. To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 3 should be placed

      1. where it is now.
      2. after sentence 1.
      3. before sentence 5.
      4. after sentence 5.

    1. Questions 12-22 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

    2. Putting Microbes to Work for Us

      The decline of the world’s supply of fossil fuels is a growing concern. With increasingly more countries becoming dependent on fossil fuels for transportation, heating homes, and powering engines, the failing of this finite resource has the potential to cause major disruption around the globe. To combat this issue, scientists are researching alternative energy sources. Used to produce biofuel are living things or the waste of living things, and biofuel is one such alternative.

      Until recently, the primary focus of biofuel development has been ethanol. Ethanol is created from plants such as corn, sugarcane, soybeans, and rice. While ethanol is a viable energy source, its use has been met with several challenges. These have limited its development as a quality alternative to traditional fossil fuels. One roadblock is that ethanol is expensive to produce. The plant must be first broken down into sugars and then fermented by microbes into a final useable product. It cannot be distributed by pipeline because it can pick up impurities along the way, so it must be transported by truck, train, or barge. Additionally, very large areas of cropland must be dedicated to growing these plants in order to produce enough ethanol to be designated for commercial use. This raises ethical questions because it means farmers are growing food sources earmarked solely for fuel when there are many people around the world in horrible need of food. In recent years, the price of corn has increased as the percentage of corn produced for ethanol has stayed the same. In addition, countries such as Brazil are decimating rain forests in order to grow sugarcane for ethanol production.

      Once ethanol is produced, it is limited in its use as a commercial fuel. Therefore, it must be heavily refined and then blended with petroleum-based fuels in order to be used. Standard internal combustion engines, such as those in cars, cannot run on ethanol alone.

      The fossil fuels we rely on today for energy are finite. By researching alternate energy resources, including fuel produced by bacteria and other microbes, we can become less dependent on nonrenewable sources.

      Researchers in the United Kingdom had been developing a new kind of biofuel that addresses several of the issues hindering ethanol use. They have extracted genes from different species of bacteria and inserted them into E. coli bacteria. Once this process is complete, the E. coli can then perform the same metabolic functions as the donor bacteria, this enables it to absorb fat molecules, convert these molecules to hydrocarbons, and then excrete the hydrocarbons as a waste product. The hydrocarbons produced by the genetically modified E. coli are the same as those found in commercial fossil fuels. Finally, the newly created hydrocarbon molecules are interchangeable with the hydrocarbon molecules found in petroleum-based diesel fuels. This allows them to be used in a typical diesel engine, without any blending or refining.

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. wilting
      3. depletion
      4. obstruction
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. Biofuel is produced from living things or the waste of living things, and is one such alternative.
      3. Living things or the waste of living things are used in producing the one such alternative known as biofuel.
      4. One such alternative is biofuel, produced from living things or from the waste of living things.

    5. Which choice most effectively establishes the central idea of this paragraph?

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. A variety of food crops can be used to produce ethanol.
      3. Many farmers have begun to grow corn for ethanol rather than food.
      4. Converting corn to ethanol is a complicated and expensive process.
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. source, its’
      3. source, it’s
      4. source, it is
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. dire
      3. grim
      4. grieving

    8. Which choice best supports the paragraph with relevant and accurate information based on the graph?

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. In recent years, the price of corn has stayed the same as the percentage of corn produced for ethanol has decreased.
      3. In recent years, the price of corn has increased as the percentage of corn produced for ethanol has increased.
      4. In recent years, the price of corn has decreased as the percentage of corn produced for ethanol has increased.

    9. Which choice best supports the central idea of the paragraph?

      1. NO CHANGE
      2. Most fuel sold for automobiles in the United States contains a blend of ethanol and gasoline.
      3. Ethanol has been used as an energy source in the United States for over 200 years.
      4. Although most often used to power automobiles, ethanol can also be used to power other engines.

    10. To make the passage most logical, paragraph 4 should be placed

      1. where it is now.
      2. before paragraph 2.
      3. before paragraph 3.
      4. after paragraph 5.
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. have developed
      3. had developed
      4. were developing
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. bacteria; and this enables it
      3. bacteria. This enables it
      4. bacteria this enables it
      1. NO CHANGE
      2. Therefore,
      3. For example,
      4. Also,