Reading Practice Test 2

1. Candidate B's plan to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants lacks substance.                   that Candidate B has failed to submit both a design and a cost analysis plan for the wall. Candidate A, on the other hand, has offered up a 20-page document outlining both the cost and specific design features or the barrier he plans to construct along the border.

Which transition best connects the evidence to the claim it supports?

2. DIRECTIONS: Read each passage and identify how the information is being organized.It is better to eat a variety of fresh fruit than it is to drink fruit juice from a bottle. Fresh fruit contains fiber, which makes your body absorb sugar more slowly so that it is easier to digest your food. Fruit juices, on the other hand, are not only a concentrated source of natural sugars, but many store‐bought juices contain a lot of added sugar, too.

 

3. Read the text and answer the question. Goodbye Pencil, Hello KeyboardLook around a modern-day classroom today and you will certainly note many changes from the classrooms of the past. Overhead projectors and chalkboards have been replaced; desks rarely feature a piece of paper, but rather sport a computer monitor. In addition, the days of taking notes, filling out tests, and writing reports with a pen or pencil in hand is utterly obsolete, exchanged for keyboards.

In more than 40 states throughout the country, cursive writing and penmanship are no longer considered an essential part of the curriculum, and none of the major standardized tests require any type of handwriting. Instead, keyboarding skills have taken precedence. The ability to form clear curves and loops on the paper is now outdated; the ability to avoid the painfully slow “hunting and pecking” and type at least 50 words per minute has taken precedence.

The age-old tradition of handwriting is not going quietly in some parts of the nation as at least four states have gone to their legislatures with bills mandating instruction in cursive writing in public schools. Advocates of keeping penmanship skills as part of a curriculum point to a plethora of evidence to support their stance. According to their studies, handwriting training helps young students develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, and even improve overall memory retention. Additional studies have indicated that students who wrote by hand not only wrote faster than on a standard keyboard, but also wrote higher quality sentences.

Opponents to cursive in the classroom, however, point out that today’s generations of students have been keyboarding since before they attended kindergarten. This form of communication is part of how their brains operate, and many find the feel of a pen or pencil in their hands uncomfortable, unwieldy, and generally unpleasant. Keyboarding is quicker, freeing up precious time to work on other projects, and is, inarguably, the preferred communication method of the modern student.

Which statement about schools is the most accurate?

4. Technology-based products top the list of most-wanted items on teens' wish lists this year.                  , the latest model smartphone was at the head of the list. It was followed by music players, laptop computers, tablets, and devices designed to be used with those products. What teens don't want? Clothes.

Which transition best connects the evidence to the claim it supports?

5. Read the text and answer the question.In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" - a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

How does JFK use pathos in his speech?

6. Which word/phrase in the sentence below is redundant and can be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence?The couple's abrupt decision to elope was sudden and surprised their families.

7. DIRECTIONS: Identify the structure of each passage. After laying only a single egg, the female penguin heads out to sea and stays there until it is almost time for the egg to hatch. The male penguin incubates the egg, carrying it between his legs and under his feathers to keep it warm. Just before it is time for the egg to hatch, the female returns to land.

8. Read the text and answer the question.In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" - a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

The speech has been considered a call to America's youth.How does this speech inspire young people?

9. DIRECTIONS: Identify the structure of each passage. Penguins often catch fish that are caught underneath the ice. They swim under the ice, catching the fish with their beaks and swallowing them whole. Though penguins don’t have teeth, they have stiff spines on their tongue that point backward, down towards the throat, so that when they are swallowing their prey, it can’t wriggle back out of their mouths.

10. DIRECTIONS: Identify the structure of each passage. Penguins evolved to live both on ice and in the sea. Consequently, they are accomplished swimmers, and they can propel themselves out of the water as far as 7 feet into the air and up onto ice if they need to escape a predator.